Abandoned - Sega World Sydney
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2024
- A case study of the former Sega World theme park in Sydney, Australia, including a history of the site, and an analysis into why it closed down, touching upon local industry and local conditions.
This video may be the first of a series focusing on old Darling Harbour. While it is a very unpolished video at this point in time, I intend to improve if I make any more episodes. If you like this video and want to see more, hit the like button, subscribe and comment below. Thanks
Music (in order)
At Dawn... for Speed Highway (Sonic Adventure)
Windy Hill - Zone 1 (Sonic Lost World)
Twinkle Cart... for Twinkle Park (Sonic Adventure)
Sylvania Castle Zone - Act 1 (Sonic 4 Episode 2)
Welcome To Station Square (Sonic Adventure)
The King of Speed (Daytona USA 2001)
Windmill Isle - Day (Sonic Unleashed)
The Lost Prologue (Sonic and the Secret Rings)
Wave Ocean - The Inlet (Sonic '06)
Event: The Final Scene (Sonic Adventure 2)
Beyond the Speed Of... (Sonic Runners)
Ocean Palace (Sonic Heroes)
Mt Red, a Symbol of Thrill... for Red Mountain (Sonic Adventure)
Tornado Scramble... for Sky Chase (Sonic Adventure)
Stardust Speedway (Cash Cash vs Jun Senoue)
![Destroyed - The rise and fall of Australia's Wonderland theme park [AH015]](/img/1.gif)
I can also confirm (as a former Sega staff member) that originally Sega were to kick off a TV show but later opted to scrap the production of the show in favour of Sega World instead.
Never thought they were going to make a TV show. It would have been interesting to see such a thing... but Sega World was a better concept.
- SL
We need the sonic and sally statue back well as the Japan sonic stature
We have three cartoons already, and I am making a reboot of the third.
downstairs was an icecream cone shop, they sold REDSKIN flavoured icecream and it was the best thing I have ever tasted in my life and I'm forever looking for another hit
I remember that, and the arnotts store that had the big tiny teddy machine on display
I'm sure someone read your comment and made it
@@katej23I can still smell those freshly made Tiny Teddies! I was devo when I found out the shop was closed down, lol.
This was a paradise to me when i was a child. I had the opportunity to visit sega world 5 times . I can still remember most of the rides.. nostalgia
Remember the m&m shop next door?
Feels like a dream
They should restart the concept and make it outdoors.
I worked at Sega World Sydney as a ride operator.
Great co-workers. Had some fun at that place.
Though it hard a very dark side: The management was extremely bad.
What rides were there? The guy in this video didnt describe those rides very well, and its hard to hear what he's trying to say.
You’ve just reminded me about this project. I’ve still got a segaworld branded hard hat from that job. I remember being shocked that the guys designing the signs and branding had no idea about the video games. I had to bring my megadrive to work to show them what sonic looked like. It was a bit crazy 😝
Dude! You are what barely 18 and created this? Your parents must be proud! Boy have I got some stories... I am so old I can remember when there were rides along the south eastern side of darling harbour, before Sega world and before it was developed into restaurants. And yes I went to Sega World, in fact my Aunty crawled into the bin and stole stamps so we could get in for free! Oh and I have photos too! Also just for a little cherry on top... The last time I was at Sega World I saw Hanson (the band). Yep.
Marni Newman The image at 12:20 shows the amusement rides on the south eastern side. Seems like forever ago!
Went to SegaWorld a couple of times you are right it was very expensive. You didn't mention in the video but they used to host a huge under18s nightclub called Crush on Fri or Saturdays it was huge, it got packed n so popular that over 18s used to rock up constantly.
I remember Nick Skitz launched one of his Cd's there and wild FM used to broadcast live from Crush.
Omg I was telling my husband about crush as we were comparing Sega world stories.
We went to a foam party there, was wild. Way too many over 18s pretty scary, but such a sick environment to have a kids nightclub 😂 something that would never happen today!
Sega world remains one of my fondest memories. Those years were peak times.
The old Crush U18s Dance partys used to go off,. good old memories. Used to love Sega World.
I just got to the end of this video and I am absolutely blown away that you were only 17 when you made this video... Your videos are incredible for someone your age, and you appreciate nostalgia with a wiseness well beyond your years!
