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Sega World Sydney was an indoor high-tech amusement park that operated for almost four years, in Sydney. The theme park was built as the flagship tenant of the Darling Walk complex in
Darling Harbour Darling Harbour is a harbour adjacent to the city centre of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia that is made up of a large recreational and pedestrian precinct that is situated on western outskirts of the Sydney central business district. Origin ...
, and was designed and themed by gaming company Sega as one of several
SegaWorld Sega World ( Japanese: セガワールド, Hepburn: ''Segawārudo''), sometimes stylized as SegaWorld, is a formerly international chain of amusement arcades and entertainment centres created by Sega. Though not the first venues to be develope ...
-branded amusement parks.


History

Jacfun, in collaboration with Sega and the Darling Harbour Authority, acquired land for the park in 1994, and invested an estimated A$80 million to build Sega World Sydney, which opened in March 1997.Kidman, Angus (2001). Big dipper. ''The Bulletin'', 12 December 2001. Retrieved fro
Gusworld Article Archive
18 October 2006
Sega World Sydney utilized the latest in multimedia, entertainment and destination attraction events. It was described as "Australia's Interactive Disneyland" by the media. Many of the themes were based on various Sega franchises, primarily Sonic the Hedgehog. The park was also host to underage dance parties called ''Crush'', usually held during school holidays. The remainder of the complex was sublet to a mix of retail and entertainment tenants, including the Daintree Cafe and the One World Sports restaurant and bar. Due to a below-expected attendance and constant financial losses, the park was closed in November 2000. Hopes that the influx of tourists traveling to Sydney for the
2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...
would help the park meet its 800,000-visitor
breakeven Break-even (or break even), often abbreviated as B/E in finance, (sometimes called point of equilibrium) is the point of balance making neither a profit nor a loss. Any number below the break-even point constitutes a loss while any number above i ...
point went unrealized. Sega had sold its stake in the park to Jacfun in 1999, for A$36 million. In March 2001, the contents of the park were auctioned off. Only 300 people attended the auction, with most of the rides sold off for minimal prices. The two major rides of the park, Rail Chase and Ghost Hunters, were sold to foreign buyers, with one of the rides going for A$60,000 less than its intended sale price of A$200,000. Some of the amusement park's interior fixtures were still in place as of 2008, covered by backdrops and boarding.


Rides

* Rail Chase – An indoor mine train roller coaster built by Masago Industrial with elaborate scenery and theming. After the closure of Segaworld, the ride was sold to Haailand where it remains in operation. * Mad Bazooka – A 'tank simulator' built by R & T Fabrications, with modified
bumper cars Bumper cars or dodgems are the generic names for a type of flat amusement ride consisting of multiple small electrically powered cars which draw power from the floor and/or ceiling, and which are turned on and off remotely by an operator. Bumpe ...
equipped with a ball cannon. Balls were collected from the floor of the arena by running over them, and then could be fired at targets mounted to the roofs of other cars. The ride was removed in 1999 to make way for a proposed
ice rink An ice rink (or ice skating rink) is a frozen body of water and/or an artificial sheet of ice created using hardened chemicals where people can ice skate or play winter sports. Ice rinks are also used for exhibitions, contests and ice shows. The ...
. * Ghost Hunters – An interactive ghost train, with riders provided with laser cannons to shoot targets. see
Shooting dark ride A dark ride or ghost train is an indoor amusement ride on which passengers aboard guided vehicles travel through specially lit scenes that typically contain animation, sound, music and special effects. Appearing as early as the 19th century, su ...
. Was also sold to Haailand. * Magic Motion 4D – A 4-D cinema. * Nickelodeon TV Machine – A children's play area themed on the TV channel
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...
, which included activities based on the famous green slime and featured a climbing jungle, ball pits, and a spiral slide. Rocko was a prominent character in the area, due to the park being located in Australia. * Aqua Nova – A 3-D motion simulator themed around a submarine on an underwater mission. * AS-1 – A motion simulator ride depicting the futuristic chase of a criminal. The ride starred
Michael Jackson Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, and philanthropist. Dubbed the " King of Pop", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. Over ...
as the spacecraft captain. As well as the rides, the park included a fast-food outlet and an extensive coin-op video arcade, featuring over 100 arcade games. All games in this area were set to Free Play at a point in early 2000, prior to the closure.


