Duel Replacement?

[TheOutpatient]

For me, having good dark rides in the park is very important
its one of the reasons I travel 4 hours up north rather than an hour and 1/2 to Thorpe.

There are still some good parts in Duel so you hope, either the same or higher level of creativity would be used in a new dark ride.

I would like it to be amazing but in this day and age I feel like, if the ride technology and theming itself is amazing, it also needs to have an amazing story and perhaps some other meanings behind the rides existence, like it should teach things... or like I joked about with Duel - the roof should be covered in solar panels. I feel like we live in a more sentiment driven age. John Wardley said that they would create rides where the hardware is only there to tell a story but I think because we have so much technology around today with the internet and phones - we welcome it even less that we use to. Mac computers, hides all its workings beneath very plane exterior designs with 1 button- and I think this is 1 reason we haven't we haven't seen a new dark ride yet in the UK - because they end up as a kind of beautiful mass of technology with the ride system, track, lights etc - the people in charge are scratching their heads thinking "Even if we make a fantastic dark ride, we are living in a more minimal age, so will people like it?"....
But like I said I think the answer to this is for the story, the sentiments and lessons that the ride teaches HAS to justify all the lovely, technology that makes up the ride....
...Kind of like HUGE budget films like Titanic ($200 mil at the time)- story has to be as good as the props. If only we had that much money to spend on a dark ride.....

[A]

I really don't think the concept of the good old fashioned haunted house should be messed with. Every park needs one and even if duel has got guns etc it is still very much a traditional haunted house. Remember duel is good for families as it is and it might not be if it was to become a coaster.

What I do think though is that duel needs a major refurbishment with new effects, theming etc.

[Dom]

Ive been doing a bit of thinking about duel. I reckon they Might be thinking about moving it to dark forest and changing gloomy wood. I think this because they are both in themed areas that are very similar? Although im not sure if it is actually possible

[Themeparksandy1981]

Duel wouldn't be moved to Dark Forest as it's to big. When it is time for duel to go I can see them reusing the building and the same ride system. On the outside of the building they would only have to change the front frontage. The only thing I'm worried about is that I can see Merlin keeping the guns and Led lights.

[BenBowser]

I like duel! but I think the shooting is a bit gimmicky and means you don't get the intended fear or take in the brilliant effects of the 'haunted house'. I'd like to see a separate attraction- but wouldn't want it replaced because it's so much fun!

Yeah, true. Duel's fun, but it needs a prequel ride, like Dr Nicholas's first attempts and then it leads up to a scene in the woods and it reveals what happened to him.

Very much a fan of this idea! I hope they do something to spruce it up a little and not just all out demolish it  that would be tragic! (leaving sub terra as the dominant dark ride...hell no!)

Sub terra isnt the only other dark ride at AT other than Dule, Are we forgetting about Charlie mabye?

[Count-Vonduel]

VonDuel Mannor
The haunted House Strikes Back (scarefest revamp)
By Count-Von-Duel

Before you read on, I just have a few things to clear up first.

(1) This will contain major spoilers for the normal Duel ride.

(2) It may sound expensive, but since all the alternate lighting and curtains are permanent, then it will be worth it in the long run.

(3) Before you read this I just want to give you a perspective of it so you don't misunderstand - although there are less actual jump scares in this, it is more jumpy than the normal Duel. The problem with the normal Duel is that there are so many jump scares one after another that after the first few scares almost nothing will scare you anymore, but in this, the focus is more on quality than quantity and thus there will be build up to the scares instead of the usual onslaught of flat BOO! moments.

Before I start talking about Duel, I just wanted to talk a bit about Haunted Hollow.

In Haunted Hollow, there are 4 statues, one of a grave digger, one of a butler with a lantern, one of a cook with a bowl, and one of a screaming maid.
There should be plaques on the four statues.

Grave Digger - Gregory The Gravedigger worked his plot now with his work left to rot.
Butler - Benethan The Butler died at the Bay now guides others who have lost their way.
Cook - Clarabel The Cook used to poisen the guests but soon after was laid to rest.
Maid - Mary the Maid cleaned the plates but soon after met her fate.

