159-560: Chuck E. Cheese (formerly known as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre , Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza , and simply Chuck E. Cheese's ) is an American entertainment restaurant chain founded on May 17, 1977 by Atari, Inc.'s co-founder Nolan Bushnell . Headquartered in Irving, Texas , each location features arcade games , amusement rides and musical shows in addition to serving pizza and other food items; former mainstays included ball pits , crawl tubes, and animatronic shows. The chain's name
318-641: A 6502 -based controller in a card cage with various driver boards, was called "Cyberamics". While Fechter separately produced the Rock-afire Explosion animatronics for ShowBiz Pizza through the early 1980s, Bushnell and Pizza Time Theatre continued work on characters for their portrait format and newer Balcony Stage shows under the umbrella of the Pizza Time Players. Development on Cabaret concepts slowed greatly after Pizza Time Theatre Inc.'s bankruptcy in 1984 and its purchase by ShowBiz
477-531: A "3-Stage" (an animatronic show converted from a former Rock-afire Explosion show from Showbiz Pizza Place ). This animatronic show was never installed in any other location and was removed by late 1997 or early 1998 and replaced by Studio C. Beginning in December 1997 with the Brookfield, Wisconsin location, a new animatronic show began being installed in new stores, referred to as "Studio C", consisting of
636-495: A "Syzygy Engineered" label on the control panel of each Computer Space game sold to reflect their work in the game. Computer Space did not fare well commercially when it was placed in Nutting's customary market: bars. Feeling that the game was simply too complex for the average customer unfamiliar and unsure with the new technology, Bushnell started looking for new ideas. About 1,500 Computer Space cabinets were made, but were
795-697: A "competitor" called Kee Games in September 1973, headed by Bushnell's next door neighbor Joe Keenan, to circumvent pinball distributors' insistence on exclusive distribution deals; both Atari and Kee could market (virtually) the same game to different distributors, with each getting an "exclusive" deal. Kee was further led by Atari employees: Steve Bristow, a developer that worked under Alcorn on arcade games, Bill White, and Gil Williams. While early Kee games were near-copies of Atari's own games, Kee began developing their own titles such as that drew distributor interest to Kee and effectively helping Bushnell to realize
954-605: A 1-Stage was in Citrus Heights, California between 2014 and 2015. In August 1996, a test stage at the Valley View Mall/Montfort Drive location in Dallas, Texas , was created—the first attempt at a single-character animatronic stage, The Awesome Adventure Machine. This animatronic show consisted of neon flashy lights and items around the show. This stage took over what is commonly referred to as
1113-578: A 10 to 15% growth through 1982, which it considered fair given the current recession . However, earlier in 1982, Warner had expected a 50% growth and using Atari's profits to help support Warner's other media industries, and analysts were less confident in Warner's current outlook; one asked "Why did it happen so quickly? And why were they not in tune with it while it was building?" Later that month, Warner announced that Kassar along with one other Atari executive had sold numerous shares of Warner stock prior to
1272-592: A Christmas TV special, titled "The Christmas That Almost Wasn't", produced by animation company Kadabrascope , a Pizza Time Theatre subsidiary. The special centers around Chuck E. Cheese and Jasper T. Jowls as they travel to the North Pole to save Christmas. In 1999, Chuck E. Cheese's would release a direct-to-video film, titled "Chuck E. Cheese in the Galaxy 5000 ", produced by FUNimation Entertainment. The movie follows Chuck E. Cheese and his friends as they travel to
1431-416: A black and white television from Walgreens , the special game hardware, and a coin mechanism from a laundromat on the side which featured a milk carton inside to catch coins. It was placed in a Sunnyvale tavern by the name of Andy Capp's to test its viability. The test was extremely successful, so the company created twelve more test units, ten which were distributed across other local bars. They found that
1590-403: A business of family-friendly restaurants with amusement park midway games. I think initially it made no fiscal sense, so he shelved it for a while, but then when Atari took off, he had the means to pursue it, plus a built-in distribution model for Atari's new releases." When his first animatronic show was being assembled, Bushnell learned the costume he had bought for his main character, a coyote,
1749-769: A co-development agreement between himself and Robert Brock of Topeka Inn Management in June 1979. The agreement handed Brock exclusive franchising rights for opening Pizza Time Theatres in sixteen states across the Southern and Midwestern United States, while also forming a company subdivision, "Pizza Show Biz", to develop the Pizza Time Theatres. Late in 1979, Brock became aware of Aaron Fechter of Creative Engineering, Inc. and his work in animatronics. In November 1979, he scouted Fechter's business and concluded that Creative Engineering's animatronics would be too strong
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#17327917995651908-582: A coin-op design and production company. Using investments and funds from a coin-operated machine route, they leased a former concert hall and roller rink in Santa Clara to produce Pong cabinets on their own with hired help for the production line. Bushnell had also set up arrangements with local coin-op-game distributors to help move units. Atari shipped their first commercial Pong unit in November 1972. Over 2,500 Pong cabinets were made in 1973, and by
