Magnum XL-200

I know this ride is nearly 20 years old now, but it is still remarkable when you look at the track quality. And it's made even more apparent with the 'rail camera.' If this ride, or others like it for that matter, had never been built and somebody put a perfect match to this up on the exchange, it would get flamed for its horrid transitions and lack of flow. Yet this ride was HUGE when it was built, and still is very popular today.

Just a funny observation I thought I'd share with you guys. And I put it in this forum simply for the reference to making it in NL, not because I'm an ar-tard that can't find the right forum.

yea this was i great ride, although bumpy a love the pretzel turn around

I have to say I love the straight hills lol. So odd looking by today's standards but still a great ride.

Compared to modern Intamins and B&M's, the transitions are crude and unrefined. The ejector air tosses riders into the brutally designed lap bar. It's an old beast and I love the flavor that Arrow gave to it. They just don't make them like they used to.

Roughness I don't mind. I rather liked the pretzel actually, and the "shitty" banking transition that preceeds it actually makes for a more interesting ride.

New smoother rides FVD designed can give good forces, but always do so more predictably. Still, I like the crude, don't give a love style that went behind Magnum's design, before the actually used a whole lot of calculus to design rides.

Both design styles have their advantages of course, but I think a lot of people don't seem to have an appreciation for the older one. Magnum was caught between two worlds: the old wooden coaster and the modern advanced steel coaster. I think the balance it took was great.

Magnum's little brother, the Gemini, is pretty great too and has numerous similarities to the hyper.

I wouldn't say a ride built like this would get trashed on the modern exchange though. What the real deal is the fact that no one builds Arrow-style rides anymore, or any other old fashioned styles. Everyone nowadays wants to Newton 2 the latest Beemer or Intamin, put in fancy supports, and get good ratings. Though at least the wooden coaster is still a common upload for the exchange, my guess being that manufacturers like GCI are still making a good run for today's standards.

^That's partially because Beemers and Intamin's are the majority of what is going in parks today. With Arrow part of S&S you don't see old style Arrow tracks anymore. GG and GCI still have kept the wood coaster industry alive though which is why it is still a fairly common upload. I love riding older Arrows and what not at parks with new Intamins and B&Ms because it gives you such a good idea of how far designs have come in the last 20 to 30 years.

On the note of Magnum...the lapbars are horrendously designed...but kinda like you said it was something that had never been done before and kind of transitioned into the new era of steel coasters because a year later you had B&M start building and then soon enough Intamin began using their new style.

It probably starts a great debate as to what was better...pre Magnum steelies of post Magnum steelies like we have today. And we could argue B&M vs. Intamin and alos GG vs. GCI. They are great debates because there are great points to be made in favor of both sides.

The lap bar was by far the worst part of the ride but I don't see it as something that's going to be changed and I guess it simply is how it is.

As for which style is better, to me it's like apples and oranges. It's mostly personal preference; most prefer the modern design style and dislike rough rides. Others may not mind a bit of roughness for a more aggressive ride or may prefer those rides.

What's unfortunate is that, as Iron Man pointed out, roughly designed rides that could be great IRL won't be regarded so well on today's exchange. Though on the other hand, NL hardly has any rides that could be used for Arrow style designs anyway.

That is true...most of the ride styles in NL with the exception of the wood ones for the most part use a more advanced design style. Pretty much the Mine Trains and then the Arrow style looper could use an older style design, but aside from that not too much else.