THE SEGASONIC POPCORN SHOP – AND BONUS WAKU WAKU SONIC PATROL MOVIE
A man was in Japan. He found two Sonic The Hedgehog games, one of which also doubles as a popcorn machine. He goes on about them in quite a long-winded fashion, but it’s OK as there are pretty photos of Sonic to look at as well.
THE INTRODUCTION:
“Hi, I found two old Sonic arcade games last month when I was in Osaka, so I took some photos and video to upload for the sake of making myself feel like I did something worthwhile on the internet, once. Judging by the way things have been going recently, if I send this information to you in an overly-detailed email, Kotaku will make a post about it next week.”
“Neither machine was really much of a game, but they had screens and you could control Sonic, so for lack of a better phrase, I’ll call them ‘Sonic arcade games’. The first ‘game’ I came across was in Tennoji Zoo, and was called the ‘Segasonic Popcorn Shop’.”
“It’s really just a clever blend of an arcade game and a vending machine. You’re really paying for hot popcorn rather than the game, but I was much more interested in the strange Sonic game than my dry, disappointing snack.”
“If I remember correctly (it was a month ago, so surely I can be forgiven for forgetting minor details), you play as Sonic, trying to deliver popcorn to the customer. Robotnik, however, is a dick, and tried to stop Sonic by placing him on a treadmill. You have to make Sonic run faster than the treadmill, so he can jump off the end and deliver the popcorn. You have to make Sonic run by turning the wheel on the front of the machine as fast as you can.
“The machine I was playing was outside, and the wheel had rusted to fuck, so it made an incredible high-pitched screeching noise as I turned it faster. This only attracted the attention of surrounding Zoo visitors, and made me feel quite uncomfortable in the children’s area of the park.”
“The machine lets you choose from Salt, Butter and Curry flavour popcorn. It was quite a hot day, so I thought butter would likely be the safest option. I don’t know how correct I was, but the butter popcorn tasted like shit, and made my hands really greasy, so I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“The machine also advertised a wonderful Sonic and Tails popcorn tub, so I was really sick when I received my crappy popcorn in an Anpanman tub.”
“A few days later, I went to Abenobashi and visited a large shopping center, which I think was called the “Abenobashi Store” (if anyone’s desperate to find these machines, it was opposite Abenobashi Station). The roof had an outdoor arcade, where I found “Waku Waku Sonic Patrol Car”. This comes in the form of police car, which reminded me of the 20p Postman Pat rides that you used to find in Tesco. Luckily, the machine is big enough for two fully-grown foreigners.
“After the slight embarrassment of playing the popcorn machine in Tennoji Zoo, I made my friend play this one, as I recorded the screen. Since I recorded gameplay this time, I won’t bother detailing the rather basic top-down driving game. The whole machine starts swaying in time to the Green Hill Zone music that plays once you start driving.
“To carry on detailing disappointments with the machines, the steering wheel didn’t work this time, so the game couldn’t be played properly. We didn’t really want to look like paedophiles much longer though, so the fact that the game was broken gave us just the incentive we needed to leave.”
“If you’re considering whether it’s worth travelling to Osaka to play these as-good-as-unreleased Sonic games, I can tell you this – it’s no, and to be quite honest, you’re a bit of a sad prick for thinking about it.”
filed in Uncategorized on Aug.07, 2007
August 7th, 2007 on 3:03 pm
That there Sonic popcorn machine used to reside in the Segaworld in Bournemouth back in the early nineties. I remember the popcorn being quite nice, but also in a generic tub. Also, the little wheel you span to make Sonic run did fuck all, as Sonic moved of his own accord.
No curry flavoured popcorn, but there was chocolate. And banana. Who would want chocolate popcorn?? No wonder the place didn’t last long.
August 7th, 2007 on 3:24 pm
That running animation in the first video is pretty weak it has to be said!
Cool machine all the same. I’m sure Sonic fully endorses high-fat content salty snacks to make him go SUPER SONIC SPEED!
word ver: hjqnhmmw (seems longer than usual!)
August 7th, 2007 on 3:34 pm
Is “the children’s area of the park” your whole private area, or just the actual hairy bit?
August 7th, 2007 on 3:53 pm
a once in a lifetime chance to experience sega curry flavoured popcorn and he bailed out.
August 7th, 2007 on 4:34 pm
i have to agree… the welch on the curry popcorn was almost as disappointing as the long winded explanations…
still… top reportage work.
August 7th, 2007 on 7:08 pm
Ben- I used the very same popcorn machine in that Bournemouth Sega World. I was young but remember the place being very empty. All I remember is a lame play area type thing for kids
August 7th, 2007 on 7:10 pm
That guys Irish. He’s probably too stupid to make it work.
August 7th, 2007 on 9:33 pm
Do an original update once in a while.
August 8th, 2007 on 3:08 am
I’d say he sounds Scottish to be fair.
And us Scots invented loads of shit. I learnt about it at school, when we were being aught how ace it was to be Scottish or soemthing. Television, Penicillin… uh.. some other stuff…
So he must have been pretty clever, leading me to believe the machine was just shite.
Word Verification: pusivvgx. I’m not sure. It sounds a bit rude though… doesn’t it? Possibly a very impressive, highly rated lady part. See if you can do better.
August 8th, 2007 on 1:24 pm
invented obesity, deep fat fryers, and dourness.
August 8th, 2007 on 2:59 pm
Don’t forget Supergran
August 8th, 2007 on 5:20 pm
The Sonic on the machine looks pretty obese… though most of the weight gain seems to be in his head.
August 8th, 2007 on 7:56 pm
Frikking awesome vids, hadn’t seen either games/machines in motion before.
August 9th, 2007 on 2:22 am
Ah the sound of a fat Scotsman (I’m only assuming he’s fat, I think it’s a fair assumption to make?) laughing about how shit a game is just brings back such floods of joyful memories of Gamesmaster.
:'(
August 9th, 2007 on 3:23 am
Shocked!!
I went to Osaka Doubutsuen yesterday, shots this Sonic pop corn vending machine to send it to you guys at UKR, and WTF, today another dude sent this very machine shots!
Man, living in Japan is so 2006…
August 9th, 2007 on 2:00 pm
Sup guys its on Kotaku now :P
March 20th, 2008 on 6:12 am
Dear all,
I have purchased this Machine SEGA POPCORN SHOP. I want to sale it now bcz no economies in pakistan. Here we sell it in Pak Rs.5 per coin but our operating cost comes to Rs.10. So not viable to run it. Only 2-3 days used. If anyone interested do email me at
gandj@wol.net.pk or shrehmans@gmail.com
Thanx
NOMAN