2067-625: A competition for Bushnell's work. Brock therefore requested that Bushnell release him from their co-development agreement, wishing to develop with Fechter instead. In December 1979 Brock and Fechter formed ShowBiz Pizza Place Inc., and Brock gave notice to sever his development relationship with Bushnell. ShowBiz Pizza Place was conceptually identical to Pizza Time Theatre in all aspects except for animation, which would be provided by Creative Engineering. ShowBiz Pizza Place opened its first location on March 3, 1980, in Kansas City, Missouri . Upon
2226-570: A dance floor area. These changes, along with expansions to food offerings, were intended to help the chain be more appealing to adults and encourage family dining as opposed to primarily hosting parties. In 2019, the corporation announced it would go public on the New York Stock Exchange through a shell company, Leo Holdings Corporation, of which Apollo will still own 51%. Bloomberg also reported that after going public, Chuck E. Cheese would no longer have animatronics as part of
2385-608: A difficult product to sell. While Bushnell blamed Nutting for its poor marketing, he later recognized that Computer Space was too complex of a game as players had to read the instructions on the cabinet before they could play. Bushnell said: "To be successful, I had to come up with a game people already knew how to play; something so simple that any drunk at any bar could play." Bushnell began seeking other partners outside of Nutting, and approached pinball game manufacturer Bally Manufacturing , who indicated interest in funding future efforts in arcade games by Bushnell and Dabney if Nutting
2544-592: A distant planet to win money to fix Charlie Rockit's aunt and uncle's tractor engine. In September 2020, CEO David McKillips would say that the company had recently launched an entertainment division, the goal being to produce movies and TV shows featuring the CEC cast of characters. In January 2024, CEC Entertainment would announce a game show, being developed by Magical Elves. The series will feature adults competing with larger versions of classic Chuck E. Cheese arcade games, such as pinball, air hockey, and Skee-Ball. Since
2703-411: A division of MCA Inc. to set up a joint venture Studio Games, whereas the venture gave them access to properties handled by MCA's sister studio Universal Pictures . ShowBiz Pizza Place ShowBiz Pizza Place , or simply ShowBiz Pizza , was an American family entertainment center and restaurant pizza chain founded in 1980 by Robert L. Brock and Creative Engineering (CEI). It emerged after
2862-544: A driving game, Bushnell had concerns that it might be too complicated for Alcorn's first game. In May 1972, Bushnell had seen a demonstration of the Magnavox Odyssey , which included a tennis game. According to Alcorn, Bushnell decided to have him produce an arcade version of the Odyssey's Tennis game, which would go on to be named Pong . Bushnell had Alcorn use Dabney's video circuit concepts to help develop
3021-567: A flexible video game console that was capable of playing all four of Atari's then-current games. Bushnell was concerned that arcade games took about $ 250,000 to develop and had about a 10% chance of being successful. Similarly, dedicated home consoles had cost about $ 100,000 to design but with increased competition, had a limited practical shelf-life of a few months. Instead, a programmable console with swappable games would be far more lucrative. Development took place at Cyan Engineering , which initially had serious difficulties trying to produce such
3180-523: A form for the VCS, and Space Invaders for the VCS was released in March 1980. The game became the VCS's "killer app" , helping to sell the console alongside the game, and made Atari an estimated $ 100 million . It also set a roadmap for future game releases on the VCS under Kassar, with more scheduled release plans throughout the year and looking for more licensed arcade conversions and tie-in media. Until 1980,
3339-430: A frighteningly regular basis, from a highly-placed someone supposedly in charge of all publicity concerning the computer systems. And chilling as the individual happenstance was, it seems to have been endemic at Atari at the time." Despite losses, Atari remained the number one console maker in every market except Japan. Nintendo , a Japanese video game company, planned to release its first programmable video game console,
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#17327917995653498-515: A generic adventure game to the Superman -themed title. Robinett refused, but did help fellow programmer John Dunn to make the conversion after he volunteered. Further, after Warner refused to include programmer credits into game manuals over concern that competitors may try to hire them away, Robinett secretly stuck his name into Adventure in one of the first known Easter eggs as to bypass this issue. The transition from Bushnell to Kassar led to
3657-692: A great pace and was the leading company in the growing video game industry. Its arcade games such as Asteroids helped to usher in a golden age of arcade games from 1979 to 1983, while the arcade conversion of Taito 's Space Invaders for the VCS became the console's system seller and killer application . Atari's success drew new console manufacturers to the market, including Mattel Electronics and Coleco , and fostered third-party developers such as Activision and Imagic . Looking to stave off new competition in 1982, Atari leaders made decisions that resulted in overproduction of units and games that did not meet sales expectations. Atari had also ventured into
3816-429: A home console by 1974, and initial design work on console began in earnest in late 1974 by Alcorn, Harold Lee and Bob Brown. Atari struggled to find a distributor for the console but eventually arranged a deal with Sears to make 150,000 units by the end of 1975 for the holiday season. Atari was able to meet Sears' order with additional $ 900,000 investments during 1975. The home Pong console (branded as Sears Tele-Game)
