It's pretty impossible to accurately convey a play-by-play of X, or to express in words how this radical coaster's ride system works. 

But to paint the picture, imagine: riders exit the station backwards, lying on their backs and staring up at Southern California's perpetual blue skies. As the trains climb the lift hill, the seats pivot down, providing a view outwards as riders climb backwards. 

At the top of the hill, the trains dip and plummet down a near-vertical 88.5° 215-foot plunge... but now, the seats pivot, turning riders to face straight down. Halfway down the drop, the seats themselves plunge forward, somersaulting riders head over heels. As they pull out of the parabolic drop, the seats face riders straight out, giving everyone a 76-mile-per-hour rising view of the drop they just conquered. 

Then, the trains remain sky high, rotating riders into a flying position. X tears forward, dipping down. The track ahead rises, but as the trains climb, riders flip. 

In one of the most unique and compelling maneuvers on a coaster – maybe ever! – the track itself undergoes a "fly to lie" (with the train going from suspended to riding above the track)... but the seats themselves rotate in sync with the maneuver, causing riders to go from forward to backward without actually inverting. It dips into a raven turn, then reverses the maneuver (a "lie to fly," again changing riders direction without flipping them fully upside down)... It really has to be seen to be believed...

X was unthinkable... a pioneer for its time, introducing controlled rotation that is – quite literally – built into the ride's track. This is mechanical programming. It's physical. And it's fascinating. Pulling a shocking 4Gs of force, the ride is considered by many to be among the most extreme roller coasters on Earth. It's wild, weird, and often wonderful. But did it work for Arrow? Well...

Fallout

X was planned to debut for summer of 2001. It... didn't. Significant issues plagued the ride, causing it to miss its entire summer season. The ride finally opened in January 2002. To make matters worse, just five months into its much-hyped debut, X was closed "indefinitely" thanks to a "design flaw" noted by the park's maintenance team – that one of the train's wings wasn't rotating smoothly. In other words, X missed its second high profile summer season, too. 

But by then, Arrow Dynamics was bankrupt. The company acknowledged that it had lost "millions" on the projects, allegedly because Six Flags continuously upped the ride's scope until it far outsized Arrow's prototype plans.

Arrow's assets were acquired by the Japanese ride manufacturer S&S (who, today, creates the much-cloned "4D Free Spin" rides, which might be imagined as compact, lower-risk evolutions of the concept first prototyped by X). S&S would also go on to oversee that opening of "Eejanaika" at Japan's Fuji-Q Highland amusement park – a nearly identical, mirror-imaged sister to X, but with some modifications to the ride's layout and seat positioning. That second attempt at the model by Arrow's successor would come in handy... 

In 2007, the ride's significant downtime, limited capacity, and increasingly-awkward ride experience forced Magic Mountain's hand. The ride closed for a transformation into "X2." Especially in the 2000s, Six Flags made a habit of repainting a ride, renaming it, adding on-ride audio and flamethrowers, and marketing it as new. 

In X2's case, at least the upgrade introduced brand new trains by the new S&S Arrow – lighter weight, and thus, more nimbly able to navigate the sometimes-awkward, shuffling, mechanical process of track-guided rotation. The transformation allegedly cost $10 million all on its own. (It's also when the ride switched from its iconic pink-and-yellow coloration to gray and maroon.) 

X2 remains one of the world's weirdest rides. It's a bucket list ride for many coaster enthusiasts, and for good reason. It is, truly, indescribable. In a way that few coasters can claim, it must be ridden to be believed. The last Arrow was a "Hail Mary;" a last gasp of a dying manufacturer who desperately sought a foothold in the modern Coaster Wars. For better or worse, they found it. X is a legend. A weird, divisive, and downright strange ride... but in the end, a legend nonetheless. 

Have you experienced X or X2? What did you think of the unique experience of analog, mechanical seat rotation, and the strange experience of riding something so uniquely pioneering? Better yet have you achieved the legendary duo of Arrow's first and last coaster – Matterhorn and X2? Tell us your story in the comments below!