Original article hand written on the 20th of June 2000.
This was a chance find and in no way connected to the unknown arcade located nearby at a section of the A206 near the junction with Hare Street in Woolwich. Incidentally, with regard to the unknown arcade, once source has claimed passing by the approximate vicinity of the location last summer and witnessing a shop front with rows of standup arcade machines but that has yet to be confirmed.
However, back to the review in hand. There is lots to say about Sega Zone, although it might lack the sparkle of more contemporary or larger venues in the West End, this is made up for with an adequate selection of gaming machines. It must be said that on first the appearance, shabby as it is, does not provide much hope for what awaits inside. The neon sign advertising ‘Sega Zone’ seems to be falling apart and is the only indication that it's an arcade. Sadly, this shabby and slightly dilapidated appearance continues inside the arcade. Although quite large when inside, games wise there seems to be a bit of a drought. The limited number on display allows for some generous spacing between the mostly large cabinets even if you do get an initial sinking feeling. I counted ten games in total which I suppose is mostly okay for this size of arcade. The list includes Street Fighter 3 Alpha playing on a classic Sega Mega Lo 50 sit down cabinet, also, Tekken Tag Tournament, Zombie Zone and Virtua Striker 2 version 98, all housed inside sit down cabinets with 50 inch screens. This is complemented by Sega’s House of the Dead, Jurassic Park Lost World in a standard upright cabinet and Daytona USA, two twin cabinets, allowing four player competitive action, although one of the twins was switched off and did not seem to be functioning. Finally, there’s a Marvel vs Capcom, a Time Crisis and an unknown side scrolling shooter.
And that’s it. It’s just that with the amount of floor space surely a few more title could easily have been positioned here or there. However, it must be said that overall the games themselves are not in the best of shape. Two of the Daytona cabinets are out of order, the screen for Tekken Tag is a bit on the dim side and the light gun for player one on Jurassic Park is off target. On the flip side, the pricing is reasonable with 50 pence a credit being the norm.
It must be said that the arcade is actually partitioned with the back half given to fruit machines and access therefore restricted to the over eighteens only. I guess that once upon a time that area was also occupied by video games but as times have changed so have the contents, probably in order to keep showing a respectable income. This is just an observation that can perhaps be given some credence by taking a closer look at the centre in general and its décor. The walls display character art printed and painted to showcase some of Sega’s most famous franchise characters including Sonic the hedgehog and Akira from Virtua Fighter in his costume from the second game in the series.
Another curious discovery can be made next to the change machine where you will find the so called ‘secret move list’ from Virtua Fighter 2. A good dozen or so moves for each of the ten characters are listed column by column in a style not too dissimilar to that from the old arcade cabinets housing the title. It’s then natural to assume that at some time or another Virtua Fighter 2 was playable at Sega Zone but that time is now long gone. Perhaps someone reading this can give an update on this?
My feeling is that Sega Zone was probably set up around the early to mid-1990s when Sega was on its mission to open up arcade entertainment centres fit for this new era of gaming when 3D was becoming the order of the day. The ghost of games from Sega’s back catalogue such as the Virtua Fighter series still seem to haunt this place and it could certainly do with more contemporary titles such as some from Sega’s newer Naomi hardware based catalogue including Virtua Tennis, Ferrari Challenge or Virtua NBA. Perhaps, even my current favourite, the not too old SpikeOut could put in an appearance just to keep things interesting. It’s also worth considering popular games from other manufacturers, logical choices include Capcom’s very playable Street Fighter 3 Third Strike and SNK games such as the very popular King of Fighter 98 or even 99.
