Okayama Joypolis
From Sega Retro
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| Okayama Joypolis |
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| Location: 岡山県岡山市下石井2丁目10番1号, Japan |
| Opened: 1998-07-18[1] |
| Closed: 2018-09-02[2] |
Okayama Joypolis (岡山ジョイポリス) was a Joypolis indoor amusement theme park opened by Sega in July 1998. Its attractions and other facilities, including a Sonic Bowl, were later removed during 2008, rendering the centre a large game centre until its closure in September 2018, leaving Tokyo Joypolis as the final Joypolis venue in operation.
History
The seventh Joypolis venue opened by Sega, Okayama Joypolis opened on 18 July 1998 as a part of the Joyful Town complex ran by Ito-Yokado.[1] Unlike the previous six Joypolis locations, it did not contain any new attractions upon opening, with all of them having previously appeared at other venues in the months beforehand. It is claimed by some sources that that Sega originally did not intend to develop a Joypolis location at the site, only doing so at the request of Joyful Town's managers.[3]
The venue featured golden American-themed décor with large amounts of bespoke Sonic the Hedgehog signage, particularly in the extra Sonic Bowl facilities found onsite on the third floor. A Dippin' Dots outlet, Sega Kara rooms, and indoor play equipment for children could also be found in the park, as well as unrelated fast food tenants such as Mos Burger within its outside exterior. It had became one of the three final original Joypolis parks located in Japan alongside the flagship Tokyo Joypolis branch and Umeda Joypolis by September 2002.
Though it still received frequent updates to its line-up of coin-operated arcade machines, Okayama rarely had any new attractions installed after the downscaling of Sega's amusement theme park operations in the early 2000s. On 23 March 2008, all of the remaining attractions were removed from the venue[4], effectively rendering the park little more than a large game centre. Its extra bowling and karaoke facilities were also closed just under four months later on 17 July[4], nearly 10 years to the day they had been originally opened.
The branch became the last Joypolis venue to be directly managed by Sega after China Animations Character Co. acquired a majority stake in Sega Live Creation in 2016 - ownership is not thought to have been transferred to Live Creation upon its formation the in the previous year because of its differing status as a large game centre. It closed on 2 September 2018 due to large-scale redevelopment of its premises, and was demolished shortly afterwards in November.[2]
Attractions
Gallery
Entrance
Magazine articles
- Main article: Okayama Joypolis/Magazine articles.
External links
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://segaretro.org/Press_release:_1998-08-27:_Okayama_Joypolis_Open_no_Oshirase
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://gotouchinews.com/chugoku/okayama/37/
- ↑ https://www.neoamu.net/%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%A3%9F/%E7%A0%94%E7%A9%B6%E6%A3%9F-%E9%9B%91%E6%96%87/%E9%83%BD%E5%B8%82%E5%9E%8B%E3%83%86%E3%83%BC%E3%83%9E%E3%83%91%E3%83%BC%E3%82%AF%E3%82%92%E5%88%87%E3%82%8B%E8%A6%8B%E3%82%8B%E9%81%8A%E3%81%B6/
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 http://sega.jp/joypolis/okayama/ (Wayback Machine: 2009-01-29 10:36)
| Joypolis venues |
|---|
| Current |
| Tokyo Joypolis (1996) | Shanghai Joypolis (2014) | Qingdao Joypolis (2015) |
| Former |
| Shinjuku Joypolis (1996-2000) | Niigata Joypolis (1995-2001) | Yokohama Joypolis (1994-2001) | Fukuoka Joypolis (1996-2001) | Kyoto Joypolis (1997-2002) | Umeda Joypolis (1998-2018) | Okayama Joypolis (1998-2018) | Joypolis VR Shibuya (2018-2020) |