My dad took me to Sega World when I was 8 or 9. We lived in Newcastle and he never liked video games so I'm extremely thankful he took me. I have some old memories of the place and it's crazy to think of how much of a ghost it is within the memories of a select few people.
I dearly wish it was still around in some form.
There was a common trend happening in the late 90's and early 2000's with theme parks and arcades across the country being reduced to nothing but memories.
#SaveSonic #SaveSally!!
I've heard about that statue for a while. Once considered buying the statues, but I can't afford the restoration.
- SL
They're not even for sale : ( ruclips.net/video/cC2ZPh3V10Q/видео.html
Sally will never be saved.
@@SirLaptop There's this one Sonic Statue in the Japan Mountains no one knows where it came from.
SirChryslerOfThePhaeton Ik it has been a year since you posted this comment but it came from another sega world in 2003 the owner has since passed away from okuda sega world
Nice video, I had the opportunity to visit Sega World back in the day, probably very close to just before it closed (2000), because I remember the games being free. I really wanted to play Metal Slug but it kept getting hogged. I was a big Sega fan back in the day, I had a Mega Drive and watched all the Sonic cartoons and I think I really wanted to try out a chili dog at Sega World because it was Sonic's favorite food (kinda insidious to have all the popular cartoon/game characters of the 80s and 90s be fans of fast food though), but I don't think they had them - missed opportunity. I also remember quite a few other places around the area, like this space themed restaurant called Xerts where you ordered off of a screen.
I can tell a ton of work went into this. Good job
Great video. I was born in 1986 in Tasmania and got a megadrive for my 5th birthday in 1991, growing up with a megadrive.
I got to visit Segaworld when my family relocated to Nsw when I was 10 or 11, while it wasn't the most amazing theme park. To a kid that has spent hundreds of hours on a Sega it really was a great experience.
Thanks again for all your hard work on this video. It's great
I was one of the lucky ones that got to got to SEGA world when I was about 10. I loved it so much, even my Mum had fun.
Me too! My mum used to take my sisters and I almost every school holidays.
With me myself at the age I am(35), I'm old enough to remember the SEGA World building and also to at least one time get to experience the inside of it.
It was a nicely set up place honestly, the arcade machines were awesome far more then the rides(to me at least)
Only got to visit it that one time though and I want to say I visited it in around the year 2000 or so.
I do remember it
as an arcade fan (currently), always is facinating to see the history of arcades in my home city.
i did not know this place existed until today.
Hoping you re-record the audio for this video. Music is too intrusive in some places.
The Music??? Daaaamn aint no one gonna tell him to stop fucking about with the mic stand???
@@Dread-I-Productions Yeah I can definitely hear it.
He also really sounds like he needs a lozenge.
Plus you can barely understand homeboy 🤣
Maybe correct ZIGA to SEGA also
A resounding success for the Sydney of Sydney
I remember going here in my teenage years, was awesome
Great memories, thanks for bringing them back up
Thank you for the nostalgia! I loved that place as a kid!
Great overview! Always wanted to go there as a kid...
Wasn't even alive when that place was open. Wasn't born until a couple weeks after the place shut.
- SL
it wasn't worth it..
if sega world was still around I think kids and adults would still enjoy it
I remember visiting Sega World in the late 90s and going on the Indy 500 (I don't remember going on the other rides) and playing around with some of the other exhibitions. From memory, the place was almost like a ghost town but I remember enjoying it because I was more free to run around without the crowds. A great and clearly well researched video. Thanks for sharing.
love this, if you go further back - there use to be huge tennis/basketball courts where Sega World was which was amazing back in the day on weekends. if you find any photos or videos i will be very surprised, so hard to track anything about darling Harbour around this time
You got the price issue right, it was always way too expensive for me and my friends to visit, $30 was a lot of money back in those days!
Sega was just never big enough draw to me, the only character I knew from the Sega franchises was Sonic, and big deal he was a blue creature that ran fast and picked up rings.
💯 I worked there,and among others we pointed out that it was way too expensive to begin with.We warned management this won't work,and they didn't listen.
The stories I could tell about working at this place egs: Rides not working properly,yet still opened. Rides failing safety checks,and still being opened. Rides being closed for days,only because they wanted to cut staffing levels,but claimed the ride was broken.
