Oct 14 2009 Build Your Own Roller Coaster Ride At Disney
No this isn't Roller Coaster Tycoon, this is real life! The "Sum of all Thrills" is a new ride at Disney's Epcot Center that allows children to design their own roller coasters and then ride them in a virtual reality environment with the aid of a giant robotic arm. I smell vomit! No, seriously -- I think a cat puked under the bed.
Epcot on Wednesday opened a new attraction called "Sum of All Thrills," which lets kids use computer tablets to design a virtual roller coaster, bobsled track or plane ride. After inputting their designs, kids climb into a robotic carriage that uses virtual-reality technology to help them experience the ride they've created.
"This is really the next generation -- where there's a lot more personalization involved" in the amusement-park experience, said Eric Goodman, Disney's lead project manager on the ride.
Cool. Of course, I question how much customization you'll actually get to do (I want 30 loopty-loops in a row!), or how much you should actually trust a child with anyway (100% of 0). Just saying, I have the feeling a lot of coasters are gonna end with a giant robotic arm slamming you into the ground repeatedly. YOU KIDS WILL NEVER BE IMAGINEERS!
Hit the jump for a better shot of the last thing you'll ever climb inside.
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Aug 27 2009 I'm Proud Of You: Geekologie Reader Makes House Of Cards On Amusement Park Ride
Geekologie Reader Fitz and his friends, inspired by the post we did a while back about playing chess on roller coasters, decided to put a different spin on the pastime and make a house of cards on a coaster. This is the resulting shot.
We went to the amusement park yesterday, but we wanted to make it a special day, and after seeing your post with the checkers trick in a roller coaster, we though we could do something even more awesome.
I really hope you'll enjoy it, we putted a lot of effort into it (building a card castle in a water coaster, even with tape is freaking hard!). Plus my friends would be really happy to be on the Internet :P
Good lookin', Fitz. Of course, it would be even better looking if that little Asian girl in the front was puking all over you. What can I say, I like action shots.
Picture (high res)
Thanks Fitz, now how about a game of Risk next time?
Jul 22 2009 Extreme Nutjob Skates Down Roller Coaster
German extreme sportster Dirk Auer strapped on a pair of specially designed lollerblades and, with roflcopter hovering overhead (but not really), skated down a roller coaster at a German amusement park. He undoubtedly soiled his speedsuit.
Spending two months planning the outrageous stunt, Mr Auer also designed and made the monster skates, which took him a total of 110 hours' work.
Mr Auer, from Gross-Gerau near Frankfurt, is considered to be the most extreme in-line skater in the world.He already holds the world record for reaching speeds of 190mph as he was dragged along behind a Porsche GT2.
Travelling at speeds up to 56mph, Auer skated the entire length of the roller coaster - 860 metres (~2820 feet) - in just over a minute.
Nice one, Dirk, but I could have done it in under a minute. BECAUSE I WOULDN'T USE THE BRAKES. Brakes, like crash helmets, are for unprofessionals and children. Did I? I did -- consider the gauntlet thrown! Now, take off those silly skates and fight like a man.
Hit the jump for several more shots and a video of the WHEEEEEEEEE!
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May 28 2009 It Adds Excitment: Chess On Rollercoasters
Chess on rollercoasters is a phenomenon allegedly started by another xkcd cartoon (which you can see by clicking the link or hitting the jump). It's probably old as all hell and I should be beat mercilessly between your breasts as punishment. Go ahead, I can take it. *BWUBWUBWUBWWUB!* I deserved that. Oh, and you might want to keep those out, I feel an old streak coming on. Holy shit -- hands painted like animals!
Hit the jump for the cartoon and several others, including one with a bikini and one with some Jenga action going on because I roll deeper than the Marianas Trench.
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May 7 2009 Good News: Disney Relocates Employees Normally Responsible For Finding And Deleting Boobs In Roller Coaster Pictures
You know how there's a camera that takes a picture of you on the steepest drop of a roller coaster? And then the park tries to peddle said photo after you get off the ride? Yeah, well Disney used to have boob-scanning personnel that would look at all the pictures before they appeared to patrons so no child would catch an eyeful. But now, thanks to the economy, not any more! So get out there and flaunt it! Boobs. I'm talking boobs, not penises.
And, since I love you, I included the NSFW NSFW NSFW uncensored version of the picture above after the jump.
