Sega World Bournemouth

Outside Inside
Sega World Bournemouth
Location: Bournemouth, United Kingdom
Google maps: 50.718393,-1.874131
Opened: 1993-07-24
Closed: 1998 (as a Sega World), 2006 (as a Sega Park)

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Sega World Bournemouth was an indoor Sega World video arcade, opened on July 24th 1993. 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 initially merely a place to play arcade games and browse a Sega-branded store, visit the Burger King next door, or play bowling, essentially being an early example of what is now known in the arcade industry as an FEC (Family Entertainment Centre). Themed areas for arcade machines, executed in Bournemouth with the "Zap Attack" and "Driving Edge" zones, would also be a concept expanded on in SegaWorld London.

Sega also used this location to demonstrate and test-run many of its arcade machines, although this and most of its other unique features were dropped by the late 2000's, the venue losing any pretence besides being an arcade.

Layout

On opening day, Sega World Bournemouth was laid out over 3 tiered floors at ground level of Westover Road. This was then altered around the point it became a Sega Park, with most areas either closed off or structurally changed.

Floor 1

The entrance lead directly to the 1st floor, which contained the Reception, karaoke machines in an area called "The Din Bin", action-themed arcade machines in "Zap Attack", and access to the back area, with eight mini bowling lanes and a Burger King restaurant under the names of "Sonic Strike" and "Megabyte", respectively.

Floor 2

A raised, centrepiece section in the middle of the arcade, known as "The Driving Edge". The floor primarily featured racing games, including deluxe and 8 player iterations of Virtua Racing, but also had two R-360 units, both running G-LOC.

Floor 3

In addition to exit access, this floor had three main sections-"Toejam's Gang", a children's area with kiddie rides and claw machines, "The Lowdown", an educational section revealing secrets of Sega's research and development, and the Sega Store, selling merchandise and video games.

History

Development

Planning for Sega World Bournemouth is known to have begun as far back as early 1992. Following on from successful operations of arcades in Japan over several years, Sega Of Japan gave the newly-established Sega Amusement Europe a brief on doing the same in their continent. Permission was officially given by Bournemouth Borough Council for Sega to open an arcade in July 1992, with word getting out in the town's paper soon afterwards.

The centre was planned to be opened on July 1st, however after the original floor plan failed a fire safety check, the day had to be pushed back to accommodate this.

Opening

Sega World Bournemouth officially opened on July 24th 1993, to much fanfare. The opening day event was attended by many locals and members of the gaming press, and made underway by popular UK TV personality Chris Evans, also used in other promotions by Sega Europe around this point.

Little else is known about the opening day, however it can be assumed that it went down well. It may have also been filmed for a feature included in Sky One's Games World TV series, though as the footage itself is inaccessible, this cannot be for certain.

Demise

Sega World had ran well in its initial few months of service, but began to suffer from high running costs in off-season periods. By 1994, the bowling lanes were taken out, leaving the back area empty, and the Sega Shop was closed in 1995. The reception area was taken out in 1997, requiring an altered entrance, and following the opening of SegaWorld London, it became known as a Sega Park in 1998. By this point, any named areas had been stripped of their branding, and substantial parts of the building were sitting unused. Despite this, it was still a hotspot for new games in Bournemouth, with UK Dreamcast magazines reporting on NAOMI-based cabinets located there in the Autumn of 1999, including Crazy Taxi and [House Of The Dead 2]].

On the 31st of March 2000, Sega sold the arcade to The Leisure Exchange PLC as part of a takeover scheme for the rest of their arcades. Under the new owners, more emphasis was put on rigged penny pushers, as well as the introduction of slot machines in an over 18's area known as Sega Casino. This went against Sega's family ethos devised in the early 90's, but since they were no longer in control of the arcades, no changes could be made. As well as refurbishing the arcade and removing its colourful Sonic decor + carpet, management and new employees were rumoured to be hard to deal with, causing Burger King to close their outlet after 10 months.

New machines began to come in to the venue increasingly less often, to the point where even OutRun 2, one of Sega's big releases, could not be found in the arcade until well into 2004, the game having been originally released in December 2003, and already playable in other Bournemouth arcades. The venue fell out of favour for any remaining regulars as a result, and was now generally regarded as a dirty, uncared for dump. With large amounts of the building now empty, management decided to sell some of the space to be used as a Gala Casino, initially only where the third floor was on the right side. In early 2005, Leisure Exchange made an attempt to relocate the arcade to a smaller building nearby, however local police raised objections on the grounds of "potential high crime and disorder".

Sega Park was eventually re-titled to 'Leisure Exchange and Quasar Elite' in 2006, reflecting the end of the licence to use Sega's name and the new Quasar branch that had opened at the rear of the arcade. Soon after this, Gala Casino bought out the premises contract for the building, increased in size, and leased out the one small floor remaining to the Leisure Exchange. In early 2010, the establishment was renamed again to simply "Amusements", and the Quasar facilities were shut down that November due to flooding issues.

In 2012, the arcade was renamed to "Prize Central" and a year later was renamed again to "Fun Central", now no longer under the ownership of Leisure Exchange, amid large losses in the company. Older titles such as Ferrari F355 Challenge (still with Sega Park sticker attached) and Daytona USA appeared in the arcade around this point, having been sourced from closed Sega Parks including Southampton. Dancing Stage Euromix, Time Crisis 4, and a 3 player deluxe setup of OutRun 2 SP are the sole titles from the Sega Park era to have remained. The arcade was refurbished in 2014, removing the last few traces of any Sega-era decor, and space for games was further downsized with the addition of a ShakeXpress cafe.

Recent years have seen the removal of the cafe, and another renaming and re-branding to "Bowl Central" is planned for December 2019, with a new 6 lane bowling alley and restaurant being constructed in the disused Quasar space- ironically, where Sega World's bowling lanes once were.

Gallery

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Magazine articles

Main article: Sega World Bournemouth/Magazine articles.