Coasters that Revolutionized the Industry

That's cool. Not disagreeing, just curious. Still not sure about Volcano :)

I knew that but thought I would explain my personal reasonings anyway. Since inquiring minds wanted to know. ;)

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Trekker Park said:
The key word here is "revolutionize." Not only do we not agree on what that means, but it probably is not necessary or even useful in a research paper. You need to be tracing the evolution step by step, not huge leap by huge leap.

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Couldn't 'revolutionary' be defined as 'significant contributions to the evolution of roller coasters'? With that in mind...

l. "Kennywood introduced the idea of the terrain coaster (although no one at KW ever used that term) with its early woodies."

Jack Rabbit at Seabreeze opened a year before Kennywood's Jack Rabbit, and is considered a terrain coaster.

2. "KW's [Racer] [was] the first [Moebius coaster]" (to paraphrase).

Derby Racer at Euclid Beach opened 14 years before Kennywood's Racer.

3. "Waldameer's Ravine Flyer was the first coaster to cross a major state highway."

I wouldn't consider building a coaster across a highway 'revolutionary.' I'm pretty sure bridge-building technology *slightly* predates 1922. ;)

4. "KW introduced the drop out of the station with the chain lift partway through the ride with its Jackrabbit and Pippin."

Not sure how significant a drop out of the station is to the evolution of roller coasters. It just so happens the stations for KW's coasters were built on the edge of a ravine, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out that a lift hill is not immediately needed for the train to go down the first drop.

5. "Carowinds Hurler and Kentucky Kingdom's Thunder Run were the first (they're mirror clones) woodies to have the entire layout behind the lift hill and first drop."

Again, I don't see how having the 'entire layout' behind the lift and first drop (I assume you mean excluding the turn after the first drop...but isn't this part of the layout? ;) ) is anything significant to the evolutionary process. And if you're referring to a lateral turn immediately after the first drop instead of a hill, I'm sure I could come up with a few previous coasters that have similar elements--Hercules, for example, which was built a year before Thunder Run.

6. "KW's Jackrabbit was the first double dip coaster, both to demonstrate the effectiveness of and to take advantage of the upstops."

The first drop on Paragon's Giant Coaster (now Wild One @ SFA), which is four years older than KW's Jack Rabbit, was a double dip.

I don’t think that just being first to have some element is enough to be considered revolutionary. And I don’t think a coaster has to be first at something to be revolutionary. I consider a coaster revolutionary if I think it had a significant impact on future coasters in any regard. Here are some that I would consider revolutionary: Coney Island Cyclone; Matterhorn; Revolution; Loch Ness Monster; King Kobra (Kings Dominion); Beast; Magnum XL200; Batman: The Ride; Hypersonic: XLC *** Edited 4/12/2004 4:24:47 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

According to Miriam-Webster, revolutionize means "to change fundamentally or completely". By that definition, I'd say there have been three revolutions:

Adopting wheels on roller coasters. When was the last ice slide built at an amusement park? Complete change.

Upstop and guide wheels. When was the last side-friction coaster built? Complete change.

Tubular steel rails. While coasters with iron rails did exist prior to tubular steel's introduction, they were not the norm. Steel coasters now outnumber their wooden brethern by about a 9 to 1 margin. Fundamental change.

I'm just thankful we don't refer to changes like this as "paradigm shifts" any more.

Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway is #1. :)

Bogeyman, you're right, and I agree 100%. In mind there are probably only 4 of 5 that really made fundemental changes. The rest are variations on a theme.

I would almost have to add the Schwartzkof shuttle, as it introduced non-chain/gravity started coasters. I almost added that it introduced shuttles (non-complete circuit) to the coaster industry, but wasn't the old Switchback Railway one of those too? :)

Air Launch, LIM, inverted, suspended, flying, 4d, hyper, giga, strats, etc. Those are evolutionary, not revolutionary :)

How about the invention of upstop pads and then upstop wheels? Do some research to find the first coaster that used them...that shouldn't be too difficult.

Sorry Magnum fanboys, Arrow stated many times that they got the idea of a large non-looping steel coaster from Togo's Bandit. All Arrow did is make Magnum a few feet taller, nothing totally revolutionary:

http://www.rcdb.com/installationgallery1218.htm?Picture=1

*** Edited 4/12/2004 9:19:27 PM UTC by jomo***

Magnum is 38 feet taller than Bandit, and it inspired the coaster wars. To deny the affect of Magnum on the industry shows that you have no clue what you're talking about.

Magnum was evolutionary, not revolutionary. The coaster wars were already gaining lots of steam. It's important, but nothing earth shattering in terms of development.

OK that's freaky...I was about to post the EXACT same thing using those exact terms.

Great minds think alike, huh? :)

The amount of new coasters in the years after Magnum were about double the years before. And, there were several built that would not have been considered before. Magnum changed the way parks looked at coasters as an investment and what it could do for them.

edit: and it certainly changed what parks were willing to spend on a coaster. *** Edited 4/12/2004 10:01:27 PM UTC by RavenTTD***

Not as much as you would think....the storm was brewing long before Magnum. And it's not like parks were building hypers left and right. It took 5 years for the next hypers to be build (one in US and one in Britain). It wasn't till the late 90s coaster wars that hypers became a comon product.

The track technology was there (the arrow mega loopers) the train technology was there (mine trains/Gemini/Excalibur) Add a few feet and a legend was born.

The price wasn't a big a deal as you would think either. It's just like saying a coaster was revolutionary because it had 5 loops instead of 4. Yes, it was more expensive than others, but not by some huge amount, as if all coasters were $1mil and then it was $8. *** Edited 4/12/2004 10:16:40 PM UTC by Peabody***

Please understand that Peabody, myself, and others are not knocking Magnum. The ride and its popularity speaks for itself. It just didn't have as great effect on the industry as many give it credit for.

Exactly...I LOVE the thing, and appreciate what it did (I rode it opening week and rememebr the atmosphere!). It's effect has taken on more legend than many realize. I think some people think that everyone was building Dragon Wagons, and then BOOM, Magnum is built and the world changed ;)

Wasn't the first suspended coaster located on a pier. Can't remember the name, but I know I've seen the postcard drawing of it. Basically a bunch of downward spiralling helices.

And a quick question to all of the people who think that a taller coaster = revolutionary. Was 60 ft. revolutionary as compaired to 55 ft.? How about the difference between MF and SD2K, is that revolutionary? Just because 100, 200, 300 and 400 are nice easy numbers to spout off doesn't mean squat.

Personally I don't think that many revolutionary coasters have been built since the 70's. I can think of a few, but that's it.

Yes, Incidentalist. It was at the Venice Pier, which is 10 mins from my house. If only it still had rides... ;-(

I know this is way late, but was it you Moosh who was telling me how good the new Air CD is? I've been meaning to buy it, given how much I loved Moon Safari (and rather enjoyed 10,000Hz Legend), but I've been slacking. And yes, I do actually like 10,000Hz Legend, though it took me a good 5-6 listens before I stopped hating it. Anticipointment after Moon Safari, I suppose.

Back on topic, I'd like to throw Psyclone out there as revolting. Wait, revolutionary? Ne'ermind...

It was Invy and I who began discussing the new Air CD. He was the one who said Moon Safari was superior to "10,000." I don't yet own either of them but plan to soon. If you made a comment about the band earlier I missed it...sorry ;)

mOOSH