Sega World management were extremely dodgy.
Now that Super Nintendo World is a thing, SEGA should rebirth the concept.
I remember wagging school to go there one day, way back when.... ☺️👌
Bloody awesome video mate! Subscribed and gearing up for a binge-session of your other stuff. 😘
The things id do to relive going there again as a kid, extremely exciting and satisfyingly great experiences had
what the problem was that the entry was too damn expensive and I couldn't find my way around when I was a kid. Only hung out at the token games area and all rides need to be paid for in addition to the entry fee (needed to buy a card). All tokens were also $1 each, so basically you pay about $30 to get in and pay extra to enjoy the stuff inside it. It was beyond budget when I was a kid, costs an arm and a leg..... If only they made entry fee cheaper, then there will be more attendance. Which over time will pay off because most parents wont pay that kind of money all in a single days out especially if you have more than one children. I actually cheered when that place went broke and demolished because of it's greedy fees. Now I as an adult I felt quite sad.
I guess the closing and demolishing of SegaWorld was a hard kick for the fans of Sega...
that is where my dad got our Atro City Cabinets for dirty cheap still enjoy them to this day :)
What?
sega world - LETS JUST DROP THE E! SGA
this is as great as bright sun film's Abandoned Series! I Think you should continue!
Never imagined this would be compared to Bright Sun's movies. Thank you.
- SL
does anyone remember the Crush under 18 dance parties that were at sega world?...I attended some of them in 2000...fun times for us high school kids
Really good video dude. I grew up in the age of master system and mega drive and I was your age when Sega World opened. I never went sadly because by that stage I'd become a big sony and PC fanboy, you know the age where nothing from childhood is cool anymore, so regrettably I never went to Sega World. I do have several amazing memories of wonderland though. Really happy to see someone doing videos like this. I also love wondering about the history of old buildings, specially pubs like on the victoria rd side of the Anzac bridge, near the factory. What was it like in the factories hayday when it would have been packed every afternoon. Anyway good job, it's great seeing that curiosity about stuff I took for granted.
The 2000 Sydney Olympics destroyed Australia.
I really enjoyed this video! I went there in 1998 and I had a great time, but I remember thinking it was quite expensive at the time (parents paid of course, lol) and now that you mention it, there was no ride about Sonic or other Sega mascots, but I still had a lot of fun. It's a shame it didn't last very long, and similarly how Wonderland closed down as well. I'm from Melbourne, and Wonderland and Sega World were my two favourite things in Sydney when I was a kid. I'm going to dig up family photos of those places. If there's some without family members on it, I guess we could use them for historical purposes, haha.
I've been to gameworks back in 2012 when I was a second grader, love that place. I had no idea it was Sega created!
Used to live in Sydney around 2000-2005 around when I was in highschool and thought it was such a cool place at Darling Harbour in that area. Never went to Sega world but always thought the building was awesome and wanted to go inside. I remember playing in the water area out front though, going to the Arnotts shop and getting free tiny teddies and all the other things they had there focused on kids (lolly shops, toy shop, peddle boats etc). When going back to Sydney a few years ago it was a bit sad to see the change, the new playground looks fun for kids and the building I'm sure serves it purpose, but it looks like pretty much any other CBD/cafe area now, without the charm and fun it used to have.
i went to Sega World for my 8th birthday im 33 now, the city and Harbour now is deeply depressing compared to how it was in my childhood
Yeah, the price was ridiculous. My brothers and I wanted to go but with 4 kids and 2 adults, it was way outside our price range. We walked past and looked around but that was as close as I ever got to Sega world Sydney.
I went there multiple times as a kid and absolutely loved it. Favourite was the indi 500. Everytime you won a race you could stay on as the champion. Ended up on there for over an hour was a hell of alot of fun.
Great videoI have great memories of going to Sega world park in Sydney thanks mate
I remember seeing this building when I first came to Sydney. It was demolished a few months later. Would've been cool to actually go inside. Darling Harbour looks so different now.
at least rode on a row boat on the lake and ate McDonald's where darling square is now
PS2 didn't destroy the Dreamcast, it didn't get chance as Sega pulled the plug barely 2 months after the PS2 launched. Fascinating to watch this though. I always wanted to go to the London one.
