How Does Hex at Alton Towers Work? 

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I remember the first time on Hex, actually made me feel sick as I thought we were upside down haha. Love it now as it normally doesnt have much of a queue during nice days and great for the kids. It is really well made.

I still remember the smell of being inside the place xD

Great video! My first time on Hex I had no idea what it was and I was grateful to have a sit down - then the ride started and my motion sickness kicked in slightly 🤣. I’ve done 4 Vekoma madhouses and Hex is my favourite but I agree about the pre show - like Derren Browns Ghost Train it would be brilliant if they had an option to skip the pre show as it does become tedious after a while

I love how the first half of the ride takes place inside the actual Towers ruins and also how well hidden the actual ride building is. Makes me wonder what the reactions were like from local conservation groups when the ride was being constructed

It's been ~10 years since my visit to AT and this is the ride I remember the most! Can't wait to go again!

Great video! Glad we could help with the POV!

Went on this ride for the first time on Thursday as it was my first time at Alton Towers. Ended up doing the ride 4 times in 2 days and enjoyed it a lot. Am not a coaster person, but do love stuff like this that tricks you into thinking it's doing something it's not. Fun note when you leave the ride and walk along the long passage your basically walking around underneath the way in to get back into the main building before you exit the towers themself, but the blending between the show room and the real building is done so well, you don't even notice the fact at all, and you pop out from the other side of the octagram room where the final preshow is.

I just went to alton towers and I went on hex for the first time. Me and my family after we’re so confused how it worked! It was a really good ride though

Personally I love the entire experience including the pre-show!

Thanks so much for making this video. I have just been on HEX and ever since I got off I have wondered how it works and what actually happens inside. 👍🏻

This was so interesting!! Unfortunately I haven’t been to Alton towers since I was really young (like 8 years old) but at Legoland they have a ride called Monster dance party and the ride is just like this! It was sooo trippy and I was so curious to learn how it worked and this has defo explained it!

I think the pre show is what creates the atmosphere of the ride and history. It wouldn’t be the same if I’d skipped the pre show ☺️

Love the 'old abandoned' smell you get on this ride.

Last week I visited Warner Bros Movie Park in Madrid and rode the "Haunted Hotel" which happens to be an identical version of this ride, also by Vekoma. Ours is also 78 passengers and 30 degree tilt. I'm so used to it that I cannot imagine it being any smaller or tilt any less tbh. It feels great and I absolutely love it. Greetings from Spain!

Just been on Hex today, it was incredibly aursom. Made my visit so magical, better than the crazy fast roller coaster rides. ! A beautiful place to discover xxx especially for Halloween 🎃

Ive only done thie ride twice. The first time was in 2014 when I was 10 and it terrified me so much because the illusion was so powerful. My second ride was in 2021 where i had been an enthusiast for some time so I knew a bit about how it works. Great ride and I wish it was open more often

Great video and love your presentation style, like you are talking to a friend :)

Great video explaining it perfectly, i close my eyes cos i hate the upside down feeling and it feels like being on a swing in the wind, a great way to meditate 😃👍

Love Hex. It was my first ever madhouse as a kid and I was convinced that I had been upside down.

I love Hex and did you know that the actual chained oak tree is a few yards away from the park entrance close to the Chained Oak B&B.

Love hex but I agree the preshow is quite a drag once you’ve seen it a few times

The Efteling in the Netherlands also as a Madhouse called Villa Volta, and was actually the first one of its sort! When we go to the Efteling this is also one of the rides I just have to go on!

Great video! I dont know what they can do but i think its time for a spruce up of the ride!

I went on this yesterday and freaked out!!! It was the worst experience for me. I felt claustrophobic and so disorientated I had a panic attack. Never again! I am sad I know 😞

I remember the first time when i was on Hex almost a year or two ago. I was crying by the time i got off it.

One of my favourite dark rides going😊

My Mum's Godfather is the narrator in the pre-show video for this. You may all know him as Mr Carson in Downton Abbey, I just know him as "Uncle Jim" 😍😍😍😍

Great Video!

Would love a video like this on DBGT explaining how it’s done as we have had many debate how it’s done

Omg at 5 23 I went to school with the operator 😂😂😂

Sean with those technical words 😎

I just rode Legoland's Haunted House Monster Party and I just immediately needed to know how the ride worked, I had some idea but this video was great, thank you! Just so disappointed at how nauseated it made me feel, I love a good rollercoaster but I couldn't believe how disorientated I felt when I came off of it, it is so clever and even though I knew we weren't going upside down how it manages to always trick your mind is so amazing! But sadly I don't think I could go on any madhouse ride again after how it made me feel haha!

i like the feeling of your mind being tricked, because you know you aren't upside down but your eyes see different

The start is really boring and drags but the ride really triggered my vertigo I couldn’t even walk of the ride but you can’t not go on for a second time it’s fun and deffo messes with your head for a while great video ! ;)

We have been on this numerous times but the first time was years ago (Probably when it was new) and my dad has vertigo and didn't realise what the ride was actually about, fair to say he's never gone on it since. His favourite ride is Oblivion.

