[Black Squirrel]

I don't care if there's only three or four people in the world that care - I'm going to keep bumping this topic.

GamesMaster!

(4:25-ish)

Sega Park Harlow apparently opened on a Friday. This episode of GamesMaster aired on the 17th December 1997, which was a Wednesday, which means... the opening date was the 12th. Also it was apparently the 13th Sega Park - can't quite be bothered to check the maths on that one.

[Overlord]

I know we have at least one Harlow-based member... anyone go to this Sega Park?

[Breadbin]

I lived within 5 miles of the SegaWorld in Tamworth growing up and ironically, never went there (we didn't have much money growing up). But can definitely confirm that the postcode on the 1st page is correct (it was located in what is now the Namco / Strykers building next to the Tamworth Snow Dome).

I think I remember one of my friends from college saying that his dad worked at the Tamworth SegaWorld (maybe even owned it). I'll drop him a message and see if he has any images of the place when it was still going (I'm not hugely hopeful though).

Edit: I just wanted to add that I am aware that the last part very much sounds like a "my dad works at Nintendo" sort of claim but I seem to remember him dropping it nonchalantly in conversation and mentioned that he got a life-size cut out of Sonic The Hedgehog when it closed down.

This post has been edited by Breadbin: 06 February 2017 - 03:24 PM

[Black Squirrel]

Time for a change in scenery.



I came across this coin accidentally. Turns out it's from a "Planet Sega" arcade in Dubai. I think it still exists, but it's called "Magic Planet" now and is part of a set.


10 points to the first person who can find me a photo.

[Tedster]

Throwing my hat into the ring of the few people who cares about this! Last year I made a article on my blog about Sega World London and the Trocadero in general and been interested in the arcades Sega opened ever since. It's shameless self promotion, I know, but would be great if you gave it a read.

Can't help much on the Planet Sega Dubai sadly. Went looking through the old website for BurJuman on Internet Archive and couldn't get very far, even when looking though all the URL's that were saved. I did find this, however, which says that Majid Al Futtaim's Magic Planet arcades existed already- so once Sega's licence ran out, they rebranded it as such. Still don't know why this one was granted the use of Sega's name or if any other Magic Planet arcades got this treatment.

Some other Sega arcade related findings I've made:

It doesn't state the actual year but this flyer for Sega Park Basildon's opening states it opened on Friday 3rd October. Best guess for when this one opened is 1996-1997 considering the back of the flyer has a coupon to win a Saturn.

While doing London Trocadero research I came across this book called Entertainment Destinations- Google Books allows previews and there's pictures of Trocadero, but the contents states it has pictures of the undocumented 'Sega Station' in Kansas City, Sega City/Playdium in Toronto, and a couple of GameWorks locations as well. The book is on Amazon right now for £3.46, who's willing to buy and scan the pages?

Also, I've found pictures of Sega Park Oriental City back when it was Sega Dome from here. I haven't seen these posted in the thread and they aren't on the wiki page for it yet so I assume no-one's seen these yet? Apologies if they have though.

Nevertheless, judging from the pictures, these are from late 98-99, before Leisure Exchange took charge and gave it a refurb (the Sonic and Tails murals you can catch glimpses of here were no longer there by at least 2007)

This post has been edited by Tedster: 15 February 2018 - 12:28 AM

[LewiG]

Overlord, on 05 February 2017 - 02:20 PM, said:

I know we have at least one Harlow-based member... anyone go to this Sega Park?

I used to go to that Sega Park in Harlow all the time as a teenager! I lived in Bishops Stortford which is the neighbouring town to Harlow. Harlow had everything, Cinema, Sega Park, Fast food. I used to play Crazy Taxi all the time. The London Trocadero Sega world was impressive. It had a long glass tunnel like entrance which was an escalator. In there I discovered Sonic Fighters and the Sega Sonic track ball arcade games. Interestingly the Sega Sonic game was not translated.

Man I miss arcades.

[Black Squirrel]

As long as the files are named correctly and categorised properly (bonus points for the date it was protographed), dumping as many relevant photos and videos as possible on Sega Retro of an arcade venue is probably a really good idea.



We're a long way off building detailed 3D models with 423849324032 shots stitched together, but images are a much better description of the place than "there was this on floor 2". It can also help answer questions about which games were available in the UK and when.



