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Nemesis: Sub-Terra

Squiggs said:
Ironically, when I said the above a few weeks back, a Tivoli Extreme was one of the rides I was thinking of as being a suitable new resident of the Sub-Terra building. It'll be interesting to see how Spinjam is received by guests this season.
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Looking at Spinjam, yeah you're right. If you were to enclose it and then add many indoor SFX either effects and music with maybe a very loose story telling the backstory of the ride, maybe the sequel of NST in which it could be themed on the tentacles (or is it claws?) of Nemesis spinning you round then in total you could have a ride that would get a far better reception than NST.

Indeed I wonder with all the Retrosquad rides is that all of them here on nothing more than perhaps a season long trial to see what ride is the most popular with the public and if so then Towers will go ahead and make a permanent version of that ride in the park in due course.
 
QTXAdsy said:
Looking at Spinjam, yeah you're right. If you were to enclose it and then add many indoor SFX either effects and music with maybe a very loose story telling the backstory of the ride, maybe the sequel of NST in which it could be themed on the tentacles (or is it claws?) of Nemesis spinning you round then in total you could have a ride that would get a far better reception than NST.

Indeed I wonder with all the Retrosquad rides is that all of them here on nothing more than perhaps a season long trial to see what ride is the most popular with the public and if so then Towers will go ahead and make a permanent version of that ride in the park in due course.
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By this logic, Mixtape is undoubtedly the most popular Retro Squad ride there has been - a permanent one of those I wouldn't mind (yet to ride Spinjam, will be doing next Friday).
 
Mixtape was the most popular out of the three last year, and nothing came of that. Despite the emails that were sent out regarding a questionnaire, you would have thought given its popularity they'd purchase one.

The problem is NST now though is the massive hole they’re stuck with. I doubt a Extreme would fit in the pit with its arms extended sadly. A circular ride though however may. Then it’s just figuring out how to get people down there. Unless they fill it in but though would be costly I’d imagine.
 
Am I the only one who thought Mixtape was crap? You just kind of slowly bounced up and down and didn't feel anything? My eldest son hates extreme rides, especially airtime and the feeling of "falling" and he sat there the whole time looking bored.

I'm certainly not against Alton buying flats or them doing something with the ugly NST building but maybe I'm missing something with Mixtape?
 
pluk said:
It's a green tin shed in a hole, holes are expensive to modify.
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I think that was my original point about putting a flat ride in it. I think that's the key to whatever replaces Sub-terra, it can't be another big civil engineering project, as they are always an expensive option, which puts pressure on the rest of the budget.

If they embrace the green tin shed and the existing hole, they essentially have a cuboid space which is more or less exactly the size required to accommodate the safety envelope of most spinning flat rides.
 
Squiggs said:
I think that was my original point about putting a flat ride in it. I think that's the key to whatever replaces Sub-terra, it can't be another big civil engineering project, as they are always an expensive option, which puts pressure on the rest of the budget.

If they embrace the green tin shed and the existing hole, they essentially have a cuboid space which is more or less exactly the size required to accommodate the safety envelope of most spinning flat rides.
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I'm not sure of the dimensions, but if I recall from the plans the corners are quite encroached on housing stairways and service areas. Whether those stairways, which were for staff and emergency use only by design, would be suitable for regular two way access I don't know. And most of the building would have to be dismantled to get anything much in or out.

I'd love to see the space used, but it feels like there's a lot in the way for a significant ride change in there. My preference is they sort out those towers / restraints and get an improved NST open.
 
The problem they have is that even if they sort out the ride system that's in there, they are then left with a mediocre ride which wasn't very popular the first time around.

I suppose they have the opportunity to properly retheme it... but even then it's still four very short drop towers, which was really a core part of the problem in the first place.
 
Jb85 said:
No it won’t be - but my point being that they had a perfectly good imaginative ride in the first place. Putting anything else it’s is place in that shed just seems pointless
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If it was a perfectly good imaginative ride, it would still be open wouldn't it?
It wasn't very popular, and needed large numbers of staff to operate fully.
It was flawed, so it closed, and has entertained the geeks every year since when they turn the lights on and shuffle a few bins every season.
 
rob666 said:
If it was a perfectly good imaginative ride, it would still be open wouldn't it?
It wasn't very popular, and needed large numbers of staff to operate fully.
It was flawed, so it closed, and has entertained the geeks every year since when they turn the lights on and shuffle a few bins every season.
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Just 😂
 
It should be possible to in the way Hex is semi-automate the lift and pre-show scenes of NST and make it run with a lot fewer staff. Just have batching and ride ops and run more like Hex where guests move through themselves slightly.
I don’t think it was a bad ride, it was the staff pretending to be army and just shouting for no reason that ruined it for me.
 
rob666 said:
If it was a perfectly good imaginative ride, it would still be open wouldn't it?
It wasn't very popular, and needed large numbers of staff to operate fully.
It was flawed, so it closed, and has entertained the geeks every year since when they turn the lights on and shuffle a few bins every season.
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To be fair, if ABC didn't practically condemn their own tower rides I reckon it would still be open, but that whole episode tipped it into more trouble than it's worth territory.
 
I know it'll most likely never open again, but it was actually my favourite dark ride on park - at a time when the dark ride line up was Charlie, Hex, Duel and this. I think it did what it did well, I just liked the whole backstory. The drop wasn't massive but it felt like it had a decent bit of force, and I liked the mini scare maze at the end. I just can't believe they're happy to have it on show with the state it currently looks.

Also, are the towers still in the building then? That's the impression I've got from the conversation, but I thought they'd long gone.
 
I don’t think they can take the towers out without removing the roof. I suspect they have been stripped of parts though, to be used across the various Dungeon locations that have the same ride tech.
 
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It was badly thought out regarding staffing but I’m not sure they can lose any of the staff, you need a batcher, two hosts and an op, you could get away with no actor in the end corridor with some imaginative effects instead. But the big staffing pressure is baggage hold, because of the nature of the ride you can’t take bags on with you and a bag hold for a mid level attraction is always going to be a bit overkill.

They could look at automated lockers but that’s an expense they are unlikely to consider.

I personally would love them to be able to remove the building and put a small drop tower in the pit (not sure what the depth of the pit is and what the height envelope is for that part of the park but if they can fit a punchy 80ft drop tower in that space using the existing excavation so that only 60ft is above ground then that would be great). Suspect the height envelope might be lower though as that space is at the top of the hill.
 
AT86 said:
I don’t think they can take the towers out without removing the roof. I suspect they have been stripped of parts though, to be used across the various Dungeons locations that have the same ride tech.
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Yeah apparently the gondolas are gone and just the towers remain, as the roof would need to be removed to take them out.
 
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