I have noticed the ride's state recently and the big issues I have seen is effects, lighting and completed scenery. These days the trommel barley works, the zombies sometimes don't work or come out too slowly, the screaming room lights are LEDs with gels, and when I mean competed scenery, for example where the crash column was there is some stone render on the top half of the wall and the rest is painted black. If little things like this were fixed to a good standard then I think personally it could rival Hex.

The ride could even be better than Hex as a family classic, it was built to be a big headline attraction and was brilliant for a couple years. But it was not looked after, not kept fresh and got fiddled with by others and degraded many times over the years. It's nothing like it was originally designed to be now unfortunately.

With SW8 in gloomy wood on the map, does anybody else get the feeling that something will change in the theme? TLC have already confirmed they're fixing some things, so why not just do the whole thing?

I guess that is SW8 really is part of Gloomy Wood, it could be possible for a few changes to occur to Duel, however I personally wouldn't like this to happen because that Alton would have two attractions that have too many links to the same theme...

When I last went to towers a few weeks ago duel was in a right state with many effects not even on. To start with the smell pod in the entrance hall wasn't on. Then when I got onto the ride the cracked wall scene and the dinning room scene had no music on what so ever so we went through that part in complete silence which was a weird experience. The bust that moves forward also wasn't on. Next a lot of the lighting was quite poor as you could see lots of the rides warehouse being exposed, and finally the guns went off after the photo point. Which turned the rest of the ride back into the haunted house Overall I think that there is a lot to do in duel to get it back to being good but if done correctly I could be a really good ride again.   

i think it needs a whole re-theme. I like the idea of the guns to make it interactive, but i cant stand all of the l.e.d's!! so if there was a technology that could get rid f those that would be good!
then re-theme it to an 1800's old gothic mansion with gargoyles out front and a new bone chilling theme tune to go with it.
Also to queue u in the grave yard but add some fog machines in and some music to suit.
.......We can dream eh!!!

DAN31 wrote:

i think it needs a whole re-theme. I like the idea of the guns to make it interactive, but i cant stand all of the l.e.d's!! so if there was a technology that could get rid f those that would be good!
then re-theme it to an 1800's old gothic mansion with gargoyles out front and a new bone chilling theme tune to go with it.
Also to queue u in the grave yard but add some fog machines in and some music to suit.
.......We can dream eh!!!

There is the technology to remove the led's because men in black at universal doesn't have any. The only problem with that though is you can't see what you need to shoot

I just think duel would be better without laser guns, but let's be real, Merlin would never rip the laser blasters out as that's the whole gimmick

As much as we'd all love loads of fancy new things on duel, we have to remember that they're already paying for a new roller coaster this year so we probably won't be seeing anything big happening this year. They were able to do hex last year because the only other thing they were really doing was a kiddie flat.

Considering Alton will want to make the most out of their SW8 marketing, they won't be able to change it enough to market it as being an updated attraction like Hex was. All the stuff they do will be minor, hopefully just improvements to what is already there.

They did say its getting TLC this closed season. I'm hoping for a revamp and removal of the guns but they'll most likely touch it up like Hex( which was done really well)

They'll definitely be wanting to do a bit to it, with it appearing to be in the same area as SW8. Towers have been known to retheme or revamp the story of rides surrounding the new ones (Dark Forest, X Sector) and won't be wanting a badly rundown ride right next to their new coaster. I believe we could see some SW8 links with Duel, in the trommel and hopefully in other areas as well. I'd quite like to see them remove the guns, but unfortunately this may be seen as a bad move in the eyes of the public, who we have to consider are the main audience for the park.

The ride does not need removing and a re-theme would kill what we have. We don't want it turned into the crap laser ride like the one at Legoland.

It just needs the effects fixed, trommel needs to turn. The new lighting is wrong for the ride so you get to see parts you should. The bats no longer turn, some of the walls no longer move. The list of broken effects just goes on.

Also they should Duel Alive during Scarefest, then you would see massive queues for the ride.

Duel Alive was a massive pain in the backside when it comes to health and safety. Highly doubt it will make a return.

Liam.W wrote:

Duel Alive was a massive pain in the backside when it comes to health and safety. Highly doubt it will make a return.

Agree 100%.  Whilst Duel Alive was good, it was 100% obvious where the actors were, as they were all behind plastic fencing to keep them a safe distance from the track / moving ride cars.  You saw the plastic white fencing and you knew an actor/scare was not far away.  
Also, for reasons obvious, Alton Towers will risk absolutely nothing when it comes to Health & Safety on rides.  I would absolutely love Duel to become a "Men in Black - Alien Attack" quality ride, but its not going to happen.  UK parks don't have the budgets / visitorship of Disney or Universal.  

When I first heard about duel alive I found it hard to believe it was even allowed!

AltonOperator wrote:

When I first heard about duel alive I found it hard to believe it was even allowed!

Yeah its pretty incredible actually I assume thats why they never did it again because it was a health and safety headache.

I cannot wait for a refurbed duel, I've accepted that they'll keep the guns but considering who theyre getting in do they effects it'll be amazing

I know duel alive was really hard to do H&S wise but it would definitely help to expand their offering for families at scarefest and could prove very successful like house of monsters, however people wouldn't want to pay for an already existing ride so I don't know if it could even be made financially viable if it did pass H&S . As for the renovation I'm unsure if TLC has the budget to fix everything that is wrong with duel because the list is long and obviously they have to pay for SW8 this year, but I hope if they can not do it all at once they will do it progressively like the nemesis station or fix the worst bits that are broken. 

Cobby wrote:

As for the renovation I'm unsure if TLC has the budget to fix everything that is wrong with duel because the list is long and obviously they have to pay for SW8 this year, but I hope if they can not do it all at once they will do it progressively like the nemesis station or fix the worst bits that are broken. 

Yes most probably, unfortunately.
Duel Live's weakest parts were the actors, they didn't really add much to be honest, other than hitting things to make you jump. What really made it work was the MUCH more fitting music, which added a really ominous feel to the whole ride, the improvements to the lighting that were done at the time (ruined again now), and with the lasers turned off it was widely noted at the time how the effects were MUCH more, well, effective! Parts actually made you jump for once, even though it was still pretty busted compared to its early Haunted House days.

Plus it would regularly get a 30-60min queue during Scarefest in those years, not at all like it usually pulls. It really made a difference not having the ride just forgotten about, giving it a new draw, the lasers gone and the lighting & audio improved.

After that, I believe there was a propsal for doing a proper redo at the time, without the guns. Unfortunately most the management since that time who oversaw the experiment have gone and it seems we're back to this same old situation . Skelvin's Haunted Adventure wasn't nearly as good, even though the Danny Elfman Beetlejuice music was fun.

Shows what a difference proper atmosphere and lighting & audio makes.

I wonder if they will trim away some of the ivy on the exterior as it's getting a bit out of control and before long the entire house facade will just get swallowed up by it!