149 replies to this topic

[Steve Franks]

Greetings,

I am presently finishing up with new stations and ancillary buildings for my rehabilitated Giant Dipper and Logger's Revenge @ Santa Cruz for RCT2.

I have been on a dark ride kick lately and made a recreation of Santa Cruz's Haunted Castle. Now the tracks inside these dark rides are merely conjecture, and their layouts are meant only to rack up high E/I/N numbers. It is the facades on the buildings that interest me since very little track is exposed.

Once the Santa Cruz bench is completed, work must to begin rounding up the relevant coaster packs and repack them with updated photos and doc files. The same for the benches. Then we can start uploading. There are many loose strings to pull together.

Edited by Steve Franks, 02 February 2008 - 07:51 AM.

[wabigbear]

Appreciate all the work you put into these Steve, and looking forward to them very much!

[Steve Franks]

Greetings,

I have gotten some very positive feedback by RCT members on the appearance and level of detail for the recently tested Bob-Lo Island bench. Hopefully, all the new benches be worth while for historical interest and playability.

About 12 hours has gone into recreating Santa Cruz boardwalk thus far. It is shaping up nicely and I am presently checking out proper ride placements. Coming up with an imaginative way of creating the second story upper deck that supports the Hurricaine coaster was a challenge. It looks pretty neat visually speaking.

[Steve Franks]

Greetings,

So far the track pack for the Santa Cruz bench includes the Giant Dipper wooden coaster, Hurricane steel coaster, and Sea Serpent kiddie coaster. All three have been reprofiled and improved. The Giant Dipper's station facade, and queuing is quite interesting and faithful to the original. Then there is the now defunct Haunted Castle dark ride. Of course one could not forget the Logger's Revenge flume. It has a very accurate recreation of its station, complete with animated water wheel.

The Cave Train Adventure has also been included on the bench, but since this in an underground track, it cannot be included beyond an underground screenshot of the layout. But the external facade of the ride looks pretty close to the original photos - a rocky structure complete with plants, sign, fencing, and warterfall!

Despite the very long and skinny dimensions of the boardwalk along the beach, I am finding that its capacity to hold flat rides and imaginative structures is enormous. Anyone interested in advance screenshots can pm me their email address.

[wabigbear]

You've got my mouth watering here Steve! Can't wait until you've had time to finish this project. I haven't touched RCT2 in months, but for this I'll gladly get the disc out!

[Steve Franks]

Greetings,

Since this was their home park, Mr. Panzer and Crazycoaster have been peppering me with suggestions and ideas for improvements. This and Mr. Panzer's 1hr and 42 minute video of the entire boardwalk has caused me to tear out sections (along with my hair) more than once. But with each revision comes a better and more accurate recreation. Nearly every detail has been touched upon. It looks pretty impressive with the primary rides installed.

Wabigbear, the requested screenshots are waiting in your mail box. I also included a extra treat for your kind interest and entertainment.

Edited by Steve Franks, 14 February 2008 - 06:37 AM.

[Steve Franks]

Greetings Wabigbear,

I do believe that any coaster imported into RCT3 with appear with all its brakes set to a default 17mph. I will have to look at my copy of the RCT3 Giant Dipper and send you the proper brake settings for the second turnaround's safety block and the final brake run.

[wabigbear]

I believe you are correct, but that's something that can easily be altered to the proper speeds.

The screenshots are great...and that's before I even tried out the 'extra treat'! Thank you so much!

If anyone isn't familiar with Steve Franks track designs, I urge you to take a look through the many designs he's shared with us over the years and download some to enjoy. Many of these designs include a wealth of additional information on the attraction and the park it appeared in. It's really interesting to read about a historical track's background, to sometimes be able to view historical photos of the real ride, and then compare those items with Steve's recreations. It helps you appreciate a little more the amount of research and work he put's into his work even before you starts building.

And for those of us who perhaps don't have the greatest track building skills, it's a rare opprotunity to study these layouts and to learn from a master!

Thanks again Steve for the many years of enjoyment - and here's to many more!

[Trcoaster]

^ Here, here!

Glad to see you're back in the game, Steve. I haven't played RCT for a while, but I'll gladly start it up again to play around with your recreations.

[Steve Franks]

Greetings,

Thanks wabigbear for your appreciation of my previous work. I hope these benches will be of similar quality and a satisfying challenge to your park making skills.

I have more or less finished with Santa Cruz boardwalk. The last few touches brought the last pieces of the puzzle together, allowing me to fashion the boardwalk's size to near scale. And the Santa Cruz rides look just great on the boardwalk. Many thanks to coastercrazy and Mr. Panzer for their valued input.

My present task is to finally pull all the loose strings together and fashion the packs for upload. They will be uploaded as they are completed.

My first will be County Fair, updated junior coasters, and a dark ride or two. The rides will be valuable in making your own county fair a profitable enterprise.

I think Trcoaster your interest in returning to RCT2 will be justified.