From: maglione@media.mit.edu (Tom Maglione)
Subject: Re: Coaster Cloning (was Re: Six Flags Policies)
Summary: My responses.
Organization: MIT Media Laboratory
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 23:26:51 GMT

In article <1992Oct15.150438.17055@pmafire.inel.gov> geoff@pmafire.inel.gov (Geoff Allen) writes:
>maglione@media.mit.edu (Tom Maglione) writes:
>>Mike, feel free to flame as much as you want, that's how we get the
>>news out, and maybe even effect some changes, too. I certainly agree
>>with you about the clones of same rides throughout the SF chain; it
>>may be (again) due to financial considerations: they only pay Arrow
>>to produce one design (known as Non-recurring Engineering costs) and
>>then pay only to make slight variations of the design and for the
>>cost of the actual construction.
>
>I don't see what the problem is with this.  How many people will ever go
>to more than one Six Flags park? The globetrotting ACEer is the
>exception, not the rule.

I think more people will go to more than one SF park now that SF honors
any SF season pass at all SF parks.

> Why does every park have to have an
>``original'' coaster.  Isn't having *good* coasters enough?

Having *good* coasters might be good enough if only they would clone *good*
coasters. A related problem is name cloning; the difficulty here is that you
meet someone new and they tell you that they rode the Great American Scream
Machine or the ShockWave; which one do you think they mean?
>
>And if Six Flags saves on the development coasts, that means they'll
>have *more* profit.  And we want the parks to profit, do we not?  That's
>how they stay in business, is it not?  Some of that extra profit might
>be invested in the *next* ride, so why complain?

Unfortunately, SF & Warner Bros. is notorious for subscribing to the Harvard
business school mentality of short term mind set: they always stress the
need to show a profit each and every quarter, and tend to forget about
long term goals and strategies (that's the trouble with R & D in this
country today, IMHO). It would be nice if the profits were re-invested
in more rides for the parks.
>
>And how come ACEers complain about Arrow clones, but then lament the
>fact that there are only three Schwarzkopf shuttle loops in the country?

I think the reason here is that the Schwarzkopf originals that the clones
are based on are better than the Arrow originals that the Arrow clones are
based on, or at least that ACEers prefer them.
>
>Several of Traver's coasters look pretty darn similar to me.  Why wasn't
>that a problem?  And why aren't all those old coasters named ``Cyclone''
>or ``Bobs'' or ``Airplane'' a problem? ;^)

Whoa, hold on here, Geoff. You need to go back to (or buy) the Legends of
Terror book from ACE about Harry Guy Traver, and maybe even go looking
through old patents (I did once for a term paper at MIT). You will find
that Traver built only wooden coasters, albeit some had steel support
structures, but they all sported wooden tracking. Every wooden coaster that
was ever built anywhere has been unique, even if based on some common
design. This is particularly true for Traver designs; you will note that
in Legends of Terror, each Traver Cyclone, for example, is prefaced by its
location (e.g.Revere Beach Cyclone, Crystal Beach Cyclone, etc.) because
each Cyclone was different, even though it was based on common design
elements. If anything, I view the usage of same names by Traver as a
matter of pride and marketing: if you had ridden a Traver Cyclone anywhere
you knew what you were in for. I know of multiple Cyclone coasters, and
I can think of at least two Bobs coasters, but I don't know of more than
one Aeroplane (this is the correct spelling) coaster. Also, I believe that
the Aeroplane coaster from Rye Playland was actually designed by Prior and
Church, and if Traver was involved with it, it was probably as the
construction contractor.
>
>Just some food for thought.
>
>Geoff ``Living in a coaster wasteland'' Allen

Tom "get to the library more often, Geoff" Maglione
(Oh-oh, I think Dale English's signature style has infected me, too!).