Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Out
Plenty of stores have it now (Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Ebgames) and some on-line stores are shipping it too (Ebgames.com and Gamestop.com). There also seems to be a way to download the full game and buy it. If you don't buy it, the download acts as a 60 minute demo of the full game (one time use only though).
Michigan's Adventure To Build New Water Slide
Not just any slide, either. The Muskegon Chronicle has the story:
It will be wetter and wilder next summer at Michigan's Adventure Amusement Park with the addition of a huge new water slide, Cedar Fair LP's first big-ride investment since 2002.
Michigan's Adventure will introduce Funnel of Fear -- a "Tornado-class" giant funnel water slide designed and manufactured by ProSlide Technology Inc. of Ottawa, Canada. The new attraction to the park's WildWater Adventure is part of a $2.4 million capital improvement plan for the 2005 season.
Since Cedar Fair purchased Michigan's Adventure in 2001, the owners of Cedar Point in Ohio have invested $12 million in new rides and park improvements, company officials said. The last major ride was RipCord, a extreme swing ride installed for the 2002 season.
"The Funnel of Fear will be the most exciting water slide in the state of Michigan," park General Manager Camille Jourden-Mark said. "We are extremely pleased to be able to offer our guests this one-of-a-kind experience next summer. It will add a whole new level of thrills to WildWater Adventure."
Cedar Fair still does not have city water or sewer service due to disagreements with Muskegon local governments. But with the recent settlement of a property tax assessment dispute, Cedar Fair now appears more comfortable making investments in Muskegon.
The ProSlide giant water funnel allows riders to careen down a huge circular tube on four-person "cloverleaf" rafts. The ride begins through a 300-foot enclosed, dark tunnel taking the rafts into a 60-foot funnel propelled by swirling water.
The experience is completed with a "splash landing" in a pool at the bottom of the ride. Designed for those over 4-feet tall, the ride will be assembled on the south side of WildWater Adventure just east of the main concourse leading to the water park's main gate.
What they are talking about is a slide like Zinga at Holiday World. It is built by ProSlide and there are already several across the country.
Busch Gardens Tampa To Announce New Coaster
Rumor has it that BGT will announce their new coaster on Wednesday. Look for it to be the world's second B&M dive machine and to be a figure-8 layout with a tunnel after the first drop.
Not that I know anything. ;)
RCT3 v1.2 Demo Released
You can get it at the official website again. They promise this will be the final version of the demo. The fixes listed also include the ones made for v1.1:
- Game's file structure altered.
- Replaced videos in menus with screenshots, your in game screenshots appear in the menu's. Updated UI elements (e.g. coaster construction).
- Weather effects such as rain, lightning.
- Water-height logic added (can't 'flood' the park).
- Water ripples when you move your mouse over water, when people are put in it, ducks land on it, boats, raindrops etc.
- Swaying 3D trees keyed to 'wind', as are water ripples.
- Bloom graphical effect for high-end PCs on specular highlights.
- Clicking on birds causes them to quack / squawk, feathers fall off ducks and they change flight formation.
- Dropping people in water - will swim if deep (otherwise will walk), get angry when you rescue them, & when you place them down they shiver. (if you leave them they will rescue themselves over time when off-camera (i.e. you don't see them get out, they teleport back into the park).
- If you shake peeps when they are being tweezered and then put them down they are dizzy momentarily.
- Peep & coaster car physics on coaster car crashes for those crashed into - the peeps on the car now fall out of it, bits can fall off the car depending on what car, crashed cars interact with scenery and each other, and after its crashed the car explodes and dissapears.
- Peeps in the park get blown away by the resulting explosion.
- If you put Peeps on the top of hills or mountains they tumble down to the bottom.
- When you click on a peep he/she has paranoid thoughts and looks over their shoulder once in a while.
- If you click on the same peep in game again they follow the mouse pointer with their head and always face the camera.
- If you click on the peep again you tickle them, and repeated clicking then is likely to make them angry.
- All coaster axles have suspension and follow the track exactly. All coaster wheels 'go round'.
- N.B. also in the previous demo (in case you hadn't noticed..) were:
- When the terrain is adjusted with peeps walking over it they sway dizzily momentarily.
- Balloon popping - clicking on a balloon pops it, kids cry, throw a tantrum or display a reaction, when peeps run with balloons the balloons trail behind them.
- Lens flare on lights at night (especially obvious on coaster cam).
- Sticky flexi-colour menus - the game remembers what colours you are using and defaults new objects to them.
- Sticky themeing filters - the game remembers what theme you are using and defaults new selection to that.
Legoland Parks To Be Sold
Lego said they are going to transfer their parks to a separate company and will soon be selling them.
It is likely they will be transferes to an investment company owned by the descendants of Lego's founder.
It is not likely that any of the major park chains will buy Legoland.
Updated RCT3 Demo Out
The updated Roller Coaster Tycoon Demo (v1.1) has been released. It is based on the final version of the game code and has a few fixes. Download it from the official website.
They fixed a number of my complaints including the annoying background music in-game. You can turn that off (or change it to anything) from the options. They also changed the coaster designer so that the elements are labeled instead of just pictures. They also fixed a number of graphics and performance bugs, which brings me to a failure:
The first demo auto configured my graphics settings to high and I was able to take them up a little too (without much of a performance loss). The 1.1 version set the graphics to medium on my computer. Turning some settings (not the resolution though) up slowed down the game. Not that I could notice much of a difference. But if you are a real stickler for quality visuals, you might be pissed.
