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Duel: The Haunted House Actually Strikes Back - Refurb Incoming

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Trooper Looper said:
Wow, I genuinely surprised by that POV, definitely a one of a kind Trackless Dark Ride, and definitely one I'd Ride more than once!!!
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A lot of trackless rides are designed with interactivity with other cars in mind (a lot of the newer ones seem to have scenes where the cars “dance” with each other or at very least are designed to interact with each other) which is probably why you thought they provided a less individualised experience than Duel does now.

In fairness, I can see why you wouldn’t want a trackless ride system if you were keeping the premise of the ride exactly the same. However, the ride I’m describing would be a bit different in tone to the current ride and the 1992 HH, and would be designed to play more to the strengths of the trackless ride system.

Backing out of dreamworld for a second, one recent ride rumour did give me an idea about a potential future option for the Duel space that I think could work quite well, and is something I could see Merlin being more open to and able to pull off; how would we feel about Duel being replaced by something similar to the rumoured DarKoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg?

For those of you who don’t know, DarKoaster is a rumoured enclosed coaster coming to Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2023. It’s replacing Curse of DarKastle, an existing dark ride, and is rumoured to be an Intamin Family Launch Coaster housed entirely within the existing building. It has a reasonably short circuit, but it’s going to have switch tracks so that it can negotiate the circuit twice while still running 2 trains, and some have suggested that it could use different visuals on the 2nd circuit to give off the illusion of being a different route. Here’s a NoLimits POV, to give you some idea:


How would we feel about something similar replacing Duel? For some idea, the DarKastle building has fairly similar dimensions to Duel’s, from looking at Google Earth; it’s perhaps slightly bigger, but I know DarKastle also has/had a more extensive indoor queue than Duel, for what it’s worth.
 
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Why do we need another Roller Coaster? We already have 10, and I would hate to see Merlin give Duel/ The Haunted House a similar fate to Bubbleworks. I can't imagine a theme park Without a Ghost Train. If this is True, might as Well call Alton Towers, Six Flags Staffordshire.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Why do we need another Roller Coaster? We already have 10, and I would hate to see Merlin give Duel/ The Haunted House a similar fate to Bubbleworks. I can't imagine a theme park Without a Ghost Train. If this is True, might as Well call Alton Towers, Six Flags Staffordshire.
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An indoor coaster would offer something different to anything else in Alton Towers' lineup, and they wouldn't necessarily have to make it quite as coaster-y as DarKoaster if they wanted to; the model is very versatile, and could lend itself to something more story-driven with less of an emphasis on coaster sections if the park wanted.

This also wouldn't be a big 7 calibre thrill ride; it would fit quite nicely into the age category of "too old for CBeebies, too young for the big 7" that people say Towers needs more for quite nicely, in my opinion!

Although I might be a touch biased, as I'm of the belief that you can never have too many coasters... I apologise if my DarKoaster suggestion was controversial, I was just inspired by the reveal a few days ago.
 
Trooper Looper said:
I'm glad you like it though, for me personally, fingers crossed this isn't true. No offence.
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I'd just like to point out that this is by no means an actual rumour about Alton Towers; DarKoaster is heavily rumoured for Busch Gardens Williamsburg in the USA in 2023, as a replacement to their Curse of DarKastle dark ride that closed in 2017! I was merely suggesting the possibility of something similar replacing Duel and wondering about your thoughts; it's by no means rumoured for Towers!

So don't worry; Duel is safe from being replaced by a coaster for the time being, as far as I'm aware!

I apologise if I caused any concern there; I was merely airing the possibility of something similar replacing Duel after being inspired by the DarKoaster rumour reveal a few days ago... it wasn't my aim to cause any concern about this replacing Duel.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Might as well ask this as you're online, what's your favourite scene in Duel?
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I'm so sorry; I completely missed this question from earlier!

In all honesty, I'd struggle to say, as I never really think of Duel as having scenes per se; it always seems more like loads of random stuff popping out of the darkness to me as opposed to a ride that has clear-cut, defined scenes. It all kind of blends into one for me. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but Duel has never been a dark ride I've thought of as having really defined, clear-cut scenes that you can differentiate from one another easily, and from what I've seen, that looked to be the case even when it was the HH.

