I have a lot of found memories of Sega World in Picadilly Circus. Later as I lived in Japan, I really loved the Sega arcades. Truly the end of an Era.
Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for, I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood and early twenties.
Sega World was always one of my highlights of going to London. Would always stop in there.
I remember one time I'd just sold 800 Beanie Babies for $250,000 in cash (dude flew in from Chicago with it) and was feeling flush. Went in Sega World and they had a new Jurassic Park hydraulic deluxe game. IIRC it was three quid PER CREDIT, and it was a two-player game. So it was six quid just to start. There was an employee stationed outside who would put your money in for you.
So, me and my buddy go and get literally hundreds of quid coins and go back to the game and pour these coins into the guy's shirt and tell him KEEP FEEDING THE BEAST. DO NOT STOP. So we played that fucker all the way through to the end. I think we only spent about 90 quid in total to finish it. The employee was over the moon. He said he'd been working there for weeks but no-one ever wanted to play after the first credit and he'd really wanted to see the end sequence.
I've written about them on-and-off. I just saw there is a new Beanie Baby documentary out. Shame I didn't know about it. I was the largest seller of Beanies in the world. That $250K deal was fun. I had to get an armoured truck to meet the guy at the airport to take his cash. When we picked up the Beanies the security guys freaked as they thought the Beanies must be full of drugs.
I've been a rabid Sega fan for 35 years, and I did not know this. I knew Sega stood for Service Games, but always assumed it was just the fairly standard practice of Japanese companies using Western names.
Sega is a company that I always liked and always feel regret for, I loved my dreamcast and wished they had remained in the console business, I loved their arcades and wish they would still be there. It's one of the companies that most marked my childhood and early twenties.