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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

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Re: Thorpe Park

Wow, I'm really impressed with that!

When this was first announced, I was really dubious that they would just stick a couple of strobes up and leave it as that. However having watched that it looks like they've really gone to town with it! A set up a nightclub could be proud of.

X raves ftw ;)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

LiamC said:
X raves ftw ;)
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YES! This!! ;D

OK, it isn't quite as good as they could have made it, and the music seems to go very quiet on that video for some reason - but over all, it is exactly as Liam says hahaha!!

Coaster Rave?

I cannot wait to get on this thing ;D
 
Re: Thorpe Park

TheMan said:
OK, it isn't quite as good as they could have made it, and the music seems to go very quiet on that video for some reason - but over all, it is exactly as Liam says hahaha!!
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I imagine the audio on the ride would be quite loud, i don't think the quietness of the video is down to the ride audio. I think at the beginning of the ride the guy who is filming it accidentally covers the cameras mic as it goes quite muffled if you listen out for it :)

Novas said:
It looks utter gash. Am on my phone so full rant can wait until I'm sober and at a laptop.
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How? They've taken a coaster that had almost nothing going for it and turnt it into something that actually looks quite fun to ride. Do you just dislike Thorpe? As I don't really see what is so "gash" about this? They've clearly spent a bit of money on it when they could have just binned the ride as a whole, I can't imagine that lighting rig was cheap.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

LiamC said:
As I don't really see what is so "gash" about this? They've clearly spent a bit of money on it when they could have just binned the ride as a whole, I can't imagine that lighting rig was cheap.
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Looks like it has an amazing centre piece light rig, also you are only facing one way camera wise, so have no idea of the rest of the ambiance the music/lighting is creating as a whole.

Only thing I will say? Perhaps a bit more "fog" to accentuate those lasers.

Diogo will no doubt be on soon, am looking forward to his interpretation. Daft as it may sound though, this will get me down the M40 quicker than the idea of a backwards Swarm will ;D
 
Re: Thorpe Park

The lighting certainly looks impressive, but I'm bitterly disappointed that the block brake faff hasn't been given the boot. Deep down I kept telling myself not to be so sure that the changes would include that, but I wanted it to happen so much that I convinced myself that they'd do it. How stupid of me.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

This is shockingly bad, with virtually no effort whatsoever put into the revamp. Disappointing and weird.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

Having going on X again today it seemed quite a bit quicker than yesterday and there seemed to be more lighting, i quite enjoyed it today :)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

How can people possibly dislike a ride that cannot in any way be any worse than what was there before and have yet to ride it may I ask? A POV doesn't do a ride like X justice. You have to see the differences in person, not by pictures and videos on the internet.

Regarding the still-present block-brakes that are still there, yes, it is an annoyance and would be better to see them vanished completely, but they're there for a reason. X I think has 4 or 5 trains that are continuously going round the circuit and therefore there needs to be some delay before the next train reaches the station after the one before it leaves. If these block brakes weren't there at all, there wouldn't be 5 trains; instead we'd just have 2 or possibly 3 (1 for the station, 1 for the unloading bay and the other in the final brake run). So if they weren't there, we'd have an even worse throughput than X already has!

But I do agree that the pointless moving back and forth on the penultimate brake run should be gone completely.

I for one cannot wait to ride it this Tuesday, as the light show looks quite impressive! But how anyone can say a light show, lowered height restriction and a minor refurbishment (that X has been begging for these past several years) is worse than what was there before is beyond me.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

The more i've thought about it the better. Looking back it was actually not a bad ride, the lights were very well done and the music was good too. To be fair they havnt done to bad of a job in my opinion. Also the pov doesnt really do it justice, when you are on the ride the lighting and sound is much better.

I'd also like to add that every ride was open today. Saw did close for about ten minutes due to technical issues, and loggers leap also shut for about the same time. The only other thing was that collosus every now and then ran with nobody on it. But this only happened once or twice other than that everything was fine.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

O dear. Where to start... On the one hand it is clearly a terrible idea for me to check the forum whilst at the pub and make such a throwaway comment as I did....but on the other hand provoking fanboys makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside, some of you guys are not on this planet.

Either way I guess I should add some substance to my opinion.

First let us remind ourselves of what X was. X No Way Out was simple put, the worst ride I have ever ridden. You would approach its green and red iron clad pyramid and enter a dilapidated and often filthy plywood tunnel, which was lit almost entirely using a poor mans Christmas lights. After walking for what felt like miles you then boarded a train that was designed for an umpa-lumpa. The train would shoot off backwards and you’d spend the next three minutes trundling around a serious of mind drops and helixes in the dark. At random intervals the train would stop and wobble for a bit whilst the most random of sound effects were blasted at the riders.

