Marc
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Posts posted by Marc
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6 minutes ago, MilesK said:
And this is why VR shouldn't be on this ride! And why VR just shouldn't be in the theme park industry.
If the VR doesn't work, the whole ride can't open. However if say the theming was physical, and one feature was broken, the ride could still operate.
I can see this becoming a major problem in the future of this ride operational life..
With only a couple of exceptions I can't think of many rides which opened flawlessly without suffering down time.
If we compare to Merlins major investments (Swarm, Smiler, Thirteen and Saw) the only one which didn't suffer all sorts of down time is Swarm.
With that sort of thinking rides would never progress
- David B and Cornflakes
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Im pretty sure the cable is changed after a set amount of launches - this was the case before Rita had a cable snap too.
Considering it's been playing up for a while I'd assume there's more wrong than a simple cable replacement - hopefully it back up soon!
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1 minute ago, ThorpeAddict said:
The whole evacuation and acting was very good, and so was the theming and sound, but the illusion itself was so obvious and wasn't well done. Like others have said, you can see its a light on a stick.
I think this depends on how much smokes been pumped into the tunnel - when theres enough this is really quite effective (on my rides yesterday there were many people running out the way) but others its been more obvious whats going on here.
- Cal, OldFarmerDean and David B
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2 hours ago, Benin said:
Would've probably been better if the Victorian theme was kept throughout, and the second vr section didn't exist...
You mean the section which generates the most scares for the majority of riders?
(for what it's worth I also think the 2nd VR section is the weakest part of ride but it clearly works well)
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Looks like it!
https://www.chessington.com/explore/theme-park/attraction/16/bubbleworks.aspx
Last rides 6th September
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3 minutes ago, Benin said:
Who are Thorpe/Merlin aiming to compete with these days? Just curious is all...
I'd say tourist attractions within the UK (admittedly some of their own too) - that said there is still plenty of entertainmenty things to do in and around London what they are up against which are not Merlin.
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I think people need to remember Universal etc are not the parks which Thorpe / Merlin are trying to compete with here...
I got to ride it without VR to take some pictures last night - I saw adults riding it cowering into the side of their seats scared out of their lives - it's not often you see that sort of reaction other than a few screams on a coaster.
I don't think it's for everyone - but reaction from the public in general is said to be very good and ultimately that's the most important thing when building a ride - pleasing your core audience!
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Apparently there was around 30 seats out of use across the 3 trains last week - im assuming they are working on getting these back up and running.
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46 minutes ago, Benin said:
To be fair, you see people screaming on the commute to London, so it doesn't mean it's good...
No idea where in London you commute but it's not something I've seen - but on a ride designed to scare you I'd say screams are a good indication it's working?
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DBGT is open with 120 min queue..
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Pretty good of the park today - Stealth up and down , ghost train was evacuated but they reopened them both at 6pm and left them and all coasters open till 6:30 - certainly helped get on some rides we wouldn't have managed otherwise!
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Just like the Merlin parks - the people who make these decisions are much more in the know about the park and its finances than we are.
If opening late had a financial benefit to them they would open - clearly they've seen it don't and have changed their hours accordingly.
I think piers are quite different attractions to BPB - you can walk up and down a peir for free play a few games if you want to, I never visited BPB when it was "free entry" I expect later nights worked better then although at the same time I expect it caused it's own problems.
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1 hour ago, pluk said:
Said no one ever?
Having just seen how Europa Park use VR on a couple of smaller coasters as a paid extra on a few seats, that seems like a much more sensible approach to introducing VR rather than trying to build a whole million pound new ride entirely dependent on fledgling technology. It's just asking for trouble.
Mayve compared to Galactica that would be a fair point but not sure if a ride designed around it suffers the same shortfalls as one having VR bolted on.
I genuinely think VR will play an important role in dark rides for years to come.