I do quite like the garden bit just before you go into the zombie lab, if I had to pick one section on the ride (that seems like the most defined scene on the ride, and has lots of nice scenery), and in fairness, I don't think the zombie lab itself is bad at all; it is at least a fairly defined scene, and it does have a fair bit to look at in terms of stuff popping out and scenery items strewn around compared to the rest of the ride!

That one might be controversial, but I actually don't dislike it at all... I'll admit I may have liked its predecessor more based on the fact the garden section may currently be my favourite bit of the ride (I'm honestly not sure), but I do quite like it as a scene!
 
I agree, it may be lacking in some creative areas, but it's a well done transition from the Gardens to the Laboratory.

If I had to pick, I'd probably go for the Grand Hall, with the 2 impressive Ghouls (My Favourite props in the ride) that pop out from behind the pillar. And i think it genuinely has great lighting in that scene, but the purple light needs to be changed to a mix of maybe blue, mixed with red and orange, maybe a tint of green, to give it a magical, yet haunting feeling to it.
 
Bit of an outlandish and maybe foolish thought here but I have also thought that had Thirteen built in Gloomy Wood instead of Ug Land/Dark Forrest then I think Duel's fate might have looked more positive. Remember that plan concept of the Vekoma broomstick coaster for Gloomy Wood? IMO, always thought that the ride would have been more suited for that area of the park as not only would you have to spend money having to also retheme Ug Land which we can all agree wasn't all that good, but instead the funds that would have been used to try and retheme the place into Dark Forrest could have all been put into good use to give Duel the much needed revamp it craves. God knows what happens to Ug Land here unless it fully becomes Thunder Rock Valley.

Given the likely surge of interest in that area of the park following Thirteen's opening then it's no surprise that Duel would have to end up looking good for that season though if it be just a refurb or actually a full gutting out and rebuild is debatable, then again if they went back to retheme it to Haunted House such as removing the blasters then sneaky Merlin would no doubt brag about it being also a 'new' attraction for 2010 as well as what they did with Spinball. :p

I have no doubt that there are several senior folks at AT who would love nothing more than to give Duel to attention it deserves though I feel having Thirteen being built in the wrong place was an opportunity missed for Duel. Regarding dark rides at Towers though, I have always said that the park should have at least three dark rides to have in the line-up. It's good that we have Gangster Granny putting that number up to two but one more would be nice (not including Dungeons ofc). Going off a tangent here but probably best if I find a topic on here to describe your own personal Towers Utopia timeline.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Bit of an outlandish and maybe foolish thought here but I have also thought that had Thirteen built in Gloomy Wood instead of Ug Land/Dark Forrest then I think Duel's fate might have looked more positive. Remember that plan concept of the Vekoma broomstick coaster for Gloomy Wood? IMO, always thought that the ride would have been more suited for that area of the park as not only would you have to spend money having to also retheme Ug Land which we can all agree wasn't all that good, but instead the funds that would have been used to try and retheme the place into Dark Forrest could have all been put into good use to give Duel the much needed revamp it craves. God knows what happens to Ug Land here unless it fully becomes Thunder Rock Valley.

Given the likely surge of interest in that area of the park following Thirteen's opening then it's no surprise that Duel would have to end up looking good for that season though if it be just a refurb or actually a full gutting out and rebuild is debatable, then again if they went back to retheme it to Haunted House such as removing the blasters then sneaky Merlin would no doubt brag about it being also a 'new' attraction for 2010 as well as what they did with Spinball. :p

I have no doubt that there are several senior folks at AT who would love nothing more than to give Duel to attention it deserves though I feel having Thirteen being built in the wrong place was an opportunity missed for Duel. Regarding dark rides at Towers though, I have always said that the park should have at least three dark rides to have in the line-up. It's good that we have Gangster Granny putting that number up to two but one more would be nice (not including Dungeons ofc). Going off a tangent here but probably best if I find a topic on here to describe your own personal Towers Utopia timeline.
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Err, are you forgetting Hex?! :eek:;)
 
Matt N said:
An indoor coaster would offer something different to anything else in Alton Towers' lineup, and they wouldn't necessarily have to make it quite as coaster-y as DarKoaster if they wanted to; the model is very versatile, and could lend itself to something more story-driven with less of an emphasis on coaster sections if the park wanted.