3975-516: A large number of departures from the company over the next few years. Four of Atari's programmers—David Crane, Bob Whitehead, Larry Kaplan, and Alan Miller—whose games had contributed collectively to over 60% of the company's game sales in 1978, left Atari in mid-1979 after requesting and being denied additional compensation for their performance, and formed Activision in October of that year to make their own Atari VCS games based on their knowledge of
4134-482: A large surge in VCS sales, and Atari's consumer division ended the year with $ 200 million in sales. Warner removed Bushnell as chairman and co-CEO of the company, but offered to let him stay on as a director and creative consultant. Bushnell refused and left the company. Bushnell purchased the rights for Pizza Time Theatre for $ 500,000 from Warner before leaving. Keenan was moved to Atari's chairman and Kassar assigned as president after Bushnell's departure; Keenan left
4293-407: A larger infusion of funds. Bushnell had considered going public , then tried to sell the company to MCA and Disney but they passed. Instead, after at least six months of negotiations in 1976, Atari took an acquisition offer from Warner Communications for $ 28 million that was completed in November 1976, of which Bushnell received $ 15 million . Bushnell was kept as chairman and CEO while Keenan
4452-545: A lifespan of about three years, and decided to build the most powerful machine they could given that time frame. They set a goal to be able to support 1978-vintage arcade games, as well as features of the upcoming personal computer such as the Apple II . The project resulted in the first home computers from Atari, the Atari 800 and Atari 400 , both launched in 1979. These computer systems were mostly closed systems , and most of
4611-566: A limited number of units to Namco via its prior Atari Japan venture, and led Namco to create its own clone of the game to meet demand in Japan, and helped to establish Namco as a major company in the Japanese video game industry. Subsequently, Atari moved to microprocessors for its arcade games such as Cops ‘N Robbers , Sprint 2 , Tank 8 , and Night Driver . Alongside continuing work in arcade game development and their preparations to launch
4770-582: A location in Creteil, France in 1984 and planned to open a location in Ealing, England in the mid '80s, but the plan failed. In 1994, nine years after ShowBiz Pizza Time was formed, the first new international location would open in Lo Barnechea, Santiago, Chile . More restaurants would open in the country, with 13 total stores as of 2023. In the late 90's, there was a plan to expand to Israel , 1998 saw
4929-559: A logo for Atari. Opperman has stated that the logo that was selected was based on the letter "A" but considering Atari's success with Pong , created the logo to fit the "A" shape, with two players on opposite sides of a center line. However, some within Atari at this time dispute this, stating that Opperman had provided several different possible designs and this was the one selected by Bushnell and others. The logo first appeared on Atari's arcade game Space Race in 1973, and had become known as
Chuck E. Cheese - Misplaced Pages Continue
5088-762: A loss of $ 58 million incurred in 1983. The floundering company was then purchased by Brock in May 1985, merging the two restaurant companies into ShowBiz Pizza Time Inc. Both restaurant chains continued to operate under their respective titles, while major financial restructuring had begun. In January 1989, ShowBiz Pizza Time became a public company, trading on Nasdaq with the ticker symbol SHBZ. Beginning in June 1990, ShowBiz restaurants began converting their stage shows and rebranding their storefronts to Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. By September 1990, Creative Engineering officially cut ties with SPT. By 1994, all ShowBiz restaurants had rebranded into Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants. The name
5247-492: A machine. However, in early 1976, MOS Technology released the first inexpensive microprocessor, the 6502 , which had sufficient performance for Atari's needs. Atari hired Joe Decuir and Jay Miner to develop the hardware and custom Television Interface Adaptor for this new console. Their project, under the codename of "Stella", would become the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS). Atari, as
5406-649: A new card system known as "Chuck E.'s Play Pass" was introduced to replace tokens throughout the chain, utilizing a similar method of gameplay as the Token Card. In September 2024, the company launched a chain of mall arcades called Fun Spot Arcade at the Trumbull Mall in Trumbull, Connecticut . The arcade lacks Chuck E. Cheese branding, although it uses the Play Pass card system and electronic tickets like
5565-585: A new design concept at seven remodelled locations (three in Kansas City , three in San Antonio , one in Selma, Texas ), branded as Chuck E. Cheese Pizzeria & Games (also known as the Chuck E. Cheese 2.0 remodel by fans). These locations feature more upscale decor with a "muted" interior color scheme, an open kitchen, the "Play Pass" card system to replace arcade tokens, and the animatronic stage show replaced by
5724-434: A perpetual license for Baer's patents and to share technical information and grant a license to use the technology found in all current Atari products and any new products announced between June 1, 1976, and June 1, 1977. Around 1973, Bushnell began to expand out the company, moving their corporate headquarters to Los Gatos . Bushnell contracted graphic design artist George Opperman , who ran his own design firm, to create
