| For me it probably started around middle school when I first discovered roller coasters, while simultaneously playing the game Theme Park[0], and later Roller Coaster Tycoon. One of my childhood best friends and I would get our parents to drive to Six Flags Magic Mountain as often as we could. Many years later I still check in on https://screamscape.com from time to time to see what the latest coaster news is. It's always refreshing considering the daily struggle against doom scrolling and regular news one contends with. I enjoy reading about what makers of coasters are up to, what they're engineering and how they're innovating. Riding Wonder Woman: Flight of Courage[1](probably best/craziest coaster I've ever been on) and Twisted Colossus[2](also great) got me to discover a tiny company called Rocky Mountain Construction[3] based in Northern Idaho, who've been innovating by taking existing wooden coasters and revamping them with steel track, among other things. There's a real culture of engineering and innovation that I think many of the HN crowd would appreciate. Also discovered a company called S&S in Utah innovating with a new axial rotating design[4]. Many other companies such as B&M and Intamin are constantly building cool stuff too. 0: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theme_Park_(video_game) 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeKaiP7F48I 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL9L-U-AKFs 3: https://vimeo.com/259906484 https://www.rockymtnconstruction.com 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3czHe2gZ-k0 |