The Lost Sega Worlds

When I was a young lad the only reason I ever wanted to go to London was to visit Sega World. It would have blown my mind had I known Japan had hundreds of them (I mean okay they didn't have rides... but I didn't care about the rides).

Given recent news, I've spent the last few days preparing Sega Retro for December, when Sega might stop caring. I've added dozens of current and former Sega game centers, so at least we can tell the Western world that these things existed.


But it sucks without photographs. I've got a list of Sega Worlds (and other venues, but those will be a lot trickier to find so I've left them out for now) that Sega themselves listed as existing once, but whose remants... I just can't find. Some of the converted buildings are obvious, but we really want to see them as Sega Worlds, because some of these venues were works of art in their own right. Most have known addresses, but many pre-date Google street view and just... aren't on the internet it seems. But they could be mentioned in our archives on Retro CDN, or indeed elsewhere

So Retro, can you find them?

Circa 2000

Sega World Minami Machida セガワールド南町田 東京都町田市鶴間 667-4
Sega World Oi セガワールド大井 東京都品川区東大井15-26-24
Sega World Niigata Kurosaki セガワールド新潟黒埼 新潟県西蒲原郡黒埼町大字山田23307-339
Sega World Shindo セガワールド新道 北海道札幌市東区伏古10条5丁目2-7
Sega World Asahikawa セガワールド旭川 北海道旭川市永山七条4-97-1
Sega World Shinsei セガワールド真正 本巣郡真正町字政田上市場1404
Sega World Koriyama セガワールド郡山 福島県郡山市西ノ内2-11-40　イトーヨーカドー内
Sega World Iizuka セガワールド飯塚 嘉穂郡穂波町大字長浦666-16字石佛1401-2･680-2

Circa 2002

Sega World Miki セガワールド三木 香川県木田郡三木町大字氷上字花丸958-3
Sega World Kameyama セガワールド亀山 三重県亀山市東御幸町字穴淵219-10
Sega World Iyo Mishima セガワールド伊予三島 愛媛県伊予三島市中之庄町字汐汲道75-1
Sega World Isehara セガワールド伊勢原 神奈川県伊勢原市桜台1-8-1 イトーヨーカ堂5F
Sega World Isesaki セガワールド伊勢崎 群馬県伊勢崎市大正町115-1
Sega World Hakodate セガワールド函館
Sega World Minamisuna セガワールド南砂 東京都江東区南砂4-12-16
Sega World Zama セガワールド座間 神奈川県座間市小松原1-21-2
Sega World Shindo セガワールド新道 北海道札幌市東区伏古10条5丁目2-7
Sega World Asahikawa セガワールド旭川 北海道旭川市永山七条4-97-1
Sega World Honmoku Asty セガワールド本牧アスティ 神奈川県横浜市中区本牧原15-2 ASTY館B1
Sega World Mizusawa セガワールド水沢 岩手県水沢市佐倉河字鐙田4-1
Sega World Shibukawa セガワールド渋川 群馬県渋川市有馬字中井187
Sega World Kofu Chuuou セガワールド甲府中央 山梨県甲府市徳行1-9-5嶋田ビル1F
Sega World Tomakomai セガワールド苫小牧
Sega World Naka セガワールド那珂 茨城県那珂郡那珂町菅谷字寄居1618-2
Sega World Koriyama セガワールド郡山 福島県郡山市西ノ内2-11-40
Sega World Kushiro-chou セガワールド釧路町
Sega World Otofuke セガワールド音更
Sega World Iizuka セガワールド飯塚 嘉穂郡穂波町大字長浦666-16字石佛 1401-2・680-2
Sega World Alpark セガワールド アルパーク 広島県広島市西区草津新町2丁目26番1号

(bonus points for discovering any others, but some of these date back 30 years)

It's got to be doable, surely. When you set up a big pink building with bright SEGA WORLD letters it's a bit hard to miss.

 

I didn't expect much traction, but better to post things here than clog up the general topic.

Found a batch:
Sega World Asahikawa
Sega World Hakodate
Sega World Hanna Sports Garden
Sega World Iizuka
Sega World Imakatata
Sega World Ivic Terashima (probably not the right name)
Sega World Kawabe
Sega World Mizusawa
Sega World Nagaoka
Sega World Nanyo
Sega World Shin Mikuni
Sega World Tempozan


What happens when your Sega World is shut down by the suits?