5883-538: A poor reputation in the industry. One dealer told InfoWorld in early 1984 that "It has totally ruined my business ... Atari has ruined all the independents." A non-Atari executive stated: "There were so many screaming, shouting, threatening dialogues, it's unbelievable that any company in America could conduct itself the way Atari conducted itself. Atari used threats, intimidation and bullying. It's incredible that anything could be accomplished. Many people left Atari. There
6042-529: A private company under Bushnell, gained a reputation for relaxed employee policies in areas such as formal hours and dress codes, and company-sponsored recreational activities involving alcohol, marijuana , and hot tubs. Board and management meetings to discuss new ideas moved from formal events at hotel meeting rooms to more casual gatherings at Bushnell's home, Cyan Engineering, and a coastal resort in Pajaro Dunes . Dress codes were considered atypical for
6201-401: A professional setting, with most working in jeans and tee shirts. Many of the workers hired early on to construct games were hippies who knew enough to help to solder components together and took minimal wages. Several former employees, speaking in years that followed, described this as the common culture of the 1970s and not unique to Atari. This approach changed in 1978 after Ray Kassar
6360-686: A restructuring under bankruptcy protection. They also filed a voluntary petition under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on June 25, 2020. In December 2020, CEC Entertainment, the owners of Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza chains, emerged from its June bankruptcy under the ownership and selling of its lenders led by Monarch Alternative Capital. In 1983, Pizza Time Theatre would create
6519-592: A result of closing Pizza Time Theatres in the United States. Assets from several store closures were shipped to the Mexican franchisees, with the intention of retrofitting the Pizza Time Players to better suit the country's market demographic. Sally Industries of Jacksonville provided the controller equipment for these retrofits, as the animatronics arrived without their original control systems required for operation. The Ratón Chito aspect of ShowBiz Pizza Fiesta
Chuck E. Cheese - Misplaced Pages Continue
6678-646: A result of the initial company's 1984 bankruptcy. Two locations in Puerto Rico franchised by Santa Rosa Enterprises would open in 1983: one in San Juan, Condado in September of that year, and one in the Santa Rosa Mall in Bayamón which would open in either November or December of that year. Both stores would be short-lived and would approximately close by the end of 1985. Pizza Time Theatre also opened
6837-475: A separation between Brock and owners of the Chuck E. Cheese franchise, Pizza Time Theatre. ShowBiz Pizza restaurants entertained guests through a large selection of arcade games, coin-operated rides, and animatronic stage shows. The two companies became competitors and found early success, partly due to the rise in popularity of arcade games during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The type of animatronics used in
6996-582: A single 32-movement Chuck E. Cheese animatronic character created by Garner Holt alongside large television monitors, lighting effects, and interactive elements. Studio C eventually served as the replacement for Munch's Make Believe Band stages, with the last MMBB location opening in Mentor, Ohio in July 1998. Following the discontinuation of MMBB shows, the Studio C series of stages continued to evolve, starting with
7155-517: A total of 10,000 across its three divisions of arcade games, consumer home consoles, and home computers. The company had more than fifty facilities in the Silicon Valley area. For the first nine months of 1982, Atari contributed half of Warner's $ 2.9 billion revenue and one-third of their $ 471 million operating profit. However, at the same time, the company was seeing a high rate of turnover in management positions, which Kassar attributed to
7314-486: A year later. From 1985 to 1990, the merged company kept their brands (and their respective animatronic shows) mostly separate. After Fechter refused to sign over the rights to the Rock-afire Explosion to Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc., "Concept Unification" was undertaken beginning between 1989 and 1990 and continuing through 1993 to eliminate Fechter's characters from ShowBiz locations and replace them with that of
7473-490: Is taken from its main character and mascot, Chuck E. Cheese . The first location opened as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California . It was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment, thus being one of the pioneers for the " family entertainment center " concept. After filing for bankruptcy in 1984, the chain was acquired in 1985 by Brock Hotel Corporation,
7632-556: The Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS or later branded as the Atari 2600) in 1977. To bring the Atari VCS to market, Bushnell sold Atari to Warner Communications in 1976. In 1978, Warner brought in Ray Kassar to help run the company, but over the next few years, gave Kassar more of a leadership role in the company. Bushnell was fired in 1978, with Kassar named CEO in 1979. From 1978 through 1982, Atari continued to expand at
7791-566: The Chicago, Illinois location on Kedzie Avenue . The Darien location would remove their stage during their remodel in June 2023, and the Chicago (Kedzie) location would remodel and remove their stage in August 2024. Atari, Inc. Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney . Atari was a key player in
7950-548: The Family Computer (later redesigned and branded as the Nintendo Entertainment System) in Japan in July 1983. Looking to sell the console in international markets that same year, Nintendo offered a licensing deal whereby Atari would build and sell the system, paying Nintendo a royalty. The deal was in the works throughout 1983, and the two companies tentatively decided to sign the agreement at
