Friday Flash Fun: Roller Coaster

May 2, 2008 5:25 AM

This little gamelets you learn about G Forces AND have fun. From the University of Cambridge's Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies. You must build a roller coaster that thrills the occupants, but be warned - if they throw up your score gets reset, and making them black out is also frowned upon.
posted by SciencePunk (12 comments total)

Man, that kid is a wuss.
posted by chillmost at 5:38 AM on May 2, 2008 [6 favorites]

A bit like Coaster, but not quite as fun. And without the horrible vomiting sound effect. (I can't even guess how many hours I wasted at that game over the years.)
posted by uncleozzy at 5:39 AM on May 2, 2008

Also, yeah, the game rewards you for making the most boring possible kiddie coaster. Not that it's not an okay teaching tool, but it's a lousy game. Play Coaster instead; I'm sure it's available from the usual abandonware haunts.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:46 AM on May 2, 2008

I like how the kid actually DIES if you exceed 5 gs.

But WhyTF is the track implemented as a spline-type thing? Modifying many variables at a time != good pedagogy.
posted by DU at 5:52 AM on May 2, 2008

But WhyTF is the track implemented as a spline-type thing? Modifying many variables at a time != good pedagogy.

You want that the derivative isn't continuous? I hope I never have to ride on your roller coasters.
posted by TypographicalError at 6:47 AM on May 2, 2008

"Oh no you knocked your passenger out. Try making a gentler track."

Ummm. No?
posted by Science! at 7:12 AM on May 2, 2008

It's true; half the fun of a good coaster is blacking out occasionally. When the Batman coaster was new at Six Flags, you'd have to run there as soon as the gates opened in order to ride it. Of course, I'd never eat breakfast before and, as a result, I have just about blacked out on that ride at least a dozen times. There are wholesale sections of track that I've never actually seen because my vision's gone gray every single time I've ridden it.
posted by uncleozzy at 7:43 AM on May 2, 2008

Egads, what a dull generation of roller-coaster designers we will be raising if this catches on.
posted by Shepherd at 9:20 AM on May 2, 2008

Ridiculously easy. I beat the last level by just tweaking the second dot and letting the kid ride the whoops.
posted by Eideteker at 12:26 PM on May 2, 2008 [1 favorite]

did not provide a truly insane mega-blast adrenaline-bomb head-rush straight to my reptilian pleasure center as advertised. 4/10.
posted by facetious at 6:44 PM on May 2, 2008

My passengers are weenies.
posted by dejah420 at 10:02 PM on May 2, 2008

This is a slightly more fun roller coaster game.
posted by uncleozzy at 2:09 PM on May 5, 2008