The Joker is a steel roller coaster at

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (formerly known as Six Flags Marine World, Marine World, The New Marine World Theme Park, and Marine World Africa USA) is a 135-acre (55 ha) animal theme park located in Vallejo, California, off of Interstate 80 ...

Vallejo, California Vallejo ( ; ) is a city in Solano County, California and the second largest city in the North Bay region of the Bay Area. Located on the shores of San Pablo Bay, the city had a population of 126,090 at the 2020 census. Vallejo is home to th ...

. The ride opened on May 29, 2016, as a rebuild of former wooden roller coaster Roar, adding a new steel track on top of Roar's wooden support structure. This hybrid configuration was implemented by

Rocky Mountain Construction Rocky Mountain Construction, often abbreviated as RMC, is a manufacturing and construction company based in Hayden, Idaho, United States. The company is best known for its I-Box track and Topper Track for wooden roller coasters. History In 20 ...

and is themed to the Joker, a comic book character villain featured in

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

publications. The original Roar roller coaster was constructed by

Great Coasters International Great Coasters International, Inc. (GCI or GCII) is a Sunbury, Pennsylvania-based roller coaster manufacturer which has created several award-winning rides since its formation in 1994. Starting in 2006 with Thunderbird at PowerPark in Finland, t ...

and opened in 1999.

History

Roar was a roller coaster at

constructed by

. When it debuted on May 14, 1999, Roar was the park's first wooden roller coaster and one of its first rides overall during the transition of adding amusement park rides to the

marine mammal park A marine mammal park (also known as marine animal park and sometimes oceanarium) is a commercial theme park or aquarium where marine mammals such as dolphins, beluga whales and sea lions are kept within water tanks and displayed to the publ ...

. The coaster featured a height of , a first drop of and a top speed of . In July 2015,

Six Flags Six Flags Entertainment Corporation is an American amusement park corporation, headquartered in Arlington, Texas. It has properties in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Six Flags owns the most theme parks and waterparks combined of any a ...

announced plans to permanently close Roar on August 16, 2015. On September 3, 2015, the park revealed plans to resurrect and convert Roar into a steel-tracked coaster called The Joker for the 2016 season.

was contracted to perform the renovation using the company's patented I-Box steel track technology married to the existing wooden support structure. The wood-steel hybrid was designed to incorporate three inversions, including a new element described as a "step-up under-flip inverted roll", and it also received new trains themed to the Joker comic book character. Based on the success of previous roller coaster conversions in its partnership with Rocky Mountain Construction, Six Flags anticipated that Roar would benefit from the overhaul and transition into The Joker. Discovery Kingdom held a

soft opening A soft launch, also known as a soft opening, is a preview release of a product or service to a limited audience prior to the general public. Soft-launching a product is sometimes used to gather data or customer feedback, prior to making it widely ...

, a media preview event for The Joker, on May 25, 2016. The roller coaster was well-received and opened for

Memorial Day Weekend Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day) is a federal holiday in the United States for mourning the U.S. military personnel who have fought and died while serving in the United States armed forces. It is observed on the last Monda ...

on May 29, 2016.

Characteristics

The table below compares the original ''Roar'', with the updated ''Joker'' ride. The original ride by the Great Coasters International was an approximately tall and the length of . The refurbished ride by Rocky Mountain Construction features a steeper and taller coaster, thus achieving a faster speed.

Ride experience

The Joker's trains are themed to the character widely known in the Batman comics. Each train has six cars, each seating four people with two across in two rows, for a total capacity of 24 riders per train. As the train departs the station, it enters several small 'bunny hills' and turns, reminiscent of pre-lift elements on Twisted Colossus at

Six Flags Magic Mountain Six Flags Magic Mountain, formerly known and colloquially referred to as simply Magic Mountain, is a amusement park located in Valencia, California, northwest of downtown Los Angeles. It opened on May 29, 1971, as a development of the Newh ...

. The train will then ascend up its first hill of , followed by a curved drop at 78 degrees – re-profiled as a steeper drop from the original Roar coaster. It accelerates to a maximum speed of before entering the "step-up under-flip inverted roll" element. After turning left out of the inversion, the train goes up a hill into a 180-degree stall featuring several ''head chopper'' beams. A wave turn element and several air time hills follow, along with an over-banked turn and an Asian camelback hill. The track winds sharply through another over-banked turn before entering the final inversion, a zero-g-roll. Finally, the train undergoes another banked turn and camelback hill before reaching the final brake run and returning to the station.

References

External links

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Joker
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joker Hybrid roller coasters Roller coasters in California Roller coasters operated by Six Flags Six Flags Discovery Kingdom Steel roller coasters Roller coasters introduced in 2016 Joker (character) in other media