This is important to the rides' story, as Mary, Gregory and Clarebel appear in the ride, and Benethan plays a big role in the ride.

Outside of the ride in Gloomy Wood, the normal music is replaced with the old Gloomy Wood music, that they used for the Haunted House, and later for 2009 Duel Live.
The outdoor queue is always open even if there is no queue for the ride.

The first room will look the same as normal except for a red curtain in the doorway leading to the green room,
much like in 2009, a butler or maid will let in groups one by one. Upon entering the house, the butler/maid will give you a breifing.
(Butler/Maid - "Welcome to Von-Duel Manor, You must be here for the tour yes? I will let the master know that you are coming, please wait here and don't touch anything".
The butler/maid goes through the curtains, (the Butler/maid stands just outside the ride station, and when the Count finishes his lines and the riders are getting on the ride, then he comes back to get the group in the entrance hall), when he comes back, he open's the curtains to lead the group through the green room.

(The maid/butler stops the group in this room to say some more lines thus giving the group infront time to board the ride.
Butler/Maid - "This used to be the room of Emily Alton, but after the...incident, only her memory remains. After this the house became abandoned untill about 12 years ago when the Count moved in".)

The ride station will be as normal except for a single actor in the room (Count Von-Duel).
(while this is happening, the butler/maid will be letting in the next group).
Count Von-Duel - "Welcome to Von-duel Manor, I have arranged for transportation around the Manor but remember that it is not perfect. At the moment the built in defence system is not working, so please don't try and use them. Oh and a word of warning, it is at times like this when the um...past guests tend to get a bit restless and...well some of them are not very nice, not all of them mind you, but I would reccomend trying to avoid them. Oh and one last thing, try and stay inside the manor, and make sure you stay in the light, this last one is VERY impotrant.
Please enjoy the tour."

After this you get in the ride car and off you go.

IMPORTANT
Every 2nd car will be missing so that the effects can't be ruined by the car in front.

IMPORTANT
The rides' main theme will be the one from the 2009 Duel Live instead of the normal Duel theme.

IMPORTANT
The Blasters and LED targets will be turned off.

In the first scene, a curtain will be (permanently) placed in front of the breathing wall, hiding it from view. (This curtain will be able to be pulled down in front of the breathing wall, and then hoisted back up out of view when you are done with it). It will have the same wall texture on it, but with loads of phrases scrbbled on it, (example of some of the phrases - 'IT STALKS THE DARKNESS, - NO ESCAPE ,- STAY IN THE LIGHT ,- HE IS WATCHING, - RUN ,- IT IS NOT A HUMAN, - STAY OUT OF THE FOREST'  and many more).

When it gets to the Screaming Bust, instead of the usual strobe lights, it will have a dim light (same colour as the lights in the outdoor graveyard queue).

In the Dining Hall, everything will be normal, except for an actor dessed as a maid.

After the Dining Hall, everything is normal, until you get to the spinning tunnel, which will have an actor in the archway to the left (dressed as a female cook) scaring people (by banging a wooden spoon on a pot), to distract riders from the animatronic zombie that usually jumps out at riders from the right of the tunnel. After this, the tunnel itself and the splitting face at the end of it will be normal.

The next scene will be normal as well.

The next scene (Hall of Spiders), will be different with the first two zombie jump scares turned off entirely, and no lighting in the area of said zombie jump scares. Instead, there will just be a pair of red eyes accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing, like the eyes in Hex.

After this (when it comes to the first spider), the scene will be as normal, but with both of these jump scares turned off as well. They are instead, replaced by an actor scaring people and when it gets to the giant spider, there are no strobes but instead there is a deep blue light.

Like this.

