M.E.G.A. Park now open

M.E.G.A. Park held its grand opening last Friday, bringing a new brand of full-immersion, digital entertainment to Hamlet.

Owned by Derek and Sadie Crawford, M.E.G.A. Park opened its doors to the public for the first time with rides simulating rollercoasters, racing, various shooting activities and much more.

“We want to do something that’s new, and different, that they don’t have in Richmond County or Hamlet. To give [kids] something to do, especially during the summertime and teach them something new as far as electronics and virtual reality. You won’t find anything like this within an hour’s radius. Something that might even interest them, and eventually we’ll get into having programs on how to learn to build a virtual reality machine. Prepare them for futuristic types of entertainment and vocations,” Owner Derek Crawford said.

As part of the full-immersion experience, riders put on virtual reality goggles and then step into the ride. The racing simulator does not require goggles and provides three screens mimicking the windshield, as well as driver and passenger-side windows. As the driver goes down the track, hydraulic lifts simulate G-forces generated in a hard turn and shifting grooves of the racetrack. The shooting simulator allows players to simply stare down the scope to get the full 3-D effect. James Williams was the first rider to don some goggles and saddle up at M.E.G.A. Park, taking on the rollercoaster simulator. Based on a gimbal, the ride provides 360-degree rolls that initially shocked Williams with its capabilities.

“That was my first virtual rollercoaster. I’ve never been on one. I wasn’t expecting it. It felt so real, like I was actually there. I thought the machine was so big. I did not know it could go upside down. It was amazing,” Williams said.

Williams was not the only person looking for a return visit soon. Creighton Diggs, a double-amputee, said the rides at M.E.G.A. Park gave him opportunities to simulate activities not possible without extensive travel and planning.

“You can come to a place like this, and through the virtual reality park he has set up, it opens up a world to us. I can be a sniper. I can be a racecar driver. There are so many things this place offers. If you have a handicapped member of the family, and you want to get them out of the house and see them smile for the first time in a long time, M.E.G.A Park, on Hamlet Ave., it’s a whole new world for us,” Diggs said.

While the grand opening ceremony took only a few minutes, it capped off years of effort taking Derek Crawford’s idea and bringing it to fruition. Multiple Hamlet dignitaries attended the event, including Hamlet Mayor Amy Guin and the Hamlet City Council, as well as several curious members of the community just wanting to see how everything worked.

“The first thing I thought was, wow, there’s people of all ages here and excited about it. This is big for Hamlet. It’s unorthodox. I’m excited about it. It comes on the week of the Juneteenth holiday. It’s a minority-owned business. Thank you to the Crawford family. Thank you for thinking of Hamlet. It’s big for Hamlet. It’s big for the county, and I suspect from what I’ve seen today that this is going to be huge,” Councilman Maurice Stuart said.

For Co-Owner Sadie Crawford, she believes the months of work just putting the store together was all worthwhile as soon as she saw the reactions from riders.

“[Derek Crawford] been talking about it for quite some time, and I was very happy when he decided to do this. I told him ‘It would be something to keep kids out of the streets, and away from drugs’ … Instead, they can come in here and play games. It’s so exciting,” she said.