Manchester, Ipswich (Debenhams), and Trocadero all up and running in 1993. I think we're missing information about this early Trocadero Sega World.
That apparent early Trocadero venue could easily have just been lost to history, but at the same time, it's odd that the only mentions of it we have are from a couple of magazines (one of which referring to it still being planned), which casts some doubt upon it. If it really was a thing, it must've been very short-lived, or some sort of brief, unpublicised location test. I'm thinking something along the lines of Sega having a small concession area in the Funland arcade under their own branding, where they tested yet to be released machines of theirs.
There are a few arcade trade publications that should cast some light on location testing and the like, although Sega World Bounemouth seems to have been the default choice (between it opening and SegaWorld London, of course).
Another UK Sega venue that seems to have been almost entirely lost, Havant: https://www.britaine.co.uk/sega-uk-ltd-F120EC8071DD646 Can't have been there for very long at all- the only other mentions of it I can find are a few Facebook posts recounting it being there.
Facebook says it was a Sega Park: https://www.facebook.com/groups/haylingisland/permalink/1584219611757887/ https://archive.is/CLppc And also this: https://webcache.googleusercontent....provedusvadbu.ru/7+&cd=16&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk
It was, yes. By sheer chance, I went to Southampton University for a look around when I was deciding what uni to apply for (Southampton ended up being my #3 choice, so I didn't go) but I DO remember seeing a Sega Park while we went shopping afterwards. Having checked my diaries this would have been on Wednesday the 19th of February 2003, next door to a local second hand games shop that I got a few bits from. I don't remember much about the place beyond a Sega Park logo, a fancy carpet (possibly the Sonic one UK:R put up all that time ago? I can't remember) and it not being that big - a couple of dozen machines, not a lot beyond that.
Oh, derp. I saw Havant and assumed it was Southampton given the relative geographical closeness, ignore me.
https://segaretro.org/index.php?title=File:SegaPro_UK_33.pdf&page=11 Another mention of "Trocadero", before it became a Sega World, May 1994. Also a "Sonic Zone" - not sure what that is. Incidentally there's probably other information in our latest batch of scans - I haven't been reading every issue from cover to cover.
Sonic Zone was in Queensway Ice Skating Rink, so should just be an early name for Planet Sega Queensway. They were advertising for jobs on April 28 1994 after recently opening.
A new arcade bar opened in Edinburgh on the site of what-used-to-be an arcade (LA Amusements) from the 80s through to the mid-late 2000s (when it became a William Hill), and whilst searching around for pics of the original place, I came across this Reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Edinburgh/comments/bw8rly/old_edinburgh_arcades_help_me_reminisce/ Some chat of the Edinburgh SEGA World/Park going on here, it was on Shandwick Place which is basically "Princes Street before it becomes Princes Street". Truth be told, I had no idea it even existed. But I HAVE been in that arcade, after the presumed-SEGA branding had been stripped out. Above Streetview pic from 2008. By the time I visited (early 2000s) the video machines were housed in the "Sun Saver Tanning" place on the right (once part of the arcade), nothing much of interest at the time I visited (Just Dancing Stage, some shooters and that Club Kart machine that offered cash prizes. Funnily enough, LA Amusements (which wasn't too far away, on Lothian Road) had a suspiciously high amount of SEGA machines from the mid-late 90s! I wonder if they were decanted there once the branding was gone. (The references to "Fantasy Palace" in the above link are mistaken BTW, that's a strip club a few doors down from this place)
Couldn't find anything useful on Google, although interestingly it was a museum/gallery in the 1960s: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1179/043087766798242269?journalCode=yfol20 And in 2001 the upper floors were converted to flats. Possibly this is when Sega moved out. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/Edinburgh/issue/24999/page/889/data.pdf
It was 2002-3 when I first visited it (and the videos were in the basement) so that would make sense - I can't recall upstairs being accessible at that time. The bus route into Edinburgh at that time bypassed it IIRC so that might explain why I can't remember it being a SEGA place.
I've written about Harlow's Sega Park in issue 238 of Retro Gamer. It's mostly personal memories, but I did get some very kind assistance from Harlow Museum and the Harvey Centre regarding archive images. So here's an advert for the opening of the arcade:
It was a great read; obviously the main focus of Retro Gamer is more on the games themselves, often meaning the the similarly great looks at franchises, their developers, etc, but it'd be good if there could be more of that kind of thing involving arcades in particular. The flyer does remind me that I saved a pic of this similar one for the Sega Park in Basildon off of a long-gone Instagram post several years ago, though I've no idea what exact year it's originally from to fully date the opening:
Things I find accidentally #53278043291894123 Treasure. Sega owned the Time-Out chain of arcades in the US during the late 1980s, but there's very little surviving evidence. This token is from (presumably) a special one, "Time-Out on the Court". Forest Fair Mall. This one. The mall still exists, but it's got like, three tenants and there have been plans to demolish it for years. Anyway it's difficult to find information about Sega's time in charge, but when it was regular old Time-Out... Merry-go-round! Crazy golf! Ferris wheel! 10pm curfews!
Did anyone ever go in the SEGA Arcade/Metropolis in Hamley's?. I went there in 1993 when the hype was really starting to build for Thunderhawk on the Mega CD ( I was hoping to but it there, but it been pushed back a month or too) It where I saw and was able to play G Lock-360 for the 1st time. I remember the staff member operating the machine, said he never saw a person shoot down so many planes. I had a wonderful day there. Playing Arcade games and my aunti taking us to watch Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat
http://discmaster.textfiles.com/ Search files from (some ... more getting added every day) software discs uploaded to Internet Archive, something which up until now I've spent numerous hours doing manually. Unfortunately no help yet for my current project, but I did come across this report of a visit to Sega World Bournemouth on a PD disk. File date says 1992, disk says 1995, report implies newly opened, so should actually be 1993.
