[Black Squirrel]

Wikipedia thinks they existed, but I can't find photos or other proof. Can you?


And if you're living in the US, we likely need to identify the locations of every Sega Center, Sega-branded Time-Out and possibly every GameWorks.

Japanese Sega arcades would be cool too. It's confusing me at the moment because there are apparently three in Akihabara alone and they all look similar.

http://segaretro.org/Category:Venues

There's also Sega Cities and possibly more Sega Parks to be found. I want to find homes for the coins.


Cheers me dears.

[Hivebrain]

The Tamworth location is in the middle of nowhere. Found it on streetview but older photos are going to be rare. Postcode is B79 7ND.

Birmingham location is a lot more central. Found a picture of the Blockbuster whose upper floor was the arcade (it's a gym in the photo). I think a period photo might be doable. Postcode is B23 6SA.

Wolverhampton might have a bit more info because it was destroyed by a fire. The building has been demolished now but it's still on streetview. Postcode is WV10 9LG.
Article about the fire with some history: http://www.expressan...-wolverhampton/
Archive of bowling alley website circa 2009: https://web.archive....sbowling.co.uk/

A few more Sega-branded arcades mentioned here:
http://homepage.ntlw...ough1/ukarc.htm

[Black Squirrel]

Also got a couple in Spain

http://I.imgur.com/wNJE5vY.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot...C3%ADtulo-1.jpg

Can't quite work out where they were though, or if they're even the same place from different sides. Word on the street seems to be these popped up quite a bit in the early 2000s but most (if not all) have since closed.

[Sploit]

I don't believe that other official SEGAWORLD locations in the UK existed...

...the reason being that I was fortunate enough to be able to go the London location multiple times (from when it first started and you had to pay for admission - still got my paid ticket - to later on when it became free and gradually scaled down), and during none of those visits do I recall ever seeing any advertisements for other locations. Presumably they would have promoted them had they existed? Perhaps they were planned?

[Black Squirrel]

There were tons, but the London one was the centerpiece, built with indoor rides and whatever. Most of the others were Sega-branded arcades, but for example, the Bournemouth one was used as a location test for all new Sega arcade machines.

[Overlord]

Yeah, I also visited the Southampton one around 2001 - was a glorified arcade, as noted.

[Xilla]

There was a bowling alley in Glasgow many moons ago which briefly had its arcade section with the SegaWorld branding in the early 90s. It died a death though and the Sega stuff was soon replaced with Street Fighter 2 and the likes.

[Black Squirrel]

Ah yes Glasgow is another one I couldn't find much about. These half-SegaWorld, half-bowling alley setups are a recurring theme (and there are also cases of sharing space with Virgin Megastores or Blockbuster).

[Ashura96]

Sigh, I miss GameWorks. The info on the Grapevine, Texas location closing date is correct. (remember all too well...)

But...another Japanese company (Round1) is opening a location in the area soon, and if you haven't heard, they are basically the biggest arcade/amusement/bowling/etc company in Japan and have expanded into the US in the last four years or so...and with that they bring a lot of games you rarely see outside of Japan or Asia to begin with that I am very excited about.

[ICEknight]

Black Squirrel, on 05 November 2014 - 08:17 AM, said:

Also got a couple in Spain

http://I.imgur.com/wNJE5vY.jpg
http://1.bp.blogspot...C3%ADtulo-1.jpg

Can't quite work out where they were though, or if they're even the same place from different sides. Word on the street seems to be these popped up quite a bit in the early 2000s but most (if not all) have since closed.

The post where the pics come from says that they were in Jeréz (Cádiz) and Cartagena (Murcia) respectively, and have already been closed since.

Then, from the comments:
-Two more in San Fernando (also Cádiz), also closed now.
-Another one in Marbella, status unknown.
-One in Málaga in the late 90s, didn't last long.
-Possibly at one point in Chiclana, Puerto Real and El Puerto de Santa María, but not sure.

I didn't even know these things existed in Spain...

This post has been edited by ICEknight: 06 November 2014 - 12:03 PM

[GagaMan]

There was a Sega Park in Balsidon I used to go to, next to a food court in a shopping center. Shame I never managed to get photos of it, but it had some great artwork of Daytona and Virtua Cop on the walls that that Sonic carpet I'm sure you may have all seen on UK:Resistance

[Black Squirrel]

Some other early Sega arcades:

"Metropolis" was situated in a basement of Hamley's (the big London toy store), circa November 1992. No idea what the story was there, but there was merchandise!

