OlivusPrime wrote:Lovely photos! I've taken an interest in the history of the Sega Parks/Worlds over the past few months, and it's a shame that there isn't more info or photography of them on the net. Some of them sounded particularly interesting, but have almost no internet presence at all. The Southampton one seems to be lucky enough to have more photos online than many of the others.
The only one I remember from my youth was the Brighton one - I never went inside, but saw the exterior during a few trips to the pier and Sealife centre. I really wanted to go inside, as I imagined it to be a really elaborate arcade with some Sonic games that I had few opportunities to play when I was younger - I think I would have been disappointed with the reality!
Thanks. A lot of Sega Parks closed before the widespread availability of camera phones and so little to no photos are available. There was also a strict 'no unauthorised photo' policy in place, probably due to security (arcades were a 'cash' business and prone to robberies). One of my Outrun 2 friends took some of the later Southampton Sega Park photos you can see online.
Sega Park in Brighton had been renamed 'Leisure Exchange' by the time I visited in the late 00's. I don't remember there being anything of note (certainly no Sonic arcade games) other than most of the machines were a few years old; nothing that couldn't be played in Southampton. To be honest, Brighton Pier, the independent arcades and the Bowlplex down in Hove had a better game selection by then.
Here's a scan of Sega Park Southampton's promo coupons given out periodically (circa 2001 onwards). The most notable thing about them is that the photos on the coupon are actually from the Bournemouth Sega Park!