Game for a Fresh Look

The Sega City video arcade in the Irvine Entertainment Center is getting a new look.

By November, the bare walls inside the 15,000-square-foot arcade will feature themed decor “like sets taken from a movie back lot,” officials said. A small restaurant also will be added.

The themed areas are being developed in part by interior designer Dennis Larkins, who created stage sets for Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones during the 1970s.

Company officials declined to talk about specific design elements.

“We’re hoping to immerse people’s senses with sights, smells and sounds,” said Bruce Fabel, senior vice president of GameWorks Studio, the joint multimedia venture managed by Sega Enterprises, Universal Studios and DreamWorks SKG. “We see this as a way to test our concept” of the arcade experience.

It also could help boost revenue. GameWorks officials declined to release financial data on how the Irvine location is doing, but insist that “things are just fine.” But high-tech analysts have long wondered whether such location-based entertainment--the buzz phrase for multimedia playgrounds for adults--will ever grow past its youthful niche audience.

The arcade in Irvine opened in 1996, and has since drawn a predominantly teenage audience. A core crowd of local high-tech workers, particularly those who work in the Spectrum, regularly pop by over at lunch to drive the virtual-reality racing cars and shoot at digital bad guys.

P.J. Huffstutter covers high technology for The Times. She can be reached at (714) 966-7830 and at [email protected].