Sep 15 2008 Crazy Dutch Architects Photoshop Some Stuff
This picture (and the others after the jump) were created by Dutch architecture firm NL as a creative exercise in design and were recently presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale. I have no idea what this has to do with anything, but now I want to be an architect. And also, I want a loopty-loop on my way to work. Can you imagine how fun that would be? Deathly fun! Now who wants to help me pitch this show idea to the History Channel? I'm thinking Loop Road Truckers.
UPDATE: F*** the History Channel, they wouldn't return my calls. We're going with the Discovery Channel. The Deadliest Commute baby, I smell Emmy!
Hold it now, hit it for a bunch of other clever shoppings.
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Jun 30 2008 Buzzball Could Be Fun, Could Be Pukey
Evento's Buzzball is is a giant ball with a seat in it that's being hailed as a one-person roller coaster.
At the heart of the Buzzball is a dual motor configuration, enabling the pilot to control the motion and direction of travel via left and right control triggers, which provides power to the driving wheels.The amount of power applied to each wheel will determine the direction the Buzzball moves.
Once the Buzzball is in motion the pod maintains an upright position until the pilot turns, causing the pod to rotate inside the ball against the direction of travel, which applies a braking force and the pod to lock with the ball. This causes the pod to rotate with the ball until the weight of the pilot and pod overcomes the inertia forces and causes the Buzzball to change direction.
This is when the fun starts, as the speed will affect the degree of rotation of the pilot and pod from a partial barrel roll to complete and multiple rotations!
Okay, so let me give it to you in layman's terms: You get in this giant freaking ball, pull some levers and shit, and the next thing you know you're puking, and, oh God, drowning in a creek. Now that's what I call a good time.
Hit the jump for a video of the ball in action.
Jun 16 2008 Totally Safe: Guy Builds His Own Coaster
John Ivers is a man with a dream. A dream of building a roller coaster in his backyard. And he did it, using nothing but scrap metal, his welding skills, and "the seat of his pants". This leads me to believe John has balls of at least quartz (a 7 on Mohs hardness scale). The coaster features a 360 degree loop and is ridden on what appears to be a 1986 Toyota Camry car seat attached to a lawnmower frame. Way to go John, that thing looks like a lot of fun. Well, as long as dying on a homemade coaster in the middle of bumf*** is still considered a good time.
Homemade roller coaster looks incredibly dangerous [dvice]
Jun 13 2008 New Roller Coaster Features 97 Degree Drop
The New Fahrenheit roller coaster at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania features a 97 degree drop at the beginning. That's 7 degrees past vertical (see picture: right side, where the track curves back in). At the bottom of the drop riders experience 4 G's and then puke and/or passout. The two minute ride is being billed as the steepest and most severe in the United States and the coaster just opened on May 24th. I'm not riding it. And not because I don't love roller coasters (I do), but because of this quote from Popular Mechanics:
(Talking about the testing of the ride) First, engineers load the trains full of heavy water dummies, to figure out how the cars will behave when they're at capacity. The rules say you need 100 hours of this testing, but engineers at the park said they would run over 1,000 rides before people got on the coaster.
Stop the presses. If the ride is 2 minutes long and you run 1,000 rides, that's, uh, only 33 hours and 20 minutes of testing. You weren't the same engineers that designed the ride are you? You don't say. Say, if you wouldn't mind unstrapping me, I'd like to get the f*** off this thing before I make a little chocolate of my own.
Another picture and the video after the jump.
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Aug 27 2007 World's First Automated Restaurant
A new restaurant in Nuremberg, Germany is opening with no waiters. Because it's an automated restaurant! Named 's Baggers (yes that's correct, it starts with an apostrophe) the restaurant's only employees are the cooks (who should be replaced with robots). Patrons order via touchscreen (which doubles as credit card paying device), and the food is delivered via gravity from the kitchen above along steel rails. This place is awesome, and anyone who has been let me know. You know what else is cool? I've heard that if you have two legs or a wheelchair or even a walker and can locate the door all the food you order is free.
A few more pictures after the jump, including one of two vagrants clearly involved in identity theft.
UPDATE: Video added.
Mar 15 2007 Foot powered roller coaster
Leave it to the Japanese to come up with a pedal-powered roller coaster. The Skycycle at Washuzan Highland Park in Okayama has side-by-side tandem pedal-powered carts with seat belts, which sounds pretty scary considering the course. If you got on that thing with Lance Armstrong you'd be peeing your pants all over the place. Sort of like how I'm doing now. Walking to the bathroom is for suckers.
More pictures after the jump.
