The Best of NoLimits 1

As NoLimits 2 has been drawing nearer to completion, I've been thinking of a way to give proper closure to NoLimits 1. I think this topic will fare better on CoasterCrazy since NL-E has pretty much zero history, but I thought I'd throw it up here as well. I may or may not do a video compilation for this, but I was wondering...

What were some of the best creations you remember most?

And I'm not just talking recently. For you long-lasting members: what were your favorite(s) from 2001, 2003, 2006, etc? What was all the rave in 2002? Perhaps some megalithic low-poly-scenery fantasy machine that made people say "wow, look at this!" What was crazy awesome in 2005? Perhaps big-scenery + the first FVD greats like Thunderhead Falls and Breaking Point (in '06). What was cool in 2011? There could be a lot from this NL highlight era that have gone under the bus all these years.

I think it'd be really awesome to see and bring out everything awesome that's been done in the past 13 years. Not only has NoLimits evolved in groundbreaking ways, but the coaster industry has too. There was no Maverick prior to 2007, which meant coaster designers before then sought other forms of inspiration for say, an Intamin launched coaster. What coasters were the quintessential "halos" that people drew lots of inspiration and awe from in the early 2000's? What's hot on the inspiration plate right now in the 2010's?

Looking through all of this could not only unearth some amazing creations that newer members didn't see (and instill some nostalgia for those around for them), but it could also point to interesting trends, fads, and falls in the community, including but not limited to:

1. Track style trends
2. Inspiration trends
3. Originality trends
4. Realism trends
5. Community trends (active members counts, coaster creation rates)
6. The effects of revolutionary tools being released

It's cool to reflect on where we've come from, where we've gone, and where we're headed off to in NoLimits 2.

[Dirk_Ermen]

By just checking back the first page when sorting on ranking you'd quickly get a view of some of the good ol' classic coasters:
Orbital: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/2219
Project Strata-Force: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/368
Blood Sucker: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/1319
Megablast: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/3497
Hurricane: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/336
Mine Shaft: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/2345
Ionizer: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/193
Poseidon: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/3224
La Cordillera: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/317
Hydro 2: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/1043
Artic Thunder: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/2628

Too bad you don't hear a lot of them anymore. Buster, Hansixx, BinoMaus, Fender13, jackfrahn, G Force Addict and such were all great builders back from the old days. [:)]

[mkingy]

The 'inspiration' for older tracks was always more fantasy than realistic (as we'd rate them now!

Also, I think we should have a vote on "the funniest rate ever". Such as the guy on Project Strata-Force saying:

"You call it a strata coaster. It however has a lift hill, there for dropping it back into the Giga rank because it is so tall. please remember that stratas are launch coasters. you will lose originality points for this..."

Also, I think we should have a vote on "the funniest rate ever". Such as the guy on Project Strata-Force saying:

"You call it a strata coaster. It however has a lift hill, there for dropping it back into the Giga rank because it is so tall. please remember that stratas are launch coasters. you will lose originality points for this..."

There is no question that Cdogg36's rate on the Re-Track It! Template is the funniest ever... and will always be.

http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/17269

^lol That was funny to read.

Thanks Dirk for the list! I've seen a few of those before (like Mine Shaft) but I hadn't seen most of the others. Even the random B&M ones like Arctic Thunder just look super cool even if they don't ride as smooth or are as shaped precisely. It's the layouts and overall scene/presence of them that makes me miss a lot of coasters from the older days. There really was a lot more variety with the shapes of the elements before Newton (especially) became the popular choice.

I'm thinking of taking some of the cool ones from each year and piecing some sh*t together that acts as a collective progression through the years of NoLimits & the community and their changes over time.

Probably the best recreation ever; really displays how much you could do with the software. http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/19646

[TheArchitect]

^ I think Real will be upset that you used that example instead of his Wicked Twister.

i cant wait for no limits 2 on x mas day this year, all the good builders should come back..

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, here. But...Colder Fusion. You can't do a best of NL1 without Colder Fusion. I may be blowing my own horn, but what about my Vekoma/Arrow hybrid monster? http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/18935

Originally posted by NightwindElf

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, here. But...Colder Fusion. You can't do a best of NL1 without Colder Fusion. I may be blowing my own horn, but what about my Vekoma/Arrow hybrid monster? http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/18935

i loved that coaster

Can someone send me the full trackpacks of "Smells Like Team Spirit", the Cosiar Pirate B&M coaster by Crazycoaster and Xiballa Mayan coaster from Coastercrazy?