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The headsets are pretty compex in them selves - they are the best on the market and not really comparable to the samsung phones in a box. http://gizmodo.com/this-is-how-valve-s-amazing-lighthouse-tracking-technol-1705356768 - some info here on the Lighthouse boxes on each train and how that bit works.
Then of coruse each headset will be connected to a computer on the train, simultaneously working in sync with each other, syncing up with the train its self and effects on the train.
I think you'll find this attraction is a lot more complex than you imagine it to be!
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Just now, Benin said:
Let's be honest VR is certainly nowhere near as complicated as a mechanical ride system... Comparing these glitches to Air's snapping driveshaft is a very apple and orange...
Sorry but dont agree - of course VR is not as mechanically complicated - but it certainly extremely complex in other ways - I imagine the software driving this thing is probably more complex than most rides we have in the UK.
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18 minutes ago, Benin said:
If its a machine thing then it shows how this technology wasn't really ready to be used in such a mass market manner...
Might be ahead of the curve as the majority won't have experienced vr before, but technical issues are to be numerous...
Most new rides open with technical problems, even more so rides using new technologies in different ways.
Look at Air when that first opened and its numerous problems, the Intamin Rockets used to be pretty notorious too but run fine now.
QuoteAnd after so many years of no decent dark rides being produced in the UK the last thing we need is this one not being able to deliver, hardly going to create any appetite for more to be built in the industry. The same fear I have for the lame looking Towers woodie.
This all feels a little short sighted.
I wouldn't worry about it not delivering - the vast majority of the feedback from the GP seems overwhelmingly positive - if anything id say it gives us a good chance of Merlin looking to bring more dark rides to the UK.
As I said the technical issues are normal for new rides and will be ironed out.
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1 hour ago, pluk said:
Surely the headsets are just plug in things and pretty easily interchangeable? Wasn't it blindingly obvious they would require maintenance with constant use and there should be a hefty supply of spares to rotate round as some require work? Seems a bit short sighted to have a significant number of seats out of use due to headsets after just a couple of weeks of opening.
Its possible the headsets out of use have another issue such as the machines running them rather than just the headest its self. As you say, im sure they have plenty of spares!
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58 minutes ago, Coaster Jamie said:
Ghost Train was a mess at the end of the day today. Lots of people were complaining that their headsets weren't working, including me and my group as some were slanted, and one of mine was showing a black and white screen. The third time I got one that worked to an extent, however it was glitchy and a bar kept appearing on the screen.
This caused us (and others) to have to move around to different seats once the sequence had already started meaning that we missed out on some of it. As well as this, some headsets are broken (already!) as the headphones had come partly unattached from the mask.
I have concerns about the long term future of this attraction considering that it's having these issues already.
I'm also not sure how many different versions there are - I've now been on three times and had the same thing each time (apart from the first character being a woman the first time and a man both times today), and the people I was with said they had the same thing as well on both rides today. It's already losing the re-rideability factor for me.
These are the sort of things which long term will be sorted - they can have tech rehearsals and staff rides as much as they like but it don't come close to 1000's of people riding it daily.
Contractors are still on site and I expect will be for a while yet!
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Yeah it has
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https://www.thorpepark.com/blog/top-5-derren-browns-ghost-train-easter-eggs/ - A blog post with some easter eggs / images from the attraction!
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5 hours ago, Celia Mae said:
@slendercat, Thorpe can't get rid of Slammer because the man they lease the land from has said no, as its the world's only and he likes it.
The owners who they lease the land from will have no say in any way what rides the park has - will be totally down to Thorpe / Merlin
Im not sure it's time is up just yet - after all the work it's had it runs fairly well - apart from the last couple weeks of course!
Derren Brown's Ghost Train: Rise of the Demon
in The Past
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^ with the greatest of respect I'm sure this was considered by both Thorpe and HTC during the planning of the ride.
We don't even know the issue was the VR headset it's self - if it was VR related it could also be any number of things rather than just the physical headset.