Sega killed it's Self first with almost zero marketing . Second with no copy protection for the console lol you could just burn a copy of a rented game and never have to buy one . Third they released the dreamcast and saturn to close to each other it kinda pissed off their customers.
@@jimbotheassclown 32X just before the Saturn didn't help either. But I think the biggest problem Sega had with the Dreamcast was the Arcade market completely collapsing at the same time giving them a massive cash flow crisis. The dreamcast actually didn't still too badly in the time frame it was on the market and there were some potential system sellers on the very near horizon that would have launched had Sega not pulled the plug.
I find it sad that thair gone
The idea of a sega theme park sounds fun
I wish I could go back in time to 1999 and 2017 just to see those theme parks
How I miss this place and the times when Sega were true innovators.
18:45 Jeez! The Sonic Runners loading theme! What a good chunk of memories!
I loved this place so much....even crush dance parties lpl
Nice video, hit many of the history points on SWS. Really sad how timing was, and things that happened, including the mess over Darling Harbour zoning . I've collected many photos, audio and video over the years and was happy to see a handful of images I have yet to come across ^_^. The best I have in my collection is great footage of Sonic and Sally mascots in action. I hope more media continues to show up, it just is a shame the technology of cameras was not great back then! Thanks for this and sharing mate!
On a side note (from a former Sega staff member) a bit of a fun fact: The girl who performed in the Sally mascot costume was accidentally seen whilst changing into the costume (walked in on) and it was said it would ruin your image of Sally if you seen the girl.
"So without much further ado" - such a perfect way of saying this in "aussie".
enjoyed this...moved to Sydney from the UK in 2008 and lived close to darling harbour to date... such a lot of change
I remember playing mad bazooka . Great memories as a kid
Outstanding video man. As a kid I visited sega world 2 or 3 times and this video has been a great nostalgia flashback.
My favourite attraction was the nickelodeon play area, the mazes and slides, ball pits and just generally running a muck in this place where adults could not enter was some seriously fun times. I remember coming across random kids in gangs having a beef or blocking off access and controlling areas. It was like a free for all in there bro.
Its such a shame you never got to experience it.
One thing you may have no idea about but I feel was connected to my Sega World experience was the little “tiny teddie” shop/factory, they would make freshly baked tiny teddie biscuits in the shop and you could watch them come off the conveyor belt and you would recieve a free cup of the little biscuits.
This store was not part of the Sega World but it was on the ground floor left side as you walk in.
Thanks for the video
This video is amazing! You deserve Thousands of subs!
I went twice. It was bloody great. Expensive though.
Wait this just made me tear up! When I visited Sydney as a kid I wanted to go here more than anything!
Awesome video... I was lucky enough to go back in 1998. The VR gave me a headache but I still had a blast there.
Replacing it with a giant PS2 would've been more fitting
Great video mate, brought back some childhood memories of nagging my dad to take me to sega world. Completely underwhelming.
Thanks for the video.
Ah Sega World. A place I always loved looking at whenever I went to this part of Sydney, but never had the chance to go into because of the cost.
I can tell you that even when the Olympics had been on, and there was a lot of things happening in Darling Harbour for the games, this failed to gain any real interest from people. Best memory I have from the place was the offended look by an old gentlemen behind the counter when I said that I couldn't pay the fee. I might be wrong, but when I asked why they didn't just charge for the rides I was informed that they cost a lot of money and something about not wanting to create long lines of people inside the place with the huge crowds unable to access the games/rides. The lack of people there made that logic ring hollow to me.
Went there once with a school excursion in 1997.
Spent most of the morning waiting in line for rides, blew most of my spending money on a stupidly expensive lunch - stupidly expensive for an 11 year old - won a collection of toys with the last of my spending money by making one really unlikely throw in the ticket games and spent the rest of the day waiting in line for one of the rides.
Stage show didn't happen that day for some reason or other and I never saw the mascot costumes at all.
I still wanted to go back but it shut before I got my part time job.
Still have the rides pass which hasn't aged too well and the toy collection is still in the box but I never got any merchandise with Sega World Sydney on it.
Will Eggman ever get that theme park he wants?
Very impressed with your research.
I remember going to the park as a kid/teen. You where right, too expensive or they should of put all the arcade games on free play to make the price worth while.
