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Sega Has Got Us Reconsidering Prize Machines… Seriously!

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We’ll be honest—prize and redemption machines usually aren’t our thing. But Sega’s latest announcement? Yeah, it’s making us rethink that stance… hard.

Coming in hot for 2025, Sega Prize International has revealed a new range of lifestyle electronics that are set to shake up the prize game. We’re talking about tech that’s actually cool and useful—no cheap plastic toys here!

Here’s what’s got us hyped:

🟣 Tiny Snap – This adorable thermal printing camera was a crowd favourite at the EAG Expo earlier this year. It’s compact, it’s fun, and it prints your pics on the spot with a nostalgic retro twist. Think Polaroid vibes, but modern and mini.

🌀 Track 360 – Influencers, streamers, or just selfie pros, this one’s for you. This phone holder tracks your face with 360° motion and responds to hand gestures to pause or resume tracking. No more awkward fumbling mid-recording!

💍 Smart Ring – The fitness companion that fits on your finger. With a heart rate monitor, step counter, sleep tracker, and even a blood oxygen monitor, it packs a ton of tech into a tiny, stylish package.

⌚ Smart Watch – All the essential features you’d expect: heart rate, sleep tracking, steps, distance, message notifications, weather updates, and even on-the-go music control. It syncs with your phone for seamless daily use.

Trevor Clarke, head of Sega Amusements International’s merch division, put it best:

“We are incredibly excited to offer operators our new range of electronic items as an alternative option for their prize machines and redemption counters.”

Well Trevor, mission accomplished. We might just find ourselves at the local Timezone or FEC, feverishly feeding tokens into a claw machine just for a shot at these Sega goodies.

For those keeping score, it’s:

Redemption machines: 1
Us: 0 (but with a Tiny Snap camera, so at least we’ll look cool losing).

image source: Sega Arcade

The Definitive History of SEGA WORLD Sydney

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Who knew that Sega OziSoft convinced Sega (Japan) to pump AU$80 million dollars into the world’s largest indoor theme park (at the time), SEGA WORLD Sydney in Darling Harbour! We still regret not visiting Sega World in Darling Harbour (Sydney) while it was still open. We’ll never get to cross that off our bucket-list.

This SL Films’ half hour documentary provides interesting insights into the history of the site, and an analysis into why it closed down, touching upon the local industry and local conditions.

If you are like us and never got to visit Sega World, this definitive history of the theme park/amusement centre is the next best thing!


source: SL Films

image source: SL Films



Iconic SEGA Akihabara Building 2 To Close Soon

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It looks like we will never cross this one off our bucket list 🙁

SEGA’s Building 2 (formerly known as SEGA GiGo / Akihabara GiGo) is set to close on August 30th. Building No. 2 opened on the southern edge of Akihabara in October 2003, becoming a favourite for arcade video game enthusiasts and gaming nostalgia-seeking peeps.

It would seem that the current world health crisis has hit the Electronic Town quite hard, with a big downturn in visitor numbers. SEGA hasn’t as yet provided any formal reason for the impending closure, except for this post and the sign below, which reads (translation by SoraNews24):

image source: Arcade Otaku via Twitter

“Notice of Closure

Thank you for your continued patronage.

We are sorry to announce that this branch, Sega Akihabara Building 2, will be closing.

Our last day of operations will be Sunday, August 30.

The entire staff wishes to express, from the bottom of our hearts, our sincere gratitude at the loving support you have given our establishment for so many years.”

If you have visited SEGA’s Building No. 2, we would love to hear your stories (and see some pics), so please share them with us on Twitter or Facebook!

image source: That Damn Pixel / header image: Google

 

Building Miniature SEGA Arcade Machines

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The amount of talent and knowledge some people have is beyond comprehension. One particular person got our attention on Twitter, gaug888. gaug888’s miniature Sega arcade machine creations are beyond amazing! Not only are they faithful miniature recreations of their bigger arcade brethren, they also play the arcade video games they are based on – totally mind blowing!

The meticulous level of detail of these miniature creations are off the charts. We reckon Yu Suzuki would be quite impressed too!

PS: If you want to check out the complete and documented log of gaug888’s miniature creations, head to Togetter now.

image source: gaug888 via Togetter

 

The Complete History of Sega World

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Ah, Sega World Sydney – wish we had visited! Image source: Sega World Sydney Memoriam

If there is one regret we have, it’s that we didn’t get to visit Sega World in Darling Harbour (Sydney) before it was closed down.

