Joypolis

Joypolis is an amusement park that was first opened on July 20, 1994 in Yokohama, Japan. Joypolis centres have since opened in several cities in Japan with the parks featuring arcade games and amusement rides based on Sega intellectual properties. As of 2008, only the parks in Odaiba, Tokyo; Umeda, Osaka; and Okayama City, Okayama are currently open. [http://www.thestingerreport.com/member/report_391.htm]

Similar parks, owned in whole or part by Sega, called SegaWorld or GameWorks are also in existence.

Opening

The 11,946 sq metre complex opened with over 8,250 sq/m of that dedicated to the theme park's 7 major attractions. These included a revamped Virtua Racing (renamed Virtua Formula) and 217 coin operated arcade machines. Many of the rides also appeared inside Sega World Sydney when the parks launched in Australia. [http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue21/misc/joypolis.html]

*Virtua Formula - The opening attraction of Joypolis, an enhanced version of Virtua Racing with up to 8 players each. It features a full-sized Formula 1 cockpit and 80-inch playback screens. This game has a dedicated room with 32 machines running.
*Rail Chase: the Ride - Based upon the SEGA arcade game Rail Chase. This is an interactive rollercoaster ride in which players must shoot targets as they travel.
*Ghost Hunters - A ride which places the players in a pitch black arena, using mirrors to display holographic ghost targets.
*Mad Bazooka - An indoor bumper car ride in which two teams of 6 players fire rubber balls at each other. Balls fire at the rate of 8 shots per second through a tank cannon, while the bumper cars have the ability to pick up the balls off the floor.
*Astronomicon - An astrology-based interactive theatre that tells fortunes and reads horoscopes to an audience of up to 50 people.
*AS-1 - A 360-degree motion simulator.
*VR-1 Space Mission - A virtual reality space mission accommodating 8 people per machine which allows players to pilot their own space ship with twin yokes.

As part of a restructuring by Sega, Joyopolis Yokohama was closed in 1998.

Other Parks

SegaWorld refers to installations in the United Kingdom, China and Australia, seeking to promote Sega games while providing entertainment based on its licenses. The first of these was SegaWorld London, opened on September 7th, 1996.

The first GameWorks opened in Seattle, Washington in March, 1997. The chain began as a joint venture between Sega, Universal Studios, and Dreamworks SKG. Dreamworks SKG withdrew their involvement in 2001, and the chain itself filed for bankruptcy in 2004. The chain was bought out by Sega Sammy Holdings in November 3 2005 and is now operated by its subsidiary SEGA Entertainment USA, Inc.

SEGA announced in January 2008 [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=32183] that there were to be releasing a series of new Theme Park Arcades in Emaar shopping malls across the Middle East.

Accident history

On April 20, 2005, Sega Corp. closed its Tokyo Joypolis theme park indefinitely, pending a police investigation and an internal investigation into park safety procedures. The action comes in the wake of an accident on the previous Monday in which a 30-year-old man died after he fell out of a ride. The ride, called "Viva! Skydiving," is a simulator ride that is designed to give passengers an experience of virtual skydiving. Apparently, the ride's operators allowed the man to board the ride, even though the safety belt was not long enough to fit around his body. The man was secured only by an over-the-shoulder restraint, but Sega president Hisao Oguchi says that the restraint was locked in a "more loose position," causing the man to fall out.

"It was our mistake." said Oguchi.

Reports indicate that, while Sega's official park operations manual forbids riders from riding without seat belts, Tokyo Joypolis had given its employees an unofficial manual that allowed ride operators to use their own discretion as to whether a person could board a ride. Sega says it was unaware that the park had its own manual. [ [http://www.rideaccidents.com/2005.html#apr20b RideAccidents.com - 2005 Accident Reports and News ] ]

References

*cite news |url=http://www.sega.co.jp/joypolis/home.html |title=SEGA Japan's Joypolis parks homepage |accessdate=2006-12-31
*cite news |last=Cochrane |first=Nathan |url=http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue21/misc/joypolis.html |title=Joypolis: VR Theme Park |date=2004

External links

* [http://www.sega.co.jp/joypolis/home.html Sega Japan's Joypolis homepage] (Japanese)