Essential Roller Coaster History, Episode 4: The Renaissance Years (1971 - 1989)
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- Опубліковано 29 чер 2024
- In episode four of Essential Roller Coaster History, we examine the coaster boom of the 1970’s and 80’s. We’ll look at how the success of Disneyland inspired a wave of theme park construction, as well as how a 1972 coaster catalyzed a wooden coaster comeback. We’ll also look at the reinvention of the inversion, the blossoming steel coaster industry, and the events that set the stage for the Coaster Wars of the 90’s and 2000’s.
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Timestamps:
00:00 Rise of the Theme Park
03:16 The Wooden Coaster Comeback
09:01 The Steel Coaster Boom
10:02 The Return of Upside Down Coastering
12:06 Arrow V Schwarzkopf
15:44 Others Join the Fray
17:23 Pushing the Envelope
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SOCIAL LINKS:
Instagram (that I rarely use): /
Twitter (that I use even less): / jnattyboi
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Graphics: Cece Wheeler, vimeo.com/cecewheeler
Music in the video:
Hopes and Dreams / Save the World - Toby Fox, String Player Gamer: • Undertale - Hopes and ...
LENA RAINE: radicaldreamland.bandcamp.com...
First Steps - Lena Raine
Resurrections - Lena Raine
Golden - Lena Raine
Scattered and Lost - Lena Raine
Confronting Myself - Lena Raine
Heart of the Mountain - Lena Raine
Reach for the Summit - Lena Raine
Thumbnail Images:
Lower left (Big Bad Wolf): CoasterBuzz
Upper left (Radar): Gröna Lund
Upper Right (Racer): Kings Island Central
Lower Right (Olympia Looping): Oktoberfest-Guide.com - Розваги
Hey everyone! I realized during editing that Arrow wasn’t the first to attempt and fail at building a suspended coaster; a German aircraft manufacturer named Messerschmitt did so when they built Alpenflug for the 1975 Oktoberfest fair in Munich. Why Arrow didn’t bank the turns on The Bat after the failure of Alpenflug is beyond me. Check out the reddit link below for a photo.
www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters/comments/24t8yh/alpenflug_the_first_modern_suspended_rollercoaster/
This too has always baffled me, even from a common sense standpoint and without the knowledge of Alpenflug. I don't understand how they wouldn't have thought banking was essential. I guess on regular coasters banking was introduced to reduce lateral g's, but they figured the 'swinging' of the cars would turn lateral gs into vertical gs, and thus not requiring banking. But surely someone at Arrow at the prototyping would have thought 'heck, that might be a bit much for the structure'.
Honestly, this might be a case of independent origination. There's a good chance Arrow may not have been aware (or only vaguely aware) of that coaster, since it only operated for a few months at most, before closing.
actually there was one in 1902
Babe wake up, new coaster history video just dropped
It's weird to see a video with production quality this high end off by mentioning you're nearing the 1k subscriber milestone. It feels like you should have 100 times the number of subs that you do.
In the 1980's it seemed like a lot of small traditional amusement parks closed for good such as Mountain Park in Massachusetts (1987), Paragon Park in MA (1984), Lincoln Park in MA (1987), Pontchartrain Beach in Louisiana (1983), Idora Park in Ohio (1984), Rocky Glen Park in Pennsylvania (1987), and Lakeside Park in Virginia (1986)
Very good point that I failed to mention - I'll try to make a note of it in Episode 5!
Great series. What’s shocking is just how quickly they come and go. Having ridden some now defunct rides, I never appreciated their rarity in the moment
My local home park here in Germany has "Nessie", which is a Schwarzkopf loop from 1980 and was the first one set up outside the US.
Until they gave it a retheme and new station recently it was rather obvious that they weren't used to permanent installations.
