Joypolis

Joypolis Tokyo

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 2010, only the parks in Odaiba, Tokyo; Umeda, Osaka; and Okayama City, Okayama are currently open.

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.

• 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. Was also in SegaWorlds London and Sydney before their demise.
• 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. Was also in SegaWorld London before demise.
• 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.

Accident history

On April 20, 2005, Sega Corp. closed its Tokyo Joypolis (Odaiba area) theme park temporarily, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.

Tokyo Joypolis is currently open to public.

See also

• SegaWorld refers to installations in the United Kingdom, China and Australia, seeking to promote Sega games while providing entertainment based on its licenses.
• GameWorks refers to installations in the United States.
• Sega Republic, an indoor theme-park located at The Dubai Mall, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Considered the first Sega-licensed theme-park in the Middle East.

References

• "SEGA Japan's Joypolis parks homepage". http://www.sega.co.jp/joypolis/home.html. Retrieved 2006-12-31. 
• Cochrane, Nathan (2004). "Joypolis: VR Theme Park". http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue21/misc/joypolis.html. 

External links

• Sega Japan's Joypolis homepage (Japanese)