Gazza

Gee, the menu is getting a bit exotic then.

Technically speaking a Giga Coaster is one which is over 300 ft high, so its basically only Millennium Force at Cedar Point and Steel Dragon 2000 at Nagashima Spa land. Though building something like this to scale would be impossible with the amount of k'nex you have. Im guessing the sort of style you mean is a Mega Coaster, basically rides that dont go upside down, but have plenty of speed and airtime as Churros said. My suggestion would be for a Rocket Coaster type ride using the orange booster things horizontally. (dont bother trying to make a cable launch, way too hard!) In terms of the style, I think a layout like Furius Baco would be cool, no need for a big support structure, just lots of low to the ground twists and turns, with a barrel roll thrown in for good measure. Nobody ever has.

What about for SE and LW?

Hold on tighter?

LOL I think the point he was making though is that $100 or whatever is a bit much to waste on something like the show in his opinion. There is no question that he has the money to go, its just wether he wants to spend it on a bit of entertainment that lasts only a few hours.

Just on possible attractions, another one they could have is a walk through Simpsons house, back in 1997 there was a competition in Las Vegas where you could win a replica of the Simpsons' house (see it at http://www.lasvegassun.com/dossier/misc/simpsons/plans.html ) so a walkthrough (with perspex barricades and limited numbers of people through at a time) could be a cool little feature. As mentioned before the Quick-E-Mart is a good one, hopefully it will sell stuff like Squishees, Hot Dogs and Skittlebrau. In terms of a cheap people pleaser, what about an Aztec Theatre replica with Simpsons episodes on continuous loop on a screen inside, food would be allowed, so If people felt like escaping the Queensland heat for 20 minutes or so and having a bite to eat this would be a welcome relief. For younger kids, I was thinking of one of those padded play areas themed to the inside of the nuclear power plant, with crawl through pipes with an industrial look, ball pits full of green balls etc. Now, if MW isn't too saturated with food outlets, then there could be the possibility of Krusty Burger in the area too. GoGoBoys idea of spacing it out is a good one, as it would have a dual effect of reducing the number of buildings that need to be put in. Perhaps another gap in the buildings could be used for a perspective alley type thing, but of course of a springfield street theme.

Here is the 2nd image ash posted, but in a considerate jpg format; But as for re-theming scooby doo, no way. MW needs more rides, not re-hashed or replaced old ones. I mean if SDSC were a bad ride then hey go for it, but its one of MWs best and should not be touched, as a Simpsons theme wouldn't be an improvement. But the street idea is a good one, and at the end of the street would be the new ride, to entice people up there.

Just an observation, but it seems like a disproportionate amount of theme park fans also have an interest in lighting, does anybody know why this is the case?

Agreed, Family Guy and South Park aren't really appropriate for a family theme park like Movie World. The issue is not which cartoon is better (start a new topic with a poll if you want to debate that), but which one translates better into a theme park setting. I mean just look at the sorts of timeslots these shows are on at, and the sorts of products and merchandise available (Simpsons confectionery for example) if you want to see what I mean. An attraction at a family theme park is a natural progression. But the Simpsons is a 2D cartoon (And yes, I do know about that tree house of horrors episode where Homer enters the 3rd dimension) but whether something old like that is suitable is questionable. As for an attraction, well I had in mind this sort of Simpsons Road Rage type thing; Imagine a coaster like the Paramount Italian Job ones, but in Simpsons vehicles and the theme being a dash around Springfield with lots of gags and references to the show. But please, no live shows, the thought of actors that look like this; just makes we want to retch.

