Amusement Theme Park
From Sega Retro
To do
- Does this concept have any relation to Sega VirtuaLand, Sega City, GameWorks, etc? Maaaybe not (other than thematically/very loose inspirations), but if Sega of Japan really did specifically push this concept to the West for the previously-mentioned venues, that'd be notable. This is stuff I'm unfamiliar with, would anyone more experienced in Sega's theme parks be able to lend some insight? (And if it's not related, I wonder if SoA/etc had some kind of Western equivalent/program/concept?) Thankssss :)
- ok so to clarify here, the states did not get any of this specific "Amusement Theme Park" noise - the closest it had was VirtuaLand, and even that was more like the Hakkeijima Carnival House and Sega World Bournemouth large arcades from the same year when first opened. Innoventions also kind of counted since it had Virtua Formula and AS-1 attractions + deluxe arcades too but then a lot of the draw there was really the console exhibition
- Sega did *attempt* to get some off the ground over there, but after getting nowhere throughout 1993 and 1994 due to failed talks with MCA (cancelled CityWalk theme park) and Disney (joint venture) decided to rethink its approach. AFAIK Nakayama himself initiated most of the main deals for the ATP project above the heads of everyone else who he then made play along, as it was one of his main business priorities in the 90s (see here)
- problem was, his previous statements about wanting Sega itself to be the new Disney[1] obivously didn't gel entirely well with them when he suddenly came knocking on their doors for a proper business partnership - no surprise that after it all broke down and his old chum Jeffrey Katzenberg got involved with GameWorks, Michael Eisner then decided to take a piece of the "ATP" pie and do DisneyQuest out of spite
- so if you look at early GameWorks coverage by Game Machine, ATPs are not mentioned in the initial announcement,[2] and by the time it all gets more concrete in March 96 they're specifically saying it probably won't involve those[3] - and indeed it didn't, as though a lot of the locations were pretty big they did not have many/if any of the ATP exclusive admission fees or rides (Spielberg designed his own, which I haven't yet figured out whether we should cover?)
- basically people do understandably conflate Sega's 1990s initiative to get tons of arcades set up in the west with their indoor theme parks, as the company started getting excited about them during the very same period, but in reality the only two that actually were "ATP" outside of Japan were the Sega Worlds in London and Sydney[4] - which of course used a naming scheme previously only reserved for arcades, because inconsistency is what Sega does best.
- (having said that, the one GameWorks that actually was more like a Joypolis/Galbo was Rio de Janeiro's - no admission fees, but as seen in this video it had attractions which were only ever otherwise found at the ATPs in Japan. I have a suspicion this was down to the fact that another company in Brazil was cribbing the Joypolis branding for a fairly normal arcade, so instead of initiating complicated legal proceedings Sega one-upped them briefly with actual rides)
- hope that helped - Ted618 (talk) 18:12, 2 December 2021 (GMT)
- It absolutely did, I really appreciate you going into so much detail! This really helps clarify the distinction, and the examples and refs are awesome. Thank you again :))) CartridgeCulture (talk) 06:16, 5 December 2021 (EST)
- It absolutely did, I really appreciate you going into so much detail! This really helps clarify the distinction, and the examples and refs are awesome. Thank you again :))) CartridgeCulture (talk) 06:16, 5 December 2021 (EST)