Hyper Coaster

A hypercoaster is any roller coaster with a height or drop measuring greater than 200 feet (61 m). The term was first coined by Arrow Dynamics and Cedar Point with the release of the world's first hypercoaster, the Magnum XL-200, in 1989. Other roller coaster manufacturers later developed their own models: Intamin officially call theirs "Mega Coasters", and Bolliger & Mabillard refer to theirs as "Hyper Coasters". Roller coasters that broke the 300-foot-barrier (91 m) became known as "giga coasters", while those that broke the 400-foot-barrier (120 m) became known as "strata coasters".

The world's first hypercoaster was Magnum XL-200 by Cedar Point, costing $8,000,000 USD. Cedar Point chose Arrow Dynamics to design and construct Magnum XL-200. Construction on the world's tallest and fastest complete circuit roller coaster (at that time) began in 1988. By May 6, 1989, Magnum XL-200 was ready for riders. Since its debut, Magnum XL-200 has served more than 36 million guests. Cedar Point's official blog states that after building the ride, "discussion was focused on just what a roller coaster such as Magnum should be called. After all, it had no loops like most of the other large steel coasters of the time and was so much bigger and faster than its non-looping brethren. After a couple of years, the name everyone agreed upon was hypercoaster."

Hypercoasters were originally built for speed and airtime, to counter the trend of constructing bigger and bigger looping coasters. To accomplish this the elements of a hypercoaster often include a large first drop, several additional drops of declining height, a large turn or helix and then many airtime-inducing hills. Hypercoasters are commonly designed with an out and back layout, although some hypercoasters, such as Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, are built with a twisted design.

Hypercoasters dominate the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards. For 2006, Superman: Ride of Steel, now known as Superman the Ride (formerly Bizarro), located at Six Flags New England was ranked highest at #1. Several hypercoasters followed such as Magnum XL-200 (#3), Nitro (#4), Apollo's Chariot (#5). The hypercoasters make up the majority of the 2006 Top 10 Steel Coasters, filling 8/10 positions. By 2010, hypercoasters held all of the top 10 spots on Amusement Today's list of "Top 50 Steel Roller Coasters" and 16 of the top 20.

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