Blogs are lovely but it's far more beneficial to have all the information in one place.

[Tedster]

Black Squirrel, on 16 February 2018 - 01:10 PM, said:

As long as the files are named correctly and categorised properly (bonus points for the date it was protographed), dumping as many relevant photos and videos as possible on Sega Retro of an arcade venue is probably a really good idea.



We're a long way off building detailed 3D models with 423849324032 shots stitched together, but images are a much better description of the place than "there was this on floor 2". It can also help answer questions about which games were available in the UK and when.



Blogs are lovely but it's far more beneficial to have all the information in one place.

Alright, I'll get to work uploading all the photos soon. I'll try and find some time this week but I'm on holiday from Wednesday so it might be hard. Will also update the Sega Dome Colindale and Sega Park Basildon pages.

Also, looks like Sega Amusements are making a big push to open more arcades in the UK. They recently partnered with bowling chain Superbowl UK to supply arcade machines and brand their arcade sections under the Sega name, and it's not for certain but they may be returning to Southampton with a Sega Prize Zone arcade in the Westquay shopping centre, similar to the one currently in Hatfield's Galleria shopping centre.

[Tedster]

Two little pictures relating to Sega World Wolverhampton here-

Found this picture of a bus advertising the Strykers bowling alley it was in. You can see Sonic easily, but if you look closely it says 'Sega Park', which is interesting considering this has only been known as a Sega World so far. Also this unfortunately doesn't help in us dating the opening of this Sega arcade, this picture was taken in 1996.

Then there's this on a bridge, directing drivers to the bowling alley with the 'Sega World' logo visible- so it must've been named Sega World at some point in it's life. As far as I'm aware this is still there, this was taken last year in July. Kind of surprising when you consider the entire building closed and burnt down years back now.

[Black Squirrel]

You've done well to find that.

The wonderful thing about bus photos is you can take the registration number and find out where it is today. And in this case, A717 UOE is nowhere because it was scrapped in 2006.

https://www.flickr.c...N03/31924302530



(this is in the scope of Sega Retro because it's promotional material for a Sega thing. Yes really.)


Watermarks aside, the internet is surprisingly good at documenting old British bus rolling stock.

EDIT: This is what my life has become:

https://www.google.c...12!8i6656?dcr=0


In this area, street view goes back to 2009. So you can watch a bridge slowly deteriorate over the span of eight years. Because you want to do that.

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 20 February 2018 - 02:36 PM

[Tedster]

Of course, you can do that with anywhere on Google Street View- like seeing the actual Strykers bowling alley rot away until it was set on fire and burnt to the ground.

https://www.google.c...!7i13312!8i6656

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to find any information about the 'Sega Station' that was in Kansas City, Missouri, but there is absolutely nothing. All I can gather is that it may have become a Gameworks for a very short period of time. I might buy it as Amazon does have a few copies for around £3 but I don't have a good quality scanner at the moment.

This post has been edited by Tedster: 20 February 2018 - 10:12 PM

[Black Squirrel]

https://books.google...%20sega&f=false

*one thing

This appears to have been part of a branch of "Station Casino" which opened up in Kansas City in 1997. The building's been called "Ameristar Casino Kansas City" since 2000.


There is still an arcade there. It's called "Hi-Vi Arcade" and it looks like this



i.e. it hasn't been rennovated, so still looks like it did when Sega were attached to it.

[Black Squirrel]

Sega Station Kansas City


Word on the street is there might have been another Sega Station at the Boulder Station casino in Las Vegas. Also Sunset Station.

These were all owned by the same group so I guess there was a deal of some sort.

[Tedster]

A small glimpse of Planet Sega Queensway, at Queens Ice And Bowl in London. You can see very little of the actual arcade, I can only just identify a Virtua Cop 2 machine, but it was next to the bowling alley in a raised section, with a Sonic carpet of course- if they were still around, UK Resistance would approve greatly!

I found this on a website for London architectural firm Proun, who also did some stuff for the Trocadero and Namco if you have a look around on their website. They designed a new reception and added a bowling alley - seemingly, from their description, after the ice rink first opened too, and they don't mention Planet Sega. So for a while, this Sega arcade may have been only as a 2nd attraction for the ice rink, which could explain it's different name.

This post has been edited by Tedster: 17 March 2018 - 07:02 PM