Did you know Australia used to be home to an interactive theme park similar to Japan’s Joypolis? Let’s take a look back at the history and closure of Sega World Sydney.
Back in 1994, the Sydney metropolitan area had a population of 3.7 million people, the largest in Australia by a significant margin. While the city had tons of great sights to check out like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the Sydney Opera House, Bondi Beach, and the Taronga Zoo, Sydney lacked a major theme park.
Sega, the popular Japanese video game company, was beginning to dive into the themed entertainment sphere. In 1994, the company launched their first Sega “amusement theme parks” with their Osaka test concept opening in April and Yokohama’s Joypolis in July. The concept combined arcade gaming with theme attractions and experiences themed to popular video games. Hoping to become a major player in the worldwide entertainment market against companies like Disney and Universal, Sega began looking to expand into other markets in Japan and throughout the world. That same year, Sega would team up with a company called Jacfun to acquire land for a new indoor theme park in Sydney’s Darling Harbour. The new venue would be a ground up build, hoping to create a major tourist attraction.
On March 6th, 1997, Sega World Sydney welcomed guests into what was described as “Australia’s Interactive Disneyland.” Estimated to have cost around $50 million to build, the indoor theme park and its surrounding Darling Walk area featured fountains, lakes, playgrounds, and the uniquely shaped conical glass building that housed the theme park.
Entering at the top floor of the unique building, Sega World Sydney invited guests to walk through a giant rainbow tunnel where they would end up in the Mothership.
There they pick one of three separate lands with The Past, The Present, and The Future where all the park's adventures could be found. In addition to over 100 arcade games, the park was home to 8 unique attractions.
Rail Chase: The Ride – (The Past) Heavily featured in many of the parks advertisements for the park, Rail Chase was an indoor family coaster themed to a mine. Built by Masago Industrial, the coaster was kind of a mixture between a wild mouse and a kids coaster.
AS-1 – (The Future) This was a motion simulator ride with a futuristic theme. The film of the ride Scramble Training starred Michael Jackson as the captain of the spacecraft where riders attempt to catch a criminal before everything goes wrong.
Mad Bazooka – (The Future) This variant of bumper cars allowed guests to run over balls that would be loaded into a cannon. Guests would launch the balls at targets on top of other cars.
Nickelodeon TV Machine – (The Present) This kids area, which was heavily themed to Rocko’s Modern Life, featured a playground, ball pits, slides, and activities all based around Nickelodeon.
G-LOC: Air Battle – (The Future) This was more of a technology showcase for Sega’s R360 gyrosphere arcade cabinet. The gaming experience would see riders flipping around as the motion based arcade game reacted to the movement of the game. The experience was capable of going upside down.
Ghost Hunters – (The Past) This was an interactive dark ride allowed guests to use laser guns to shoot targets.
Agua Nova – (The Future) A 3-D motion simulator themed to a submarine mission.
Magic Motion 4D – (The Present) A 4D theater experience.
At the time, Sega World Sydney was state of the art technology, providing locals and tourists with experiences they couldn’t find at their local arcades and amusement parks. However, the park didn’t meet the initial attendance numbers both Sega and Jacfun had hoped for, mostly due to its high admission price. While the park attempted to bring in younger crowds, hosting an underage dance party called Crush during school holidays, attendance and profits continued to disappoint.
By 1999, the park had closed Mad Bazooka in favor of an ice skating rink, the park received no new additions, and Sega sold its stake in the park to Jacfun for $23.5 million. Sega World Sydney had one last hope to make a financial impact with the 2000 Sydney Olympics. To reach a breakeven point the park needed to hit attendance numbers of 800,000 visitors, but, unfortunately, guests attending the Olympics didn’t flock to the park as hoped. On November 12th, 2000, the park closed with the park hosting an auction in March of 2001 to sell the rides and games within the park. Ironically, the auction was a bust for the park, with only 300 people attending the event. Rides were sold at 30% of their asking prices, making this slow and painful theme park death even more financially devastating. The Darling Walk area, including the carcass of Sega World Sydney, remained until 2008, when it was completely demolished in favor of two nine-story office buildings.
When I was a kid, I had the opportunity to visit Sega World Sydney. I remember the commercials that made Rail Chase look like the most thrilling ride in the world and begging my parents to take me. When I finally stepped inside that bizarre building, I was let down by the reality of the park. While the inside looked cool, featuring signs, theming, and colorful lighting, it was far more of a themed arcade than a theme park. Sadly, I was, at most, 5-years-old when I visited and chickened out of Rail Chase, wasn’t really interested in the arcade games, and spent most of my day at the Nickelodeon TV Machine playground. While, in concept this park was really cool, in my opinion, it failed to offer attractions that the whole family could experience, making the high admission prices hard to justify.
Unfortunately, the theme park arcade concept of the 90s has proven to be mostly a bust. Disney tried to get in the game with DisneyQuest, which saw a similar failure with their Chicago location. It is unlikely we will ever see a park like Sega World Sydney built again, but if you ever find yourself in Japan, Sega’s Tokyo Joypolis maintains the same concept with updated games and attractions.
Also, thank you to Jade Crypt of Wonders for the amazing collection of photos.
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