''Sonic Live in Sydney''

A 1½ hour live show hosted at the park, ''Sonic Live in Sydney'', was set in an alternate timeline based around the Saturday morning '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' animated series and served as a between-story for '' Sonic the Hedgehog 2'' and '' Sonic the Hedgehog 3''. During the show, Doctor Robotnik's Death Egg crash-lands in Australia instead of Angel Island and he attempts a hostile takeover of Sydney, which is foiled by
Sonic Sonic or Sonics may refer to: Companies *Sonic Drive-In, an American drive-in fast-food restaurant chain * Sonic (ISP), an Internet provider and CLEC, serving more than 100 California communities * Sonic Foundry, a computer software company wh ...
, Tails, and Princess Sally Acorn. The show featured a large amount of audience interaction. Most of the music (as well as sound effects) for the show was taken from Masato Nakamura's score on ''Sonic The Hedgehog 2'', with three musical numbers: "What Are We Waiting For" sung by Sonic, "Give Me Chaos" sung by Dr. Robotnik, and "Thank You For Being You" sung by Sally. A studio-recorded version of the performance was released on CD at the park. In 1998, one year after ''Sydney'' was first performed, the show was shut down due to lack of interest from Sega. It was quickly replaced with a puppetry-based remake that began performing from 1998 until the park's closure in 2000. Aside from a few still images taken by the show's staff, no footage of this incarnation has surfaced. These two performances are notable for having two of the only times Sonic has had a female voice actor, another notable example being '' Sonic's Schoolhouse''. This was also the first time Tails had a female English voice actor, which would become common practice starting with ''
Shadow the Hedgehog is a fictional character appearing in Sega's '' Sonic the Hedgehog'' franchise. Shadow was created by Takashi Iizuka and Shiro Maekawa, and first made his debut in '' Sonic Adventure 2'' (2001). Although this was intended to be his only app ...
''. As of 2022, no video of either version of the show has surfaced, and only the audio for the first incarnation is known to exist.


Other tenants and post-Sega World history

Shortly after Sega World closed, the two other major tenants of the Darling Walk complex, the Daintree Cafe and the One World Sports restaurant and bar, also closed. Jacfun planned to install an entertainment complex to replace Sega World, as the restrictions of the "entertainment use" zoning prevented Jacfun from exploring other options, such as replacing the building with offices. In March 2003, unable to find a new flagship tenant and losing money, Jacfun sold the lease for the Darling Walk site back to the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority for A$10 million, with the lease set to expire in June 2008. Around May 2006, the only tenant was a
McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hambur ...
restaurant, although the former Sega World site saw use as a furniture exhibition warehouse. From June 2006 to June 2007, the former One World Sports area was used as the house for MTV reality television series '' The Real World: Sydney''. In 2008, the SHFA leased the Darling Walk site to
Lend Lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...
for A$560 million, which planned to demolish the building and erect two nine-storey office blocks for the Commonwealth Bank. This development was permitted by the changing of the zoning affecting the site, which had occurred shortly before the lease's signing. The old building demolished during October and November 2008. In March 2009, Jacfun initiated legal action in the New South Wales Supreme Court against the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority for "deceptive conduct" and claiming a share of the redevelopment's profits. A clause in the 2003 sale of Jacfun's lease back to the SHFA stated that if the Darling Walk site was resold within five years for more than A$40 million, a share of the profit would be forwarded to Jacfun; the rezoning of the site (which made the subsequent resale feasible) occurred just after the five-year period expired, and Jacfun was alleging that this had been planned prior to their lease ending. On 25 July 2012, the New South Wales Court of Appeal ordered the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority to pay $1.2 million for the loss of its Jacfun's opportunity to negotiate a higher price for the surrender of the lease. In April 2018 it was discovered that a Sonic and Sally statue, a smaller version of the iconic statue that stood outside of the building, had turned up at a junkyard in Londonderry in Sydney's north west. The junkyard also houses two entryway signs from another former Sydney theme park in
Wonderland Wonderland may refer to: Places Municipalities * Wonderland, California, a ghost town in Plumas County * Wonderland, Ohio, a ghost town in Columbus, Ohio, U.S. Roads, streets, and trails * Wonderland Avenue, a roadway in Laurel Canyon, Los A ...
.


References


External links


Archived copy of the Sega World Sydney website
{{Sega Amusement parks in New South Wales Buildings and structures demolished in 2008 Defunct amusement parks in Australia 1997 establishments in Australia 2000 disestablishments in Australia Demolished buildings and structures in Sydney Former buildings and structures in Sydney Sega amusement parks Sonic the Hedgehog Amusement parks opened in 1997 Amusement parks closed in 2000