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Slick

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Everything posted by Slick

  1. Great trip report - did you happen to ask anyone why the twin hammer disappeared?
  2. “Hey! Let’s go on the one with the red track!” “Superman?” “Nah, the one over there!” “Yeah, Superman!” “NO, the red over near Superman that’s not Superman but has a launch on it.” “Yeah, Superman.”
  3. That’s really interesting. I wonder if they’re RGB? Would be cool to integrate into various major events.
  4. Just to add, not all fonts are designed to take up every single square pixel or inch of space they occupy for each letter. You wouldn't use their existing typeface because the artistic design of the typeface is more suited towards digital and print. Those smaller counters and legs (the spaces inside the characters and the end of a stroke respectively) might look great on an iPhone, but they reduce legibility when viewed from far away or at a reduced scale. Plus there's clear character kerning that results in some letters being not quite as wide to accommodate common character pairings. If maximising legibility and footage was the game, you'd pick a different font. In fact, you'd use something almost like what was there before, which ticked both those boxes. See? Almost like they knew an upside down M wouldn't work. Let's conclude the bad-faith arguments for today. 🍻.
  5. The irony is delicious. 🍻 Anyway, now that your axe is ground, TLDR; One's clearly right, one's clearly wrong. I could do this all day with street signs, billboards, books, keyboards, logos... It's pretty standard for W's to look a certain way. 😂
  6. This is the condescending bit, just FYI. Try all you like to assume I've got my back up because I don't like being corrected, the reality is that were just being condescending. 🤷🏻‍♂️I'm always happy to be wrong, that's how you learn stuff, but you clearly want to dabble in the semantics because of an axe you need to grind instead of engaging with the spirit and overall message of my post. The letter "w" almost overwhelmingly doesn't have vertical strokes in 99% of fonts and applications. It looks weird to have vertical strokes, which is why this whole thread kicked off. That means it's become pretty standard in our everyday environment to see it look a certain way. If you need to have a conversation about binary interpretations of lexicon in the digital age of interpersonal exchange you can have it somewhere else. Remember, opinions are like buttholes - everyone has one.
  7. Proceeds to write a condescending lecture based off thoughts on my opinion. Can't have it both ways. They really are average aren't they? Again, death by a thousand cuts. Little bit here, little bit there, and then suddenly Dreamworld doesn't have the same charm for some reason. It's almost as if getting the details right actually matters for immersion, and it's why they're so important in a themed experience. 🤷🏻‍♂️
  8. You don't need to form a bad-faith opinion because I said standards instead of semantics - it's so dreary because my opinion doesn't materially change either way. The joy of communications/advertising/design is that it dabbles in the grey of manipulating consumer mindsets on thousands of tiny things, however imperceptible or subconscious which is the point I'm getting at. It doesn't matter what their justified position was for using an upside-down M, it's still odd. Plain and simple. Ultimately it all adds up to form a conscious consensus about an organisation and this is one of those indicators. TLDR; people who aren't knee deep in typefaces may not understand what they see, but they'll know something's off. To drive the point home, here's some memes. This is what most people think: But here's the reality. It's an old graphic designer joke I've recreated just for you: And in real-world corporate environments, here's the reality of why you use the right typefaces the right way: Vertical strokes are the reason why it looks strange not the size. If legibility was an issue, they'd be using a font with larger counters to increase long-distance visibility. This is a forum where folks enjoy talking about details in an industry that prides itself on adding in little details to maximise the experience and immersion. If that's how you feel then you're in the wrong place. 🤷🏻‍♂️ This. It's totally okay, folks like me just expect more than just okay because once upon a time the bar was actually set quite high.
  9. I’m sure there was, still doesn’t mean they should ignore pretty basic graphic design and English language standards. W’s just don’t commonly have vertical strokes, which is why it looks weird. It’s just basic and communicates a lack of detail.
  10. Pretty dumb to try and save a few grand on one of the Gold Coast's most visible and iconic attractions if you ask me. That brand doesn't need a 115m tall billboard that screams "we still cut corners".