The next scene after the giant spider (Electric Bill's Hallway/Seleton Hallway), the music in this scene will be quieter than normal and this scene will be alot diferent. There will be a dim light illuminating the (incredibly detailed) wall on the right hand side, and Electric Bill will do his same old routine of pulling the lever to plunge the room into darkness, but this time, when he does, everything will be pitch black, nothing to look at along the hall, instead the heavy breathing sound will come on again, (when the ride car is facing away from where Electric Bill was) a small white light will appear at the far end of the long hallway (The pair of red eyes will also re-appear behind the ride car at this point, just above where Electric Bill was) at this point, a voice will be heard.
Voice - "RUN TOWARDS THE LIGHT AND DON'T LOOK BACK".
At this point, the heavy breathing will be replaced with a loud growling noise coming from just behind the ride car slowly getting closer and closer.
Voice - "IT'S COMING RUN"!!!
When you get to the light, it will dissappear.
Voice - "NOW GO"!!!
At this point the growling will stop.

This next scene will be normal, but with slightly different sound.
The music will still be quieter than normal and the screams will also be quieter and you will hear the heavy breathing, but quieter than in the hall.
After the first wall mounted face, the breathing will start to get louder, and after the second wall mounted face, it will get even louder and then the monster will finally reveal itself.

This thing accompanied by a loud growling sound.

The next scene (garden/graveyard) will stay the same untill you pass the Undertaker when a howl will be heard and the hunchback thing on the wall well be replaced by a werewolf,
somthing like this.

It will then stay the same again until the very last seconds of it.
When it comes to the Piller Demon, there will be an actor dressed as a grave digger, who will bang his shoval on the wall to scare riders, and then the Piller Demon will appear.
The wall with the tunnel, leading to the lab scene, will have a curtain covering both the wall and the doors at the side, with a forest texture on it, so it looks like you are going into a forest.

The next scene will be completely different.
The final (usually the lab scene), will this time be the forest scene and have curtains covering almost all of the scene with a forest texture, making it so that you can't see any part of the lab scene.
After you go round the first corner, there is a bush that when passed by, will shake and make a growling noise. After this, there is nothing until it gets to where the zombie in the furnace usually is where there will be some bushes with an actor (dressed as a werewolf) inside them who will then jump out and scare the riders.
The photo point (instead of the normal window) will be a tree with a hole in the side (where the head will pop out of it to take your ride photo).
Just after this, you will start to hear a quiet growling noise, and as you go round the corner (were the zombies with blasters usually are), there will be a load of artificial branches, and as you go under it, a strobe will start from above the the branches (to mimic lightening accompanied by a clap of thunder) to reveal that there is a werewolf in the branches snarling and growling lowdly at you delivering one final scare.
somthing like this...just imagin that there is a werewolf in the large gap.

The wall with the gargoyal on and the one next to it, wth the doorway to the ride station in it, will NOT have a curtain on, giving the effect that you found your way back to the house.

The exit will be normal.

The End.

EDIT - I added a proper ride name, a preshow, I put speech marks on the dialogue, I fixed one spelling error and made some more changes including adding pictures.

[TowersManiac0110]

VonDuel Mannor
The haunted House Strikes Back (scarefest revamp)
By Count-Von-Duel

Before you read on, I just have a few things to clear up first.

(1) This will contain major spoilers for the normal Duel ride.

(2) It may sound expensive, but since all the alternate lighting and curtains are permanent, then it will be worth it in the long run.

(3) Before you read this I just want to give you a perspective of it so you don't misunderstand - although there are less actual jump scares in this, it is more jumpy than the normal Duel. The problem with the normal Duel is that there are so many jump scares one after another that after the first few scares almost nothing will scare you anymore, but in this, the focus is more on quality than quantity and thus there will be build up to the scares instead of the usual onslaught of flat BOO! moments.

Before I start talking about Duel, I just wanted to talk a bit about Haunted Hollow.

In Haunted Hollow, there are 4 statues, one of a grave digger, one of a butler with a lantern, one of a cook with a bowl, and one of a screaming maid.
There should be plaques on the four statues.

Grave Digger - Gregory The Gravedigger worked his plot now with his work left to rot.
Butler - Benethan The Butler died at the Bay now guides others who have lost their way.
Cook - Clarabel The Cook used to poisen the guests but soon after was laid to rest.
Maid - Mary the Maid cleaned the plates but soon after met her fate.

