When Trocadero ruled as the epicenter of the video game world

EStepping into the Trocadero complex in central London in the late 1990s can be an overwhelming and euphoric experience. The vast building was then home to Sega World, an “indoor theme park” and arcade based on the “Joypolis” concept that had seen the Japanese gaming giant flourish in its homeland. Away from the hustle and bustle of Coventry Street, visitors walk past the Sonic the Hedgehog statue at the door before stepping onto the famous ‘Rocket Escalator’. A vision of the future in brushed steel and electric blue lighting. An escalator ride takes people through a large central open area to the upper floors of the building, where they can get a glimpse of the various attractions that occupy each floor (a mad bazooka bumper car, a ghost hunt VR experience), and then… Visitors were deposited on the top floor. Wind your way through themed zones such as a carnival and sports arena.

Around you, a trembling choir of AS-1 simulator rides, with arcade machines whining and hydraulics roaring, along with rows of Sega’s VR-1 virtual reality experience, complete with eight-person pods. It was chirping over the excited chatter of the guests there. and interactive shooting games. Intermittently, the sudden mechanical groan of Pepsi He Max He drops filled the air, along with the screams of the occupants. The speakers belted out the biggest pop hits of the era. Props like a life-sized Harrier jump jet and his carefully placed F1 car filled the gaps in a cabinet that housed arcade icons like Daytona USA and Virtua Fighter. Sega insisted in a promotional video that the entire experience was “the ultimate futuristic entertainment.”

However, this excitement and spectacle was not new to the Trocadero. The Trocadero has been a place of diverse attraction for over 200 years. After humble beginnings building six simple cottages, the property was redeveloped in 1774 by his tennis court, circus, restaurant, pool hall, dance performances, and for some time after his 1950s. The sex industry became popular. In 1878, it was renamed the Royal Trocadero Music Hall, after the Trocadero Palace in Paris. It then became a theatre, and in 1896 he was taken over by J Lyons & Co, who reopened the building as the Trocadero Restaurant, offering dances, performances, parties and Edwardian-style meals until 1965.

In 1984, the building was demolished again and the 400,000 sq ft complex was reinvented at a cost of £45 million as Britain’s largest indoor entertainment center, featuring a Guinness Book of Records exhibition, shops and multiplex cinema. Ta. In 1990, an amusement arcade named Funland was born with a large selection of the latest coin-ops. Dark area on the first floor. In the coming years, it will become the center of British arcade culture, housing games like Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Mortal Kombat and Virtua Fighter 2 before most other coin-op palaces .

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