Originally posted by highthrills2

Originally posted by NightwindElf

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, here. But...Colder Fusion. You can't do a best of NL1 without Colder Fusion. I may be blowing my own horn, but what about my Vekoma/Arrow hybrid monster? http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/18935

i loved that coaster

Which? Colder Fusion or VekArrow?

Originally posted by cool5

Can someone send me the full trackpacks of "Smells Like Team Spirit", the Cosiar Pirate B&M coaster by Crazycoaster and Xiballa Mayan coaster from Coastercrazy?

I agree with cool5 (wait, what??), I'd definitely like some tracks from Crazycoaster if anyone has them. I'd definitely like to feature some of his works because they seem very mid-2000's to me with awesome Object Creator scenery and AHG'ed/handbuilt track or loosely FVD'ed track.

http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/9927
This is still probably one of my favorite rides. And AXE by bockzilla (hell, all his rides).

Definitely one of my favourites: http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/11108

And no I don't care if B&M will probably never have this type of dive machine design.

[mkingy]

Black Halo was quality. Wing Over produced several really well put together rides.

[TheArchitect]

Originally posted by Live on earths ass

http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/9927
This is still probably one of my favorite rides. And AXE by bockzilla (hell, all his rides).

It's so strange looking back, I used to think that ride was incredible. But you have a train hit leaving the station, there are pumps everywhere, no bracing and im convinced it would fail tunnel test. The custom support work gives an amazing theme but the station is just a box lol and all the supports go through the ground without footers. It's going to be amazing watching how far rides have come.

Also, Blood by The Architect. There's just something about that ride that makes it stand out. Wicked thing. I may have something up my sleeves for next summer, so stay tuned. Also, H2O by VidW is a great Inta Invert.

As someone who's been here since the very beginning, and who kept track of the medals for years and ran the contests for years, I'm just full of memories from the very earliest days... what the trends were, and what types of coasters got the best scores. Here's my memory of the building styles and coasters that were popular in the very beginning (like first three years or so) of this site and No Limits in general. Maybe I'll add more about 2005 to the present later, but here's what I remember from my biggest period of NL nostalgia:



2001:

The year that No Limits was released, and the fandom started! (officially released on Friday, November 9, 2001.) The big thing in the very beginning was theme coasters, relative smoothness, and creativity. Object import didn't exist yet. Terrain didn't exist yet. It was nothing but flat land and supports. It was all about doing stuff that was cool and original, and nobody really gave a damn about g-forces, collisions, e-stop, pumping, or any of the modern standards of building, as long as they were original and relatively smooth. Pretty much nobody knew a damned thing about realistic supports, banking transitions, or layouts. Coathanger transitions were the norm. Seriously messed up turns and inversions were the norm.

Tracks I remember best:
-"Eiffel Tower Extreme" - Phyter
-"Project Wormhole"
-"United Spacelines"
-"Star Wars"
-pretty much everything from the trackpack. That's where these coasters came from, is from Ole selecting his favorite designs from the earliest days of NL.

Real-life coasters that EVERYONE was basing their designs off of:
Pretty much none. There were a few sparse attempts at recreations, but in the beginning it was all about fantasy coasters. People weren't really trying to make their own versions of real coasters yet, they were just playing around with the software like a new toy to see what they could come up with.



2002:

This was the year that the fandom officially took off. With the release of NoLimits version 1.2, terrain was added to the mix. (And I know that the very first time I saw the "Cliff Diver" coaster that came with this release, as well as the updated terrained version of Loch Ness Monster, they blew my freaking mind. As well as just about everyone else's.) Big flashy terrained coasters were in! And in addition to terrain, NoLimits version 1.2x was the first to allow 3ds imports. VERY few people knew how to do this at the time, though. So anyone who could do a full coaster with full showy 3ds environments was hailed as a god, even if the coaster wasn't that great. Also, this was the era where coasters started getting a bit more realistic. But since elementary and every other mathematical track design tool was nonexistent at this point, pretty much your entire technical score on a coaster was based on smoothness. The masters at smoothness, such as Cactus22minus1 and Phyter, were the ones who got the biggest and best scores. Recreations also started getting VERY popular, and were the other types of coasters that got the highest scores. Also, people actually started basing more and more coasters off of real designs rather than just making whatever the hell they felt like. Some people made "wood" coasters, but these coasters were in actuality just steel looping coasters with Tia's Wood Magic program added on to make them look like wood. Real wood didn't exist yet.