I was a big fan of Sega and owned both megadrive with the 32X and mega CD as well as a Saturn but Sega world never really captured the magic.
Sure it was fun new and exciting but not the place you'd keep going back to.
Wonderland however in its heyday was something else that place was epic
went twice and loved it
I always saw it but I never got to enter it. I think my brother did go there but my parent's couldn't really afford such things.
I have actually been to this theme park. Memories still strong.
I always wanted to visit Sega World
2019,and now Timezone is going strong and a new one has opened near my place
I went there only once, it was the only time my parents let us go. I loved it, it was amazing and i wish i could go again.
Sydney is so depressing now compared to how it was back in this time, i was 8 years old back then, now the city has become heartless and cold with no soul anymore, i mean yeah sure theres newer technology and buildings, its just not the same..
As a 90's Sega fan in Australia this was really interesting...but man, the sound of the mic moving is super annoying
Visited on a trip to Sydney with family in 2000. I remember the lines were so long, like an hour long wait for some, that we only got to go on a couple of rides. Remember Aqua Nova, and a VR roller coaster. Kind of sad what happened to it but inevitable really.
I was just a tad too young to have been able to go to the theme park at the time, but even for someone who's not that keen on theme parks, this place looked fun, unique and not too extreme for most people. Wish it could've opened just a little bit longer, so I could've at least walked around it :(
for as long as I remember otherwise though, I only remember it in its abandoned state, and the only sega themed thing I ever got to see there, was the sign (that got taken off soon after closure ofc) and a few arcade machines playing sega games. Otherwise, it was just the domed entrance that was open, and some weird anamatronic animal things that you could ride on, everything else on the inside was closed, so likely I remember it only on the outside from the last few months it was open in late 2000 and onwards.
I also remember its last days, when the domed foyer was all that was left in the demolition site, and saw the youtube video of it getting torn down soon after like 2008ish? :(
WOW! good work mate! such a good video. hope you keep up the good work, you'll be a big player some day
Nice documentary
Excellent video and nice to see Panzer Dragoon make an appearance. It's a shame SEGA fell far, but their legacy lives on 👾
Nice job on the research, wish I could have visited SEGA World at least once.
I have been to Sega world in Dubai before it got shutdown. Some of my greatest memories.
Darling harbour in the 90s and 2000s looked more fun than compared to now
Growing up in country Australia I only got to go to SEGA world once when visiting my uncle in Sydney.
I remember the commercial they were playing at the time with the tag line "get out of the house" kind of funny considering at that stage we were playing a Mega Drive in the house.
Sadly it was underwhelming, as a huge sonic fan I expected to see him everywhere but he was only in promo material. I wanted games.
And I will never forget how ripped off my uncle felt when paying for the tickets to get in.
FYI, The operators of Sega world were Thomas and Raymond Gunn. ' Tommy gun, Ray gun. I worked for a local security company and would liaise with both gentlemen on security matters.
Great video - well (deeply) researched too.
I can see this in its own location in Universal. I mean, yeah, Sega World is its own park, but this would work in Universal and people would love it.
i remember going their as a kid in 1998 sad it closed two years later in 2000
2000*
It also had to do with the fact that it didn’t evolve enough for people who had been once or twice before to go again.
The Elvira roller coaster was cool!
They clearly spent A LOT of money on this park initially. If it was me I would have still charged the entrance fee (which really isn't that bad for the time period considering what was there) but I would have made everything included with admission including the arcade games that they charged for. As you mentioned charging an entrance fee and charging again for the arcade games ultimately killed the place. As much as we all love Sega and its VR attractions, most of these attractions are the one and done type of thing for the majority, unless you are seriously a super fan, you can only do the VR-1 or the AS-1 so many times, and it becomes boring, this makes for a lack of repeat visitors which most theme parks thrive on, there is nothing to make the customer come back. You are also correct about Rail Chase, I live in the USA and I have NEVER seen a Rail Chase arcade game and I have seen a lot of games in my time. If it was me instead of having 3+ VR attractions I would replace those with traditional amusement rides themed to Sega properties but I would keep 1 of the 3+ VR rides. I also would have included a Go-Kart track themed to Sonic. The Mad Bazooka is really cool and I would keep that. Theme the coaster towards something other... than something the vast majority of people have not heard of or seen. I also would have sold season passes to get people in the door more often, if there were more amusement rides people would come, just like a real amusement park.
