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2015: General Discussion

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Dark rides by their theatrical nature are quite organic, lights blow, gels burn out and nothing can really ever stay the same. That being said there should always be a standard set for what it's intended to look like, but with Duel that went out the window when the Haunted House's lighting got completely redesigned a number of times even before it was refurbished.

It looks a lot better in recent years and they're clearly making an effort to actually light the middle scenes in UV as intended 20 years ago. But in using such an excess of UV bars strung up right in your line of sight it looks trasy.

If they repainted some of the props in ther original flourecsent colours they'd also pop so much better in the darkness, without the need to use such bright lights that also show up the poles that move them.

At least they've remembered that there actually used to be a set in the skeleton scene and made the most of what's still there - new lighting in windows, scrims, etc.
 
When will they get rid of the ridiculous zombies in the spider scene? It used to be a great theatrical approach to the giant spider, now it's embarrassing with the awful zombies either side trying to join in the scare
 
They were trying to restore the spot SFX for the spiders last I heard for that scene. Last year they tried to restore the brilliant UV spider web murals but in the form of Poundland Halloween spider webs :p Well it still looks better than it did.
 
I love how people bicker and whinge about Duel relentlessly.

Sure, it's not anywhere near what it could be or indeed was under its previous life, but there are worse dark rides in other more major theme parks!

Replacing Duel isn't really what I would consider top of the pile for change at AT. The Flume, Blade, Dark Forest attractions, Cloud Cuckoo Land are all in far worse need of immediate attention.

:)
 
Who is in charge of adapting and maintaining Duel anyway? Is it the ride's team, the maintenance department, or both? Somebody must ride it to take stock of what is and isn't working?
 
Who's bickering and whinging? Duel usually has quite a cult following on the internet. If anything its the fiddling that I've seen some moaning about recently, which to some extent is fair enough because anybody with an understanding of 'theatre' would realise putting UV bars everywhere in sight is distracting.

UV is extremely effective when done skilfully and subtly - if you can tell that what you're seeing 'is UV' then you're just not experiencing a very good example of it. Or a disco.

The ride's team deal with it, they do a very good job, and its the responsibility of tech services too. Unfortunately like most Merlin parks there's no department dedicated to theatrical maintenance, which there is a surprisingly big demand for in any theme park - and also like most parks Alton Towers probably aren't willing to give the resources/budget.

Duel could be great with a couple of A/V alterations, redressed sets and effects, with some love in it. Doing such renovations would probably cost much less than the cost of demolishing it, even if it is starting to outlive its hardware somewhat. There's still big demand for a fun old spook in the British culture, just Duel isn't very good at it anymore after years of botching.
 
UV is extremely effective when done skilfully and subtly - if you can tell that what you're seeing 'is UV' then you're just not experiencing a very good example of it. Or a disco.
If I'm correct, I'm sure it was UV lighting/fluorescent paint that made the Haunted House's Crash Column. I think CC was removed eventually due to technical problems/safety measures but every dark ride needs something like that nowadays! :)
 
Yes well that set was painted totally in UV murals, that scene was very 'ghost train' inspired and the crash quite a simple trick. It would have worked on a small scale, but in a big attraction at a popular theme park sending cars through every 10 seconds it was doomed to be removed.

Take a look around though, there's still some of the murals left but most were painted black to hide them when the lighting was first taken out; like a lot of the original sets - the thinking being that nobody will notice a broken/missing effect if the area is hidden in darkness. So much of the ride ended up like this running up to 2002, long sections of nothing where there used to be numerous shock gags, and so the laser refurbishment happened.
 
There's just a constant stream of moaning about it! On here and on meets. There has been for years.

I have been riding it since 1992 and it was probably my favourite ride when I was 8.

It's much poorer now but it's hardly the worst thing at AT.

Some make out its dreadful in every way.

:)
 
Charlie has had several new effects since opening though, which filled in some of the bigger holes in the ride. Duel is going the other way.
 
Maybe its because I only get up to AT once a year now but everytime I've ridden Duel over the last few years I noticed something I didn't see the time before. Lots of the lighting has been improved! However Charlie seems to be stuck in an average mediocrity, nothing getting better, nothing hugely worse.
 
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I think changed is a better word than improved, as they're often fiddling with it but it's debatable whether or not it actually improves the ride experience. Some areas are brighter this year than last, which reveals various mechanisms and other stuff you're not supposed to see. There's also a huge excess of highly visible UV tubes, often in areas where there are very few UV effects to benefit from them.

Clearly they're doing the best they can with a budget of precisely zero, but the ride could be a lot better than the cobbled together mess it is at the moment.
 
I love how people bicker and whinge about Duel relentlessly.

Sure, it's not anywhere near what it could be or indeed was under its previous life, but there are worse dark rides in other more major theme parks!

We're Enthusiasts, and its a damn sight better complaint than the air tunnel....
The ride was and could be one of the best laugh in the dark rides in the world, glaring uv strips do it no justice.

While I like the fact that the ride team are making these changes, it feels there leaves a lot to be desired with regard to theatrics and the bigger picture.
Crawling through the spider scene used to have little darts of strobed spiders just popping out of darkness. Now we have giant strobes washing the whole scene.
The snake popping out of the clock gag in Knoebels haunted house is a classic example of amazingly timed lighting. It turns off just before the snake stops moving, making the rider think it keeps coming at them. Simple, but lifts the ride to a new level....
 
The big issue is the lighting is being done by ride teams and tech services (and tbf Towers tech services are very good at what they do) but a dark ride needs people with theatrical lighting skills.

They should get the Entertainment tech team to have a look.
 
Following on from Thorpe Parks price increase, looks like on the day tickets to Alton have gone up to £50.40... breaking the psychological £50 barrier.
 
I would've thought they'd set them at £49.99 to avoid breaking that barrier for another year at least, but clearly not.
 
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