Batman and Hulk Close Roller Coaster
And not THE HULK coaster.The Big One in England.
Two fathers' rights protesters dressed as Batman and the Hulk have been arrested after staging a demonstration on a rollercoaster ride in Blackpool.
Rory Wilmer and Colin Wallace climbed to the top of the 235ft high Big One ride at the Pleasure Beach amusement park just before lunchtime.
Once there they unfurled a banner with the word "Kapow!" written on it.
They were arrested by Lancashire Police for public nuisance after spending nearly three hours on the ride.
Both are being questioned.
Mr Wilmer, 23, and 34-year-old Mr Wallace are both members of the Liverpool branch of Fathers 4 Justice.
Pleasure Beach spokeswoman Gill Mathison said the protest left many children and families disappointed.
"People do want to go on the Big One," she said. "There are a lot of unhappy families here.
"Around 1,200 people go on the ride each hour and every hour it's closed people are disappointed."
A Fathers 4 Justice spokesman apologised for stopping the ride.
He added: "If people knew what Batman had to go through in his particular case you would find there is a major concern."
Fathers 4 Justice has staged a number of high profile demonstrations recently.
These include powder-bombing the Prime Minister in Parliament and storming Buckingham Palace.
Both protests caused alarm and were highly embarassing for police and security chiefs.
Hippo Guns Return To Disneyland
It's been around on websites for a little while now, but the LA Times finally has a story for the masses to read.
Pressler and Harris had the guns removed (for being un-PC) a while ago and when Disneyland got new leadership everone hoped that would change. Apparently, Michael Eisner never was told of the gun's removal and on his first trip to Disneyland in years was told they were removed after he said how much fun it was to fire them off.
I can't say for sure who put the guns back. I imagine Ouimet did it with approval from Eisner.
The rest of the article is very blunt about the problems Disneyland had under Pressler/Harris (and some more recent). This is the first general public mention of that, so hope the park will be fixing more to avoid the bad press.
Geauga Lake Announcement Coming
Geauga Lake's website has a banner announcing that they will announce something on November 10th. Internet rumor is split between the long awaited hypercoaster (more on that in a second) and a return of animals of some kind. I think the animals are less likely.
As I reported back in July Bill Spehn, General Manager of Geauga Lake said that the park will definitely be getting a hypercoaster. He never did say when, but he did say one was coming.
Also expect part of the announcement to say something about a referbished Hook's Lagoon.
Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Goes Gold
This is news from a few days ago, but RCT3 has been finished and sent to the factory. Expect it in stores around November 2nd.
Holiday World Announces 2005 Plans
I am a great fan of Holiday World and I suggest everyone should visit. Today they announced plans to double their water park's size and a few other "little things:
HUGE WATER PARK EXPANSION STARTS IN ’05
SANTA CLAUS, IN---Indiana’s largest water park will continue to grow until it is double its current size. The first step is part of Holiday World & Splashin' Safari record $6.3 million expansion plan for 2005.
“When we announced the opening of Splashin' Safari for the 1993 season, we never dreamed how successful it would be,” says Will Koch, the president of Holiday World & Splashin' Safari. “We have added to it nearly every year since, and for the 2005 season are launching an expansion that will eventually make it twice as big.”
Koch announced Wednesday the first step of this expansion will be the addition of Bahari*, a huge themed wave pool.
“Bahari is Swahili for ‘immense sea,’” says Koch, “and that sums it up. Bahari’s size will be nearly twice that of The Wave, the wave pool we added in 1994.”
Bahari’s six-acre expansion will include a new food outlet and a second smoking area for the water park.
In Holiday World, a new ride called Revolution will replace the Roundhouse in the 4th of July section. “This is an updated version of the existing ride, with higher capacity, a faster and higher spin, plus it lights up at night,” says Koch. “And we can continue with our joke that after getting wet riding Raging Rapids, you can spin dry on Revolution.”
Additionally, Koch says the following improvements will be ready for 2005:
- Second train for The Raven wooden roller coaster, increasing capacity by approximately 70%;
- Karaoke added to the entertainment lineup;
- A fireworks display on the 4th of July;
- Improvements to both parks to increase capacity and comfort.
The park will hire an additional 50 seasonal staff members for the 2005 season, bringing the total number of employees to 1,150. Koch expects the 2005 expansion to increase the parks’ attendance an additional 50,000 guests next season. Attendance for the 2004 is up 14 percent, with the season’s final numbers expected to approach a record 885,000 guests.
Holiday World will be open October 9 and 10 and then close for the season. For more information, visit www.holidayworld.com or call 1-877-Go-FAMILY.
* Bahari rhymes with “safari.”
Disneyland Sued Over Fatal Accident on Ride
Disneyland has been sued over the accident that happened on Big Thunder Mountain over a year ago. They claim (maybe correctly) that "operators were afraid to take the train out of operation, even after hearing unusual noises, because of an 'atmosphere of intimidation' created by Disney management."
It is well known that under Paul Pressler's control the maintenance was lacking at Disneyland. Parts were used until they failed, instead of being regularly replaced. For more information on that, I suggest checking MiceAge's archives.