The original 1976 Texas Cyclone trains were bouncy 4 bench PTCs with buzz bars. The 3rd hill faced the midway offering a Benny Hill style peep show to all below. Tube tops were also popular back then. 😂
Actually, Carolina Cyclone at Carowinds was the first Roller Coaster to have four inversions. Demon at both Great America parks first opened in 1976 as Turn of the Century and had two airtime hills. The loops were added in 1980.
Yeah I wasn’t sure which coaster to name there, as Carolina Cyclone opened in 1980 along with the new and improved Demon. A book I have cited Demon as the first 4 inversion coaster so I went with that, but it’s close, probably comes down to the opening date.
Edit: Thanks for the support btw! Appreciate the sub
i REALLY need a coaster wars video now!
I rode the Olympia looping (Munich looping) coaster when it came to London for Hyde Park winter wonderland. Best steel coaster I’ve ever ridden.
It might be worth noting that Mack rides usually debut at Europa Park since that park is owned by the Mack-family and kinda serves as their testing grounds/demo space.
I've been waiting for this.
I don't think I'd call this a "correction," but when Disneyland opened, while it did charge a park admission, it still used a per-ride ticketing system, originally with A-, B-, and C-tickets (and later adding D- and the famous E-ticket as more complex and thrilling rides were added). These were only phased out completely in the early 1980s.
Ah good catch! I definitely didn’t word that sentence correctly, thanks for the comment
@@JNattyBoi Well, it's an ambitious project, and necessarily some details have to be omitted just for time constraints. I get it. I love this series so far and I'm looking forward to the next part.
Cool that you mentioned the first Schwarzkopf shuttle loop. I'm fortunate enough that KD was my home park growing up, and rode this MANY times while it was there, as well as at its next location under the same name at Jolly Roger in Ocean City, Maryland. From there it went on to Alton Towers as Thunderlooper before finally landing at Hopi Hari. One of these days I'll get there just to ride that little piece of nostalgia again.
I say all this because so many coasters that are significant to the history of the industry have long histories of their own.
wait is that where the phrase "E-Ticket" comes from?
@@filanfyretracker Yup.
Great video like all the others you've made. Well explained and well documented.
I can't wait for the next part.
I hope you'll soon beat this 1k subs mark. You honestly deserve several hundreds of thousands subscribers. When I see the quality of your video you really deserve it!
Keep up the good work ;)
Thanks so much! Really appreciate the positive feedback
Such a shame you only have 850 subs, your content is very well done and covers things many don't cover
I have always found it interesting how some of the major "eras" in coaster history are easily delineated by a particular ride...
The Dark Age ends and the Renaissance begins with "Racer" at Kings Island.
The era of the "Coaster Wars" starts with "Magnum XL-200" at Cedar Point -- where stats were everything to the point they put them in the name of the ride.
The stat-driven "Coaster Wars" ends with "Maverick" at Cedar Point, which proved you do not need some sort of gimmick to deliver a memorable ride experience.
Any others I am missing? Any industry-changing coasters since Maverick? Maybe "New Texas Giant," the first RMC?
I think you hit it right on the head. Kind of like how different eras in film history are easily defined by the release of a particular movie, the same can be said about coasters. I still havent written the scripts for part 5 and part 6, but it will be fun to try and tease out these coaster “turning points.” Maverick and New Texas Giant will definitely play big roles though!
@@JNattyBoi You can also go with Discovery Kingdom and Superman,because of that coaster. Smaller parks could go with a cheap,compact but thrilling coaster,and now we have these multi launch shuttle coasters in which that wasn't really common to have the train go over the same track twice (Except Vekoma boomerangs) and now theirs a war in the industry to go cheaper (Expecially with covid). We have now also gone with more affordable coasters in very compact spaces with unique elements (Panic Coaster-Back Daan,The BGW Coaster)
Another one you knocked out of the park. I don't know all that much about coasters, I've only recently become interested in their history. I had heard of Anton Schwarzkopf, but I had underestimated his importance. I thought the internet was hyping him up.