(wiki page in a bit)

"SegaFolies" opened in Spring 1993 in a Marseilles (France) branch of Virgin Megastores. Good luck finding anything on that.

When Euro Disney opened (now Disneyland Paris) there was also a Sega venue of some description which apparently counts as the first Sega-branded arcade in Europe. Except I can't prove it existed yet. Quite a lot about the construction of Euro Disney though - it's almost interesting.


EDIT: oop from a press release in 1996:

Quote

Sega Worlds at:
Stakis Hotel, Westover Rd, BOURNEMOUTH;
Strykers Pleasure Bowl, Castle Ground, River Drive, TAMWORTH, Staffs;
Strykers Pleasure Bowl, Shaw Rd, Bushbury, WOLVERHAMPTON;
Blockbuster Video, 53-59 High Rd, Erdington, BIRMINGHAM.

Sega Parks at:
Super Bowl, Pincent Lane, READING, Berks;
Super Bowl, Royale Leisure Park, Western Avenue, Park Royal, LONDON;
Arena One, Brunel Way, Ashton Gate, BRISTOL.

Sega Zones at:
12 Powis St, Woolwich, LONDON;
30-32 Electric Avenue, Brixton, LONDON.

Planet Sega, Queens Ice Rink, 155 Queens Court, Queensway, LONDON;

This post has been edited by Black Squirrel: 06 November 2014 - 03:25 PM

[GagaMan]

I went to Metropolis when they held a Sonic 6th Birthday party thing which I won a ticket for in Sonic the Comic. I have home videos of it on youtube: https://www.youtube....h?v=TJSmPQI-Lbw (yes that is me shouting "He's cutting the caaaake!" I was a noisy kid.)

I have a small collection of those badges somewhere, I'll get photos of them at some point.

This post has been edited by GagaMan: 06 November 2014 - 04:09 PM

[Sploit]

Black Squirrel, on 06 November 2014 - 03:00 PM, said:

Some other early Sega arcades:

"Metropolis" was situated in a basement of Hamley's (the big London toy store), circa November 1992. No idea what the story was there, but there was merchandise!

(wiki page in a bit)

"SegaFolies" opened in Spring 1993 in a Marseilles (France) branch of Virgin Megastores. Good luck finding anything on that.

When Euro Disney opened (now Disneyland Paris) there was also a Sega venue of some description which apparently counts as the first Sega-branded arcade in Europe. Except I can't prove it existed yet. Quite a lot about the construction of Euro Disney though - it's almost interesting.


EDIT: oop from a press release in 1996:

Quote

Sega Worlds at:
Stakis Hotel, Westover Rd, BOURNEMOUTH;
Strykers Pleasure Bowl, Castle Ground, River Drive, TAMWORTH, Staffs;
Strykers Pleasure Bowl, Shaw Rd, Bushbury, WOLVERHAMPTON;
Blockbuster Video, 53-59 High Rd, Erdington, BIRMINGHAM.

Sega Parks at:
Super Bowl, Pincent Lane, READING, Berks;
Super Bowl, Royale Leisure Park, Western Avenue, Park Royal, LONDON;
Arena One, Brunel Way, Ashton Gate, BRISTOL.

Sega Zones at:
12 Powis St, Woolwich, LONDON;
30-32 Electric Avenue, Brixton, LONDON.

Planet Sega, Queens Ice Rink, 155 Queens Court, Queensway, LONDON;

Okay so I was wrong about those other locations, but...

...Metropolis wasn't the same thing as SEGAWORLD, that I am sure of.

I went there too and got the badge you have shown in that picture. The place was tiny in comparison and paled in comparison.

In fact, Metropolis may even have opened after SEGAWORLD's demise (or at least definitely when things were going downhill towards the end).

One thing I wish I had done as a kid, was get a picture of the golden Sonic statue that stood above the main Trocadero building entrance when SEGAWORLD was in its prime. Have never seen any pictures of it online, but it was definitely there. It stood on a base that was above the entrance, and it had like a thing under the base where red text scrolled along advertisting it.

This post has been edited by Sploit: 06 November 2014 - 06:00 PM

[Xilla]

I believe the only SegaSonic machine in Europe was in Metropolis for many years! Alas when I finally visited it (2 months before it got converted to a GAME) it was well gone.