The Future As We Know It Today...

What will the future of roller-coasters hold as we know it today?

I'm not referring to new "elements" such as a 92 degree drop or a zero-G barrel roll looped helix... but I mean actual coaster concepts for what tomorrow will hold (ie: X & Hypersonic).

Will coasters become more simulated such as Spiderman at Islands of Adventure?
Will there be more Millennium Force-type coasters where they stretch over a mile long for sheer speed?
or:
Will they just be compacted to work with the small space they have.

The real question I'm trying to get at is:
What will future concept coasters hold?
Is there anything else possible that hasn't been invented yet?
We have flying coasters, 4th-Dimension coasters that rotate you on 2 different axis', and coasters that are air-launched from 0 to 100 in 3 seconds. What's next (obviously... B&M, Intamin, & Arrow/Vekoma already have some plans up their sleeves, but mum's the word!)??

I'm curious on your opinion of what the future holds on new coaster concepts as we see it today...

I don't have much to say about it, really. My only thoughts are that rising 310' in the air and dropping at 92 miles an hour just cannot be simulated.

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Matt Lynch
Co-Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
http://kennywood.coasterbuzz.com

I recently watched an old coaster TV special from the early 90s. Several "experts" (who seemed to be in the ride simulation buisness) said that by what is now present day fewer and fewer real rides would be built. Virtual reality would be so advanced that there would be virtual reality theme parks. Also, regular movie theaters would have a movie ride that would change on a regular basis, and those with a little extra money could buy a personal ride simulator for your home that could change movies with different disks that had the movements programmed in.

This obviously hasn't happened. When was the last ride simulator built at a park? We are seeing a record number of coasters being built. Movie rides have often been really poor, but a few have been good. Spiderman is one of my favorite things, but I simply don't see that kind of technology infiltrating "normal parks" yet. It was the most expensive ride ever built.

At the end of this show a coaster enthusiast said that these technology based rides were a passing fad, and the real rides like coasters will be around forever. I tend to agree with him!
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- Peabody

I would like to see coasters get more compact. An 120 foot coaster warped and wrapped around each other could be very cool. I think that a forward facing lay down coaster is possible. I also think that Different vehicles will be attached to gyro drop coasters. Could you imagine falling face first 200+ ft.? Maybe you will lie face first with the track? Portions of rides will be experienced upside down. I have always imagined just a straightaway, upside down, or even a helix. Reversed cobra rolls(track twisting outward, but still going in, the shape of a normal cobra roll), inverted loops. The possibilities are endless, and I can't wait to see them.

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Coasters- a little slice of heaven

I was thinking about an upside-down loop.....
imagine a regular vertical loop, then, instead of going up, it goes down. I don't know if they have them already, or if it would even work, but it would look neat.

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May 5th, Gurnee, Illinois, "I'm sprinting for V2"

Yeah, I think in flight lingo that is called an outside loop. I've been to a bunch of airshows and have only seen it done once or twice. It's an extreme move as it pulls STRONG negative Gs. THe body simply can't take negatives like it can take positives.

The TRAIN on X seems to perform a type of outside loop resembling an Immelman towards the end of the ride. However, I don't think the seats will be rotated in a way to let the blood go to your head like a true outside loop would do.

It would be cool looking!

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- Peabody

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kcies13-SFGAm said:
"I was thinking about an upside-down loop.....
imagine a regular vertical loop, then, instead of going up, it goes down. I don't know if they have them already, or if it would even work, but it would look neat.

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May 5th, Gurnee, Illinois, "I'm sprinting for V2""

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Hey, I've been thinking about something like that for years. But like Peabody said, negative G's. I guess it would have to have some kind of braking system to keep it slow, so that might defeat it's purpose. Well, I promise all of you, if I go make my own Coaster firm, I'll design one of these things (unless it already is around by then.)


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V2, Deja Vu... how can it be better? Add Viper! Oh, wait. It's already there!

Although this would be very complicated, I would design a coaster that uses the technology found in Spiderman. Riders could wear 3-D glasses and a screen would follow them up the lift hill, so they see 3-D action going on as they go up the lift. It would be hard to provide more than brief 3-D interludes during the ride, but another 3-D section could be made on the mid or final brake runs. It sounds like a cool concept, however unlikely.

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Home Park: Knotts Berry Farm!
but also Disneyland and DCA

CoasterFanMatt- that could be done on like a Space Mountain ride. That is a small coaster, indoors, but completely dark.



Hey, it could happen,-
*from Angels in the Outfield*
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May 5th, Gurnee, Illinois, "I'm sprinting for V2"

It's (kind of) been done. Chaos in Opryland used to use glasses that altered the lighting and lasers that were used in the ride. It was REALLY cool!

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- Peabody

You think maybe special effects could be integrated into rollercoasters? Some such as timed fog & lasers... maybe a strobe light (I know Raptor has one, but I mean used more to the X-treme), or colored lighting?

How about a concept similar to 4th-Dimension where it's a 2-seater... one on each opposite end of the car. Held together by re-inforced steel rod, and the chair is a typical chair used for an inverted coaster. This gives you much freedom in terms of how you feel while you ride the coaster... no track below nor above nor even to the one side of you! It wouldn't rotate on a 2nd axis, however.

Also, I honestly see that if tested well... future coasters with multiple inversions will no longer be using horse collars. Instead, they will either be lap bars w/ seat belts...
or in the case of stand-ups or more intense negative/lateral G coasters, I see the restraints used such as those in the Flying Dutchman coasters: a cross harness.

Well, before I considered myself a coaster enthusiast... 10 years old, I imagined several crazy roller coaster designs

1. An Underwater dive with sharks and marine life next to the train.
- Imagine a dive into a glass tunnel where you go underneith the water. It would probably be just a straightaway, but cool nontheless.

2. Hollowgrams. The coaster turns around a bend and into a tunnel. OH NO! It seems at the end of the tunnel there is a brick wall! Woosh! the coaster goes right through, it was just a hologram..

3 Swinging Doors. Seconds before impact, the door swings open.

4 Lowering Doors. Doors that lower right as you pass under, giving the sensation of being crushed.

5 multiple paths (different routes)

6 See-through coaster trains. Coaster Trains designed with see-through -super tough- plastic to see everything

7 see-through track so only the supports are mainly visable!

Cool eh?


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Dust myself up
and I scream at the sky
-Max Cavalera

I think there will be more hybrid designs like Journey to Atlantis at SWO or the Liquid Coasters. I don't know what the exact future holds, but the only things that can hold it back are engineering limitations (which grow less and less daily,) limits of what the human body can withstand (which will never change,) and the financial limitations of the parks.

What is a Liquid Coaster, and what is Journey to Atlantis like? What is Spiderman (the ride...)


If "they" stop building real coasters and make some simulators, they can kiss my @$^, I'm not riding that @!&$. Mmm, at least I censored myself.

Journey to Atlantis is a Log Flume type ride with a (surprise) rollercoaster section.

coo man chu-Those are some cool ideas!
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Parks For 2001: PKD, BGW, Funtown USA

A hologram would be realy cool. Also the whole thing with the doors poping open. On Alpengeist after watching the POV (havent rode it yet), that the little house you go thru, it would be sweet if the walls poped down seconds before you went thru it.

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MF Drops-15
SOB Rides-2