SegaWorld

SegaWorld and Sega Park are names referring to arcades in the United Kingdom. The parks sought to promote Sega games while providing entertainment based on its licenses.

Venues

Metropolis

Metropolis was the first Sega-themed arcade in the UK, which opened in Mid 1992. The arcade was housed in the basement of Hamleys' Regent Street branch, as a SEGA-dedicated coin-op den. The arcade contained a rare R-360 motion simulator.

The venue was later renamed under the Sega World brand, and eventually became an unbranded arcade known as called The Game Zone. The arcade was replaced with a franchised Game outlet at the end of 2003, which traded until October 2016.

Planet Sega

This Sega arcade was located at the Queens Ice and Bowl Bowling Alley in Bayswater, London. The Planet Sega name for the arcade area was scrapped in the early 2000s with the arcade area now being unbranded.

Sega Megaworld Croydon/Sega Park Croydon

A Sega arcade located on the top floor of a Debenhams store in Croydon, Surrey.

The venue was later renamed Sega Park Croydon and was later replaced with a franchised Game Store.

Sega Megaworld Harrow

A Sega arcade located on the top floor of a Debenhams store in Harrow, London, located near Sega Park Harrow, which opened some years after Sega Megaworld. This venue was closed at an unknown date, sometime before 2002.

Over the years it was open, the arcade housed games such as Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors, Alien vs. Predator, The Punisher, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Fighter 2, Virtua Fighter 3, Street Fighter Alpha, Virtua Racing, Daytona USA, SegaSonic the Hedgehog, The King of Fighters '96, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Desert Tank, Virtual On: Cyber Troopers, Title Fight, Killer Instinct, Numan Athletics and the Mega-Tech System version of Sonic the Hedgehog.

Sega Megaworld Romford

A Sega arcade located in the Debenhams store in Romford, London. Little is known about it.

SegaDome/Sega Park and Casino Colindale

This venue was located in the Oriental City Shopping Centre, and first opened as SegaDome in Late 1993, being a smaller counterpart to Sega World in Bournemouth. It contained an R-360 machine (removed in later years), and a small bowling alley.

This venue was renamed "Sega Park & Casino" in the late 1990s with the addition of fruit and slot machines after the Leisure Exchange buyout.

The arcade closed for good on 1 June 2008 when Oriental City closed due to the buyout of the centre by a property developer. The centre building has since been demolished, and as of 2016, a Morrisons supermarket now occupies the area.

Sega Park Acton

Not much is known about this venue. The only known information about it is that it opened in 1994 and was located at Super Bowl in the Royale Leisure Park. The venue (now a TenPin Bowling Alley) still retains the arcade, although it is now unbranded.

Sega Park Basildon

This Sega Park was housed in the Eastgate Centre by the food court and opened sometime in October of 1996 or 1997.

It was one of the venues sold to Leisure Exchange in 2000 and remained trading until 2005. The arcade's former shop unit houses a branch of Regis Hairdressers.

Sega Park Brighton (Leisure Exchange)

This Sega Park was opened by Leisure Exchange in 2002 and was located next to a Burger King in the same building, both of which were located near the Brighton Pier. The arcade mainly housed fruit and slot machines in the Sega Casino section, as well as some arcade games and claw machines.

The venue closed in 2006 and later reopened under the Leisure Exchange name. The venue closed permanently in 2007, and has since sat empty with all its Leisure Exchange signage intact. The Burger King next door to the arcade was closed in mid-2015.

Sega Park Bristol

This Sega Park was housed in Arena One bowling (later Bristol Megabowl). the venue opened in 1995. The bowling alley itself was demolished in 2008 to make way for new flats.

Sega Park Glasgow

This was a short-lived Sega Park housed in a Hollywood Bowl location which only traded for around 2 years before closing. The bowling alley was demolished in 2006 to make way for a car park.

Sega Park Harlow

This Sega Park opened in 1997 in units 70-74 of the Harvey Centre. The games that were housed in this branch included Plasma Sword, Star Wars Racer Arcade, Virtua Fighter 3, Bust-A-Move 4, Silent Scope, Crazy Taxi, Cyber Troopers - Virtual On, L.A. Machineguns, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Motor Raid. The arcade also contained an area dedicated to redemption games, which was replaced with a gambling area by the time this venue was sold to Leisure Exchange. This area led to this arcade's downfall due to chavs and teen gangs eyeing the venue and hassling customers for their money. The troubles of this led to the venue closing in 2003. Leisure Exchange attempted to re-open Sega Park in the former Pizza Hut unit in the Harvey Centre, which had failed. The arcade's former unit is now split into a Subway, nail salon and other outlets.

Sega Park Harrow (Leisure Exchange)

This Sega Park arcade was opened some time after Sega Megaworld Harrow opened, which was far larger and was about 15 minutes walk away from this venue. Games such as Tekken Tag Tournament, Silent Scope, House of the Dead and Time Crisis 3 among others, were housed here. It was housed on a single floor, with the video games placed at the front of the arcade and the "Sega Casino" section featuring gambling machines at the back. Not long after becoming the 'Leisure Exchange' around 2006, the venue became strictly a gambling venue. This venue was closed at an unknown date, likely around after November 2012 and the unit is now home to an E-Cigarette shop.

