Also, I didn't see a reference to Sega World Tomakomai on Retro (except for this thread). There is a mention of it here in Amusement Sangyō on the NDL website announcing its opening and dated 1997 March, though it's not available digitally. I get the impression that there was both a Sega World and a Sonic Bowl opened, being in separate buildings, with Sonic Bowl located here. Or maybe not, maybe it was only the Sonic Bowl with Sega World as a "subtitle." There is a Dinospark basically right across the street from it which is listed as officially using Sega prize machines, but not sure if there's any connection. edit: Derp, I guess the Tomakomai location is already listed on the Todo page for Venues. I missed that.
Their entire 60th anniversary celebrations in 2020 were pretty much based around the fact that the "Sega" brand first surfaced with the Sega 1000 jukebox, apparently in 1960 this time - so it's more a case of Sega themselves being inconsistent with their own history (again).
Cool ... Hey, Ted... Do you remember these? https://segaretro.org/Pacific_University https://segaretro.org/Sega_Village_Ocean_Village https://segaretro.org/Sega_Village_Ocean_Village_Two Sega instaled 20 slot machines aboard RMS Queen Mary in 1961 ... so ... there's one more Sega floating arcade https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:CashBox_US_1961-08-19.pdf&page=55 https://retrocdn.net/index.php?title=File:CashBox_US_1961-09-02.pdf&page=50
I was already thinking of linking Scarred Sun's great post about that - amazing how they keep doing this. Wonder what new year they'll pick out of a hat when it comes to the next anniversary.
Hm, I can make out a Daytona USA cabinet pretty clearly in the picture and our wiki has the game released 1994-03. I can't make out the others, but that looks like maybe Virtua Fighter on the right? I haven't seen a cabinet for the game so I could be way off-base on that one.
The photo's from 1994-ish but I'm thinking the arcade itself opened earlier (as opposed to others in these Harmony issues which are pretty much brand new)
Sega World Tomakomai Judging from the leaflet it was one building effectively divided into two; an "amusement space" on the left, and a 26-lane bowling alley on the right. Typically I've found that if a Sega World had a bowling alley, they liked to put that feature up in lights (because most of them didn't have one). So it's Sega World Tomakomai but WE'VE GOT BOWLING SONIC BOWL SONIC BOWL I think that Google map you've posted is right, but the building was demolished in the mid-2000s, and there's no trace of it left.
I've been close to making a topic tracking the many "official" Sonic the Hedgehog costumes, because there are "unique" takes on the character both sides of the Pacific. Equally though, I can't be bothered to go hunting, since the history spans 30 years. Still, a highlight: Sonic and Tails don some bow ties for whatever this corporate event is. They've swapped shoes and gloves. Sonic was replaced for this Ichikawa Galbo press shoot. I think it's the same Tails though (since he has a bow tie?). Still, could be worse:
Sega seem to have liked specifically using "amusement space" to describe their locations for a while - it's certainly also used for this timeline in Sega Magazine #6: However they've also used "amusement facility" and "amusement center" interchangeably. And in their 1995 annual report - "entertainment complex", amongst all of the noise about the amusement theme park concept. No settling on one term, although something this does highlight is the consistent reluctance to just say "game center" or "arcade".
The page you posted seems to use specific terms, though. First, as the article text says and as I think is pretty famous, Sega avoided the use of "game center" due to its negative image. They wanted to create a place people could go to on a date or with their family. Second, based on the timeline on the top of that page, they made distinctions between the different names used. "Amusement center" was used initially to refer to the smaller urban locations. Then, there are the "large-scale rural amusement facilities" (the Sega Worlds). "Rural" might not be correct - literally "outside Tokyo". Finally, there are the "amusement theme parks." "Amusement space" there is just a generic cover-all term that I don't think is meant to signify anything. In all cases, a normal person would call all of these "game center"
I live in a city with a population of 420,000, but everyone here refers to it as the inaka (countryside.) I don't think people in Japan consider anyplace with less than a million people to be a proper city.
Yeah the cleanup campaign that Sega led is a big part of their history in the amusement sector, but I would contend that there's a lot less awareness of it besides the surface level of "they tried to make arcades family-friendly" outside of Japan. Not many, if any western sources touch on their various confected concepts and terms (e.g. En-Joint spaces) for the initiative, let alone the notable hires Nakayama made (Mitsuo Wachi from Ito Yokado, Shinichi Tanaka from Honda, etc). The deeper history of the facility operations side in amusement is something I have intended to expand on, especially seeing as it's something they aren't even involved with anymore, but it hasn't been easy with less accessible coverage - most of all the pre-90s stuff.
Another one for the pile - Sega World Soma, previously undocumented. The other is Sega World Baleine - we only had low resolution shots before, so our translation of "バレン" was incorrect. Also "Baleine" is French for whale. Because of course it is.
Did you spot it? This is (I guess) Sega of America's "we're going to be at Winter CES 1994" flyer. At this point in history, rumours were circulating of a new console, but details were thin on the ground. This was the event the public finally got a teaser for what that project was - the Sega Saturn.
The more notable coverage featured in this issue - Hayao Nakayama's 1994 new years speech, and newspaper articles covering Sega and Microsoft's original OS partnership - has already been shared + kindly translated by @Gryson Looking through the rest, there is also an interview with Sega's then-General Manager of Multimedia, Yuzo Naritomi (who around this time held a conference at Imagina 94 with another very early appearance of the Saturn), as well as short pieces on the first "Virtua Night" arcade game event and Sega Prime's opening. The latter is apparently of significance for the fact that it was at first targeted specifically towards young women, which seems to have then led to Kyoto Joypolis and Shibuya GiGO. Coverage exists of it here too - may be relevant. Was just wondering why this one appeared to be familiar Hopefully more of the same in issues to come?
You're doing Gods work Sega World Utsukushi ga Hidari (セガ ワールド 美しが左), another undocumented arcade. The photo is dated this time, and appears to be from the opening day. https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@33.4...4!1s4CjQB46_jXv31T2yyrbTdw!2e0!7i16384!8i8192 The building still exists, and has inside maps!... for a different floor... 20 years after Sega left.
