Tag Archives: roller coaster

Galactica Roller Coaster Melds VR with Real Thrills

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The Alton Towers adventure park in the UK has whipped up a new roller coaster that looks really cool. The coaster is called Galactica is being built using an existing flying-style coaster previously known as Air.

galactica-tb-1zoom in

Galactica is something different though. Passengers ride face down in the coaster and wear VR goggles on their heads the whole time. The goggles display video that has passengers traveling through galaxies on a space mission that’s synchronized with the turns and falls of the coaster.

galactica-tb-2zoom in

Like Air before it, the coaster will have three trains in use a time and each train holds 28 passengers. The track is 2,755 feet long and has a highest drop of 66 feet. Max speed reached is 47 mph with max g load of 3.5g.

This all sounds pretty awesome, though Alton Towers recently had one of their rides cause serious injuries to passengers due to operator error. I guess space travel is dangerous, even if you never leave planet earth.

[via BBC]

Hilary Duff reveals the Reason behind going Blue-Green Haired

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Hilary Duff has returned to the public scene after taking a break for raising her 3 years old son Luca. Hilary is starring is the Sex and the City’s writer Darren Star’s new series “Younger”. The...

World’s Tallest Roller Coaster is Finally Shown in this Video

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The tallest roller coaster in the world, Skyscraper, will twist and dive from more than 500 feet above International Drive when it is scheduled to open in 2017. On Monday a track design was unveiled...

Man Wears Oculus Rift on Roller Coaster: Is This the Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

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You may have seen videos of people being floored by the virtual roller coaster demo for the Oculus Rift. Edmond O’Driscoll and Jonathan Forder recently took the experience to another level by recreating a roller coaster ride for the Rift, and then watching that recreation while riding the actual roller coaster.

oculus rift on actual roller coaster by Edmond ODriscoll and Jonathan Forder 620x346magnify

Edmond wore the Rift while Jonathan filmed the experience. They snuck in the headset and a camera along with a laptop and a mouse, which Edmond taped to his body and concealed with his sweatshirt. In an interview with Road to VR, the pair said it them took a few tries to get the virtual ride in sync with its real world counterpart, but once they got it right the experience worked really well.

You may be wondering if the two are virtual reality addicts who have forsaken the appeal of a real life experience. Well, kind of, but their stunt was just an experiment. Edmond and Jonathan believe that in the future, roller coasters and other amusement rides will be enhanced by virtual reality experiences. For instance, the virtual ride that Jonathan made had an outer space background, but as you saw it still proved to be a convincing experience.

Now imagine going on a roller coaster ride but seeing something else entirely that’s in sync with the ride. It could be a horror-themed experience, an aerial tour of a beautiful landscape or maybe an interactive Panzer Dragoon ride. Each passenger could even choose different displays and thus have different experiences on the same ride. It looks like future VR displays should be puke-resistant.

[via Road to VR]

Guy Building a Roller Coaster in His Backyard

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Everyone loves amusement park rides. Will Pemble and his son Lyle are no different. They love to visit amusement parks and ride the roller coasters. So naturally, one day, when returning home from an amusement park, Lyle asked, “Why don’t we build our own roller coaster, Dad?” The rest is history.

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So the pair set out to build themselves a backyard roller coaster. They call the project Coaster Dad and Will regularly updates their website, showing off their progress. As the video shows, the coaster is looking pretty awesome already:

The track is made from parallel PVC pipes on a lumber frame. Right now, Will is working on another cart made from a steel frame with skateboard wheels, with independent axles. If that isn’t enough, he wants to add a pedal mechanism so you can get a little extra speed on the rises. Pretty cool.

Now he just needs to figure out how to do loops and corkscrews.

[via Hack a Day via Neatorama]

Space Mountain Closed in Disneyland

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Disney shut down the Space Mountain roller coaster after receiving a safety citation. The citation is though about employee safety and not passengers. Besides Space Mountain, Matterhorn bobsled and...
    


Mario Kart Tracks Get Recreated in Roller Coaster Tycoon

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Many consider the Roller Coaster Tycoon series to be a classic game that satisfies your SimCity-like urges to build stuff, but without stuff like earthquakes. Roller Coaster Tycoon is simple, but can also be a deep experience. You can also use it to build some really cool things – like Mario Kart tracks for instance.
wariostadium

It’s always fun to use one game to build things from other games. It’s not all about Minecraft, people. Although yes, that is a fun and awesome game. Hopefully next we will see someone make a Minecraft version of Roller Coaster Tycoon that has Mario Kart tracks.

mario kart rollercoaster tycoon 2

So now I’m curious, who out there still plays Roller Coaster Tycoon? If you don’t, what is your favorite sim/building game?

[via Geekosystem]


World’s Coolest Dad (of the Week) Builds a Backyard Roller Coaster for His Daughter

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When I was younger, I was obsessed with two things: toy cards and Coca-Cola. So one day, my cooler-than-cool father surprised me with a toy car he put together from scrap blocks of wood, all covered with cut-up Coke cans.

It seems like there isn’t anything that doting fathers won’t do. Another shining example is this dad who built his daughter her very own roller coaster, right in their backyard.

Backyard Coaster

Yes, you read that right: he built her an actual roller coaster! It’s smaller than the ones you see at amusement parks and it’s sort of a manual-type of coaster since the wagon has to be pushed upward until it reaches the peak. But it’s still pretty awesome and features a 12-foot drop. Check it out in the video below.

Pretty awesome, isn’t it?… Though he should think about buying a helmet for his daughter.

[via Obvious Winner]