The arcade games in later years were put on freeplay as part of the entrance fee, which was lowered around 1999-early 2000. But, arcades were already on the way out at that point, and the damage had already been done. Sega World had a reputation for being fairly expensive. All of the attractions that opened with the park in '97 were copied and pasted from Joypolis Yokohama where Sega had a large arcade presence, without any consideration as to whether they would work down in Australia. The VR attractions were actually pretty good from what I've heard, but they along with Mad Bazooka got removed shortly before the park closed to build an ice rink. The park would haven't survived for much longer if the ice rink was completed, anyway. Sega World did sell season passes, well they were actually called 'annual passes' because most theme parks in Australia have year round operation. The management tried very hard to keep the place alive, but it was not to be.
- SL
Yeah, I can see why it failed. Another thing is you have to have enough entertainment for families to stay there for the whole day, if they pay the high entrance fee they expect to get a full day of entertainment out of it, just like at a regular theme park. This place sounds like it had about 3-4 hours of entertainment per visit if that. If there is a regular theme park nearby it also would be hard to top that, as people will just go there.
Sydney has Luna Park which isn't all that big nor impressive. I mean we do have the last standing wooden Wild Mouse coaster but that is it. Sydney also used to have Wonderland, a much larger proper theme park which used to be run by the same company who operated Kings Island, Carowinds and Kings Dominion a long, long time ago, but the park closed in 2004 and the land sold for housing.
- SL
I barely remember it but I know I went here before it closed! I remember boredom lol
19:33 . Being in my mid 30's i remember when Timeszone's flagship on the gold coast had rides and was called Grundy's. I remeber my mum worked there and seaworld near the end before Timezone changed most of it. I still remember mum talking about banning scammers that would use 2cent coins instead of the token system they had. Maybe do a video on Grundy's if you can get good info on it.
Going here was one of my favourite memories as a kid. I am always going on about it, but no one really knows what it is...
I was sad when sega world falls down and some of it broke some more
I went here once when I was a kid (I think it was in '99), but can't remember much of it (which I suppose is quite telling; but I was a Nintendo kid anyway...). I liked spending a lot of time on the "bikes" outside the building though (the ones that shot water), and jumping across the water to reach them.
Oh, also rip Tumbalong Park fountains and water spots :(
afaik Sega World still lives, not just in our hearts, but in JAPAN
I remember playing Ghost Hunters and trying to beat the boss before the ride got back around to the beginning, so we could go round again for the next level.
by chance my family were walking past sega world the day before its grand opening and were let in for the staff pre opening night . it was my sons 8th birthday and we got to play on everything for free for four hours , only leaving at about 9 pm. we went a few more times after that but we noticed that stuff was going or not operating as time went on.
I went once or twice as a kid to Sega World. The 3d effects back then were pretty good, or I'm just remembering with nostalgia goggles on. During the 3d space flight game I accidentally slapped the dudes head in front of me because I wanted to shake hands with the 3d character they looked like they were right in front of my face.
I wonder what ever happened to a lot of the carnivals that happened around Sydney. For the life of me I can't remember the names of them. There use to be some really great mobile carnivals in the 90s
Interesting stuff on Sega World... nice work, pity it all fell apart. I believe what killed SEGA wasn”t their console division it was their venture with DreamWorks SKG and MCA.. they were bleeding huge amounts of money because of the theme parks. Regarding Playtime... they were conceived by the Hankin family in the mid to late 00’s, based in Sydney. Their stores were originally called Orbit with stores in Bourke and Elizabeth St (Elizabeth St had been around since the 50’s) and I think they also had a few stores in Sydney. When they adopted the Playtime name they opened stores in Highpoint and Northland shopping centres the near cinema section... they literary took up the whole floor... they were huge! Smaller stores were later opened in Watergardens and Flinders St Station. The Elizabeth and Bourke St stores had their names changed to playtime later on. I was one of the tech and maintenance staff. Bourke, Elizabeth, and Flinders St stores are all gone, the Highpoint store is now about 1/4 the size... Ah! they were great times.
I *really* want the Sally plush they sold here.
Also, Wikipedia says Rocko was a big part of the Nickelodeon TV Machine, as the park was located in Australia. Is this true?