Six Flags Great Adventure Rollercoaster Introduction: Part 9

Next up is one of the parks many rides that are based on a cartoon or comic character or series. Built in 2003, Superman: Ultimate Flight is painted red-blue-yellow, just the colors that the man of steel likes to dress up in. The riding position is designed to imitate flight, so the train travels beneath the track and guests ride in a lay-down position when the restraints are lifted into their horizontal position.

And so begins a climb up to 115 feet, followed by a plunge of 100 feet achieving a top speed of 51 miles per hour, winding through two inversion and several turns a total of 2759 feet for approximately two minutes. One of the inversions is a pretzel loop, which means beginning from the top and doing a downward loop where top speed is achieved while passengers are laying on their backs. The name of the pretzel loops comes from the fact, that it resembles a pretzel from a certain angle. Now that would be a serious challenge: Eating a pretzel while going through a pretzel loop, especially due to the fact that bringing food onto rides is probably forbidden :D!

Sneak Peaks

I’ve been meaning to do this ever since I started this blog. That is to blog sneak peaks of my upcoming videos. Since it’s been so long, I’ve got snapshots from seven projects and info about a total of thirteen. First up is the one which is probably my most anticipated video ever.

Need for Speed Most Wanted: Stupid Cops 2 Project

This is actually two projects or possibly even three, since I’m going to make a trailer and possibly leave out about half of the whole length to make Stupid Cops 3. First a few words about the trailer. It’s going to be a sort of remake of the introduction video from the post-nuclear role playing game called Fallout 2. You might have noticed that already on my Trailershow video, which featured a teaser of Stupid Cops 2. The full length trailer will be full of images made with Adobe Photoshop (like the picture below) to mimic the Fallout 2 intro and of course some video footage from the finished product.

The actual Stupid Cops 2 video takes place in the Challenge Series event number 68, where you have to stay in pursuit for 30 minutes and then evade the police. So its going to be very long (approx. 15 or 30 minutes depending on if I decide to split it into Stupid Cops 3 or not), but I guarantee that if you understand English, comprehend some pop culture references and have a good sense of humor, you won’t be bored at all. Because of the long length it also takes A LOT of time and effort to complete, so it might take as long as until the first Stupid Cops video’s 2 year completion anniversary on November 17th. So far I’ve added a lot of stuff to Stupid Cops 2, including reversed, slowed and sped up music, and sound effects from The Simpson, Star Wars and Loony Tunes. And of course there will be a lot of wacky comments (picture below).

Multiple RollerCoaster Tycoon 2 Projects

Since trying a recording program called HyperCam, I’ve had the urge to post videos from videogames that I haven’t been able to record before, such as RollerCoaster Tycoon 2. Over the years I’ve spent countless hours, days and weeks playing this wonderful game building massive amusement parks with tons of custom built rollercoasters, and am going to share those creations with the world in the near future. I’m planning to release videos from a total of seven different parks, and at least five of them are going to have their own video(s) because they have so many cool rollercoasters. Each rollercoaster will be accompanied by it’s own song which somewhat matches the name and theme of the ride. For instance a ride called “The Virgin Prostitute” will feature the song “Three Point One Four (Vagina)” by the Bloodhound Gang :D! To accompany the song every rollercoaster will have a title picture related to the ride’s theme (1st and 2nd picture below) and the ride's vital stats listed (3rd picture below). I’ve recorded almost all material for one scenario (Ghost Town), and finished about four ninths of the video, which will have to be divided into two parts since it will be close to 20 minutes long.

OMF 2097: Secret Characters of the Secret Master's Tourney (Part 3) Project

This one was also featured on my Trailershow video. Since then, I’ve managed to record all the material needed and just have to edit them together. But that’s not going to be as easy as on the first and second videos of the series, since this one will have replays, commentary (picture below), reverse angles, zooming in and slow motion. And even one fight where I lose, but am able to get a rematch due to a technicality :o! Stay tuned to find out…

Tomb Raider Matrix Project

The title is just a working title for this project, which will be from the Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary videogame and will feature music from The Matrix. I don’t want to give away too much, but the grand idea is Lara doing all kinds of neat matrix-like stuff (like acrobatics, adrenaline shots etc. – picture below) while music from The Matrix plays in the background. I have tons of raw material recorded, but haven’t started yet since I have plenty of other projects under construction.

Gun Project

For this one I haven’t even figured out a working title, but it's going to be a video about the western videogame called simply “Gun”. Again I have tons of raw video material ready, but haven’t started editing, since I have yet to figure out what the grand idea will be. It’ll probably feature some cool quickdraw kills (picture below) and I have a few western style songs in mind for the music.

Prey Project

From the videogame with the same name (Prey), again no working title yet, but I do have some raw material available. There’s no grand idea yet for this one either and not even any particular song chosen, but the video will probably feature a lot of messing around with gravity, portals and other weird and cool stuff which this very cool game is littered with (picture below).

Prince of Persia – Bad Case of Loving You Project

This one is my newest idea, and as the working title suggests, the music is going to be “Bad Case of Loving You” by Robert Palmer (my newest favorite btw). No video material exists yet, but I’m planning on recording stuff from all three wonderful Prince of Persia Sands of Time series' games. Since I’ve got no material, there’s no snapshot, but instead “Bad Case of Loving You” by Robert Palmer embedded below.

Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and F.E.A.R. Projects

These are two totally separate projects about Dark Messiah of Might & Magic and F.E.A.R., but they are at such similar stages that I decided to list them in one paragraph. For both I have some raw material, no particular music and a vague grand idea. The idea for Dark Messiah is a 300 style video with lots of kicking, since I just love to kick goblins, orcs and such into fires, traps and other stuff :D! But I’m still torn on whether to make it a serious vid or a funny one, but am leaning towards the latter, since then I would be able to use some funny glitch video material I have. The vague idea for F.E.A.R. is also a glitch vid (picture below), but that’s the only idea I’ve got (apart from cool slow-mo shooting and stuff) so that one’s future isn’t looking too bright.

Fahrenheit Boxing Project

This one is going to feature a cutscene from Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy where two of the main characters square off in a friendly boxing match (picture below). The idea is to use the games original music and just add some funny comments. All the material is ready but I haven’t started editing anything yet so this one will have to wait for other projects to be finished. Although I'm not really that sure I can make it funny enough for my own standard of publishing. Time will tell...

Untitled Classic Game Project

This one is about a rare classic strategy game from the 90’s, but I don’t want to give away the name of the game yet. This is another game that I couldn’t record until I discovered HyperCam. The video is probably going to be quite basic by just demonstrating what the game is all about and showcase the various things that can happen each turn when playing single or multiplayer. Even though this game doesn’t require MS-DOS to run, I’m going to post an informative picture about it below :D!

Terminator Project

This is the only Project that isn’t videogame related. I got the idea quite a while ago and have the perfect music in mind, but have no raw material whatsoever, since acquiring that material involves using my digital camera, total darkness and various electronic devices. And the most significant one of those devices (a car actually) was sold some time ago so this project might be doomed. The cool picture below is something that I just googled and am considering as my new desktop background :D!

So there you have it: Lots of info about my upcoming releases and some pics too. I hope this takes some of the waiting anxiety away at least for a while :D! But remember that nothing described here is an absolute promise, except the thing that I said about Stupid Cops 2, and the fact that I will definitely complete the first four projects described in this post, unless I suddenly fall terminally ill or something like that *knocks on wood* :D!

Six Flags Great Adventure Rollercoaster Introduction: Part 8

Eigth in line is the park’s slowest rollercoaster Blackbeard’s Lost Treasure Train, which was built in 1999 and has a whopping maximum speed of 22.4 miles per hour. It has a massive height of 26 feet and it’s 1181 feet long ride takes just over a minute to complete. There is a bright side to the ride’s less intense nature, but I have yet to discover what it is :D! Just kidding! The bright side is that it has extremely short queue times and nowadays completes two circuits around the track.

As seen in the picture above, the train has a total of 20 cars making it one of the longest ones on any rollercoaster. Therefore the ride experience varies a lot depending on where you sit. If we have enough time, we should try riding it at least three times: Once in front, once at the back and once in the middle. But if time is of the essence, then at least this bad boy’s gonna head for the bigger ones B)!

Six Flags Great Adventure Rollercoaster Introduction: Part 7

Like I mentioned last week, next up is the wooden rollercoaster called El Toro, which is Spanish for bull. El Toro opened in 2006 being the park’s newest rollercoaster, and it isn’t a traditional wooden rollercoaster at all. Instead of a chain lift, a cable lift is used to pull the train up the first hill allowing it to be pulled much faster and at a steeper angle. The ride doesn’t rattle and shake like traditional wooden rollercoasters, but is modernly smooth like most steel rollercoasters. Despite of its smoothness, El Toro is no dull ride. Instead its one of the world’s fastest, tallest and steepest wooden rollercoasters. It climbs up to 181 feet, plummets down 176 feet in a 76 degree sometimes reaching a max speed of up to 75 miles per hour.

El Toro is also known for extreme air-time, where the rides feel weightless due to negative g-forces, and for its several headchoppers present when it swerves around itself and Rolling Thunder. Due to the extreme air-time, El Toro has a much stricter policy regarding lap restraints and thus the waist size of passengers. Luckily a test seat is located near, where "guests of exceptional size" or nowadays more politically correctly "guests of unique body shapes" (I lost my poker face big time while reading that :D) can test whether they meet the requirements. All things considered I think El Toro is going to be one of my favorites, even though it doesn’t have any inversions. The truth might be just like the guy on the embedded video says: It’s almost even better than… sexual intercourse! (With a one-armed leprechaun :D) I can hardly wait =)!

Six Flags Great Adventure Rollercoaster Introduction: Part 6

In order to introduce all the rollercoasters of Six Flags Great Adventure, from now on every other time I’m going to have to focus on one of the slower less intense rollercoaster. But a bit of variance is always better, and I don’t want to cram them all at the end, because that spot is reserved for a brand new rollercoaster that’s going to open at the end of April. Therefore next on the list is the park’s first ever rollercoaster the Runaway Mine Train (picture below), which opened in 1974 . Kingda Ka, Rolling Thunder (white) and El Toro (under construction), which is up next week, can be seen in the background.

Runaway Mine Train’s height of 60 feet might not scare everyone, and its steepest incline is only 20 degrees, but it still manages to reach a top speed of 38 miles per hour. 2665 feet of steel track goes by in two minutes, including a stretch very close to the surface of a small lake (as seen in the picture). One mustn’t forget that usually the good side of such not-so-popular rides is that you might be able to ride it many times over without even exiting in between =).