A hypercoaster is any complete circuit roller coaster with a height measuring greater than. The term was first coined by Arrow Dynamics and Cedar Point in 1989 with the release of the first full-circuit hypercoaster in the world, Magnum XL-200. Other roller coaster manufacturers developed their own models with custom names, including Mega Coasters from Intamin, Hyper Coasters from Bolliger & Mabillard, and Hyper-Hybrid Coasters from Rocky Mountain Construction. The competition between amusement parks to build increasingly taller roller coasters eventually led to giga coasters which exceed and strata coasters which exceed.
History
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 Magnum XL-200 began in 1988, and the ride opened on May 6, 1989. 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."
Description
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 there are occasionally hypercoasters that use a twisted layout, such as Raging Bull at Six Flags Great America, and others that combine both, such as Diamondback at Kings Island. Hypercoasters dominate the Amusement TodayGolden Ticket Awards. For 2006,, now known as Superman the Ride, located at Six Flags New England was ranked highest at #1. Several hypercoasters followed such as Magnum XL-200, Nitro, Apollo's Chariot. 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. Hypercoasters were first manufactured by Arrow Dynamics in the late 1980s to early 1990s. Since then, a number of companies, including Bolliger & Mabillard, Intamin, D. H. Morgan Manufacturing, Giovanola and others have designed and constructed hypercoasters. Though hypercoasters are typically steel roller coasters, Son of Beast at Kings Island was the first and only wooden hypercoaster. Due to a number of issues, the ride was eventually demolished in 2012. In 2018, Cedar Point opened the first hybrid hypercoaster, Steel Vengeance. Steel Vengeance is the first hypercoaster manufactured by Rocky Mountain Construction.
The following is a list of roller coasters with a height of at least. Some enthusiasts do not consider shuttle-type roller coasters to be hypercoasters, so those are listed separately.
Complete circuit
Shuttle
* Denotes a hypercoaster that is also a giga coaster, a roller coaster that exceeds in height. ** Denotes a hypercoaster that is also a strata coaster, a roller coaster that exceeds in height. *** Denotes a hypercoaster that is not taller than 200 feet, but has a drop of over 200 feet. **** Denotes a giga coaster that is not taller than 300 feet, but has a drop of over 300 feet.
