The Seattle fair used to have a Wildcat every year. No idea if they still do. I love that ride. So much fun in such a small footprint.

With Bunny and Karl Hungus.

Loved mountain express. They used to feature it in a starburst commercial. I only went on it once then it broke down. They got rid of it a few month later.

Yeah, they ruined Revolution. It hurt too much to ride.

What's real burly is having lived thru the early days of Magic Mountain and going up there now and riding Tatsu and Goliath along with some of the others. You can keep X-2 though. That thing's painful. Twisted Colossus is awesome.

Wish they would have kept Deja Vu too as that thing was a blast.

Shiver me timbers, It's Pirates

lol... Winball_Pizard check out that poster.

It is very easy to lose your wallet, keys, or phone on Tatsu.

Never got to ride Deja Vu. There was a 6'3 height restriction.

Agreed! Holy Grail indeed. I have Kong posters all over my basement but no pinball machine. Heck I even have Hi-Deal cause it's the closest thing!

I think a King Kong pin would be a disappointment to most. We would all speculate on all the ways that Kong would interact with the ball similar to the speculation of how Smaug would interact with the ball.

The finished product would probably be a head with stand up targets beneath it.

And gorilla fur all over the playfield.

LTG : )

I picture a big head like on Godzilla. "You're in...his mouth!"

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JJP Dimple Guard (tm)

Sounds like a Python design.

It also hurt when they got rid of the 1776-1976 American Revolution theme and re-themed it to the Mexican revolution, which made ZERO sense. I mean, I understand pandering to clientele, but it ruined the history and theme of the ride. I think the shoulder restraints were added before that change, though. Honestly, they ruined that ride in many ways.

Futurama has to be done at some point, I mean what a great series, which unnecessarily unfortunately ended. Bring it please!

Now it's called the new Revolution and those shoulder harnesses are gone. The wanted to bring it back to the way it was.

Right but a lame VR ride? Is that pinkeye-spreading gimmick gone yet?

My daughter rode it a little while ago and there was no VR to be found. I think the trains are red white and blue now too.

The main difference from when the ride was new is it is now in a forest of pine trees.

Revolution wasn't the first inverted coaster. I believe that honor belonged to The Corkscrew at Knotts, a ride I enjoyed very much. But it now resides in Idaho, which is a little too far to travel to get my ya yas out.

jjp black sails

This suggests to me that #4 isn't fully baked yet (not surprising). I know JJP aspires to release multiple games each year. Towards that goal, have there been any indications given as to when #4 will be shipping? I assume they plan to 'beat' the late Q2 timing of Dialed In.

(Sorry to derail the thread from the coaster conversation... ...carry on

Still hope it's JAWS over Pirates...

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Why assume? They showed DI at Expo last year, looking pretty solid, and then shipped it when they did. No reason to think they couldn't just repeat the same schedule with #4.

Thumbs up for that, made me laugh out loud and wake the guys up working the night shift with me at the fire house

Well, to be fair, some are convinced they are working on a new improved version of Roller Coaster Tycoon.

You guys and your kiddie parks.....let me know when your ready to ride some real coasters!

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Cedar Point has certainly grown up from the kiddie park it used to be while Magic Mountain was building record setting coasters, that's for sure.

Yeah, basically the "coaster king" trophy bounces between those two parks constantly.

Cedar's the king now. After the Northridge quake took out a lot of the rides, I don't think they can build them much taller than they are now. You never know though...

And ever since the original owners sold to the conglomerate, they are making TONS of money. what does food cost now? $870?!

It helps that it is open year round that they are making money except weekdays in the winter, but sometimes I wonder how when a year pass is under $100, when that's what one day a Disneyland costs.

Food isn't cheap at any of the parks, but you can get a decent meal for $10. Fast food places are getting close to that anyway.

I will add there were rumors Magic Mountain was to be shut down and sold for real estate development about ten years ago, and if not for the economic collapse, it probably would have been.