To know that he, alone, essentially competed with an entire company and reinvigorated the vertical loop is crazy.
All new entertainment needs is one man just crazy enough to try something out-there.
This video just makes me miss Arrow Dynamics.
Speaking of, this video is quite a big step forward. I appreciate the intertitles and the separate sections. The mentioning of Schwarzkopf really harkens back to the earlier videos, where parks and single or double designers worked together to make a coaster, instead of the modern system of manufacturing firms selling models that can be customized.
I also appreciate the use of Spongebob's shoe-squeaking sound, as well as your little funny snippets in the corners. Comedy gold.
One minor tidbit: Dahlonega is a place in Georgia, pronounced Da-LON-ih-ga. Also, Wiener would be pronounced vee-EN-er. It's the German word for Viennese, since the German word for Vienna is Wien. I tried to find out if "Wiener Prater" meant "Viennese Park" or "Park of Vienna", but it seems prater does not mean park. A shame.
You are doing everything right. This is excellent content that loads of people would love to see. Just keep making it, and the subs will come.
Thank you for this video. I'm already excited for the next episode. It's gonna be nuts. Record after record.
Keep up the excellent work!
Hylian Batman! Thanks so much for the comment, really glad you liked the video. I was 1000% sure I mispronounced Wiener Prater (and just didn’t want to re-record the audio), but I didn’t know about Dahlonega! If only all languages were like Japanese with easy to pronounce words.
Making this video also made me miss Arrow. It’s amazing how far they were willing to push the technology at the time (even if that eventually led to their downfall).
@@JNattyBoi Agreed! I don't know much about Japanese, either, but everyone I've ever spoken with about it seems to like it and think highly of it. I'll learn it someday.
The only reason I know about Dahlonega is because I knew someone from there. Dahlonega was the site of the first gold rush in the United States (perhaps that's why the ride was themed to gold mining), and I'm from California, where the most famous gold rush happened, so he and I would get into mock arguments about it.
I think the thing I miss the most about Arrow is their history and prestige within the industry. Your video on the RollerCoaster Tycoon rides, and my subsequent play of the third game, made me fall in love with the Virginia Reel. I was looking it up on UA-cam, just to see if I could get any hint of the ride experience, and I found test footage of a prototype Arrow made in the 80's. They sent the footage to a park in an attempt to demo and sell the ride, and that fell through, but the park kept the footage, so it's on UA-cam now.
No either company would be crazy enough to try to modernize a Virginia Reel. Only Arrow.
It feels as though a giant in the industry has fallen. I can only wait for that part in your series to punch us all in the gut. Arrow's been here since at least Episode 2 and I think maybe even Episode 1. I can't quite remember the dates. It'll hurt when you say something like "Despite their legendary status in the industry, Arrow Dynamics was facing hard times, and, on Shmebruary Bleventeenth, 20XX, they finally closed their doors for good".
I think I underestimated the amount of drama in the history here.
@@TheHylianBatman oh wow, I had no idea the first American gold rush happened in Georgia! Definitely makes the theme of the ride that much better.
You’re definitely right about Arrow. They toyed with so many coaster concepts and took a ton of risks trying to revive old rides - I believe they also had a Flying Turns prototype to go along with their Virginia Reel. The next video will be pretty sad for Arrow fans, although S&S did kind of carry on Arrow’s work in a way, so it wont be all tears (hopefully). Thanks again for the comments!
@@JNattyBoi Sad or not, I still can't wait! They were still here even if they're gone now, and all we can do is all we could do then: enjoy their coasters!
I'll have to look into that Flying Turns.
You're welcome! Thank you for the videos!
@@TheHylianBatman very true. And of course! I think this is where I heard of the Arrow flying turns: ua-cam.com/video/qJstRinSVWU/v-deo.html - the Roller Coaster Museum has been unearthing a lot of footage of these old Arrows
Thank you for your service!
