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Duel: The Haunted House Actually Strikes Back - Refurb Incoming

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DistortAMG said:
Pretty sure I read somewhere that is was quite a bit below the million mark.

Why would they get Sally in when one goal of the project was to renovate the ride as bare bones cheaply as possible? I get what you are saying though.

This was the time when we started seeing pay per ride attractions and sponsored rides, literally everything being done as cheap as possible. The start of the decline some would say.

Here is the biggest change. Looking from the end of the station back into the ride. This was the garden scene, which as you can see, was ripped out here during the Duel refurb for the zombie ending we have today. This is just after the lunatic that comes out at you from behind the rock, just after the undertacker, until the very end of the ride. The ride track is under the wood on the floor.

The on ride photo section, the zombies with blasters on walkways from above, are all within this shot today.



Not my photo but a great one indeed.
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Wow, I've never seen that pic before!! The final scene was clalled the Swamp finale. I wonder if there's any surviving scenery and props behind the zombie finale walls when it was the swamp
 
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DistortAMG said:
Pretty sure I read somewhere that is was quite a bit below the million mark.

Why would they get Sally in when one goal of the project was to renovate the ride as bare bones cheaply as possible? I get what you are saying though.

This was the time when we started seeing pay per ride attractions and sponsored rides, literally everything being done as cheap as possible. The start of the decline some would say.

Here is the biggest change. Looking from the end of the station back into the ride. This was the garden scene, which as you can see, was ripped out here during the Duel refurb for the zombie ending we have today. This is just after the lunatic that comes out at you from behind the rock, just after the undertacker, until the very end of the ride. The ride track is under the wood on the floor.

The on ride photo section, the zombies with blasters on walkways from above, are all within this shot today.



Not my photo but a great one indeed.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the photo! Is this from during the original construction, or is it from during the changeover into Duel?
 
Matt N said:
Thanks for the photo! Is this from during the original construction, or is it from during the changeover into Duel?
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Sorry if I was not clear. It was from the change over to Duel. This would have been taken between November 2002 and March 2003.

You can see some of the old garden scenery on the right of the photo, half ripped out. Plus the new walls going in for the new zombie scene.
 
I was really excited for Duel when it opened and really enjoyed it in its first few years. HH I did go on as a child however I have no memory of it at all.

The biggest issue with Duel for me is the lighting, it's far too bright in areas which exposes rigging for effects (screaming heads and the flying bat's sections being the worst) and shows all the blank/empty spaces which the original HH and Duel refurb never did. One thing a dark ride shouldn't do is constantly remind you that you're in a tin shed.

There's no reason for the ride to change incredibly, it just needs serious investment to get it up to scratch. I would be happy to see a retheme of the existing ride with a big budget, rather than the ride gutted and something new put in place.

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Trooper Looper said:
If you want to compare each attraction to one another, I suggest you buy 'Smoke and Mirros, Alton Towers Haunted House' by Michael P Elay. It shows never seen before photos of its construction and concept art.
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Cheers for the book recommendation; I've just ordered that, along with another book called The Story of Alton Towers by Jack O'Callaghan (released in 2020, with info up to 2019)!

We should make a thread about theme park books, as I've been getting back into reading a bit more lately (I've started reading before bed), and I do like a good theme park-related read...
 
Matt N said:
Cheers for the book recommendation; I've just ordered that, along with another book called The Story of Alton Towers by Jack O'Callaghan (released in 2020, with info up to 2019)!

We should make a thread about theme park books, as I've been getting back into reading a bit more lately (I've started reading before bed), and I do like a good theme park-related read...
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Have you got John Wardley's autobiography as well? That's a good read too. :)
 
Matt N said:
Cheers for the book recommendation; I've just ordered that, along with another book called The Story of Alton Towers by Jack O'Callaghan (released in 2020, with info up to 2019)!

We should make a thread about theme park books, as I've been getting back into reading a bit more lately (I've started reading before bed), and I do like a good theme park-related read...
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Can't wait to see what you think of them :D
 
I noticed when riding Duel this week, the bright ultraviolet light is now back on/working in the trommel section. I assumed it had been turned off to hide the fact it wasn’t working.
 
djtruefitt said:
You are more likely to be given free entry to the park, than the trommel being fixed. As far as I’m aware it would require being ripped out and a whole new one being put in place. Which of course they won’t do.
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That might not actually be true. From what I've gathered in the Smoke and Mirrors book, the trommel originally looked like a void and was red, rather than being bluish purple with bricks. So during its time of being around it has gone through by the looks of it 1 overhaul, probably back in the 90s though. So it probably can be fixed but they don't know what spare parts they need as most of the things there was made by Sparks.
 
Duel would have been a lot better if it had targets to hit that interact with guests instead of lots of pointless targets everywhere. That’s why I prefer Sheriff showdown as when you hit them targets lights go out or things move. Like in the 2nd section they could use projectors of ghosts and make it feel there presents are making the things move on the table and other items in the room.
 
Trooper Looper said:
That might not actually be true. From what I've gathered in the Smoke and Mirrors book, the trommel originally looked like a void and was red, rather than being bluish purple with bricks. So during its time of being around it has gone through by the looks of it 1 overhaul, probably back in the 90s though. So it probably can be fixed but they don't know what spare parts they need as most of the things there was made by Sparks.
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I'm not sure the colour of the trommel is particularly relevant to the way it works, but FWIW I don't recall it looking any different as Haunted House. The effect was admittedly a bit better then, as it didn't have the weird opening face (that was somewhere else) and the fire escape wasn't visible. And it rotated.

It was still a bit naff though, if I'm completely honest.
 
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