Sega Park Holborn (Leisure Exchange)

This tiny Sega Park is little known, and was branded as a "Sega Park and Casino" on the sign. This venue spent its last year under the Leisure Exchange name and was converted into a newsagents in 2007. and the Sonic Sign remained until around 2008 and was changed to fit in with the newsagents.

Sega Park Reading

Another little-known Sega Park arcade that was housed in Reading Super Bowl. The building was demolished in 2014 to make way for a new IKEA.

Sega Park Southampton

Sega Park in Bargate, 2009

This Sega Park opened in the summer of 1996 and was located on the first floor of the Bargate Shopping Centre in central Southampton. Alongside the other Sega Parks this one was also sold off to Leisure Exchange. It closed on 30 January 2013 after all traders inside the shopping centre were given notice to leave due to the ongoing sale of the property.[1] It was the last Sega Park to close down, even though the arcade had been unaffiliated with Sega after the Leisure Exchange buyout.

Sega Park Tower Hill (Leisure Exchange)

This venue was opened by Leisure Exchange in the early 2000s, and as with most Sega Parks back then, housed some arcade games and lots of fruit and slot machines. By 2006, the venue became gambling only and so changed its name to Leisure Exchange. The Sega Park signs remained until Leisure Exchange's closure, This Sega Park was housed in the basement of the building it was housed in with the other unit in the building housing a Starbucks Coffee. The unit now houses a Coral Betting Shop.

Sega Park Wood Green

Not much is known about this venue. It was located in Unit 7 of The Mall Wood Green and traded until the early 2000s. The unit eventually became home to a Public House, and is now half of a branch of Lidl.

Sega World Birmingham

A Blockbuster outlet in Erdington, Birmingham had a Sega World arcade in the 1990s, situated on the first floor. The Arcade was later converted into a tanning salon, then to a UTC Gym, which encompassed the entire building after the Blockbuster's closure.

Sega World Bournemouth/Sega Park Bournemouth (Leisure Exchange)

Originally opened on July 24, 1993 as Sega World, it was the first arcade to be opened up by Sega's European department known as 'Sega Operations UK'. The original floor plan design failed a fire safety check (entrances and exits & layout of machines being main factors) and the site was closed for 2 weeks. During this time, the floor was lowered and the entrance adjusted.

The venue was split into three sections:

Ground floor: Various arcade machines (most notably a pair of R360's), and a raised area to the right that housed the 'Sega Shop', which sold various video games, consoles, T-shirts and other merchandise (closed in 1995).
Middle section: Reception area (taken out in 1997), more arcade machines and two karaoke rooms.
Back section: Four half size bowling lanes (removed from site in 1994), and a Burger King restaurant (closed in 2001).

The Sega World name was changed to 'Sega Park' in 1998 due to Sega opening the substantially larger 'SegaWorld London' in the Trocadero in 1996. This one was sold alongside the other Sega Parks to Leisure Exchange on the 31st of March 2000, marking the end for Sega Operations UK on the same date (Sega Europe handled the overseas arcades).

Eventually, the venue became difficult to run for Leisure Exchange, who sold a small portion of the building to be used as a Gala Casino (now a Grosvenor Casino), who would later completely purchase the premises contract for the building, leaving only a small single-floored arcade home to Leisure Exchange.

In early 2005, an attempt was made to relocate the arcade to a smaller premises nearby, however local police raised objections on the grounds of "potential high crime and disorder".[2]

After the Sega rights expired, Leisure Exchange renamed the arcade under their own branding, under the title 'Leisure Exchange and Quasar Elite' in early 2006, which was to reflect a new Quasar facility that had opened at the rear of the arcade in the former Bowling Alley.[3] In 2010, the premises were renamed again to simply "Amusements" and the Quasar facility was closed down in November due to flooding issues.[4]

In 2013, the arcade was sold to a former Bowlplex manager, who renamed the venue as "Fun Central" with more emphasis on ticket redemption titles, penny pushers and slot machines then video games. Older titles such as Ferrari F355 (still with Sega Park sticker attached), House Of The Dead 4 and Daytona USA were originally present but have all been removed and replaced by newer titles. A 3 player deluxe setup of Outrun 2 Special Tours (SP) and Time Crisis 4 are the sole remaining titles from the Sega Park era (the former sourced from Sega Park Southampton when it closed). The arcade was refurbished in 2014/2015 and have added a cafe called ShakeXpress (was later removed). in 2016 Fun Central become "cashless" with the introduction of a pay-as-you-go card facility. In November 2019, a bowling alley was opened in the rear of the arcade which ironically, was where the former bowling alley was during the Sega World days.

Sega World/Sega Park Tamworth

Strykers Bowl in Tamworth, Staffordshire was home to a Sega World arcade from the early to mid-1990s. It was situated in a large upstairs area, which had previously housed a Quasar laser tag centre.