Yeah, Id say its a pretty stupid idea. For starters, you are saying they should build this instead of the Motorbike coaster, you make it sound as if they could just tell the manufacturer to stop fabricating the ride (This would be getting done right now off site, if not already) and then get a Space Shot ride instead. Thats a bit like going to a car dealer, ordering a car with all your own options and colours, and then on the day of delivery saying "nah, I want a different one instead". Keep in mind, that it takes at least a whole year from first ordering a ride to it actually being finished and operational. So even if somehow DW was able to break their contract with Intamin for the Motorbike coaster and order a Space Shot, it would not be open until April 2008, and by then plenty of people would have ridden Batiwng and it wouldn't be a new thing any more. That wouldn't work either, Space shot rides have completely different internal systems, and it would be very difficult, if not impossible to refit Dreamworld Tower into a space shot. I don't really get what you would be trying to achieve, why would you not want people to go to MW? I mean, if both parks have the same thing, then what makes you think people would automatically change their mind and visit DW to ride the same thing? What would they gain? There would be a lot of people who would have already ridden Batwing, and if DW opened one then these people probably wouldn't bother visiting DW for it since they have already been on the same sort of ride. Now, when the Motorbike Coaster opens, that would be something completely new so people who would not visit for just the same old Space Shot ride would visit for a new roller coaster. Also, if they built the same ride, It would be very difficult to market, for example they couldn't say stuff like "an Australian first" or "The only one of its kind on the Gold Coast" Now, we actually already have an example of this sort of situation, with Tornado and Green Room. They are both the same ride, but White Water Worlds opened second. Has it done much in its own right to sway attendances away from Wet 'n' Wild? Not at all! (Though I might add this wasn't an intentional situation) Thats actually every half year, so all your calculations are wrong. Hmm an 8% reduction in the profit forecast would go down well. I noticed that your strategy only includes thrill rides and major thrill rides, remember though thrill riders aren't the only ones that visit theme parks. Trust me, it doesn't. I have some questions though: -Why would you pass up a new roller coaster for the same old ride? -Would your idea make more money for DW in the end? -Why is it better to "steal" a few visitors from a competitor with an identical ride than to attract new visitors with a unique ride. -You haven't emailed this idea to DW have you?

LOL, what like in RCT3? Remember, Flowrider is mostly made out of concrete with the exception of the trampoline part that you actually surf on. So you could salvage that, and some of the mechanical equipment, but It would be a bit expensive to rebuild most of it.

Yeah, I have it, 1) Yes you can....the game comes with trees and terraforming, so you can do nice hills, lakes and wooded areas. But if you want to do RCT3 style stuff then you have to import 3DS objects (3DS is the format used by 3D studio max) Basically that means you have to model your own objects. I think there are places where you can download them, but there aren't comprehensive theming sets like in RCT3. 2) Yes, definitley. Most of your time is spent placing nodes in 3D space, and using bezier handles to tweak the curves, hills etc of your track. And then adjusting banking angles ,Its nothing like RCT. The games does however come with 2 sets of premade elements, which you can just plonk in to your tracks (you can adjust the scale, mirror them etc) which is useful if you dont know how to make certain elements. And then after that you have to place footers and support nodes on your track, and then link them together to make your support structures.(The program has an inbuilt utility that generates wooden support structures automatically so don't stress out about them) Also, there is a free addon program you can get called "elementary" which has wizards where you just drum in a few numbers and it makes elements for you which you can then use. Basically, you have to throw everything you ever knew about coaster design in RCT3 out the window, you have to worry about things like making your track smooth with nicely shaped elements, making sure your G forces are in check. However the results put RCT3 to shame, and you can make some really realistic stuff. There are sites out there like www.coastersims.com where you can download tracks, so you can have fun just riding what others have made. And yes, help comes with the game, it has all you need to know and a tutorial for how to make a basic coaster. 3)You can make Intamin launch coasters by just using the Hyper Coaster and putting a lauch at the start...but the other two you mentioned come with the game. Also, with your first post, I'd get Soaked since making water parks is more fun than zoos, Billboards come with it, I don't know many of the new rides since I got both games as a package, but I think a Wipe out Style ride, a Perilous Plunge type ride, a better river rapids with 12 passenger boats and a natural looking channel, a half pipe coaster, a roller soaker and a gyro swing with outward facing seats are just a few of the new rides. On top of that you get all the main water park rides like master blasters, body slides, tornados, bowls, lazy rivers, wave pools, mammoth slides etc. As for themes, I think Atlantis and Underwater were some of them, but you get other cool new stuff like fog, smoke, and fire machines, laser and water shows to name a few.

What are the odds of one of them taking up the "empty" space on the TOH tower and finishing in the Thunderbolt site?

I found the CSIROs page on it at http://www.csiro.au/scope/episodes/e61.htm for those who are interested, I guess youtube would be fine for those who would want to see it, Youtube handles TV uploads fine, but since it goes for 21 mins you would need a directors account, or would have to split it into chunks (3 since 10mins is the limit) Today is a great day for copyright and the YouTube TOS.