Tracks I remember best:
-"Monsterra" - Cactus22minus1
-"Joker's Jynx" - Phyter
-"Anton's Summer House" - rolle
-"Dementor" - Cactus22minus1
-"N20 Nitrous Oxide" - Cactus22minus1
-"La Cordillera" - Hansixx

Real-life coasters that EVERYONE was basing designs off of:
-Millennium Force (seriously this is like THE coaster that everyone was trying to copy back in the day. EVERYONE made at least one giant giga-coaster with MF-style supports.)
-The Incredible Hulk (lots of tire-launched B&M coasters this year)
-Thriller / Olympic Looping (lots of Schwarzkoph coasters in the beginning for some reason)



2003:

This was by far the year that I remember the best. So many things on this site got started this year... weekly contests, the NL video contest, the Placebo Effect contest, the very first NoLimits Tournament to name a few. This was the year that NoLimits version 1.3 was released, and with it the introduction of wooden coasters. While the previous year was the year of giant giga-coasters, once NL v1.3 was released, EVERYONE was making wood coasters. This was also the year that some of the absolute best fantasy coasters ever made came out, as fully-immerssive 3ds environments were becoming possible for the first time. Smoothness from the hand-building era had pretty much reached its absolute pinnacle. Elementary still didn't exist, so it was all hand-building, and still pretty much all about smoothness. A few people started to catch on to the realistic notion of heartlining, especially near the end of the year, but only the very best designers did it. For the most part, it was still all about two things... smoothness and originality. But this was about the time that pacing and sequencing began to be more greatly considered, and coasters that had a great sensation of speed were getting much more common. There were also some EXCELLENT recreations this year. This was the first year that coaster builders truly started to understand the mechanics that went into real coaster design, and the first year that scenery really started getting elaborate and immersive to the degree that we see it today. Also, giga-coasters were still a thing. A HUGE thing. EVERYONE was still making giant giga-coasters and launched TTD-inspired strata-coasters.

Tracks I remember best:
-"Project Stata-Force" - Hansixx
-HELLFIRE - Anthon.Jon
-"Guinness: the Beer Coaster" - Hansixx
-"Xcelerator - KBF" - PKIgoer & Real
-"Top Thrill Dragster 2003" - Real
-"Rickety Racket v2" - Kev
-"Hydro II - Edited" - Oscar
-"Polar Expedition" - G Force Addict
-"Blood Sucker" - adept999
-"Bushmaster" - Phyter
-"Orbital" - Kev & pym
-"Cold Fusion" - Macevhicz
-"Mine Shaft" - jackfrahn

Real-life coasters that EVERYONE was basing their designs off of:
-Millennium Force (still... this was still basically THE coaster that everyone based designs off of until like 2007.)
-Top Thrill Dragster
-Just about every wood coaster ever made (in all fairness, though, in these days most coasters weren't based on real ones, they were just "okay, let's make a wood coaster" with no regard for any specific company or style.)
-Raptor / Montu / Alpengeist



2004:

Version 1.5 came out this year, but honestly version 1.3 was the last big update that had a significant impact on the NL community. Shuttle coasters were something that was played around with, but not widely used to make competitive coasters. This year was when a lot of the good designers from the old days started fizzling out, as coasters continued to get bigger and bigger, more and more elaborate, and top coasters were now taking 100+ hours of supports, 3ds, smoothness tweaking, and a million other little details. Also, 2004 was significant in that near the very end of it, a little tool called Elementary came out for the very first time. For the most part the great "toolers" versus hand-builders debate would not kick into full gear until 2005, as only the absolute elite designers used Elementary in the very beginning. For most of the year, though, it was hand-building all the way. This year was pretty much the last year that a majority of the best designers were still hand-building. 2005 was the year that Elementary, HSAK, the AHG, and mathematical perfection took over. Also, this was the year that the CCI hybrid environment became pubic, so people building steel-structured wood coasters was a big thing. And hell, just CCI-style coasters in general were a big thing, because everyone loved them. The top-rated coasters were getting a LOT more realistic in terms of g-forces and shaping in general. Red and yellow g's, especially lateral g's, were now frowned upon, and for the first time designers were expected to heartline and shape properly rather than just making coasters smooth.

