Shockwave (Six Flags Great America)

In late 1987, Six Flags Great America announced that they would be getting Shockwave for the 1988 season. The ride would be placed towards the front of the park in the Orleans Place section.[3] Shockwave was set to open in April 1988, but the opening was delayed to June 3.

Shockwave was designed by Ron Toomer at Arrow Dynamics, and its seven inversions set a new world record among roller coasters previously held by Vortex at Kings Island, which opened a year earlier.[4] In 1989, Great American Scream Machine debuted at Six Flags Great Adventure, which featured an identical layout but with an additional 3 feet (0.91 m) in height and a faster top speed of 68 mph (109 km/h).[5] Then in 1990, Viper opened at Six Flags Magic Mountain, becoming the tallest and fastest looping coaster standing 188 feet (57 m) tall and reaching a maximum speed of 70 mph (110 km/h). Shockwave, Great American Scream Machine, and Viper were all designed by Arrow Dynamics and featured the same inverting elements in the same order.

Pieces of Shockwave sitting in the employee parking lot in 2004.

After the installation of Superman: Ultimate Flight, much of Shockwave was demolished and sold as scrap in 2004, although certain pieces can still be found throughout the park today:

• Most of the track and supports went to a scrapyard in Zion, IL.[9]
• The red train went to Six Flags Great Adventure to use for spare parts on this ride's near-identical twin, Great American Scream Machine.[4]
• The yellow and blue trains went to Six Flags Magic Mountain for parts on their similar seven-inversion coaster Viper.[4]
• The sign at the ride's entrance was donated to the American Coaster Enthusiasts' Museum.
• Several bolts were auctioned off at a coaster convention.[10]
• A few support poles remain in Great America's employee parking lot.
• The lift motor was installed on the park's Demon roller coaster, also by Arrow.
• The large metal gates that were once part of Shockwave's entrance were painted black and can be found during Fright Fest as part of the entrance to the Seven Sins Cemetery.
• A portion of the spiral staircase once used to gain access to a maintenance platform between the third loop and block brake is now used at the base of Whizzer's lift hill.
• An air compressor and a scrap of track are being used as props for Fright Fest.
• The station was moved into the junk/bone yard area near the employee parking lot and was boarded up and is now used for storage.
• The main queue house for Shockwave was retained and is used now as the queue house for Superman: Ultimate Flight.
• A small segment of track was re-fabricated for use on Demon to replace a corroding segment of track.
• The sign for the gift shop Thrillseekers, which was located at the exit of Shockwave, is now at the exit of Goliath. The sign features a corkscrew element that was in Shockwave, even though Goliath does not have a corkscrew.
• At Fright Fest, a gravestone remembers Shockwave saying "They said "Save The Whizzer" and Shockwave became chopped liver" at the Six Saints Cemetery.

On Shockwave, riders were seated and pulled down their over-the-shoulder restraints. They exited the station, rolling over the transfer track, and entered a short drop before making a tight un-banked U-turn toward the lift. Once at the top of the lift, the riders entered the roughly 150-degrees-to-the-left twisting drop, speeding down to the ground. They then climbed up to the first vertical loop, which was 130 feet (40 m) high above the queue line.[11] A roughly 90-degree left turn followed, and then the two 116-foot (35 m) consecutive vertical loops.[11] Next, the train rose up and negotiated a very tight left turn into the mid-course/block brake. After a braking, riders went through a zig-zag turn and drop and entered the boomerang, getting their pictures taken between the two inversions. Upon exiting the element, the train made a roughly 180-degree turn to the right and entered the two back-to-back "right-hand" or "clockwise" corkscrews. Finally, riders went over a small bunny hill and made a roughly 210-degree turn to the left, entering the long brake run leading to the station.[4]

• Shockwave on RCDB