  11. With the Formula 1 at Miami, Florida this week, I came across the fact that the track has its own Dopplemayr gondola system called SkyView - check it out here: https://www.cbsnews.com/miami/news/hard-rock-stadium-gondola-dolphins/ What was most surprising was the price - 3M USD is bugger all for 12 cabins and an expanse that's 100m longer than what Sea World would need if you were to retrofit 1:1 the previous chairlift attraction (SkyView is 550m, Sea World's SkyWay was 450m-ish). It's been long enough that it would probably be a drawcard for families again too - added to that, there'd be minimal site work needed and no real impact to the park to build. But here's where it gets interesting - if the park was to close the monorail, what if they did a loop system using gondolas instead? You could have two stations roughly where the old chairlift stations were, with a third station where the monorail station is at the resort - perfect for hotel guests, corporate events etc. At that point, you're only adding another 200m of infrastructure and a third station on top of the cost of the one in Miami. What's everyone's thoughts? @Bikash RandhawaI think I solved your monorail problem - I'd be totally on board with this being a monorail successor.
  12. If you've got a few minutes to kill (and can blast past the mountain of ads) this article does a good job at explaining what's up - https://www.themeparktourist.com/news/20230424/33340/500ft-rear-spike-addition-top-thrill-dragster-now-looks-unlikely TLDR; looks like it could be a 500ft rear spike and they'll do a swing launch for Dragster.
  13. It's quite curious they've picked a font with such small counters and identical M's & W's. 🤷🏻‍♂️ They're two completely different typefaces.
  14. I think you can safely assume they're not solar-powered. If they can run power to an entire plant room 115m+ into the air, they can get power to the letters on the way up.
  15. It's a cable holder. As the cable car moves up and down the tower, a bunch of these fold out to prevent the winch cables from flying about. This design is pretty old school - Intamin now use a passive holder that the cable car collects on its journey.
  16. I think sometimes you make stuff up. Almost every ride manufacturer will use similar parts (like ride restraints and vehicle parts) across dozens of installations where it's safe and cost-effective to do so. For example, Doomsday has the same OTSR and seat design as Lex Luthor at SFMM. Superman Escape has the same OTSR's as Furios Baco, SurfRider etc. etc. Just because what you see as an enthusiast (the outer fibreglass, colour, theme etc.) is different between rides doesn't mean that manufacturers won't re-use parts and designs where they can to reduce cost-base during the build and over time. I think you'll find no OEM is doing unnecessary specialised parts for specialised sake, either. Where's the competitive advantage of doing that? The flipside of that is that it was kind of a golden era for ride innovation, where firms allowed manufacturers to take technology risks in order to push boundaries that maximise attraction marketability. These days, cost of capital (and the cost for civil construction) is as high as it's ever been, parks are risk-averse both from a return of investment front and a safety front and the tech being used is pretty mature. I think Doomsday was right at the tail end of that golden era, stuck somewhere between trying to innovate a mature ride design and developing something that adheres to modern safety culture.
  17. Both answers are right. At the most fundamental level, IAAPA has a lot of research to show that major roller-coasters are the single biggest revenue and attendance drivers. But as we all know, folks don't buy a day ticket to ride the new roller-coaster once and immediately leave. New capital expenditure only succeeds by getting the attraction mix right and ensuring a solid day experience for multiple audiences (which is why Sea World course corrected its mix with Atlantis).
  18. Big difference in SLA's between commercial hardware and a $50 dongle.
  19. Nearly two decades is a long time for A/V equipment to run for eight hours every single day. Wouldn't be surprised if whatever media server they were using finally died, and they opted to do a full re-do to maximise the ROI on a new fit out. Newer media servers with newer, better TV's means they can do things like dynamic advertising placements, better integrate into existing A/V and also means they can finally update the ride safety video to better suit the times. If it were up to me I'd go full hog and really try and do something with the new screens that tries to entertain folks for as long as possible since they don't have their phones on them. I'm not sure if that means episodes of Superman or a bunch of easter eggs in a few mini-games - but the potential is there.
  20. Exactly this. The underlying assumption for some seems to be that the space inside the helixes is still dangerous. Now that there's a ride going in there, the physical environment will be adjusted to mitigate that risk. Therefore, beyond the major installation of ride components, there's now no longer a need to close Superman for most reasonable activities to occur in that space. To be frank, you'd be amazed at what after-hours work goes on at theme parks, and I think this will be no different (depending on labour availability, naturally). If they're taking Surfrider down in the middle of the night, they can probably put it back up in the middle of the night, too.
  21. The Marvin ride went up really quickly and I'd dare say this ride move is in response to the backlash for having two coasters closed for various reasons.
  22. That's because the discussion isn't new - if you do a search you'll find laboriously-long essays from myself and other members discussing the aesthetics of park maps.
  23. Lol, did it? /s Happy to have a pointless discussion about negative space on maps if you want? Seems fruitless though.
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