The next best thing was to find Badnik Mechanic’s awesome video on the history of Sega World. Sega had planned to revolutionise arcades forever with their new arcade / theme park concept. Unfortunately Sega failed, but the story of Sega World’s creation needed to be told.

Sit back for the next quarter of an hour and take in some 1990s Sega goodness – you may learn something new too!


source: Badnik Mechanic

 

A Rare Look Inside SEGA In The Mid 90s

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We couldn’t only feature Nintendo, so to balance things in the universe, here is the follow-up to the series of translations from the French documentary “Otaku”, this time taking a rare look inside Sega, their Sega vs Nintendo rivalry and Sega arcade games from the mid 90s.

Oh yeah, there is ample footage from the 31st Amusement Machine Show (1994 JAMMA Convention) in Japan! Once again, big thanks to Game Escape for the English subtitles!


source: Game Escape

 

SEGA’s House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn

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Sega sure know how to get our attention when it comes to their arcade machines. Back in the day it was Space Harrier, Super Hang-On, OutRun, After Burner, Thunder Blade and of course, Daytona USA that we would find ourselves dropping coins in. One Sega game that we loved playing both at the arcade centres and at home was House Of The Dead (HoTD) and House Of The Dead 2! To say we were excited about their latest House of The Dead instalment would be a gross understatement. If you don’t know anything about it, here we go….

Returning after twelve years, Sega Amusements’ House Of The Dead Scarlet Dawn is the most eagerly anticipated sequel in arcade game history. Considered by many as the brand that defined and popularised the horror game genre, House of The Dead has pushed the limits with every release. An impressive back catalogue of 4 blockbuster amusement games, movies and console games, it has a vast global following of core and casual players. Staying true to its reputation House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn delivers an unparalleled horror action experience that has never looked or felt this real!

“We are thrilled to be part of this historic release. House of the Dead is the crown jewel in the Sega’s licence portfolio, with such a great heritage and loyal following. We pulled out all the stops to deliver the best experience. Developed by the dedicated R&D team in Japan, this game gets a truly special edition treatment in every way possible.” Commented Paul Williams, CEO at Sega.

The House of the Dead Scarlet Dawn super deluxe cabinet will deliver a five-dimensional (Ed: yep, 5D!!!) full body experience. Players will hear bullets flying and terrifying zombies from every angle with the 5.1 channel surround sound and sub-woofer system. High spec bass shaker will produce 50 Watts of vibrations getting players on the edge of their seats when escaping zombies on a quad-bike or in a helicopter. Perfectly timed air canon blast will make players feel explosions and wind. Dedicated spot LED lights will accentuate the thrilling mood of the game. All these features will work together to produce a captivating, tense horror feeling that thrills players.

The game-changing controller will be lightweight and will use unique vibration technology to produce a realistic recoil feeling. By controlling the frequency to the vibration unit, the controller will generate just the right type of recoil that feels natural for the kind of weapon used in the game. This is indeed a game-changing controller technology!

Five epic (1 or 2 player) game missions, lots of secret items to collect and various special weapons to encourage players to keep coming back to play even more (Ed: that means load up the credit or carry lots of coins!). Oh yeah, the game will be able to be played in Normal or Master modes, based on skill level.

Get Ready For Some 5D Experience!

You definitely won’t miss the machine once it hits your local amusement centre, as the super deluxe cabinet measures 215cm deep, 145cm wide, 231cm high and weights a whopping 500kg! Now that is one seriously massive cab!

If you are anywhere near Orange County between November 13 to 16, head on to the IAAPA event at the Orange County Convention Centre to check out Sega’s House Of The Dead Scarlet Dawn. For everyone else, we will have to wait for HoTD Scarlet Dawn to hit our local arcade parlour!

source: Sega Amusements International

 

SEGA Space Harrier Model Sneakers

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Holy cow! These SEGA Space Harrier MODEL runners (sneakers if you are from the North) have totally blown our minds!

Just take a good hard look at these sweet-as-f* runners! To say we love the Sega Space Harrier MODEL runners would be a huge understatement! Even if you are not a Space Harrier fan (Ed: say what?), you have to admit that these are pretty damn cool. We wonder if Yu Suzuki has a pair *pondering*?

image source: Anippon