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Duel: The Haunted House Actually Strikes Back - Refurb Incoming

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I would love to see them start this ride from scratch with a complete overhaul.

The house and outside area already looks great, and could look even better with a bit of investment.

Are people on here confident that could happen one day?
 
Drew Peacock said:
I would love to see them start this ride from scratch with a complete overhaul.

The house and outside area already looks great, and could look even better with a bit of investment.

Are people on here confident that could happen one day?
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I am not confident they would recreate the Haunted House from scratch at significant cost to end up with an improved/more sustainable version of what is there. I think you could make that argument for Nemesis, perhaps.

I think it's more than likely that at some point in the future they could rip out what is there and transform it into something new. If they do, it's almost guaranteed we'll get a "Duel. Time to bring it back?" thread.
 
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Rick said:
If they do, it's almost guaranteed we'll get a "Duel. Time to bring it back?" thread.
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This is the problem with how the parks have been maintaining their rides and then executing new projects for many years. Letting deep rooted problems grow in aging existing rides, then somehow coming up with whole new problems when they replace them.

Im not confident they could improve on Haunted House when it opened, even though that was 30 years ago. Im not even confident they could improve on Duel currently, it's too big a building for the likely budget theyd give. When they took Bubble Works out, they only managed to pull off Gruffalo by downsizing most the space and filling half with non-scenes like some pictures on a wall or a TV screen. It just about scraped by.
 
OilyWater said:
This is the problem with how the parks have been maintaining their rides and then executing new projects for many years. Letting deep rooted problems grow in aging existing rides, then somehow coming up with whole new problems when they replace them.

Im not confident they could improve on Haunted House when it opened, even though that was 30 years ago. Im not even confident they could improve on Duel currently, it's too big a building for the likely budget theyd give. When they took Bubble Works out, they only managed to pull off Gruffalo by downsizing most the space and filling half with non-scenes like some pictures on a wall or a TV screen. It just about scraped by.
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Also happened with the boat section of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The huge scenes of Toyland Tours were largely boxed out of view.
 
I've felt for a while that, mediocre as Duel is these days, they could easily spend an absolute fortune on it and not come out with a substantially better ride at the end of it.

Better to spend much less money properly fixing up some of the more serious issues, many of which involve poor lighting.
 
Out of interest, what is it that you guys think needs doing to Duel?

Admittedly, the ride isn’t one of my favourite dark rides, but isn’t it basically just meant to be a large-scale, interactive ghost train, with loads of random jump scares that just add to an overall scary feel as opposed to something with a proper theme/storyline? In that regard, I think it does the large-scale ghost train thing rather well, personally; it certainly creates an unsettling atmosphere, and has lots of jumpscares!

I think Duel is excellent for what it’s meant to be (a ghost train with a shooting element), and I did have fun last time I rode it, but it’s not personally my type of spooky dark ride, if you get what I mean; I personally prefer spooky dark rides when they’re more ambient as opposed to out-and-out jumpscare-y, and have clear-cut scenes and a storyline of sorts. Think something like Disney’s Haunted Mansion; I actually really, really enjoyed the Magic Kingdom equivalent of this attraction!

I know they don’t have the money, but in a dreamworld, I’d love it if Towers could keep Duel’s facade and queue, but replace the ride itself with an ETF trackless dark ride like Symbolica, themed to touring a spooky house where weird things are happening. You could have things like a great hall scene with a table & chairs with moving skeletons sat on it that the cars dance around, and you could have a living room scene or something, with bookcases with books moving around on them and books floating in the air or something. Like a modernised version of the Haunted Mansion, and more ambient as opposed to the jump-scare orientated ride that Duel is now.

Also, why is it that Duel seems to have a very different interactive system to many other dark ride systems, such as those on Sally & Triotech interactive dark rides? It seems far less technological, and more simplistic, than many other interactive dark ride systems I’ve seen. Was it Sally or Triotech who converted Duel?
 
Matt N said:
Also, why is it that Duel seems to have a very different interactive system to many other dark ride systems, such as those on Sally & Triotech interactive dark rides? It seems far less technological, and more simplistic, than many other interactive dark ride systems I’ve seen. Was it Sally or Triotech who converted Duel?
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A company called "Mega Zone" provided and installed the interactive equipment.
 
