As a born and bred Melburnian, I've been born with the predisposition to despise Sydney and everything in there; much like how Sydney-siders (god, what a terrible name) were born with the predisposition to despise Melbourne and everything about it. When they get something cool, we complain and we conspire to get it away from us, and when we get something cool, they complain and conspire to get it away from us. But despite my hatred of Sydney, there is one aspect of it that I miss.

Let me explain the story proper. I've just started my last semester (well, Trimester, but that's irrelevant) of University. I'm a 3rd year student, and I'll be graduating soon. I finish in October, and after a couple of exams and the eGames expo, I've decided that I want to leave Melbourne and go somewhere - either interstate or internationally, for a trip. In terms of linterstate places, I'm considering going to places such as Brisbane or Sydney, but then I started thinking about the times I went up to Brisbane and Sydney with my family, which then led me to think specifically about the place I remember most about Sydney, Sega World - easily the first, and still the only interactive theme park in Austeralia.

Basically, the park was situated at Darling Harbour (right next to the IMAX theater, if I can recall correctly), and was described as "an interactive Disneyland". The theme park opened up in 1997, at a time where Sega wasn't really doing so hot in the West (their console at the time, the Saturn, wasn't doing as well as it should've). There were lots of rides such as roller coasters, motion rides and what not, but the coolest part of it? An absolutely massive arcade...or at least, collection of arcade machines. Say what you will about Sega, but they've got a reputation for some totally awesome arcade games. In fact, when we had visited the place, all of the machines were on free-play, which was incredible.

My one and only visit to Sega World (and still, my only visit to Sydney) took place in August 2000. I remember this specifically because we left the Saturday before the NRL Grand Final of that year (which took place on the 27th of August). We did all the usual tourist things - we hit up Darling Harbour, took plenty of ferries, visited the somewhat disappointing, and now closed, Wonderland; as well as visiting Homebush Bay to do a tour of the Olympic compund. And yet, I still have fonder memories of playing Virtua On: Cybertroopers or Fighting Vipers or a Japanese arcade variant of Puyo Pop than visiting the site where the 2000 Olympics took place.

I hadn't thought of Sega World in years, so it saddened me when I learnt the fate of it. Three months after I had visited, the park had closed down. The reason? The park wasn't making much money. The owners of the park were hoping that the massive influx of tourists coming to Sydney for the Olympics would help out quite a bit and save Sega World...but that didn't end up happening. As such, the park closed in November. All the arcade games and attractions were sold off...but few people came and the products sold for minimal value. One of the rides reportedly had sold for $60,000 less than its expected $200,000 price.

From there, the building was used as a variety of homes to various things - including notably a furniture exhibition warehouse, until October and November of last year, where the building was demolished. You can find footage of that on YouTube. That I found yesterday.

I guess you could consider Sega World something that was ahead of its time, where gaming wasn't as big as it is now, and something like this could work a little better. You could also chalk up its failure due to the whole death of the arcades that was happening at the time. But I still don't understand why people, especially tourists coming in for the Olympics, didn't help save the park.

Though there is a funny story to come out of this. When Sega Australia started up, its head mentioned that the site of where their office is overlooks where Sega World once was. It's kinda funny in an ironic fashion.

But what about you guys? If you went down to Sega World, did you have any fond memories or what not? Also, I wouldn't mind some travel advice or suggestions for places to go.

Laters.