X:\ No Way Out
| X:\ No Way Out | |
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| X:\No Way Out is enclosed in a large pyramid shaped building | |
| Location | Thorpe Park |
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| Park section | Lost City |
| Coordinates | 51°24′13″N 0°30′48″W / 51.4036°N 0.5132°WCoordinates: 51°24′13″N 0°30′48″W / 51.4036°N 0.5132°W |
| Status | Operating |
| Opened | March 23, 1996 |
| Type | Steel |
| Manufacturer | Vekoma |
| Designer | Vekoma |
| Model | Enigma |
| Track layout | Modified Engima |
| Height | 42 ft (13 m) |
| Drop | 32 ft (9.8 m) |
| Length | 1,312 ft (400 m) |
| Max speed | 29 mph (47 km/h) |
| Inversions | 0 |
| Duration | 2:00 |
| Capacity | 1,000 riders per hour |
| Max G force | 2.4 |
| X:\ No Way Out at RCDB | |
| Pictures of X:\ No Way Out at RCDB | |
 Amusement Parks Portal |
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X:\ No Way Out is a roller coaster located in the Lost City area of Thorpe Park, England, UK. It was the park's first non-powered roller-coaster. The ride was marketed as the "world's first backwards roller coaster in the dark." It was built themed around the idea of 'being trapped in a computer virus', although nowadays there isn't much in the ride to accommodate this theme. Due to the loud Dance music, low lighting and UV lights the ride can be related to a Rave. The ride is situated inside a blue and terracotta pyramid. The ride once had a longer queue line, but this has been modified to accommodate for the 'Hell Gate' Fright Night maze. The original roller coaster had many sections of theming, but over the past few years, these have mainly been removed, or are simply not functioning.
The ride originally had an on-ride camera, but this was removed at the end of the 2005 season. The ride had several modifications for the 2007 season, including improved queue line lighting, new video and sound effects, and a new control cabin. However, the queueline video ceased playing after a year and the television screens are now switched off. In 2010, X:\ No Way Out intermittently operated with the safety lights turned on, meaning the ride was sometimes ran with the interior of the building being visible.
[edit] Ride experience
After being let into the building, a staff member situated in a bag room to the left collects any loose items for retrieval after the ride(there is also another bag room near the station). Riders then head down the long passageway in near darkness. Riders come out into the green-lit station, where an empty train then rolls in backwards on to the loading platform and riders take their seats. Lap-bars are checked, the air gates are closed, and the train travels backwards into the darkness.
The sound effects and music played on the ride and in the queue line change frequently, and are sometimes not played. The current music type for X:/ No Way Out is Trance music that can be clearly heard at two of the stopping sections during the ride. Outside the pyramid, a sound clip is played through speakers in front of the queue line that consists of many Sci-Fi and electrical sounds accompanied by human voices that appear to be panicking about a system corruption. A dark, evil, robotic voice can then be heard talking, before it states that there is "no way out" and then the clip abruptly stops.
The train curves through a pitch black area, straight into the drive tyre lift hill. As riders ascend, coloured lights flash to either side. The train then drops and riders are immediately sent into a helix, over a small hill, and straight into the first set of brakes. If the special effects are working, pipes blast air above the train and various sound effects are heard. The train then travels off backwards again through a second helix, before stopping at another brake run. Here the train slowly moves forward, stops and travels backwards again. After another drop and turn, riders are sent into another brake run, as the train travels forwards and back several times. Two static robotic figures were seen to the right in 2002 to 2005. The train is then sent backwards again before stopping at a final break run located at ground level, before travelling into the unload station. A message plays: "The ride has come to an end, please exit to your left." Riders then leave their vehicle and exit through large doors, heading into the area that previously held the on-ride photo stall. After walking down the exit corridor, passing a large, comical battery labelled "Thorpe Park power supply", riders collect their belongings and exit into daylight. From 2011, the pyramid the ride is housed in has been partially been blocked from view by 'Storm Surge'
[edit] Ride History
When the ride opened in 1996, mostly all of the ride features were working. As time passed, the features and special effects got old and stopped functioning. For example, if you look carefully just before you go into the loading platform, there will be a pentagonal futuristic metal room with speakers in the corners. This room was an elevator; The doors used to shut but they are now always open. Once the doors had shut the floor vibrated and gave the rider the feeling that the lift was going up. Once the doors opened you were let into the loading platform. Once you had walked into the station, you used to hear a voice saying "The whole system is corrupted, abort" but that feature was taken out in 2009. The ride originally had an on-ride camera, but this was removed at the end of the 2005 season. The ride had several modifications for the 2007 season, including improved queue line lighting, new video and sound effects, and a new control cabin. However, the queue line video ceased playing after a year and the television screens are now switched off. From 2010 , X:\ No Way Out operated with the safety lights turned on, meaning the ride is ran with the interior of the building being visible which ruins the experience. Due to that, the static robotic man that popped out, the fans, the music and many other effects ceased operation.
[edit] External links
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