8109-723: The Glorietta mall complex of Makati City, Philippines , was greenlit in January 2013 but that also never happened. On March 6, 2012, the first Chuck E. Cheese's in Mexico would officially open in Monterrey . "Ratón Chito," an unofficial character, previously represented Chuck E. in the country during the 1980's. This unique incarnation appeared throughout the ShowBiz (and later, Boomis) Pizza Fiesta chain of establishments, conceived as
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#17327917995658268-540: The United States and Canada , with 96 franchised locations in the US, Puerto Rico , and 16 countries around the world, as well as 96 Peter Piper Pizza restaurants in the US, and 13 in Mexico . The company also owns and operates Fun Spot Arcade, a chain of mall arcades that has 2 locations in the United States. The company's locations are located in 45 states domestically and in 16 foreign countries and territories around
8427-563: The VIC-20 . A short-lived Atari Electronics division was created to make electronic games that ran from 1979 to 1981. They successfully released one product, a handheld version of Atari's arcade Touch Me game, which played similar to Simon , in 1979. The division began work on Cosmos , a system that was to combine LED lights and a holographic screen. Atari had promoted the game at the 1981 CES, but following Alcorn's departure in 1981, opted not to follow through on making it and closed down
8586-401: The golden age of arcade video games that lasted until around 1983; Atari contributed several more games that were considered part of this golden age, including Missile Command , Centipede , and Tempest . A project to design a successor to the VCS started as soon as the system shipped in mid-1977. The original development team, including Meyer, Miner and Decuir, estimated the VCS had
8745-407: The home computer market with their first 8-bit computers , but their products did not fare as well as their competitors'. Atari lost more than US$ 530 million in 1983, leading to Kassar's resignation and the appointment of James J. Morgan as CEO. Morgan attempted to turn Atari around with layoffs and other cost-cutting efforts, but the company's financial hardships had already reverberated through
8904-464: The "Fuji" due to its resemblance to Mount Fuji . In 1976, Atari hired Opperman to establish the company's own art and design division. From late 1972 to early 1973, a rift in the business relationship between Bushnell and Dabney began to develop, with Dabney feeling he was being pushed to the side by Bushnell while Bushnell saw Dabney as a potential roadblock to his larger plans for Atari. By March 1973, Dabney formally left Atari, selling his portion of
9063-578: The 8-bit computer family, and the specialized magazine ANALOG Computing was established for Atari computer programmers to share programming information. While Atari did not formally release development information, they supported this external community by launching the Atari Program Exchange (APX) in 1981, a mail-order service that programmers could offer their applications and games to other users of Atari's 8-bit computers. By this point, Atari's computers were facing new competition from
9222-437: The Atari 400/800 system seller, but quickly emphasized the lack of software for the computers due to the system's closed nature and the limited rate that Atari's programmers could produce titles. Third-party programmers found means to get technical information about the computer specifications either directly from Atari employees or from reverse engineering , and by late 1980, third-party applications and games began to emerge for
9381-471: The Atari VCS was the only major programmable console on the market and Atari the only supplier for its games, but that year is when Atari began to experience its first major competition as Mattel Electronics brought the Intellivision to market. Activision also released its first set of third-party games for the Atari VCS. Atari took action against Activision starting 1980, first by trying to tarnish
9540-399: The Atari VCS, Atari launched two more products in 1977. The first was their Atari Pinball division, which included Steve Ritchie and Eugene Jarvis . Around 1976, Atari had been concerned that arcade operators were getting nervous on the prospects of future arcade games, and thus launched their own pinball machines to accompany their arcade games. Atari's pinball machines were built following
9699-410: The Chuck E. Cheese restaurants. Another primary draw for the centers since their beginning through the mid-2010s has been their animatronic shows. There have historically been several different styles of animatronic shows in use within the company, details of which would vary depending on when the location opened, whether it was renovated, available room for animatronic stages, and other factors. Over
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#17327917995659858-423: The Chuck E. Cheese's characters. The animatronics built by Creative Engineering for their Rock-afire Explosion band were retrofitted as "Munch's Make Believe Band", with new costumes and cosmetics. The exact year of when Concept Unification started is debated by fans. At first, the existing Pizza Time Theatre Cyberamics did not coincide with the character update, but they were later reconfigured and costumed to reflect
10017-414: The Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant chain, were purchased by Brock Hotel Corporation in May 1985. The two pizza restaurant subsidiaries merged, forming ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. – a combination of the two previous company names. Following the merger, both restaurant chains continued to operate as separate entities. Richard M. Frank joined the company as president and chief operating officer in 1985. In 1986, he
