Sega World Bournemouth

Sega World Bournemouth
Location: Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Google maps: 50.718393,-1.874131
Opened: 1993-07-31

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The Sega World (Family Centre) at 45-47 Westover Road, Bournemouth, United Kingdom was an indoor Sega World video arcade which opened in July 1993 (by Chris Evans). It was the first dedicated Sega-branded arcade to open in Europe and is thought to have been the largest of its type for its time.

Unlike SegaWorld London which would become the the Sega World showpiece in the UK, the Bournemouth arcade was merely a place to play arcade games and browse a Sega-branded store, visit the Burger King next door, or play Bowling. However Sega used this location to demonstrate and test-run many of its new arcade machines.

By 1994, The Bowling Alley was taken out (leaving the back empty) and the Sega Shop had closed in 1995. The Reception was taken out as well in 1997 and Following the opening of SegaWorld London, this arcade eventually became known as a Sega Park in 1998. On the 31st of March 2000, Sega sold the arcade (and the remaining of the Sega Parks as well as a license to use the Sega Park name) to Leisure Exchange, and the Burger King closed down in 2001. Under this era Leisure Exchange put more emphasis on ticket redemption titles, penny pushers and slot machines, which remains like that today during the Fun Central era.

In the early 2000's, the building where Sega Park was housed was split up, the smaller half of the building remained as Sega Park, and the other half becoming home to a Casino.

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

Sega Park was eventually renamed 'Leisure Exchange and Quasar Elite' in early 2006 to reflect a new Quasar facility that had opened at the rear of the arcade, which ended the 13 year useage of the Sega name. In Early 2010, the premises were renamed again to simply "Amusements" and the Quasar facility was closed down in November due to flooding issues.

In 2012, the arcade was renamed as "Prize Central" and a year later was renamed again to "Fun Central". Older titles such as Ferarri 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. in 2016 Fun Central become "cashless" with the introduction of a pay-as-you-go card facility.

Fun Central still remains popular to this day and sometimes show images during the Sega World era on their Facebook page.

Games

Sega World Bournemouth used to have many Sega games avaliable to play and also had R-360 and AS-1 simulators. When the arcade reduced in size, A section called "Sega Casino" was added featuring slot and fruit machines for adults.

Gallery

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  The venue in it's "Sega Park" days, Circa 2003

Magazine articles

Main article: Sega World Bournemouth/Magazine articles.