Alton Towers Alternate History Moments

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, but just a quick question:

With the success of the Nemesis ride in 1994, and the relatively low cost of game development at the time, should Alton Towers have leveraged the success of the brand and created a Nemesis computer game for the Sega MegaDrive, and turned Nemesis into a brand beyond simply theme parks*?

They also could have created Nemesis cereal boxes as well, and perhaps even a CBBC / CITV cartoon alongside (similar to Sonic, Mario, etc); there may have been some comic books created at the time, but I think that children had mostly stopped reading these by the 1990s.

Such things are not unheard of, as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride later became a successful film franchise, and many other products have crossed industries (the Michelin food ratings came from the tyre company, record labels came from furniture companies, and the Guinness World Records came from alcohol!).

*The only thing working against it is that John Wardley was heavily opposed to the idea of using the ‘Nemesis’ name at Thorpe Park (whereas I saw it as a positive, and a compliment to his work at AT), and so I’m not sure if he would have opposed its use in other media?

Secret Weapon said:

I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this, but just a quick question:

With the success of the Nemesis ride in 1994, and the relatively low cost of game development at the time, should Alton Towers have leveraged the success of the brand and created a Nemesis computer game for the Sega MegaDrive, and turned Nemesis into a brand beyond simply theme parks*?

They also could have created Nemesis cereal boxes as well, and perhaps even a CBBC / CITV cartoon alongside (similar to Sonic, Mario, etc); there may have been some comic books created at the time, but I think that children had mostly stopped reading these by the 1990s.

Such things are not unheard of, as the Pirates of the Caribbean ride later became a successful film franchise, and many other products have crossed industries (the Michelin food ratings came from the tyre company, record labels came from furniture companies, and the Guinness World Records came from alcohol!).

*The only thing working against it is that John Wardley was heavily opposed to the idea of using the ‘Nemesis’ name at Thorpe Park (whereas I saw it as a positive, and a compliment to his work at AT), and so I’m not sure if he would have opposed its use in other media?

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They did have the Nemesis comic for opening yet never went beyond that as its strange that they never went all out with it such as giving us a prelude comic of Nemesis before coming to Earth, even giving us a Nemesis vs Nemesis Inferno comic if the latter ride still happens.

Yeah, it's not hard to think that during the mid 90s had Tussauds really wanted to, they could have milked that Nemesis cow for as long as they would liked? Would we get say a feature film though? Honestly I doubt that unless the ride becomes more popular with how much they promote it?

One downside could be that the park trying to create the next Nemesis that is often said might be even harder than our timeline as it's unlikely they'd have a ride with such a wild backstory and marketing as successful as Nemesis with maybe Oblivion having some potential appealing to the Y2K crowd. A comic with the Lord of Darkness does have potential I'll be honest.

People don't always see the opportunities that are placed in front of them* - especially when the opportunities belong to another industry.

Alton Towers were already thinking ahead to their next ride after Nemesis opened, instead of also recognising the wider potential of the Nemesis brand that they had just created.

(*One example is the PlayStation; Sony were about to discard their prototype gaming device after the Nintendo partnership fell through, so that they could return to regular consumer electronics, until Ken Kuturagi persuaded them to develop it as a standalone device instead)

If the Nemesis cartoons etc had been successful then my guess is that Tussauds would have had to put significantly more thought into the naming of future rides, and SW5 would probably not have been called "Air" because it didn't feature a marketable character or theme.

My guess is that Nemesis Inferno may still have been Nemesis-themed, but it may have had more of a direct tie-in to the original (e.g. perhaps a second Nemesis creature, rather than a volcano)

Marvel Comics managed to create multiple characters (Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, etc), so Alton Towers could surely have done the same as well?

AT would then have become the place where the characters come to life (similar to Disney Land), instead of just being a place to go on rides.

In hindsight, rides such as "Corkscrew" were wasted opportunities, because the ride featured no marketable theming at all (beyond a basic logo that could be printed on T-shirts, etc).

Secret Weapon said:

People don't always see the opportunities that are placed in front of them* - especially when the opportunities belong to another industry.

Alton Towers were already thinking ahead to their next ride after Nemesis opened, instead of also recognising the wider potential of the Nemesis brand that they had just created.

(*One example is the PlayStation; Sony were about to discard their prototype gaming device after the Nintendo partnership fell through, so that they could return to regular consumer electronics, until Ken Kuturagi persuaded them to develop it as a standalone device instead)

If the Nemesis cartoons etc had been successful then my guess is that Tussauds would have had to put significantly more thought into the naming of future rides, and SW5 would probably not have been called "Air" because it didn't feature a marketable character or theme.