10176-462: The Electronics division. Moving into 1980, the VCS still lacked a system-selling game. After Space Invaders had hit arcades in 1979, Warner instructed Kassar to try to get the rights to an arcade conversion for the game from Taito, while prototype work had already been started on a possible game by Rick Maurer on his own. Once Kassar has secured the rights, Maurer was able to take his work to
10335-404: The June 1983 CES . However, Coleco demonstrated its new Adam computer with Nintendo's Donkey Kong . Kassar was furious, as Atari owned the rights to publish Donkey Kong for computers, which he accused Nintendo of violating. Nintendo, in turn, criticized Coleco, which only owned the console rights to the game. Coleco had legal grounds to challenge the claim though since Atari had only purchased
10494-507: The Play Pass cards. The coin-op games originally accepted brass tokens issued by the company, stamped with various logos and branding that evolved over time. The company experimented with a card access method as a replacement for tokens in the late 2000s, which allowed customers to load credits onto a card that could then be swiped for access at arcade games and refilled later. It was tested under different names, including "Chuck E.'s Super Discount Card" and "Chuck E. Token Card.". In late 2016,
10653-415: The Rock-afire Explosion animatronic show from their restaurants and converting it into a new show called "Chuck E. Cheese & Munch's Make Believe Band", featuring characters from Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. Over the course of several years, ShowBiz Pizza locations were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese's, effectively ending the "ShowBiz Pizza" brand within the restaurant storefront. In February 2014,
10812-547: The ShowBiz Pizza chain distinguished it from its rival, which offered many of the same services. When Pizza Time Theatre declared bankruptcy in 1984, ShowBiz merged with the struggling franchise to settle a former court settlement mandate, forming ShowBiz Pizza Time. Following a severing of ties with CEI in 1990, ShowBiz Pizza locations were rebranded as Chuck E. Cheese locations, which took several years to complete. Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell , responsible for creating
10971-520: The Singing Chef, Jasper T. Jowls, the Warblettes, and the main focus of the show, Chuck E. Cheese . By 1979, many restaurants had also added "cabaret" shows in separate rooms of each restaurant. One of the early Cabaret characters was Dolli Dimples, a hippopotamus who played the piano and sang in the blues/jazz style of performer Pearl Bailey . The in-house control system, which consisted of
11130-591: The Small-Town Studio C 2000 in early 2000, the "Studio C 2000" in late 2000, and the Small-Town Studio C 2003 in July 2003. The last new Chuck E. Cheese's location to receive a new Studio C 2000 stage opened in Concepción, Chile in August 2012, and the last existing Chuck E. Cheese's location to receive a Studio C 2000 was in Cincinnati, Ohio around 2014. In late 2009, a new single-character stage
11289-460: The VCS and improve quality assurance of the console and games. As they approached the end of 1978, Atari had prepared 800,000 VCS units, but sales were languishing ahead of the holiday sales period. Kassar's influence on Atari grew throughout 1978, leading to conflict between Bushnell and Warner Communications. Among other concerns about the direction Kassar was taking the company, Bushnell cautioned Warner that they needed to continue to innovate on
11448-434: The VCS to start a second wave of games for release in 1978. In contrast to the launch titles that were inspired by Atari's arcade games, the second batch of games released in 1978 were more novel ideas including some based on board games, and were more difficult to sell. Warner's Manny Gerard, who oversaw Atari, brought in Ray Kassar , formerly a vice president at Burlington Industries , to help market Atari's products. Kassar
11607-499: The VCS, Atari continued to manufacture dedicated home console units through 1977 though discontinued these by 1978 and destroyed their unsold stock. Another one-off device from the consumer products division released in 1977 was Atari Video Music , a computerized device that takes an audio input and creates graphics displays to a monitor. The unit did not sell well and was discontinued in 1978. Atari continued its arcade game line as it built up its consumer division. Breakout in 1976
11766-436: The chain's animatronics show, The Rock-afire Explosion . The first ShowBiz Pizza Place location opened to the public in Kansas City, Missouri , on March 3, 1980. By September 1981, there were 48 company-owned outlets and 42 franchises. The company's headquarters was moved the following year to Irving, Texas. Showbiz Pizza's primary rival, Pizza Time Theatre, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1984. Its assets, including
11925-457: The company a few months later to join Bushnell in managing Pizza Time Theatre, and Kassar was promoted to CEO and chairman of Atari. With Bushnell's departure, Kassar implemented significant changes in the workplace culture in early 1979 to make it more professional, and cancelled several of the engineering programs that Bushnell had established. Kassar also had expressed some frustration with
12084-538: The company for US$ 250,000 . While Dabney would continue to work for Bushnell on other ventures, including Pizza Time Theaters , he had a falling out with Bushnell and ultimately left the video game industry. In mid-1973, Atari acquired Cyan Engineering , a computer engineering firm founded by Steve Mayer and Larry Emmons, following a consulting contract with Atari. Bushnell established Atari's internal Grass Valley Think Tank at Cyan to promote research & development of new games and products. Atari secretly spawned