During the late 1990s, Sega World was moved to a much smaller downstairs location and was renamed as Sega Park. The upstairs location was converted into an Arena Health and Fitness gym.

In 2001, Strykers Bowl was sold by then owners Leamore Leisure Ltd. to Namco Operations Europe Ltd. During the process of the sale, the Sega Park arcade was renamed as Namco Station, A name that the arcade has since retained.

Sega World Wolverhampton

Located in a former AMF bowling alley in Bushbury, called Strykers. During the 1990s, it was home to Sega World arcade. The location was then replaced by a smaller unbranded arcade and Pool Tables. The Bowling Alley itself closed in 2013 and was destroyed by a fire in December of that year.

Sega Zone Brixton

This Sega arcade opened in the 90's on Electric Avenue. Today the building houses a William Hill Betting Shop.

Sega Zone Catford

Another Sega arcade that traded in the 90's on Rushey Green, Catford.

Sega Zone Woolwich

A Sega arcade which shared a building with a Pub called The Shakespeare Today the building houses a branch of Quicksilver Amusements.

SegaWorld London (Funland)

SegaWorld London's official logo

Upward view from within Rocket entrance escalator

Downward view from within Rocket entrance escalator

SegaWorld London's Rocket Entrance, during the April–May building work.

In 1994, Nick Leslau and business partner Nigel Wray acquired the Piccadilly Trocadero.[5] They arranged a deal with Sega to open an indoor theme park inside the building.[5] Construction began in January 1996.[6]

London's Sega theme park kicked off at the height of its mascot Sonic the Hedgehog's popularity on September 7, 1996. It featured a number of indoor rides, coin-operated arcade machines and a Sega merchandise shop. Initially its hours were 10 a.m. to midnight every day but Christmas Day.[6] It was heavily promoted in the UK's Sonic the Comic, where competitions were run to win items from the SegaWorld shop, and out on the streets where tokens could often be found for discounted or free entry, and free T-shirts were distributed.

Leslau says that he became discouraged by the deal on the theme park's opening day:

Sega could not deliver what they said they'd deliver. ... It looked amazing, but their rides were not capable of delivering the number of people they needed to deliver to support the operation. People were queuing for ages. ... It was a question of over-anticipation and under-delivery.[5]

Leslau and Wray bought back the lease on the Trocadero in 1997.[7] In 2000 they renamed the whole establishment "Funland", after SegaWorld was making a loss of £2.4 million a year.[8] Funland was originally the arcade in the basement floor next to the Pepsi Max drop, which shared the same building as SegaWorld.[9]

After taking over SegaWorld, Funland shut their basement arcade and the top floors remained open, along with McDonald's on the 3rd floor until autumn 2002 when the main entrance known as the Rocket Escalator, was shut. At that time the dodgems were moved from the 3rd to the 1st floor and a new lower ground floor was re-opened. The arcade was arguably the largest and most popular in England with games in 2011 including DJMax Technika, Pump It Up Fiesta, Pump It Up Pro, Street Fighter IV, and Initial D Arcade Stage 4.[10]

In May 2011, the Rocket Escalator was completely removed during building works for the hotel that would use the top two floors of the building. Funland closed on 3 July 2011, following a long running dispute with the landlord over rent.[11] The manager of Funland confirmed the dance game cabinets, including Pump Fiesta EX and Para Para Paradise 2nd Mix would be moved to Las Vegas Arcade, in Soho.[12] Other Funland machines moved to The Heart of Gaming arcade in London.[13]

Related Places

A Sega World was located in Shanghai, although little was known about it. According to reports found on website UK Resistance,[14] the basement arcade in Xu Jia Hui Shanghai operated a series of UFO Catcher machines and Sega arcade machines long after the demise of its Western equivalents. The arcade was adorned with artworks and fascias dating back to Sonic's heyday, on top of a largely Dreamcast-era look in meeting with some of the newer machines. Games featured in the arcade, identified by photographic records, included OutRun, Time Crisis, House of the Dead and an installation of the cult oddity Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car for younger patrons. Most notably, it also had Initial D Arcade Stage version 4. As of October 2009, it also had Taiko no Tatsujin 12 (Asia version), Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 3, and Mario Kart Arcade GP despite being Namco properties. In September 2007, another Sega arcade on the 9th floor of the New World shopping mall opened, despite the revamping of the adjacent food court. There were multiple signs near and in the mall itself in an effort to promote the arcade, a marked contrast from the past where its presence was only known by the noise that emanated to adjacent floors. It changed its name to Player's Arena (though it retained images of Sonic and many Sega cabinets) and had expanded to two floors (due to the addition of large-scale rides and photo booths). Like the Xujiahui arcade, it also contained multiple Namco games. Citing poor sales, it closed in February 2011.

Sega World arcades can be found in Japan, although they are unrelated.

Entrance to Sega World (Un-related) in Festivalgate (extreme left), October 2004

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