This is important to the rides' story, as Mary, Gregory and Clarebel appear in the ride, and Benethan plays a big role in the ride.

Outside of the ride in Gloomy Wood, the normal music is replaced with the old Gloomy Wood music, that they used for the Haunted House, and later for 2009 Duel Live.
The outdoor queue is always open even if there is no queue for the ride.

The first room will look the same as normal except for a red curtain in the doorway leading to the green room,
much like in 2009, a butler or maid will let in groups one by one. Upon entering the house, the butler/maid will give you a breifing.
(Butler/Maid - "Welcome to Von-Duel Manor, You must be here for the tour yes? I will let the master know that you are coming, please wait here and don't touch anything".
The butler/maid goes through the curtains, (the Butler/maid stands just outside the ride station, and when the Count finishes his lines and the riders are getting on the ride, then he comes back to get the group in the entrance hall), when he comes back, he open's the curtains to lead the group through the green room.

(The maid/butler stops the group in this room to say some more lines thus giving the group infront time to board the ride.
Butler/Maid - "This used to be the room of Emily Alton, but after the...incident, only her memory remains. After this the house became abandoned untill about 12 years ago when the Count moved in".)

The ride station will be as normal except for a single actor in the room (Count Von-Duel).
(while this is happening, the butler/maid will be letting in the next group).
Count Von-Duel - "Welcome to Von-duel Manor, I have arranged for transportation around the Manor but remember that it is not perfect. At the moment the built in defence system is not working, so please don't try and use them. Oh and a word of warning, it is at times like this when the um...past guests tend to get a bit restless and...well some of them are not very nice, not all of them mind you, but I would reccomend trying to avoid them. Oh and one last thing, try and stay inside the manor, and make sure you stay in the light, this last one is VERY impotrant.
Please enjoy the tour."

After this you get in the ride car and off you go.

IMPORTANT
Every 2nd car will be missing so that the effects can't be ruined by the car in front.

IMPORTANT
The rides' main theme will be the one from the 2009 Duel Live instead of the normal Duel theme.

IMPORTANT
The Blasters and LED targets will be turned off.

In the first scene, a curtain will be (permanently) placed in front of the breathing wall, hiding it from view. (This curtain will be able to be pulled down in front of the breathing wall, and then hoisted back up out of view when you are done with it). It will have the same wall texture on it, but with loads of phrases scrbbled on it, (example of some of the phrases - 'IT STALKS THE DARKNESS, - NO ESCAPE ,- STAY IN THE LIGHT ,- HE IS WATCHING, - RUN ,- IT IS NOT A HUMAN, - STAY OUT OF THE FOREST'  and many more).

When it gets to the Screaming Bust, instead of the usual strobe lights, it will have a dim light (same colour as the lights in the outdoor graveyard queue).

In the Dining Hall, everything will be normal, except for an actor dessed as a maid.

After the Dining Hall, everything is normal, until you get to the spinning tunnel, which will have an actor in the archway to the left (dressed as a female cook) scaring people (by banging a wooden spoon on a pot), to distract riders from the animatronic zombie that usually jumps out at riders from the right of the tunnel. After this, the tunnel itself and the splitting face at the end of it will be normal.

The next scene will be normal as well.

The next scene (Hall of Spiders), will be different with the first two zombie jump scares turned off entirely, and no lighting in the area of said zombie jump scares. Instead, there will just be a pair of red eyes accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing, like the eyes in Hex.

After this (when it comes to the first spider), the scene will be as normal, but with both of these jump scares turned off as well. They are instead, replaced by an actor scaring people and when it gets to the giant spider, there are no strobes but instead there is a deep blue light.

Like this.