Just watched all four of these back to back (slow day at the office). You definately are getting a sub from me. What a fantastic mini series this was.
Thanks so much! Glad you enjoyed the series and appreciate the support :)
I really hope this channel blows up in the near future cause this is content of amazing quality!
Thanks so much! :)
Wow, amazingly well put together video again, was definitely worth the wait! I never realised new wooden coasters (particularly racing ones) were so prevalent during this era. I'm also a little surprised that no one was waiting in the wings to take over layout creation at PTC after Allen left, I guess maybe they lost a few candidates after he retired, including Cobb. Anyway, great stuff again!
Hey man thanks so much! Yeah it’s definitely a shame that PTC stopped designing coasters after John Allen retired, especially given how long they’d be in the game. All good things must come to an end I guess. Glad you enjoyed the video, thanks for stopping by!
I am a bit disappointed you neglected to mention space mountain, as its impact on the industry is undeniable.
It was cool to see Thunder Road being mentioned in the video, road that ride every summer for years before it was demolished in 2015. I remember thinking how cool it was that one of the trains racing traveled backwards when I was little before they changed it to be forward facing. Really miss those old racing style wooden roller coasters.
The videos are of excellent quality and detail
Tho I must say, the Undetale and Celeste sountrack is so fun for me, a fan of both games xD
Thank you! I’m a huge fan of both as well, definitely two of my favorite video game soundtracks :)
Absolutely love these videos and would adore a part 5 detailing the coaster wars post '89 :) 😀
Love this series
Thank you! :)
RIP Momonga looping coaster
Great video! Thanks. I look forward to the next installment.
Hey thanks so much!
God I love this channel
That was Screamin Demon at Kings Island not Demon btw...LOVED that coaster and I LOVED this documentary!!
This is a very good series of videos! I've only ridden one coaster myself a few times, but it's very fun to learn about them!
Thanks so much! Means a lot to hear
I truly can't comprehend how this video doesn't have more views! I loved seeing coasters represented that I have ridden in the past. Also great to see that in my childhood amusement park(Kennywood) things were still prosperous! The Tri-State area is a wonderful location for amusement parks. Thanks so much for going into such great detail about these timeless inventions.
A buddy recommended your channel to me and I'm so glad he did, you deserve WAY more subs and I can't wait to binge the rest of your content lol
Haha well i’m glad he did too! Welcome to the channel
Can't wait to brag that I was one of your first 1000 subs
nice video! love your content so much!
also nice use of the celeste soundtrack. Didnt knew it can be licensed like that :)
How are your videos so good? You really need to get more subscribers.
I've been loving watching these! I noticed it's been quite a while since this upload but I really hope you're planning on continuing this series at some point :)
Thank you so much! I’m actually hoping to have episode 5 up this weekend :)
Commenting here before the algorithm explodes this series
12:20 the shuttle loop looks to be the infamous shuttle loop from Walibi Belgium.
It's perfectly safe now since it uses a LSM launch.
Amazing coaster documentary, I love every single one of your videos. You deserve so many more subscribers!!
Hope you continue this series at some point. Good stuff!
I have to say you've done a great job with this series. So many people glance over the small details that I find to be so important. The previous video actually paying homage to The Comet at Crystal Beach and its relation to the Cyclone that came before it (although you did neglect to mention that it was built using much of the original ride's structure but I guess I can live with that) that everyone else seems to forget over the Phoenix for some reason was especially appreciated. Also loved the mention of Hercules here, another ride I feel is sadly forgotten by most, and the music from Celeste in the background was a nice touch that lets me know you've got good taste in other areas as well!
Thank you! It's tough, I try to be as comprehensive as possible, but I don't want the videos to be *too* comprehensive at the same time, it's all about finding that balance. As for Celeste, it really is an awesome game and Lena Raine is an incredible composer! Thanks again for the comment
Another great video. Well done, I'm excited for the next part in the series!
Thanks so much!