12243-437: The company on in a consulting position. GCC developed arcade and VCS games for Atari, and also programmed most of the games for the upcoming Atari 5200 system. Atari launched its second major programmable console, the Atari 5200 , in late 1982. The unit was based on the same design features that had gone into the Atari 800 and Atari 400 computers, but repackaged as a home console. Alongside the 5200's release, Atari announced it
12402-487: The company's inception, one of the primary draws for the business has been its video arcade offering inside restaurants. Within the arcade, customers can play card-operated video games or redemption games , the latter of which involves games of skill that reward players in the form of tickets based on score. Tickets can be redeemed later for merchandise, such as candy and toys. In late 2020, paper tickets were retired and replaced with electronic tickets, which are stored on
12561-401: The company's reputation, then by taking legal action accusing the four programmers of stealing trade secrets and violating non-disclosure agreements . This lawsuit was eventually settled out of court in 1982, with Activision agreeing to pay a small license fee to Atari for every game sold. This effectively validated Activision's development model and made them the first third-party developer in
12720-513: The company. Bushnell and Dabney worked with Nutting Associates to manufacture their product. Dabney developed a method of using video circuitry components to mimic functions of a computer for a much cheaper cost and a smaller space. Bushnell and Dabney used this to develop a variation on Spacewar! called Computer Space where the player shot at two UFOs . Nutting manufactured the game. While they were developing this, they joined Nutting as engineers, but they also made sure that Nutting placed
12879-403: The console. Similarly, Rob Fulop , who programmed the arcade conversion of Missile Command for the VCS in 1981 that sold over 2.5 million units, received only a minimal bonus that year, and left with other disgruntled Atari programmers to form Imagic in 1981. Beginning in 1979, the Atari coin-operated games division started releasing cabinets incorporating vector graphics displays after
13038-566: The control system for the new stage type was produced by Weigl Controls, developing a custom version of their ProCommander series of controllers for CEC. In July 2020, the Darien, Illinois location replaced their 3-Stage animatronics and props with the Studio C 2000 backdrops and 16-movement animatronic from the Joliet, Illinois location which had remodeled in early 2020. Another installation of this unique stage would be installed in November 2020 at
13197-461: The disruption of the exclusive distribution deals. In 1974, Atari began to see financial struggles and Bushnell was forced to lay off half the staff. Atari was facing increased competition from new arcade game producers, many which made clones of Pong and other Atari games. An accounting mistake caused them to lose money on the release of Gran Trak 10 . Atari also tried to open a division in Japan as Atari Japan to sell their games through, but
13356-766: The end of its production in 1974, Atari had made over 8,000 Pong cabinets. Atari could not produce Pong cabinets fast enough to meet the new demand, leading to a number of existing companies in the electro-mechanical games industry and new ventures to produce their own versions of Pong . Ralph H. Baer , who had patented the concepts behind the Odyssey through his employer Sanders Associates , felt Pong and these other games infringed on his ideas. Magnavox filed suit against Atari and others in April 1974 for patent infringement. Under legal counsel's advice, Bushnell opted to have Atari settle out of court with Magnavox by June 1976, agreeing to pay $ 1,500,000 in eight installments for
13515-463: The entertainment. The proposed merger between CEC Entertainment and Leo Holdings Corporation was terminated on July 29, 2019. In April 2023, the company began testing a small trampoline zone for children at the Brooklyn, New York location. As of 2024 it is installed in most of the company-owned United States and Canada locations. In June 2024, the company began testing a small obstacle course called
13674-402: The exclusive distributor of Atari's games in Japan. Bushnell has claimed that deals arranged by Gordon saved Atari. Gordon further suggested that Atari merge Kee Games into Atari in September 1974, just ahead of the release of Tank in November 1974. Tank was a success in the arcade, and Atari was able to reestablish its financial stability by the end of the year. In the merger, Joe Keenan
13833-492: The expected demand. Distributors expected Atari's games to do well and ordered in large volumes, placing more orders than expected given Atari's past failures to meet demand. By the middle of 1982, a new home console marketplace had appeared, which one distributor called "a totally different business". In addition to Mattel, Coleco had introduced the Colecovision , which shipped in August 1982 with an arcade conversion of
13992-406: The fallout was due to a demand by Showbiz to own CEI's licensing and copyrights to the animatronics show. Fechter says he refused, since Showbiz did not offer monetary compensation for the rights. Despite the refusal, CEI's creative control was jeopardized, as ShowBiz had the ability to program the characters and replicate their voices, allowing them to make changes to the skits. ShowBiz later returned
14151-424: The film, which was programmed by Howard Scott Warshaw over a period of five weeks to be able to produce the game for the 1982 holiday seasons. Raiders and E.T. were released in November and December 1982, respectively. As distributors had already cancelled orders, these and other games started to stockpile in Atari's warehouses without any sellers. Neither game sold as much as Atari had expected; notably, E.T.