I was thrilled that the powers that be had finally deemed the ride to be an embarrassment and in need of some serious TLC. What would they do? Go for something fun and cartoony to try and fit in with Storm Surge? Go all out and make it an iconic addition to the Lost City? No. The meeting went something like this:

Executive A: We need to re-theme this ride... what do kids like nowdays?

Executive B: Loud noises and flashing lights?

Executive A: My God Jerry, you’re a genius!

The theme was completely wrong from the word go. The park had a real chance to say “look, we know Storm Surge was a disaster, but we learnt from it, we’ve built a word class attraction in The Swarm and we’re now trying to bring the rest of the park up to scratch” Instead they went with something that was cheap, brash and noisey (Thorpe in a nutshell I guess.)

So I hated the theme because it didn’t fit. However, I didn't doubt for a second that the idea of an ride based on the abstract ideas of light & sound could still be very enjoyable. For a start the queue line could be an experience in its own right. The things you can do with light go far beyond strobe lights and lasers. They could have done something akin to Space Mountain, with scenes depicting various optical illusions and special effects. They could have gone down the ‘Rock N Rollercoaster’ route and shown various effects in a more educational / technical way, or they could have gone for something interactive with pressure pads or sensors activating special effects.

What did they do? They painted the plywood tunnel with some day-glo paint, added some LEDs and mounted a couple of strobes / lasers on the ceiling. Bravo.

The actual ride continues that trend. It may be a bit of fun and if it had opened at the likes of PBP I’d likely let it off, but for me turning the trains around, pumping out some dance music and chucking in some lasers/strobes/fog does not make a crap ride an awesome ride. Some of the defences I’ve seen in this thread baffle me. The idea that I should have given the ride some slack because it has a really expensive lighting rig for example. Really? Who gives a toss? What does that add to the ride experience? Only the most obsessive of enthusiasts would come off the ride saying “It wasn’t great, but did you get a look at that lighting rig on turn number 3? awesome bit of kit that.”

I do not dislike Thorpe, I actually love the place, but this re-theme sucks.

Finally, no, I have not ridden it yet and I’m aware that most of my opinion can be deemed as void until I have. Most of the time I don’t comment on a ride I haven’t been on, in the same way that I don’t like people criticising a ride during construction. In this instance I have formed a strong opinion based on my prior knowledge of the ride, the reviews, pictures and videos that have been released.
If, during the TST South meet (which I intend on coming to, assuming the fanboy blood lust has subsided,) I ride X and love it I’ll hold my hands up, but I highly doubt that’s going to happen!

Now, chill out the lot of you. :p
 
Re: Thorpe Park

For the record, I'm not a fanboy. For the majority of the time I hate Thorpe.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

TheMan said:
Diogo will no doubt be on soon, am looking forward to his interpretation.
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I shall wait till I have been on it till I pass judgement, since dark rides always look pants on camera. But it looks pretty good to me.

TheMan said:
this will get me down the M40 quicker than the idea of a backwards Swarm will ;D
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If you don't pick me up on the way (I'm just inside the M25 along the M40) I will be rather upset. ;)
 
Thorpe Park

I rode X today, and I don't like it. The queue line is a bit better but you can see all the track and the light 'special effects' is just a couple of naff lights shining with music. I suppose everybody has their own opinion but I really don't like it much anymore.
 
Re: Thorpe Park

On the positive side, it looks better than it did when it was backwards. However that really wasn't hard to do. At the end of the day it is still the same awful ride, but now it is forwards and has some fancy lights. I'll wait until I've ridden it but I can't imagine I'll be wowed or anything. I do agree with Novas, they really didn't put any thought at all into re-doing it. I suppose to counter that though they probably didn't have much money to play with.

:)
 
Re: Thorpe Park

In my opinion it isnt too bad. Im not saying anyone on here is wrong because your all entitled to your own opinion but we knew the ride itself wasnt going to change and there is only so much a theme can do. In my opinion a good theme can add to a good ride, but a good theme cant make a ride good on its own. The re-theme could of been done better admittedly but the ride in itself was never going to be any better than it was before.
Having been on X twice now i feel that it is better with the new lighting effects than just being in the pitch black. (I was actually quite interested in being able to slightly see the ride and the inside of the pyramid :))
 
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