I seriously cant wait for episode 5. this is so well made!
Thank you! Hoping to start working on Episode 5 sometime after the New Year :)
I feel like Werner Stengel should've been mentioned. Still a very enjoyable video though.
Great video, dude!
Thanks man!
Fantastic series, I’ve been absolutely glued to it.
Thanks so much!
Yes!!!! Let's go
These videos are insanely awesome! really cool to learn the history. Can't wait for the next few videos. I'm a cedar point fan boy, and I know form 89 onwards they start to pop off like crazy. Excited!!
Thanks so much! The next video should be a lot of fun to make, thanks in large part to Cedar Point :)
Great video my guy! I hope that you gain more subscribers so that more people can see this amazing content and so you can keep on making videos
Hey thank you! I hope so too, but don’t worry - I’ll be sure to keep making videos either way
Great content but it's worth mentioning that Arrow tried retrofitting the six flags St Louis mine train with standup cars
He's back!
12:48 I appreciate the Celeste OST used here.
LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO I LOVE YOUR CHANNEL
i call this coaster asmr
Amazing content mate. When is part 5 coming?
Thank you! Hoping to get part 5 done within the next few months, should be a fun one to put together
@@JNattyBoi looking forward to it! I have to say your videos are of a really high standard. You deserve more subs
Actually accelerate was the first successful suspended coaster before the Big Bad Wolf so it was a prototype after the failure of the bat when Arrow went back to the drawing board it became the first suspended roller coaster so yeah it's a little milder and a little bit Tamer than the big bad wolf and the rest and as far as my home park goes which was AstroWorld we were the testing ground many rides. And actually ASTROWORLD got the first tubular coaster from Arrow to reach a feet of 88 ft which was originally named Dexter freebish electric roller ride which later changed to Excalibur that was the first Mine ride to go to a height like that.
For anyone who might think this fact is cool, Mindbender was part of a Final Destination movie
21:30 this video IS sped up. If you look at the bottom left corner of the screen, you can see a woman and child walking, but they are moving too quickly considering how they are moving (not running/jogging).
But this was awesome video! I'm so glad you are documenting this history in such a concise and entertaining way- it'll be super helpful to new enthusiasts or those who need a refresher :D👍
Hey thanks! Good catch, I didn’t notice the woman and child when watching it originally. I didn’t touch it - mustve been the original uploader. But glad you enjoyed the video! Appreciate the kind words
I’ve ridden American Eagle and it desperately needs the RMC treatment
If only Arrow Dynamics had gone more with Schwartzkopf in their track design with their guide wheels on the outside instead of the inside like the wooden coasters (and I believe wooden coasters would be better with outer guide wheels too) which had them design a track with wraparound ties that proved to be inferior, they may still be around today...
1984 - 2006 Coaster war
1984 - 1989 The start
1993 -1996 The swiss invansion
1996-2005 Intamin's record breakers
2005-2006 The end
is there another episode?
wher is part 5???
Being from Dahlonega it hurt me to hear you say it that way. I have no idea if that's technically the correct way to pronounce it, but I've never in my life hear anyone say it like Dal-O-Nega.
Sorry about that, I took a blind shot in the dark on that pronunciation. How do you pronounce it?
Duh-LAH-nuh-guh
Man did you seriously not mention the Magnum XL-200 (1989) which was the tallest rollercoaster in the world until 1994
Yea, I think it’s a bit overrated so I left it out
….
Kidding, obviously. Stay tuned for Magnum’s big appearance in Part 5!
When I seen this video ended at 1989 I knew the next would be about the Coaster Wars! I really hope you get to a part five. I seen it's been a While since you posted the timeline of coasters.
I hope to see Magnum XL as the first featured one in part 5. ❤️🤍
Thank you! Appreciate the patience, hoping to get around to Part 5 really soon. And don’t worry, Magnum will have a starring role :)
Schwarzkopf >>>>> arrow