Pink Cadillac
Giga Poster
In case anyone's interested, the track work is practically finished
SF Over Texas/Great America | Joker | S&S Free Fly
- Thread starter Pink Cadillac
- Start date
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
SFNE just finished theirs as well:
Image from SFNE Online
Image from SFNE Online
Astro61201
Roller Poster
Can anyone tell me what the ride experience is like on these?
I myself from watching pov's don't see the appeal of these for a park, other than them adding to the coaster count whilst taking up less space. I mean they arent something that I would consider a must ride, but there must be some appeal to people for parks to have the demand to keep installing them, what is this appeal? Perhaps I'm just not thinking like a member of the GP would (Oh a ride that spins i must visit the park to ride that, how thrilling!) or perhaps not being from America I don't see that these aren't that popular at all? Oh well six flags can be rather confusing, eh?.
I myself from watching pov's don't see the appeal of these for a park, other than them adding to the coaster count whilst taking up less space. I mean they arent something that I would consider a must ride, but there must be some appeal to people for parks to have the demand to keep installing them, what is this appeal? Perhaps I'm just not thinking like a member of the GP would (Oh a ride that spins i must visit the park to ride that, how thrilling!) or perhaps not being from America I don't see that these aren't that popular at all? Oh well six flags can be rather confusing, eh?.
While my experience has only been with Intamin Zacspins, I quite enjoy the ride type as there are good pops of solid negative g-force, and the free-spinning of the train makes for a fun ride variation. Slower loading and operation, but still a fun ride type that I feel is underrated.
Swoosh
Mega Poster
I've only ridden the one at SFFT but for me it was a true "WTF JUST HAPPENED" moment. You disengage the lift and are immediately thrown upside down and it is non-stop flips and near flips the whole time. It's very disorienting and hard to tell which way is up until you hit the brakes. It's quite the rush. Having been on over 700+ Coasters it was refreshing to experience something new - and it is much superior compared to Zacspins.
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
SFGAm has begun testing their Joker:
Ravensrulz
Roller Poster
They should replace Jokers Jinx in six flags america with this. Jokers Jinx got stuck again and took 3-4 hours to get people out. I remember riding it many times the first couple years it opened, than it started having many mechanical problems with the launch and the speed getting through the circuit.
Gazza
Giga Poster
The occasional stop is no reason to trash an otherwise suitable ride.
Plus Six Flags America has enough spare land that a replacement is unnecessary.
Ravensrulz
Roller Poster
I'm just saying they should replace it, it's not that fun of a ride anymore and it's pretty rough. The concept was great at first, but this isn't the first time people have gotten stuck on it. Of course, Top Thrill Dragster had it's issues at the beginning with the launch system and getting over the top at times and the launch cord ripping that one time and got all the tweaks done. My brother got to experience not making it over the top, he got 2 launches, lucky guy, I loved it. I rode XCellarator at Knotts Berry Farm, Superman The Escape at Six Flags MM, Kingda Ka, so I feel blessed to have been on those, unfortunately, my neck paid the price of all the years of coastering starting at a young age before all the new safety gear and track smoothness. But Jokers Jinx, to me, personally, is not really fun, other than the launch. Batman and Robin Chiller at Six Flags GA was cool when it opened, I enjoyed that one too. Six Flags America hasn't really added anything big since Superman, other than Batwing. But there are height restrictions in PG County.
^Height limits? Superman is 200 ft tall, so it must not be much of a limit.
Quite a few years ago I was asked by park management about what I thought about them purchasing the B&B from Freestyle Music Park to go where Apocalypse is now. They were going to place it there because of the height, as they don't want anyone to see over the small hill in the northeast corner of the park next to Superman and Batwing. Their maintenance facility is located behind that hill and you can see what they're talking about if you look behind you as you go up Superman's lift. They want to keep that area out of view of park guests, which is why they are particular about building tall coasters and where to place them. Not because of any limits.
Six Flags America won't get a S&S Free Fly anytime soon. They're still paying off Apocalypse and don't have the funds for their own Joker right now.
Quite a few years ago I was asked by park management about what I thought about them purchasing the B&B from Freestyle Music Park to go where Apocalypse is now. They were going to place it there because of the height, as they don't want anyone to see over the small hill in the northeast corner of the park next to Superman and Batwing. Their maintenance facility is located behind that hill and you can see what they're talking about if you look behind you as you go up Superman's lift. They want to keep that area out of view of park guests, which is why they are particular about building tall coasters and where to place them. Not because of any limits.
Six Flags America won't get a S&S Free Fly anytime soon. They're still paying off Apocalypse and don't have the funds for their own Joker right now.
Ravensrulz
Roller Poster
When I first started following the building of Superman, there was an article at the time that they had to get special permission on the height because of proximity of joint base andrews. I just checked the codes again and it still says you would need to go thru special process of approvals on height due to air traffic. No set height shown in updated codes.
