Alton Towers (Location)

Alton Towers

LOCATION

A popular British theme park, which has featured in the Roller Coaster Tycoon series

Overview

The Official Logo

Alton Towers is an English theme park. Located near Stoke-on-trent, Alton Towers is one of Britain's best known tourist attractions, and one of the most visually unique theme parks in the world due to being constructed in the grounds of an authentic historic building. Taking its name from the local village of Alton, the modern park is a fully featured resort. A scenario featuring Alton Towers was made available on the official Roller Coaster Tycoonwebsite and was later included on the Loopy Landscapes Expansion Pack.

History

The Towers

A notable historic site for over 3000 years, several buildings stood on the site, including one which was destroyed during the English Civil War, while the current building took on much of its current structure during the early 19th Century when many additions and alterations were made to the houses appearance. Another signature part of the site is an extensive decorative garden area which was added at the same time, and continues to be a major attraction of the park. Alton Towers ceased to be a residence in the early 20th Century and became a parkland for visitors. It wasnt until 1980 that the grounds gained its first ride and over the following years slowly transformed into a fully recongnizable modern theme park. The Towers themselves are partially ruined and are being restored.

The park has passed between several owners over recent years, notably the The Tussauds Group, best known for their Waxworks Museums.

General

Like many theme parks, the park is divided into a number of themed areas.

Family or Adult Areas

Forbidden Valley (post-apocalypse themed)
X-Sector (futuristic themed)
Mutiny Bay (pirate themed)
Katanga Kanyon (Africa (Location) themed)
Dark Forest (horror themed)
Gloomy Wood (haunted-house themed)

Childrens areas

Cloud Cuckoo Land
Adventure Land
Storybook Land
Old MacDonald's Farmyard

Other

Tower Street (entrance and retail area)
The Gardens
The Towers (Hex, a 'walk through ride' gives access to the towers)

Additionally, the park is home to two resort hotels, a waterpark, crazy golf and a conference centre. Alton Towers is open to the public aproximately 8 months of the year.

Rides

Alton Towers has been host to many rides since its creation, such as the long standing Corkscrew and the indoor coaster The Black Hole. Many rides have amounted to national, European or even World's firsts. Major current rides include:

Mind the step

Oblivion A vertical drop coaster Opened in 1998

Is it a bird....

Air A 'flying stance' coaster Opened in 2002

Its Alive!

Nemesis An inverted coaster Opened in 1994

The Queen of Speed

Rita An accelerated speed coaster Opened in 2005

Are you scared yet?

Th13teen A freefall drop coaster Opened in 2010 Smaller, more standard rides include the Enterprise Wheel, Log Flume, Congo (Location) River Rapids and Ripsaw

Also making their own impact on the landscape are a monorail and a cable-car.

Trivia

The park lacks tall rides such as Hypercoasters which are increasingly popular due to restrictions placed on the site which limit the height and noise of rides.

Alton Towers has hosted a number of concerts over the years for musicians such as Pink and Tina Turner

After a marketing agreement with Sega (Company), Alton Towers re-themed its Spinball Whizzer as the Sonic Spinball ride in 2010.

The music used to advertise the park is In the Hall of the Mountain King, which also featured in Manic Miner (Game) The Towers building was requisitioned in WWII as a military training unit

When developing future attractions, rides are code named SW which stands for Secret Weapon

Games view all →]

RollerCoaster Tycoon: Loopy Landscapes (Game)