The inverted roller coaster burst onto the scene in the early 90’s thanks to Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M), who created the original Batman: The Ride. The coaster was to spark a phenomenon, as the so-called “Inverted coaster” was set to become one of the most popular designs in coaster history, sparking many other companies (such as Vekoma and Intamin) to try their hand at these fabulous rides.
B&M first thought of making this coaster when riding a ski-lift in Switzerland, and on May 9, 1992, Batman: The Ride opened at Six Flags Great America in Illinois, which sparked countless Batman: The Ride clones built throughout the USA.
In 2013, Six Flags purchased a custom chassis from B&M that would allow the train to travel backwards. Six Flags Great America was the first to run a limited engagement of the ride that year. Six Flags Magic Mountain in California and Six Flags Over Texas did the same during the 2014 season, while Six Flags Over Georgia, Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey and La Ronde in Canada followed suit for a limited time the following year. Six Flags St Louis in Missouri also ran the coaster backwards during the 2018 season.
While Batman: The Ride was under construction, a young John Wardley managed to get B&M to agree to build one at Alton Towers in the UK, and Nemesis became the park’s first major roller coaster. Cedar Fair also began negotiations with B&M to build Raptor, the world’s tallest and fastest Invert of the time. Alpengeist at Busch Gardens Williamsburg opened in 1997 and remains the tallest to this day. What resulted afterwards was an absolute B&M craze, with Inverted coasters being the hot new item for every park to have. To this day, they remain B&M’s most popular coaster design, with one being constructed almost every year since the first.
>Alpengeist at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, USA OzIris at Parc Astérix, France Montu at Busch Gardens Tampa, USA Black Mamba at Phantasialand, Germany
Ramses at Parque de Atracciones de Zaragoza in Spain is a one-off shuttle coaster and the only coaster manufactured by Safeco, a Spanish company specializing in fun fair and amusement park rides. Built some 16 years before Intamin’s Half Pipe in Finland, this coaster first opened in Barcelona’s Parque de Atracciones de Montjuic in Spain, where it operated between the years of 1987 and 1998, when the park closed for good. The coaster features two upward V-shaped tracks with trains that travel on each track in opposing directions. However, this lasted only a few years before the park switched to single train operation. Another unique feature of the coaster is that the trains have eight sets of three-across seats, where riders sit facing each other.
Condor at Walibi Holland, Netherlands Odyssey at Fantasy Island, UK Batman: The Ride at Six Flags Mexico Kumali at Flamingo Land, UK Vekoma also manufactures Inverted Boomerang coasters. See the Boomerang coaster type page for more information.
Intamin also tried their hand at a version of B&M’s popular Inverted roller coaster. Even though their trio of inverted coasters (a lineup which included the world’s only complete-circuit launched inverted coaster, Volcano: The Blast Coaster at Kings Dominion in Virginia, USA) were much smoother than Vekoma’s and was regarded as excellent rides, B&M’s perpetual domination of the Inverted coaster market means that Intamin’s unique design is often overlooked. However, Intamin has been moderately successful with a launched shuttle variation of the Inverted coaster – the Impulse coaster, which has been installed at numerous parks worldwide.
Giovanola also produced only one Inverted coaster, the Anaconda in Gold Reef City, Africa. The coaster is made using the same box-section track that B&M use on their coasters, but features two-across seating (as opposed to B&M’s 4-across). Despite being a very intense and successful ride, Giovanola’s Inverted coasters (although still for sale) are, as with Intamin’s version, often overlooked due to B&M’s domination of the Inverted coaster market. The fact that their only installation was made in a relatively obscure park doesn’t help the coaster’s image.