Tracks I remember best:
-"The Rover" - McFly
-"Ghost Raven Express" - McFly
-"Outlaw" - Real
-"Thalys" - Hansixx
-"Megablast" - Buster
-"Against the Grain" - Kev
-"Twist'er More" - Bobcoaster
-"Infernal Force" - Buster
-"Silver Dollar" - Bockzilla
-"Fear Factor" - MF2001

Real-life coasters that EVERYONE was basing their designs off of:
-Millennium Force (yes, still...)
-Top Thrill Dragster (still...)
-New Mexico Rattler
-The Raven
-Kumba / Dragon Khan / B&M sitdowns & floorless coasters

both

Originally posted by NightwindElf

Originally posted by highthrills2

Originally posted by NightwindElf

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, here. But...Colder Fusion. You can't do a best of NL1 without Colder Fusion. I may be blowing my own horn, but what about my Vekoma/Arrow hybrid monster? http://www.coastercrazy.com/track_exchange/detail/18935

i loved that coaster

Which? Colder Fusion or VekArrow?

That was awesome to read cjd, thanks for posting.

Wow that helps a ton cjd, thanks a lot for that post. That was precisely what I was hoping for. Do you perhaps have a "cliff-notes" for 2005-2008 and 2009-2013? I know it'd involve a lot of work but it'd be super cool. I have a list of coasters I want to feature but I may end up using mostly your list before cutting down to, say, 50 coasters over the 13 years.

Thanks again, it's a huge help having someone that's been there the entire time. Also it's fascinating to read the trends, especially how Millennium Force was such a halo coaster to copy from. It's what I always thought, because pretty much 50% of the coasters included with NL from the trackpack looked like a Millennium Force-inspired ride. I can only guess that when Maverick dropped in 2007 that suddenly became the new halo coaster to follow.

If you read this NL-E post (http://bit.ly/1dyjbKF) you'll see the jist I'm trying to get at with all of this. Thanks again!

I have to agree that was an interesting read.
Too bad I had never even heard of No Limits until around 2007 and didn't start using it regularly until 2008 so I started well after what people thought were the "glory years."
I think lately I've seen a lot of coasters inspired by Intimidator 305 and Texas Giant/Outlaw Run, and a whole buttload of Kingda Ka recreations.

Big fan of Real's and Phyter's tracks. I picked up some tracks from Coasters2k way back in the day as well, but can't remember most of them.

I jumped in at NL 1.262, so I did sweep up a lot of the pre-3DS's/pre-custom environments/pre-terraformer tracks. They're still sitting around in my tracks folder, and I've gotten a good reminder of how much standards have went up after loading up Kilimanjaro by JonBKchill from c2k. However, one of my favorites from the older days would have to be Genesis. Unfortunately, I have no idea where to find it, as the trackfile didn't have the creator, and no notes were left in the track info. It was basically a crazy-intense terrain woodie that went up a large hill, and down near a lake, and had some pretty amazing pacing.

Artemis (steel-supported woodie made for a 2006 contest here) was also a favorite. After that, the rest of my list consists of community favorites that have already been mentioned repeatedly. (Real's Cedar Point recreations, Colder Fusion, Thunderhead Falls, The Beer Coaster, etc.)

Originally posted by AJClarke0912

Wow that helps a ton cjd, thanks a lot for that post. That was precisely what I was hoping for. Do you perhaps have a "cliff-notes" for 2005-2008 and 2009-2013? I know it'd involve a lot of work but it'd be super cool. I have a list of coasters I want to feature but I may end up using mostly your list before cutting down to, say, 50 coasters over the 13 years.

I absolutely plan on writing up reports on 2005-2009, but my knowledge beyond that is admittedly a lot more thin. 2002-2006 were pretty much my prime years in terms of involvement with this site. I've hosted a couple of contests since then, so I at least have a relatively good idea of how the building standards have changed over the years, but my knowledge of the best tracks beyond 2007 or so is pretty much nil.

But yeah... I will DEFINITELY be writing a report on 2005, 2006, and 2007 at the very least, since those were the years that I was still running a majority of the site's contests and still very actively involved.