The Round-Up, originally made by Hrubetz, is the absolute quintessential carnival ride just behind the common ferris wheel and a small carousel. Not even a Scrambler can ooze the amount raw carnie aura that surrounds a Round-Up.

The Round-Up is a large circular platform with caged walls that people stand against. The platform spins, and then the arm that holds the platform raises up so the ride is tilted. The tops of the walls are secured by cables which connect to an object in the center of the platform that is pathetically goosed up to make it look like a nice center ornament. The spots where riders stand against have a thin padding and riders are ‘secured’ by a chain link. The floor of the Round-Up is typically made of three quarter inch wood sheets, which fits the ride well. Just in front of riders is also a steel fencing which prevents stupid people from falling off the platform and onto the ride trailer when boarding.

The Ride

Well, you board the ride and pick a spot. Every spot will smell like stagnant water or mildew, so choosing on that basis is not an option. Once you pick your spot, you secure yourself in by picking up the chain link and connecting it to the little hole on the opposite side; approximately 40% of the riders will not know how to do this of course. A typical Round-Up ride occurs like this:

1. The ride starts to spin
2. Some kid un-does his chain
3. Another kid changes spots
4. The ride operator slows the ride and yells at the kids
5. The ride spins up again
6. The ride spins up enough to allow the operator to let the arm raise
7. The arm raises to full height
8. Some kid starts sliding up the wall to show off
9. The ride operator yells at the kid
10. The arm lowers
11. The ride spins down
12. Once the ride spins down enough, some kids will start walking around
13. The ride operator yells at them again
14. The ride ends

Other Info

I absolutely love the way a classic Round-Up has to be operated. The ride op stands on the stairway people use to board the platform. The op has control of a long pole and a button; the pole controls the tire drive that spins the platform and the button raises the arm. The ride ops head is no more than 5 feet away from the spinning platform once the ride is fully raised. (see photo to the left.)

The Round-Up has quite a few variations these days. First off there’s the Zero Gravity which is pretty much an updated Round-Up. There is the Zendar which is a cool looking Round-Up that raises to a vertical position at which point the platform raises again and levels out. SDC has a ride called Centrox which is an even more stylized Round-Up, only riders sit down and have a harness to secure them in. Some could make the argument that a Gravitron is a Round-Up that doesn’t rise, but I think that it’s more like a Rotor. The Venture made Scat is definitely a Round-Up knockoff though. Finally, the ARM Megaspin and the KMG Spinball are sort of like the Round-Up with a similar looking platform, only the ride is vastly different in motion.

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