It is my understanding JJP wants to produce two new titles a year. In order to to do that in 2017, they would have to ship the second title before the end of the year (which I think is very unlikely). If they achieve this in 2018 and follow the same schedule as 2017, it will mean significant compression on the second 2018 title. My experience with schedule compression is that it is incremental. FOr example, a 3 mo compression for #4 giving 9 mos to deliver #5. So my assumption is based on that experience Obviously, we will know the answer next week, just curious to know if any info has been provided.

I'm thinking they'll move up the 2018 release of JJP#4 compared to Dialed In, shipping in March-ish, then announce JJP#5 at PAGG (Or whatever it's called now!) try to release in Q4 2018. I don't see them getting to the stated goal of 3/year for many years, especially if there's another pin-crash in there.

Back on topic... I"m a wooden coaster guy, those whisper smooth rides just don't give me the sense of impending death like the old wooden ones that beat you up. You can feel the frame strain, hear the joints creak and see the old bolts dancing as you race ahead.

So DI started shipping in around June this year, right? I think after the reveal at Expo this year they will try to start shipping by TPF. That would be smart. Maybe start to think about retiring the older games, TH and WOZ.

WoZ is evergreen for JJP. They sell constantly, and JJP just re-upped the license. Hobbit, not so much. It will probably be retired, I'm guessing.

No pressure Jack to meet some release date next year!

We appreciate your dedication to the art rather than only to the bottom line so release when it's ready and we'll be patient. We have lots of rushed-to-meet-a-deadline-the-suits-said-it-has-to-be-released-this-quarter-remove-as-much-as-possible-to-increase-profits options already. It is you who leads the industry in quality and respect for the artform itself so take as much time as you need and hit each game out of the park.

The best way to make a killing in pinball over the long term is to make the very best pins that can possibly be made. Thanks Jack.

I believe jack said something like a title every 9 months, it was less than 2 a year though. I suspect they will do the same as with DI, put it on location for a while for testing and then start rolling them out after a bit.

It would seem to me that a reveal and marketing of another game would cannibalize the one that was just released (??) or do I not get marketing at all?

Every pin is not for everyone. The goal is to cover the potential market of buyers at all times.

Maybe, that's true for Stern but I think that JJP should just concentrate on building up a nice portfolio of games so they have something for everyone. After all they only have 3 games available at the moment, which isn't too many choices, especially if TH is retired.

Guess it depends on your strategy. One company might focus on building hype up, getting product out as quickly as possible, and then repeating. Another might take another longer term view assuming the product will speak for itself and drive sales.

So what year and quarter can we expect this Jaws book theme?

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Exactly why I felt they needed to go with an adult focused pin like a Deadpool. They need to diversify a bit and target an audience that watches shows like Game of Thrones, Westworld or Spartacus.

You will probably be seeing a Deadpool pin at some point Tiger, unfortunately it won't be a JJP.

I still think JJP would absolutely knock a BTTF pin out of the park. And in all honesty if Heighway want to survive and make it to #3 they firstly need to get Alien out in numbers but stick with Adult themes and keep that share of the market predominantly theirs.

Even with a title every 9 months, I think they're going to either need a larger facility, or to expand the existing one, as long as the market doesn't crash.

WOZ and DI are likely to continue selling in good numbers for the forseeable future. Assuming #4 isn't a stinker, and there's good demand for #5, I don't see how they'll avoid big order backlogs without an increase in production capacity. Recent footage of their facility suggests it's absolutely jam packed.

2016 saw the addition of the second playfield line to allow WOZ to go on without tying up the main line. At the time it was to not interfere with Hobbit; today it's to not interfere with DI. So that helps.

From what I read, they mothballed the dedicated second line, at least temporarily, or converted it back to DI. They couldn't keep up with DI orders so were only producing them for at least a couple of months AFAIK.

Maybe they can shift a lot of storage off site or into an adjacent building, and increase the size of the lines ... but it seemed to me like they were struggling to keep up. Pressure's likely to increase with #4 and #5.

Either way, I'm pretty certain earlier predictions about Stern having less than 50% of the market of new, shipping machines by the end of this year will be correct. Might be well under, given the numbers CGC appear to be producing.

I'm a fan of RCT. However I just won't spend $8k on a game anymore. So no matter what it ends up being I'm out.