5 Ideas For Rides

 

If your a regular reader, and have a good memory you might remember I did a feature based around almost exactly the same idea a while ago. Since then a gun game ride with multiple endings has been made, although not one with multiple route threw it like I hoped, and a clear plastic tube going underwater has been used to make a water slide, but not the coaster I hoped for. There's also no sign of the inverted kiddie coaster with chair swing seats hanging from it. Since then I've come up with more ideas for new rides which I'm going to describe here.


Séance:
This ride is based around a KMG Move it 32. It's a ride on a large turntable, on which are two tower supports which support a large disc shaped pod you sit under. During the ride the large turntable spins, and the pod is lifted up. The pod then spins on a horizontal axis, spinning in the opposite direction to the turntable, and then flips over by turning on a vertical axis.
I had this idea after riding one, and noticing how the start of the ride before it flips over, with just the turntable and pod spinning and the pod only rocking vertically. I noticed this part of the ride was pretty effective in itself, and could be the basis for a ride.
I'd want one that has a maximum tilt of about 45 to 60 degrees, rather than one that fully flips over. I hope this will allow for more open restraints and a lower rider height restriction. I'd then want this ride in an enclosed building, with something like a Séance or a statue in the centre of the ride, and other appropriate spooky theming and special effects operating during the ride.
I think a ride like this has potential as a good alternative to the Haunted Swing ride, as an enclosed experience ride for a slightly older market.


Compact Log Flume:

1: Ride loading station.
2: Backwards drop. Has a small lift on to a turntable that points the boat to go backwards down the next part of the track.
3: Elevator Lift. An elevator style vertical lift that takes the boat up to a higher level, which also turns it around so it's going forward again at the top.
4: An inside themed area with some sort of model.
5: Outside area. Would put some sort of water squirter or dropper as the boats went past here.
6: Another inside area, with some sort of novelty drop.
7: The rides main drop that goes from the top level back down to the lower level to where the ride station is.
8: Ideally would want a lot of the ride enclosed in a themed building. The parts of the track below this ride would be the main outside area.

This is more of a design for a track layout, rather than a new ride, but I think it's an innovative idea with potential. There are lots of compact one or two drop flume rides about, which means a park with limited space needs something innovative if it wants a flume ride that will stand out.
Although the main drop isn't that big the ride also features a backwards drop. It also has space for another novelty drop, such as a small drop in darkness, or a feature I've seen on the Menhir Express at Parc Asterix, and I believe is on some of the Disney Splash Mountain rides, where the boat goes down a small dip on a set of rails before splashing in to the water. I'd also want most of this ride enclosed to allow for a good theme, which will also help it stand out from the more generic flume rides.
My only worry with this ride is it's quite a mechanically complex ride, which may bring up maintenance issues for some parks. If these can be overcome I think there is a market for a ride like this.


Tipping Spring Tower:

When I'm having a go at designing my own parks a Moser Spring 20 tower often features. It's a good family ride that fits in a very compact space making it a good extra ride to fit in to a small gap.
One slight problem I have in my designs is they have seats facing out to the front and back of the ride, which is an issue if you put it up against another ride, like I often do in my designs. My solution was to have two towers next to each other with only seats at the front.
From there I had the idea of just having one long pod for all 20+ riders supported by both towers, running parallel to each other. After that I realised you could have each tower hold the pod at a different height, so you're tipped left and right as well as bounced up and down.
The slight problem is the distance between the two points the pods are held would vary. I have seen this problem overcome on rides such as Energizer / The Bone Shaker at Alton Towers. It could be more of a problem here as the change in distance would be necessary to keep the ride running at a good pace. If this problem can be overcome I think it would be a good twist on an established family ride.


Interactive Dodgems:
This idea is one I developed after riding the Dodgems at Chessington. The problem here is that Dodgems don't really fit that well in to a big park. The capacity is an issue, but really they're a ride you wouldn't normally join a big queue for. It got me thinking what could you do to make them more attractive.
There is a company called Bertazzon that makes dodgems with the option of having a laser gun, and targets on the dodgems, so you shoot the targets on other people dodgems to score points. I think this idea could be extended to make a good attraction.
For my version I'd want two types of gun on each car. One would be on the passenger seat, similar to the ones found on Buzz Lightyear Star Command. These ones are on a fixed pole that allows you to pivot the gun to aim it. I chose this type of gun for two reasons. The first is because this way the gun can only be aimed in front of the car, adding an element of strategy as the driver has to position themselves to be able to hit the targets. The second reason is that if you have a standard gun you could pick up and aim it could be a problem having people holding a gun on a set of dodgems. It could be dropped, which could break it or cause an accident.
The second gun on the car I'd have activated by a button on the driver's side. It would fire out a laser beam in a 30 degree sweep from the front of the Dodgems.
I'd position targets to hit on the back of each dodgem car, which people could hit to score points and deduct points from other people. I'd also have an extra target above the passengers that could be hit by the passenger gun.
 I'd also put additional targets around the perimeter of the dodgems area, and on islands in the middle of the area. A large number of these would be at a height that the drivers beam could hit, but I'd also have targets at a higher height that could only be hit by the passengers gun.
I reckon if this is done with enough effort with the theming it could be a good stand out attraction at an amusement park, and would work as an attraction at a theme park.


New Carousel Variations:
This is an idea I had when I went to Harbour Park, Littlehampton. In the big arcade building they have a good collection of pay and ride kiddie rides. One of which was a large 2 meter tall rocking horse you could climb up a set of stairs in to a set of seats, and it would rock back n forth during the ride.
It occurred to me that if you put a couple of these together to boost capacity you'd have a new idea for a kiddie ride. From there it was a short step to coming up with the idea of a carousel with these on it.
I then thought about what other rides you could put on a carousel. You could have a collection of frog hopper / berry bounce style kiddie towers facing out, or a number of mini pirate ships.
I think the maddest idea I had was to take a teacups style set up with 3 spinning turntables on a giant turntable, and on each of the 3 small turntables put a Rocking Tug ride.
A lot of these are an interesting novelty, but wouldn't really be worth the cost to a park, but I think the Rocking Horse one has potential as a new and visually impressive kiddie ride.