Good video, as a past engineer on a mad house I will dispell some information in that video. The ride is not tilted when you enter it, seeing as the Towers are not tilted, you would notice this tilt as you enter the vault, something which you do not do. The 15 degrees quoted is technically correct. The 78 seater madhouse such as Hex has a maximum tilt range of 30 degrees, which is 15 degrees of tilt in each direction. The 40 seater model has.a 15 degree tilt range. 7.5 degree each way. This does not make the tilt less though. The tighter circumference of the smaller model means less swing is required to achieve the same effect. Finally, there is nothing special about Hex in terms of it's size. The 78 seater model is the standard one. Most installs around the world are the same model as Hex. It is intact the 40 seater model which is much more rare. Drayton Manor have a 40 seater model. Legoland Wondosr and Alton Towers have the 78 seater model.

I feel sad that it only has 66 likes. I liked the video

It's a great ride

I remember back in the day they had people in vault as restoration builders.

You mentioned the preshow getting boring but I really like the atmosphere tbh but then again I only get to the towers 2-3 times a year

I cried when I first did this and now ,9 years later I know how it works

Just come back from Alton Towers. Hex was closed on both days I was there.☹️

Sean, couldnt agree more about Hex, once a year Scarefest for me too, Towers is way more fun at Scarefest

My question about Hex has always been this: What is the story behind the painting you're shown before entering the first pre-show? Is it an original? A recreation? Or was it created for the ride? The background does include a reference to lightning striking a tree, but as the legend existed long before the ride, that doesn't really help. If it was created for the ride, they certainly did a good job of making it look authentic

It's an updated version of the old 'Haunted Swing' first invented in the 1890's. Blackpool used to have one with Issac Newton and his apple outside. It started in 1955 (it was a C classed ride back in the 1980s) I heard it got absorbed into a mash of the Hall of Mirrors and the old Fun House. dunno if it's still there - should be listed if it is!

Best ride in the UK - The pre-show is excellent. Did they previously put scare actors in the second pre-show room during scarefest?

I didn't go on this last year, went on thirteen instead. Silly me 😆

Bro its so trippy

Rode on it yesterday scarey

i wouldn't mind the pre show if the audio wasn't so raspy and loud. Its very muffled and hard to here yet really loud at the same time. So it hurts your ears. They beed a new speaker system for it

Bin on hexs it is amazing

I’m going to Alton towers on Friday for 1 day, I hate roller coasters and tbh rides in general so I am so scared. I feel that I’m gonna get forced on at least this one. I think I’ll be able to do this one but things like the smiler I would literally have a panic attack in the queue

Funny enough first time I saw this I sussed it was based on the Victorian haunted swing idea. There's a smaller simpler version in Blackpool, even though it's far smaller it's still just as a effective mind fk as it's bigger brother in Alton

I went on this I ended up lead on my back screaming!

wait so it doesnt go upside down? oh man now that i know this im going to have lots of fun

I never knew the motors for the drum were hydraulic ones... They look like electrical ones

Here I am as one of those guys in the comments who is gonna say what you said is completely and utterly wrong :D At 4:41 you mention that HEX is rare Vekoma madhouse with 78 passangers and that a standard Vekoma madhouse only holds 48 passengers. However, all standard models of the Vekoma madhouse holds up to 78 people (that's the case since the very first madhouse Villa Volta at Efteling), and HEX is nothing different from those. It's only the smaller Vekoma Madhouses which are rare with a maximum of 40 people. Only 2 of the smaller versions are built with The Haunting at DraytonManor and Verließ des Grauens in Belantis. While the standard Vekoma Madhouse with 78 people is much more common with currently 12 in operation. About the swinging. Vekoma has always mentioned 30 degree for the standard model and 15 degree for the small model. I do believe that some staff-member from parks who do these BehindTheScenes tours misinterpreted those stats and convert the 30 degree to +-15 degree in either direction (with a total span of 30 degree). But this is not true and I do believe that for a standard madhouse the swinging indeed goes up to 30 degree in each direction (It's easily recognized from behind the scenes video where at the start of a ride when the drum and gondola moves simultaniously, the drum rotates to precisely 30 degree before rotating the other way). For this as well, this is the case for all Vekoma madhouses except for the small onces obviously Edit: I see that someone in the comments as a mad house engineer has already commented about the passenger size and the swinging. Although I believe he is still incorrect about the swinging

The room turns 360 degrees and the bench swings also very slowly around 15-20 degrees in each direction.

Watching this to get my nerve back for Thursday , it terrifies me ( most normal people are scared of smiler 😂 ) I’ve been on loads but I still feel like shit after I might try it again but I’m not sure I’ll ever like it 🤦🏻‍♀️

am I the only one that felt light headed when u sat on the seats and it spun upside down?

This ride scarred me when I was about 5 ish. Screw you hex! 😆

Somehow I get dizzier on this than the smiler.

I really hope hex gets some love one day I hope they make it more crazy (⊙_◎) one day if any one knows the plans for hex in the future let me know

Simple answer it dosnt

Short answer it doesn’t work 😉😂

This ride made me more sick than smiler

it doesn't

Horrible horrible ride, NEVER AGAIN! How I wasn't sick I don't know but it seriously messed me up for a good hour afterwards.

simple it doesnt

As of 2023 it doesn't!!!