Matt N said:
I’d love it if Towers could keep Duel’s facade and queue, but replace the ride itself with an ETF trackless dark ride like Symbolica, themed to touring a spooky house where weird things are happening
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This is exactly what I would love them to do. I would keep the whimsy from Symbolica but then add some more spooky elements as it really fits with the whole gothic vibe of the Towers ruins and gardens and would work really well.

Problem is to do that kind of attraction properly they would need to spend a lot of money which is very unlikely. Even with the cost saving of using an existing building and facade.

Also, the chances of a new dark ride with a home grown storyline and not an IP is pretty slim these days.
 
I rode the excellent Lego Ninjago: The Ride at Legoland Windsor yesterday, and I was thinking that something similar would work very well as a Duel replacement, in my opinion! The hand gesture technology wasn’t as difficult to grasp as I’d expected, the 3D worked really well, there were some nice physical effects, the ride system was very dynamic, and on the whole, I found it a very fun ride! Even though I know nothing about Lego Ninjago, so had no idea what I was shooting at, I still had great fun on it; I just sort of shot my hands around aimlessly at whatever I could see, and managed to rack up a score of 49,500!

I certainly wouldn’t object to something similar replacing Duel; what do you guys think?
 
I thought Duel was being knocked down and a new entrance plaza was being built over it , what ever happened to that?
 
Hitch said:
I thought Duel was being knocked down and a new entrance plaza was being built over it , what ever happened to that?
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Don't think thats ever been suggested. One of the long-term plans proposed an entrance to the side of Duel I think.
But with the Rollercoaster Restaurant needing an entrance from outside the park the gate at Galactica makes more sense for now. But I'd rather see new monorail train instead of a new entrance plaza.
 
jon81uk said:
Don't think thats ever been suggested. One of the long-term plans proposed an entrance to the side of Duel I think.
But with the Rollercoaster Restaurant needing an entrance from outside the park the gate at Galactica makes more sense for now. But I'd rather see new monorail train instead of a new entrance plaza.
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I hope they don't go through with changing the entrance location. The entrance by monorail is a unique and exciting way to start the day - that first glimpse of Nemesis is exciting for first-timers. But agreed, new monorail trains, refurbed etc would be good. I also think the monorail stations could do with a refurb - it's the first thing you see when you arrive and the last thing before you leave and it doesn't have much magic or sense of adventure about it, they look plain and a bit tired.
 
jon81uk said:
Don't think thats ever been suggested. One of the long-term plans proposed an entrance to the side of Duel I think.
But with the Rollercoaster Restaurant needing an entrance from outside the park the gate at Galactica makes more sense for now. But I'd rather see new monorail train instead of a new entrance plaza.
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I've found the details on that development plan, The proposal was to put the entrance to the east of Duel
https://towersstreet.com/history/concepts/long-term-development-plan-2012/

Don't think any of that plan came about!
 
OilyWater said:
Replacing one of the most detailed dark rides in the country with an empty B&Q full of huge screens playing Wii Sports doesnt seem great

A more dynamic ride system and a proper new take on the theme would be great though when the time comes
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I think the time is now, I've never been a fan of Duel but now so many effects don't work it is a very poor ride. I would totally back them gutting the building and starting pretty much from scratch to create a proper haunted house experience again. With the technology of today, even just using similar effects to Gangsta Granny (mix of screens and real life props) you could make a really good, exciting dark ride in the Haunted House. I think I would go down the more friendly "cute" ghosts angle that would make it a good family ride than dark and scary - that helps differentiate Gloomy Wood from Dark Forest - and coming from Katanga Canyon it is good to keep the family rides coming as you walk that area of the park.
 
Id like to see better investment into dual and use of modern technologies as well as classics.

Things like peppers ghost and face mapping work well and well disguised screens for better effects. I think whilst the redevelopment into dual was an interesting idea at the time, but technological advances could make it a very decent haunted house without a need for interactivity
 
geo4chg said:
I've never been a fan of Duel but now so many effects don't work it is a very poor ride. I would totally back them gutting the building and starting pretty much from scratch to create a proper haunted house
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But gutting the building would be throwing away half the work that's already done for them, just because the effects been so poorly maintained. Such a self destructive approach when there are other ways to create a big exciting haunted house (which is what it was always supposed to be).

More screens would be boring, we have Gangsta Granny

Only reason to empty the building would be if they want to completely change the theme.
 
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