ASPA WORLD


From

https://web.archive.org/web/2006*/http://location.sega.jp/loc_web/*

Archive.org hides this functionality from users - if you put wildcards in a Wayback Machine URL you get a list of files, rather than a navigatable website. This is great because, as anyone who has used the service can attest, it couldn't archive everything. Most of the images are missing, but also around 2004-2006-ish Sega started getting into bed with fancy web scripts which become totally broken when archived. This means it is impossible to navigate their list of game centers by normal means, thus the most important online record of these places ever existing is hidden to the general public.

And we still don't know what dozens of them looked like. Even the one they set up off-world.

 

To get this out there, should anyone want to join in - my current understanding of Sega arcades (or "game centers" as they insist on calling them) in Japan:

Sega started opening its own game centers in 1965, most likely as a way to demonstrate their products, though finding records is challenging. By the late 1970s many of the big cities would have had "game corners" where there'd be a small handful of arcade machines from various manufacturers, similar to how other parts of the world operated later on. Then Space Invaders comes along, and the manufacturers realise there's real money to be had decking rooms out with rows of arcade cabinets.


Both Sega and Taito start operating chains of game centers around the mid-1980s - "Hi-Tech (Land) Sega" and "We'll Talk Taito". The earliest one on the Sega side I currently know of is Hi-Tech Land Sega Kanda that was around in 1986, around the point where OutRun and the first UFO catchers were becoming a big deal. Both companies were opening similar inner-city venues for the rest of the decade, though currently the only reliable online record of their existence is old issues of Gamest (and even then only the biggest ones are mentioned).

There was a realisation at some point that game centers could be bigger and more family friendly. Like in the US, arcades had a reputation of being a bit seedy, so Sega invented "Sega Worlds" - bigger, brightly coloured, out-of-town venues, similar to say, Toys R Us. The problem is Sega were getting excited about their indoor theme parks around the time this decision was made (around 1993/1994?) so I don't know exactly what the thought process was. But I think the Hi-Tech (Land) Sega branding stopped applying to new builds in the mid-90s, and began to be phased out entirely over the next decade and a half.

Incidentally the Hi-Tech Sega branding in Yakuza 0, set in December 1988/early 1989, is probably not accurate for the era. I don't think that style of logo came in until the 1990s - branding doesn't seem to be consistent at all in early Sega game centers. But then you can buy cans of Fanta with the wrong designs too - they got it right in Shenmue!


Sega kept opening Sega Worlds until around 2010, however in later years it was less about opening big buildings as it was adjoining existing ones - bowling alleys, US-style shopping malls, that sort of thing. Since then branding is slowly being stripped from everything and it's all just "Sega". It's rare to see a building constructed from scratch for this purpose as was the case 25 years ago.

Sega also started opening "Club Sega" venues in the late 90s which typically resided in city centres, except for when they didn't. And there are other types because inconsistency is what Sega does best.


So roughly the naming scheme is as follows:

Hi-Tech Sega - small inner-city venues (mid-80s - mid-90s)

Hi-Tech Land Sega - larger inner-city venues (mid-80s - mid-90s)

Sega World - large out-of-town venues, (1993/94-ish - 2010), shopping malls and bowling alleys (late-90s - 2010)

Club Sega - large inner-city venues (late-90s - 2010)

GiGO - even larger inner-city venues... sometimes (mid-90s - 2010)

Galbo - indoor theme parks (1990s)

Joypolis - larger indoor theme parks (1994 - present)

Sega - weird things (1990s, 2000s), everything (2010 - present)


Parent company Sega-Sammy also has a resort business, and they've all dabbled in shops and restaurants.



Up until recently Sega Entertainment ran an "authentic Italian restaurant", Peccone. Might have doubled up as crematorium with that "aging grill" - I can't keep track.

 

After a bit of digging I was able to date the first ever Sega World - Sega World Tokyo Roof. It was, as I suspected, a temporary thing that disappeared within the year.

It's the most literal name you could think of. The Japanese government were failing to replace a train station, and the only thing of note sitting on the land for six years was the old station roof. So it was quite literally a "roof" in "Tokyo".





Current theory is the first "permanent" Sega World as opened around 1994. Online records only date back to late 1996 and by that point there were dozens.