Attraction Source Forum

Definitely worth sparing half an hour for. Was very interesting and has some great footage of the ride and Alton Towers at the time!

Finally sat down to watch it and loved every moment. Surprised to hear a lot of it was made in Great Yarmouth!

A very well made production! I loved how they made some things bigger than it should have been!

I must find some time to watch the documentary 

I started watching it and it's really good.

I love a good documentary let alone one o this can't wait to give it a watch

So i do think it be be removed as ive said im sad about it but i do think gloomy wood will stay, because there is also a high chance it it being replaced, and i was thinking,(this probably wont happen) the flumes gone, only one major water ride left, so could there be a possibility of there bieng a haunted flume ride, where the water is red themed to blood and the theming is that, your in the past, and an old man man is talking to you through speakers as you go down a stream, that dips into an underground tunnel where the man talks about old legends and story's that happened down this very tunnel, as you would see lots of spider and zombie animatronics re-used from duel, like a haunted house, and in the middle of the ride he would tell you if you had the curse, the water would turn to blood (and so the water turned red) and that you would hear wispers in your head (the speakers wisper) and an old man would kill you, then the speakers paused and shouted "me!" you would then then see the old man (animatronics) with old weapondry with a crazy expresion trying to kill you, as you dropped down and took the chain lift up, flume style plenty of times as you saw the old man at every drop. you then would take the chain lift up to the station as the old man cried leaving so soon (sorry that part kinda copied the theory i posted about earlier) the end.

Great to hear you enjoy the video, it took about 2 years of research (as part of a wider project) but lots of fun to complete. The Haunted House was a great ride to explore!

The documentary was a great watch, It really gives an insight for people like me who never got experience the original Haunted House!

This gives me hope for Duel's refurb!

It would be nice if John gave some advice for the refurb!

There is no proper refurb, it is another AV touch up job like what has happened to Duel a few times over the years. It would be great if they were going to properly take all the props out, restore it, service the animations and put it all back afresh. But it's only a small in-house project, unfortunately I don't believe the original design team are involved but John Wardley might be giving some general advice..

Wumbamillo wrote:There is no proper refurb, it is another AV touch up job like what has happened to Duel a few times over the years. It would be great if they were going to properly take all the props out, restore it, service the animations and put it all back afresh. But it's only a small in-house project, unfortunately I don't believe the original design team are involved but John Wardley might be giving some general advice..

Duel has already been confirmed to be receiving some TLC over this coming closed season.

If it's anything like the quality of the work they did to Hex then a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised.

I don't think for one minute that they will completely overhaul it but I do think they will do a lot of work and people will be able to notice the difference.

Dan wrote:Duel has already been confirmed to be receiving some TLC over this coming closed season.

If it's anything like the quality of the work they did to Hex then a lot of people will be pleasantly surprised.

Yes it's been posted it's having "TLC", a step in the right direction. I'd absolutely love to be pleasantly surprised too, but calling either the Hex repairs or this Duel project a refurbishment is a bit far.  It's certainly not the scope or budget of a full refurbishment, I am giving some clarity, which people can choose to listen to or not, that is fine.

The Hex work was mostly good, but the audio was made worse in places, while the effects and lighting were repaired to a good standard. With Duel, a lot more of what's broken now is actually missing altogether, or mechanisms removed and scenery painted over/damaged, so it would be a much bigger job than replacing bulbs and speakers as Alton Towers confirmed they did with Hex. I look forward to the improvements being made, but I wish a fuller restoration could have been planned, to bring the ride back to being an impressive experience for the public.

Wumbamillo wrote:It's certainly not the scope or budget of a full refurbishment

With all due respect, how can you be sure of the scale of the works that Duel will receive?

The only people that will know that right now are Merlin so it would be premature to presume what kind of work will take place.

I guess ANY work at all is a good sign, but I hope it isn't just a paint touch up though. If they give it the same attention as they did Hex, I will indeed be very pleased! I'd actually like to see if they can rework some of the lighting in some areas so some of the effect mechanisms aren't illuminated in places.

The mechanisms were never originally visible and the whole ride lit very well with a lot of attention to detail, especially in the timing and the blacklight illusions. Many of the problems now are to do with the wrong type of lighting used, the timing very off and animations too slow or parts just missing altogether. The scenes have also been repainted many times over the years, with lots of detail lost. The ride would be awesome if it could ever be restored, but a proper refurbishment never comes around. So I am glad at last some improvements are planned, which will hopefully improve the lighting and illusions.

Yes, I think it was when The Haunted House was rethemed to Duel, they installed new lighting and stuff. A general service of the mechanisms would also help sort out the timing issues. I hope they sort out the Trommel Tunnel out as well as it's  not been functioning for a long while.

Robert W wrote:Yes, I think it was when The Haunted House was rethemed to Duel, they installed new lighting and stuff. A general service of the mechanisms would also help sort out the timing issues. I hope they sort out the Trommel Tunnel out as well as it's  not been functioning for a long while.

The trommel was on when i was there in July!

I've not seen the trommel work for a while now. If you did see it in July then you were very lucky. I'm at Alton tomorrow so will keep you updated! It is certainly an effect which needs fixing over the closed season.

Honestly, I rode it about 11 times yesterday over and over again and I have a few thoughts...
It's gotten to a point where its quite sad to see what was once a brilliant ride turn into what it is today. Most major effects were broken (including the trommel tunnel). Don't get me wrong, I enjoy it but it needs either a full refurb, a full retheme or honestly just demolition. I know loads of people still love it so it's probably not going anywhere soon but it needs something.

I would be quite happy if they just fixed the effects this winter. It has been neglected over the years and definitely needs some TLC. I highly doubt they will remove it anytime soon though. It was once rumoured that the second entrance was going there but I can't see that happening now and we are beyond that phase, especially with RCR.

I think the Duel brand could do with an overhaul though. Personally, I rarely use the guns as I like to take in the surroundings but by doing so, you do notice all the things what once worked but no longer do.