This also wouldn't be a big 7 calibre thrill ride; it would fit quite nicely into the age category of "too old for CBeebies, too young for the big 7" that people say Towers needs more for quite nicely, in my opinion!

Although I might be a touch biased, as I'm of the belief that you can never have too many coasters... I apologise if my DarKoaster suggestion was controversial, I was just inspired by the reveal a few days ago.
Click to expand...

I agree that Alton Towers needs an indoor coaster, but it should be in addition to a dark ride in the Haunted House building not instead of.
The ride count needs to go up!
 
Matt N said:
A lot of trackless rides are designed with interactivity with other cars in mind (a lot of the newer ones seem to have scenes where the cars “dance” with each other or at very least are designed to interact with each other) which is probably why you thought they provided a less individualised experience than Duel does now.

In fairness, I can see why you wouldn’t want a trackless ride system if you were keeping the premise of the ride exactly the same. However, the ride I’m describing would be a bit different in tone to the current ride and the 1992 HH, and would be designed to play more to the strengths of the trackless ride system.

Backing out of dreamworld for a second, one recent ride rumour did give me an idea about a potential future option for the Duel space that I think could work quite well, and is something I could see Merlin being more open to and able to pull off; how would we feel about Duel being replaced by something similar to the rumoured DarKoaster at Busch Gardens Williamsburg?

For those of you who don’t know, DarKoaster is a rumoured enclosed coaster coming to Busch Gardens Williamsburg in 2023. It’s replacing Curse of DarKastle, an existing dark ride, and is rumoured to be an Intamin Family Launch Coaster housed entirely within the existing building. It has a reasonably short circuit, but it’s going to have switch tracks so that it can negotiate the circuit twice while still running 2 trains, and some have suggested that it could use different visuals on the 2nd circuit to give off the illusion of being a different route. Here’s a NoLimits POV, to give you some idea:


How would we feel about something similar replacing Duel? For some idea, the DarKastle building has fairly similar dimensions to Duel’s, from looking at Google Earth; it’s perhaps slightly bigger, but I know DarKastle also has/had a more extensive indoor queue than Duel, for what it’s worth.
Click to expand...


jon81uk said:
I agree that Alton Towers needs an indoor coaster, but it should be in addition to a dark ride in the Haunted House building not instead of.
The ride count needs to go up!
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Funnily enough, I have always said that the best place for an indoor coaster at Towers would of course be the former 'Coaster Corner' end of the park by the David Walliams area. IIRC, Alton Mouse and Beast were removed due to noise complaints however if you were to enclose the ride, well...

There is space for putting a small coaster there as with the one in that video there and if they did that, it would no doubt help that area of the park gain more attention. Anyone with me or any other locations, ok going off topic here from Duel but all the same.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Funnily enough, I have always said that the best place for an indoor coaster at Towers would of course be the former 'Coaster Corner' end of the park by the David Walliams area. IIRC, Alton Mouse and Beast were removed due to noise complaints however if you were to enclose the ride, well...
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I’ve said the same thing on here before too, the former coaster corner would be a perfect location for another indoor coaster.
 
Trooper Looper said:
Why do we need another Roller Coaster? We already have 10, and I would hate to see Merlin give Duel/ The Haunted House a similar fate to Bubbleworks. I can't imagine a theme park Without a Ghost Train. If this is True, might as Well call Alton Towers, Six Flags Staffordshire.
Click to expand...

The thing is we haven’t had a ghost train since the year Duel was installed, what we now have is a weird mix of interactive dark ride and what was once a world class dark ride (and it’s worth remembering that it was world class in the 90s so would probably be in need of update now anyway). If you want a ghost style ride then it’s Hex for me which is genuinely scary, it’s just a bit of a shame that they use the madhouse style attraction which, although fun, isn’t really my favourite type of indoor ride.

I’ve been saying this for years but Alton would benefit so much from a new, world class dark ride, the issue is I’d have little confidence in Merlin to deliver that considering that track record.
 
Duel was only just refurbished a few seasons ago so I don't think it's time to say goodbye. But when it's time does come then a re-imagined Haunted House making use of a trackless ride system wouldn't go amiss!
 
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