GuyWithAStick
Captain Basic
So I'm assuming that all 3 are now open, and am going to unsticky this. Before that, here's my unnecessarily overly-detailed review about SFGAm's Joker!
Note: This was copied/pasted from another forum
Entrance/Ride area
The entrance of the ride is comprised of numerous green pylon-like structures. Most of them have some sort of sign. The ones around the entrance are ones that indicate that it is the entrance, whereas the ones further away show posters of 'The Carnival of Criminals' featuring various Batman villains. The pathway around the ride entrance is completely new asphalt. Going down towards the bridge, the area between the path and the queue has some grass, as well as some more of those Pylons. The other side of the path is the back of Capone's, as well as a view of Yankee Clipper. In Mardi Gras, the old JWR spot is half asphalt and half grass. There were a few trees and shrubs planted closer towards the ride. In my opinion, it's very nice and 'fresh'. Much better than plain old concrete.
Queue
The queue line is comprised of 3 main sections, the covered block, the exposed block, and the two 'side' queues. The covered queue is about 10-12 switchbacks underneath a large roof with a circus tent design. In front of the first 5 switchbacks, there are a set of monitors dubbed the 'Joker Cam' that shows the Animated Joker saying some 'intimidating'(or funny) comments. The exposed block is a very long set of switchbacks without any sort of cover or fan(as of yet). Something interesting to note is that the furthest part of the queue is actually the old Ragin Cajun concrete pad. After both of these, you get to a point where an employee splits the main queue into two, one for purple, and one for green. The purple queue immediately turns right, which leads directly to the loading platform. The green queue goes behind the operator 'booth', around the lift, and then goes towards the loading platform. By the way, you get a really nice view of Batman from the Green queue.
*NOTE* The SRQ/ADA/Flash Pass lines are to the left of the main queue. ADA and FP are grouped together, whereas SRQ is its own line.
Station/Exit area
The station is really just a concrete platform with a roof over it. You essentially enter and exit in the same spot. It is 2-train loading, so that's nice. There are shelves for you to put your things. There really is no theming, but there are a few speakers in the station. The space directly under the ride is mostly gravel. The exit is a long path leading down towards the Mardi Gras Bridge. I don't think they're done yet, since there's a lot of temporary fencing and unused pathways.
Ride Experience
You board one of the two trains, each of which have 4 seats per side- 2 forward and 2 backward. The seats are plastic-ey, with a bit of padding on them. The restraints are very similar to X-Flight's, but as Dave said, they don't lock, allowing you to 'fall' forward a bit. There's also a seatbelt, which is slightly different from your typical seatbelt found on most OTSRs in that the actual buckle is smaller. Once you dispatch, both trains advance forward. One of them moves into the 'lift area' where the Chain Dog engages with the lift. Once the first train goes up the lift, the second train advances to this space, and waits for the other chain dog to get to the station(if you watch the lift you'll know what I mean). The lift hill is rather uninteresting in that you are really just waiting for the train to reach the top. There's no fins on the lift like Great Adventure, unfortunately. But the view of the park from the Backwards seat is nice. Once you crest the lift hill, you are immediately thrown into a flip. You then rock back and forth a bit before getting to the Raven Turn. Like Dave said, I've yet to get it to flip over the Turn, but I think it's doable. Most of the time, it feels almost like a freefall. You then come up into another hill(which you sometimes get airtime from) before dipping down, flipping again, then going into the second(and in my opinion, more intense) Raven Turn. After that, you kinda 'cool off' for a bit, and come up into the brakes without flipping too much. You then go into the final Raven Turn, which can give some negative Gs. Overall, it's a very fun and disorienting ride. Although me and Dave's posts make it seem very predictable, you really can't ever guess what'll happen. Some rides give no flips, others give 3 or more. Sometimes you'll even be upside down for a few seconds before flipping upright again. Green Side does flip more, but it's not any more intense than Purple. The actual flipping doesn't add to the intensity or anything. If you can do one side, you can do both. You aren't going to get sick. I've had people who are scared of heights and can't do spinning rides all love it. It's very manageable; you won't get sick from it. Joker is very reridable because of this.
Lighting
This ride does actually have LED(colored) lights! They're not chaser lights, but rather spotlights on the ground shining up at the ride. I've yet to see them in complete darkness, but I'm sure it'll look really cool in the summer.
Personal Thoughts
I really enjoyed this ride! It really is unlike anything else here, which is great. It's very reridable, always different, and just plain fun! I'm very glad the park chose to add this, and I'm sure the other guests are going to think the same! For me, it places at #5 at the park(above Bull and behind Batman), and #20 overall.
