Re: Thorpe Park
I believe RMC never intended X No Way Out to have the commonly accepted "computer virus" theme. They ran out of funds when they built it so their original proposal had to be compromised. To further complicate it, each new owner of the park has tried to apply their own interpretation of it over the years just to get people to ride it. Now the park have just given up pretending there is a point to X Now Way Out anymore, so now it is just a backwards party in the dark.
As it is, there is practically nothing pertaining to the computer virus theme, except the ":\\" in the title. Which is being used less anyway these days - it was actually removed from the entrance a few years ago.
In 2007, there was that attempted "retheme", which was really just a small refurb to replace broken light fittings and shift a few old props around. But it was at this point that a new backstory was added, in the form of a low budget queueline video telling the story of the "X supercomputer" that went out of control, like some horror story set up; nobody really paid attention to it though and it was rather unprofessionally produced. The video did not return in 2008.
The full length queueline, or preshow as it was intended to be, was abandoned years ago and most of the features removed. A very interesting article from Vekoma when they were planning the ride (I can't remember where it was posted) explained how X No Way Out was intended to be much more than just a rollercoaster. Each room you walked through had its own "challenge", which the riders would have to complete, ultimately reaching the rollercoaster as the finale. I recall the article proposed that riders spend almost an hour inside the pyramid. It's easy to see why this idea never materialised properly...
However, the preshow rooms were built obviously, including the upside-down room, UV robot room, the revolving tunnel - then called The Vortex, and the trick lifts into the station. And the 1997 park map still urges you to "face the preride challenges" in its description. The appearance of robots suggests a computer theme, but not necessarily an evil computer theme just yet.
Does anybody know when or why the full length corridor closed? I assume it is because they just started using it as a queueline rather than a preshow, and there would never be a queue long enough to fill it up so they shortened it. I know these days they are not allowed to keep large groups of people waiting in the interior queue anyway, for health and safety reasons.
I think the only original theming remaining are some robot heads suspended from the ceiling in one part of the corridor. I get the impression Thorpe Park emphasised the computer virus idea in around 2000 to market it towards its new teenage audience, but it was only even intended to be a slightly scary family thrill ride (exactly like Thirteen - packs a punch but isn't extreme). And of course the restraints were badly designed so they had to raise the height restriction to 1.4m.
My point is: X No Way Out was a mess of bad ideas and failures from the beginning. But still fun in an unusual way!
