X (roller coaster) 4.34

X is an indoor roller coaster located at Thorpe Park, England. It was the park's first non-powered roller-coaster. It is themed around a rave and has the strapline "Ride on a wave of light and sound".The roller coaster combines a variety of lights, lasers and music with a completely indoor ride circuit, featured inside a large blue and terracotta pyramid structure.HistoryThe ride opened as X:\ No Way Out on March 23, 1996 as Thorpe Park's first non-powered roller coaster. It was marketed as the "world's first backwards roller coaster in the dark" and featured an elaborate queue system through multiple interactive themed rooms, such as a trommel tunnel, "decontamination" area and illusionary rooms. The ride's cyberpunk theme was drastically toned down by the early 2000s when most the interior rooms became disused, and many in-ride effects removed. In March 2013 the ride underwent further significant changes, which removed the remnants of the computer horror theme and shortened its name simply to 'X'. The trains were refurbished by Vekoma to now run forwards, to resolve the common issue of motion sickness. The addition of lighting and lasers from 2013 onwards removes the pitch black darkness that riders originally rode in. In the exit queue line, there was a 5 ft-long model of an Eveready AA battery labelled 'Thorpe Park Power Supply'; this was removed in 2013.The ride layout has also had many features removed since its opening. There was an on-ride photo camera which allowed riders to purchase their on-ride photo; this was removed in 2005. The lift hill of the ride had multi-coloured flashing LED light strips added in 2000; these were removed in 2013.MusicIn 2013 the ride was given a new original soundtrack to accompany the new lights and lasers, this was removed in 2014 and was replaced with a playlist of dance music. In 2016 the selection of songs was updated. In June 2017 the dance music was removed from the ride area and the ride was given a different original soundtrack, this time composed by IMAscore and in the style of the park's 'Island Theme', the queue line retained the music used before.