The next scene after the giant spider (Electric Bill's Hallway/Seleton Hallway), the music in this scene will be quieter than normal and this scene will be alot diferent. There will be a dim light illuminating the (incredibly detailed) wall on the right hand side, and Electric Bill will do his same old routine of pulling the lever to plunge the room into darkness, but this time, when he does, everything will be pitch black, nothing to look at along the hall, instead the heavy breathing sound will come on again, (when the ride car is facing away from where Electric Bill was) a small white light will appear at the far end of the long hallway (The pair of red eyes will also re-appear behind the ride car at this point, just above where Electric Bill was) at this point, a voice will be heard.
Voice - "RUN TOWARDS THE LIGHT AND DON'T LOOK BACK".
At this point, the heavy breathing will be replaced with a loud growling noise coming from just behind the ride car slowly getting closer and closer.
Voice - "IT'S COMING RUN"!!!
When you get to the light, it will dissappear.
Voice - "NOW GO"!!!
At this point the growling will stop.

This next scene will be normal, but with slightly different sound.
The music will still be quieter than normal and the screams will also be quieter and you will hear the heavy breathing, but quieter than in the hall.
After the first wall mounted face, the breathing will start to get louder, and after the second wall mounted face, it will get even louder and then the monster will finally reveal itself.

This thing accompanied by a loud growling sound.

The next scene (garden/graveyard) will stay the same untill you pass the Undertaker when a howl will be heard and the hunchback thing on the wall well be replaced by a werewolf,
somthing like this.

It will then stay the same again until the very last seconds of it.
When it comes to the Piller Demon, there will be an actor dressed as a grave digger, who will bang his shoval on the wall to scare riders, and then the Piller Demon will appear.
The wall with the tunnel, leading to the lab scene, will have a curtain covering both the wall and the doors at the side, with a forest texture on it, so it looks like you are going into a forest.

The next scene will be completely different.
The final (usually the lab scene), will this time be the forest scene and have curtains covering almost all of the scene with a forest texture, making it so that you can't see any part of the lab scene.
After you go round the first corner, there is a bush that when passed by, will shake and make a growling noise. After this, there is nothing until it gets to where the zombie in the furnace usually is where there will be some bushes with an actor (dressed as a werewolf) inside them who will then jump out and scare the riders.
The photo point (instead of the normal window) will be a tree with a hole in the side (where the head will pop out of it to take your ride photo).
Just after this, you will start to hear a quiet growling noise, and as you go round the corner (were the zombies with blasters usually are), there will be a load of artificial branches, and as you go under it, a strobe will start from above the the branches (to mimic lightening accompanied by a clap of thunder) to reveal that there is a werewolf in the branches snarling and growling lowdly at you delivering one final scare.
somthing like this...just imagin that there is a werewolf in the large gap.

The wall with the gargoyal on and the one next to it, wth the doorway to the ride station in it, will NOT have a curtain on, giving the effect that you found your way back to the house.

The exit will be normal.

The End.

EDIT - I added a proper ride name, a preshow, I put speech marks on the dialogue, I fixed one spelling error and made some more changes including adding pictures.

.....wow. Very detailed! Very good idea, may be you should submit it to alton towers?

[Count-Vonduel]

I would, but I dont know how.

[kinbur]

Is it possible to have Katanga canyon take over the gloomy wood and make an African themed dark ride i would be quite interested in riding that possibly with some jump scares but not the conventional haunted house.

[thejibberaffegroup]

It would be, but duel is one of my favorite rides. What I think is that duel should have a refurbishment and removing the blasters and extra theming and actors

[kinbur]

i agree they need to remove blasters it was a good gimmick at first but now its boring and detracts from the ride

[TomL]

This would be a cool idea. I just don't know what space there is.

Yes it would be a bit of a tight squeeze.

Tight squeeze? The indoor bit for duel is probably longer than X at Thorpe park

I think I remember wardley saying that it was about the size of 2 football pitches on a video

[kinbur]

I really didnt know duel was that big feels pretty small on the inside

[cookiee_munster]

here. aerial view of the warehouse that houses the ride.

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=52.988898&lon=-1.883718&z=19&m=b

[kinbur]

Someone suggested that duel be made into a doctor who ride i can see that happening as its British and fits the quirkiness of the park

[Thorpe Towers 13]

here. aerial view of the warehouse that houses the ride.

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=52.988898&lon=-1.883718&z=19&m=b

woah! thats bigger than I ever thought Duel could be! Plenty of space to do some work on it there