Haunted House back or Duel?

[Rowe]

If Alton want to bring it back to the HH and remove the blasters, the scenes need work and new ones need adding in order to make it properly scary for a modern audience. Shooting rides are popular though, and if they want to get more visitors onto Duel - they ought to make the ride truly interactive. Dark shooting rides such as Buzz Lightyear at DLP are brilliant because they don't over-do the targets and shooting most makes certain things happen - which makes every ride that bit different...

Possibly shooting to prevent scares happening? If you miss the target, something will jump out at you? It could be marketed at the first haunted house where you decide your fate? Not so much about scores but about choosing to get scared or not?

That's an option I would genuinely be interested in seeing happen, as much as I dislike the use of guns, as it would create a new point to the ride with incorporating a Goosebumps 'turn the page to find your fate' theme.
Though at the same time I can't help thinking that Sally Corporation would be the first to do such a project (Legoland Windsor's Laser Raiders, multiple Scooby Doo shooters in USA and Aus) as, besides Walt Disney Imagineering and Mack Rides (Abenteuer Atlantis), they're the only ones in the industry who would do that here.

 

[Scott]

If Alton really were serious about the attraction they could call MACK back in? The ride system after all was made by them - although Alton seem to have had little or nothing to do with them since the HH and RMT...

The idea that I came up with would also truly make the tagline worthwhile: 'the haunted house strikes back'

 

[Rowe]

I think the ride team would be serious about giving the ride an overhaul, Mack return and all, alongside Alton management. It's possible that they have a plethora of ideas that they would like to introduce to the ride be it just effects or mere music but if the ride were to genuinely receive a new refit then it would be down to Merlin agreeing with relaxing the purse strings. Then again it is just the effects with the interactive side that we're talking about. It can't be too hard to get in a top (Or at least a high) class effects company much in the same vein as Sparks back from the early 1990s.

 

[LordOfDarkness]

John Wardley started out making illusions and effects so im sure he would welcome the idea and love to be part of the design team if duel was once again retrofitted.

LETS MAKE THIS HAPPEN PLEASE AT.

 

[LewisNavex]

To sum it all up AT...

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[Rose Of Dawn]

I prefer Duel.

The Haunted House was scary. So scary that I never rode it with my eyes fully open. But even so, I can still appreciate that people would rather it revert back to its previous state. But Duel is just more fun. It's a ride I love to go on again and again just because of the high scores. Take the guns away and is be less inclined to ride it as often as I do.

 

[Tim]

I think I would like to see a new Haunted House which lies somewhere between the two other versions. From the original Haunted House I'd bring back the Hammer Horror inspired design and laugh in the dark scares. I see no reason why this wouldn't still work today, especially if they market the ride as a throwback to classic horror.
However the ride still needs some sort of longevity so I also feel some sort of interaction is needed. Not the blind shooting as it is at the moment but something a bit more interesting. I have a few ideas:

1) Remove the Laser Guns but have different effects activate randomly. Each ride you wouldn’t know exactly what’s going to jump out at you (or from where).

2) The laser guns remain but now they actually interact with the ride. I think though I’d take a slightly different approach to what’s been mentioned above and have some targets prevent scares but others create them. For example if you’ve just hit a target on the right wall then the ride knows you’ll be looking to the right. Perhaps that target could trigger a monster to jump out right in your line of sight. Or maybe all the lights (including the other targets) could go off and have something jump up behind you on the left.

3) Have some other form of Interactivity. I know that at the moment Interactive rides tend to be limited to just shooting but with the technology we have now It’s about time someone tried pushing the boundaries. Perhaps you’re armed with a flashlight which will keep away the monsters. But you have only got so much power so you’ll want to save it. Or perhaps it’s an ultra-violate light and you are supposed to be searching for a hidden message within the house. Gain points for every clue you find but lose points if aimed at a monster. And that’s just what I came up with in 5 minutes.

 

[M1ke]

I must say that duel would be so much better without those bloody laser guns because then when you go around the corners you actually get a feel for how the ride was themed rather than just shooting at little red lights on walls and plastic spiders.

 

[Wortho]

As much as the haunted house was better, before it was duel it was getting less and less scary to guests, I think really much of the ride needs to be ripped out and modernized to bring it up to date with newer haunted attractions, with some really cool and complicated hollywood style special affects, something I really don't see merlin forking out for in the near future.