My guess is that Nemesis Inferno may still have been Nemesis-themed, but it may have had more of a direct tie-in to the original (e.g. perhaps a second Nemesis creature, rather than a volcano)

Marvel Comics managed to create multiple characters (Spider-Man, Hulk, X-Men, etc), so Alton Towers could surely have done the same as well?

AT would then have become the place where the characters come to life (similar to Disney Land), instead of just being a place to go on rides.

In hindsight, rides such as "Corkscrew" were wasted opportunities, because the ride featured no marketable theming at all (beyond a basic logo that could be printed on T-shirts, etc).

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Been sitting on this idea thinking but giving how much marketing went into Air, it is quite surprising they didn't go a little further creating a one of comic like what they did with Nemesis maybe acting as the 'good vs evil' theme that could have given the ride more backstory but alas giving how much of the theming was cut which might have been useful to tell the theme of the ride, would have seem pointless to make a comic on it without it.

Oblivion would have certainly have potential for a gritting graphic novel in which that has perhaps the best feel for a comic which brings into more about the Lord or Darkness and such. God knows we seen could have seen a Avengers style crossover comic for some strange shenanigans with an Alton universe that they really could have made it all great PR material for the park.

Seeing Saturday morning cartoons I just can't see happening even if we did go with the comic idea though I could see if the park had been more successful in making say Nemesis into a bigger household name than what it is even what it is in our own timeline, it is possible that maybe a Nemesis Reborn featured film could have been done into being a Kaiju romp story with Nemesis being the anti-hero monster but anything could happen.

QTXAdsy said:

Been sitting on this idea thinking but giving how much marketing went into Air, it is quite surprising they didn't go a little further creating a one of comic like what they did with Nemesis maybe acting as the 'good vs evil' theme that could have given the ride more backstory but alas giving how much of the theming was cut which might have been useful to tell the theme of the ride, would have seem pointless to make a comic on it without it.

Oblivion would have certainly have potential for a gritting graphic novel in which that has perhaps the best feel for a comic which brings into more about the Lord or Darkness and such. God knows we seen could have seen a Avengers style crossover comic for some strange shenanigans with an Alton universe that they really could have made it all great PR material for the park.

Seeing Saturday morning cartoons I just can't see happening even if we did go with the comic idea though I could see if the park had been more successful in making say Nemesis into a bigger household name than what it is even what it is in our own timeline, it is possible that maybe a Nemesis Reborn featured film could have been done into being a Kaiju romp story with Nemesis being the anti-hero monster but anything could happen.

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I remember hearing that AT had begun exploring the good vs light theme with Oblivion, as the fireworks display in 1998 apparently ended with a showdown between the Lord of Light and the Lord of Darkness (which, I think, is is the first time the latter was explicitly given that name by the park).

I remember the late Stan Lee (creator of Marvel Comics) saying that the green Power Ranger was so uniquely popular that he could separate from the other five rangers and become a standalone character in his own separate TV show or comic*; as a fan of the Power Rangers during the 1990s (and especially the green ranger), I completely agree!

^The reason why I mention this is that the Nemesis brand was also so uniquely popular** that, in my opinion, it almost could have spun-off from Alton Towers and become its own entity – similar to The Simpsons spinning off from the Tracey Ullman show; Ali G separating from the Ten O’Clock show; and various successful solo singers separating from their bands (Michael Jackson, Beyonce, Robbie Williams, Justin Timberlake, etc)

**Nemesis was one of the few Merlin rides to have subsequent rides either named after it (Sub-Terra, and Inferno) or using its theme (Toxicator); in fairness to AT, though, they may not have been able to forsee this back in 1994, and they may have assumed that their subsequent rides may also spawn sequels (which kind of happened with Oblivion: The Black Hole in Gardaland, although - as with Corkscrew - it essentially only borrowed the name, and not the theme)

The benefit of a Saturday morning cartoon is that it would have forced the TV show writers to create new characters and storylines, which could then be fed back into the ride itself; this happened with Mortal Kombat, as some of the characters and backstory from the TV show then wound up back into the game itself (the new character Quan Chi, as well as the ethnic origins of Kano, Reptile, Cyrax, and Sektor)

I honestly don’t know how comic books could have been produced for Air, Rita, and Spinball Whizzer, as these are probably the three least themed coasters in the park (if anybody has any ideas, then I would love to hear them!)

(*This almost happened, as VR Troopers was originally supposed to be centred around the former green ranger Tommy Oliver - until fan protests caused him to return to Power Rangers as the white ranger instead)