Note: This was copied/pasted from another forum
Entrance/Ride area
The entrance of the ride is comprised of numerous green pylon-like structures. Most of them have some sort of sign. The ones around the entrance are ones that indicate that it is the entrance, whereas the ones further away show posters of 'The Carnival of Criminals' featuring various Batman villains. The pathway around the ride entrance is completely new asphalt. Going down towards the bridge, the area between the path and the queue has some grass, as well as some more of those Pylons. The other side of the path is the back of Capone's, as well as a view of Yankee Clipper. In Mardi Gras, the old JWR spot is half asphalt and half grass. There were a few trees and shrubs planted closer towards the ride. In my opinion, it's very nice and 'fresh'. Much better than plain old concrete.
Queue
The queue line is comprised of 3 main sections, the covered block, the exposed block, and the two 'side' queues. The covered queue is about 10-12 switchbacks underneath a large roof with a circus tent design. In front of the first 5 switchbacks, there are a set of monitors dubbed the 'Joker Cam' that shows the Animated Joker saying some 'intimidating'(or funny) comments. The exposed block is a very long set of switchbacks without any sort of cover or fan(as of yet). Something interesting to note is that the furthest part of the queue is actually the old Ragin Cajun concrete pad. After both of these, you get to a point where an employee splits the main queue into two, one for purple, and one for green. The purple queue immediately turns right, which leads directly to the loading platform. The green queue goes behind the operator 'booth', around the lift, and then goes towards the loading platform. By the way, you get a really nice view of Batman from the Green queue.
*NOTE* The SRQ/ADA/Flash Pass lines are to the left of the main queue. ADA and FP are grouped together, whereas SRQ is its own line.
Station/Exit area
The station is really just a concrete platform with a roof over it. You essentially enter and exit in the same spot. It is 2-train loading, so that's nice. There are shelves for you to put your things. There really is no theming, but there are a few speakers in the station. The space directly under the ride is mostly gravel. The exit is a long path leading down towards the Mardi Gras Bridge. I don't think they're done yet, since there's a lot of temporary fencing and unused pathways.
Ride Experience
You board one of the two trains, each of which have 4 seats per side- 2 forward and 2 backward. The seats are plastic-ey, with a bit of padding on them. The restraints are very similar to X-Flight's, but as Dave said, they don't lock, allowing you to 'fall' forward a bit. There's also a seatbelt, which is slightly different from your typical seatbelt found on most OTSRs in that the actual buckle is smaller. Once you dispatch, both trains advance forward. One of them moves into the 'lift area' where the Chain Dog engages with the lift. Once the first train goes up the lift, the second train advances to this space, and waits for the other chain dog to get to the station(if you watch the lift you'll know what I mean). The lift hill is rather uninteresting in that you are really just waiting for the train to reach the top. There's no fins on the lift like Great Adventure, unfortunately. But the view of the park from the Backwards seat is nice. Once you crest the lift hill, you are immediately thrown into a flip. You then rock back and forth a bit before getting to the Raven Turn. Like Dave said, I've yet to get it to flip over the Turn, but I think it's doable. Most of the time, it feels almost like a freefall. You then come up into another hill(which you sometimes get airtime from) before dipping down, flipping again, then going into the second(and in my opinion, more intense) Raven Turn. After that, you kinda 'cool off' for a bit, and come up into the brakes without flipping too much. You then go into the final Raven Turn, which can give some negative Gs. Overall, it's a very fun and disorienting ride. Although me and Dave's posts make it seem very predictable, you really can't ever guess what'll happen. Some rides give no flips, others give 3 or more. Sometimes you'll even be upside down for a few seconds before flipping upright again. Green Side does flip more, but it's not any more intense than Purple. The actual flipping doesn't add to the intensity or anything. If you can do one side, you can do both. You aren't going to get sick. I've had people who are scared of heights and can't do spinning rides all love it. It's very manageable; you won't get sick from it. Joker is very reridable because of this.
Lighting
This ride does actually have LED(colored) lights! They're not chaser lights, but rather spotlights on the ground shining up at the ride. I've yet to see them in complete darkness, but I'm sure it'll look really cool in the summer.
Personal Thoughts
I really enjoyed this ride! It really is unlike anything else here, which is great. It's very reridable, always different, and just plain fun! I'm very glad the park chose to add this, and I'm sure the other guests are going to think the same! For me, it places at #5 at the park(above Bull and behind Batman), and #20 overall.
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Swoosh
Mega Poster
Had the chance to ride the SFGAm version on Wednesday and it was a lot of fun. It rode a lot like the Batman version at SFFT that I rode earlier this year, but I definitely like this color scheme better. I'm going to post a few photos below.,
EVEN MORE PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.midwestinfoguide.com/2017/05/the-joker-sfgam.html
EVEN MORE PHOTOS CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.midwestinfoguide.com/2017/05/the-joker-sfgam.html
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