Not much, just mount some air curtains horizontally beside the track and activate them as the train goes past. I don't know the whole story with this ankle blast thing, but I thought it would have been cool if a gust of air had accompanied the blue blur you see when Superman flies in to make it a bit more realistic.

I actually wondered why they didn't do that in the first place since it would have still doubled the capacity, but would have given them another new ride to market, notice the second mammoth falls didnt really have any marketing. It might make queues a bit one sided, but if the line got too short for the original one, then people would start gravitating towards that and the queues would even up. But now, Id rather see WWW build a dark mammoth, in keeping with their theme it could be called something like "Night Rider" and be 'themed" (if you can call any of WWWs rides that) to surfing at night. They have been doing that since when I was there, maybe that is the 'new' attraction?

So what about that blast of air at your ankles on SE?

Batteries have nothing to do with roller coasters though Plus, you once asserted that you hated "nerds" which could give an indication of the value you place on education. But I mean, towards the end the video was getting pretty stupid; saying electrical tape conducts electricity, putting lemon on the terminals, that ridiculous looking arrangement with the 9v batteries. Oh, that and the fact connecting them end to end wouldn't actually cause any current to flow back.

I don't see how LW could ever get significantly smoother, if you look up at the wheel assemblies when you ride you can clearly see that the up stop wheels and the side wheels dont always touch the track (you can clearly see this on the lift as the up stops wont be turning) so the roughness comes from it jiggling around the track, and unless you put bigger wheels on the trains, I don't know how rehabbing the train can make it more comfortable. A placebo effect perhaps? When I was there the final laser wasn't working, and the red one was there, a bit of a disappointment IMO as the green one hid the drop a bit better. Also, on SE where is this blast of air? Is it at the start of the launch when superman flies in?

Personally I dont like that idea as the sound track is far superior at building tension than any signal lights could be. IMO it is a bit unoriginal to stick countdowns on every launch coaster, it really depends on the individual theme. I mean on Batwing Spaceshot it is effective because its supposed to be about the Batwing launching, but on Superman Escape the ride is about Superman giving you a powerful push to safety, so a countdown makes no sense. Its sort of a confused idea, half the people would see it as a gag since train lights dont normally act like that, and for the other half they would see it as a normal traffic light. Given that, one of the things I have always wanted to see on SE were some signal lights in the dark ride section, there would be one set at the station showing green and working fine, then further on down where the gas mains were breaking it would still be on green, but flickering, and finally at Metropolis Square station the light would be badly damaged and shaking along with the rest of the theming there.

Yeah, thats what I have been thinking of almost exactly, as the turbo tunnel and body bowl type slides are something I have been wanting to see for a while, perhaps something similar to this: Only the 3 tall body slides on the right though, not the other four raft rides. As for the names, well they sound a bit cliche, something non weather event or water related would be a fresh change.

When I saw it the first time I got something out of it since I had enjoyed the Matrix films, the props from the films might have been a bit bland, but it looked quite cool and nicely done in there....if there were a ride attached it would have been an excellently themed queue line, in particular I liked that replica console from one of the ships. I think the main problem was that they let it keep going for too long, 12 months from the DVD release of the films should have been the most they kept it open for, beyond that and it becomes too dated. IMO it was a lost opportunity...a ride could have been built, so initially it would have ridden on the hype from the film, but once that had died down the ride would have built enough of a reputation in its own right to remain popular with guests. Instead they ran with a cheaper investment that has only gone downwards with popularity.

Well most people here wouldn't know much about what precisely surveyors would need to be doing (Heck, I spent a week working with surveyors for work experience and all I remember it being was a whole lot of carrying around equipment and setting it up) I think the main gist of what Mattcrombie was saying is that there were surveyors doing something indicating future construction work.

Most likely not, people around here tend to be pretty good and post up the latest stuff from when they were there, hence if there is nothing posted up, there is probably nothing interesting happening, I'm sure when the construction process moves beyond shifting dirt people will be chipping in with lots of photos

Well, MW seems to be shifting to the wider forms of entertainment, and not just WB movies (Rock my world concert, WB Kids TV show filming, Hi-5 star in your own video etc) I think the Idol thing is an interesting concept , after all MW is a place "where everyone is a star", its not exclusively movie related, but I think its too much to say it wouldn't fit in, its got the entertainment theme and that's enough. It seems like a good enough fill in attraction between large capital spends.