14310-464: The first 160 locations he opened. Topeka Inn Management later changed its name to Brock Hotel Corporation, and in 1982 moved its headquarters to Irving, Texas . Both restaurants experienced increased success as the video game industry became more robust. To maintain competition, both franchises continually modified and diversified their animatronic shows. Pizza Time Theatre went public in 1981. Unlike ShowBiz, Pizza Time focused less on food quality, which
14469-520: The first programmable home console that used cartridges to play different games. Following Warner's acquisition, they provided $ 120 million into Stella's development, allowing Atari to complete the console by early 1977. Its announcement on June 4, 1977, may have been delayed until after June 1, 1977, to wait out the terms of the Magnavox settlement from the earlier Pong patent lawsuit so they would not have to disclose information on it. The Atari VCS
14628-481: The first widely recognized video game, Pong , headed a project in the mid-1970s for Atari to launch the first arcade-oriented, family restaurant with computer-programmed animatronics. At a time when arcades were popular in bowling alleys and bars, Bushnell sought to expose younger audiences to arcade games. In May 1977, Atari opened the first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre in San Jose, California. The concept
14787-468: The floppy disk rights to the game, while the Adam version was cartridge-based. Negotiations became protracted after Kassar's departure in mid-1983, and with any deal unlikely to be realized before year-end sales, Nintendo dropped out. Instead, Nintendo worked through their Nintendo of America subsidiary to release the system on their own in 1985. In 1983, the company set up a partnership with MCA Videogames,
14946-522: The formation of the video arcade and video game industry . The company was founded in Sunnyvale, California , in the center of Silicon Valley , to develop arcade games , starting with Pong in 1972. As computer technology matured with low-cost integrated circuits , Atari ventured into the consumer market, first with dedicated home versions of Pong and other arcade successes around 1975, and into programmable consoles using game cartridges with
15105-417: The frontman and guitarist for the pop punk band Bowling for Soup . In February 2014, Apollo Global Management acquired CEC Entertainment, Inc. for $ 54 per share, or about $ 950 million. In October 2014, under Apollo Global Management, CEC Entertainment announced that they would purchase their Phoenix-based competitor, Peter Piper Pizza from ACON Investments. In August 2017, the company began to pilot
15264-438: The game but formally needed to get out of their contract with Bally. Bushnell told Bally that they could offer to make another game for them, but only if they rejected Pong ; Bally agreed, letting Atari off the hook for the pinball machine design as well. After talks to release Pong through Nutting and several other companies broke down, Bushnell and Dabney decided to release Pong on their own, and Atari, Inc. transformed into
15423-510: The game would be a sure-fire hit in the same manner as Space Invaders . However, the game exceeded the hardware capabilities of the VCS. While Tod Frye was able to get a version of Pac-Man on the VCS within the system's limitations, the resulting game was critically panned for many technical issues such as excessive flickering of the on-screen characters. Pac-Man was released in March 1982, with Atari running several promotions to increase sales. It sold over seven million units and ultimately
15582-521: The game, believing it would be a first prototype, but Alcorn's success impressed both Bushnell and Dabney, leading them to believe they had a major success on hand and prepared to offer the game to Bally as part of the contract. Meanwhile, Bushnell and Dabney had gone to incorporate the firm, but found that Syzygy (an astronomical term) already existed in California. Bushnell enjoyed the strategy board game Go , and in considering various terms from
15741-425: The game, such as their Super Missile Attack board that modified Atari's Missile Command . Atari initially filed suit to stop GCC's products but as they learned more about their products, recognized that GCC had talented engineers, as one of their other products, a modification board for Pac-Man was sold back to Midway and eventually became the basis of Ms. Pac-Man . Atari settled with GCC out of court and brought
15900-495: The game, they chose to name the company atari , a Japanese term 当たり that in the context of the game means a state where a stone or group of stones is imminently in danger of being taken by one's opponent (equivalent to the concept of check in chess ). Other terms Bushnell had offer included sente (when a Go player has the initiative; Bushnell would use this term years later to name another company of his ) and hane (a Go move to go around an opponent's pieces). Atari
16059-570: The games on those systems. They jointly developed the concept of using a standalone computer system with a monitor and attaching a coin slot to it to play games on. To create the game, Bushnell and Dabney decided to start a partnership called Syzygy Engineering in 1971, each putting in US$ 250 of their own funds to support it. They had also asked fellow Ampex employee Larry Bryan to participate, and while he had been on board with their ideas, he backed out when asked to contribute financially to starting
16218-421: The home console and could not simply release games for the VCS indefinitely like a music business. In a November 1978 meeting with Warner Communications, Bushnell said to Gerard that they had produced far too many VCS units to be sold that season and Atari's consumer division would suffer a major loss. However, Kassar's marketing plan, alongside the influence of the arcade hit Space Invaders from Taito , led to
16377-451: The industry, leading to the 1983 crash that devastated the U.S. video game market. Warner Communications sold the home console and computer division of Atari to Jack Tramiel in July 1984, who then renamed his company Atari Corporation . Atari, Inc. was renamed Atari Games, Inc. after the sale. In 1985, Warner formed a new corporation jointly with Namco, AT Games, Inc. , which acquired the coin-operated assets of Atari Games, Inc. AT Games
16536-437: The industry. In 1980, Namco produced the arcade game Pac-Man , and it reached the United States market by the end of the year. Pac-Man soon became a nationwide success, surpassing the popularity of Asteroids and creating a wave of "Pac-Mania". Atari was able to secure an exclusive deal with Namco to be able to convert Pac-Man to home arcade systems, starting with the Atari VCS version. Atari's management believed that
16695-407: The initial games were developed by Atari, drawing from programmers from the VCS line. Sales into early 1980 were poor and there was little to distinguish the computer line from the current console products. In March 1980, the company released Star Raiders , a space combat game developed by Doug Neubauer based on Star Trek game that had been popular on mainframe computers. Star Raiders became
16854-439: The investor announcement and were engaged with insider trading . The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) investigated Kassar's sale and in September 1983, fined Kassar about $ 81,000 . Kassar signed a consent agreement neither admitting nor denying the charges. Atari's financial troubles continued into the first quarter of 1983, with an operating loss of $ 45.6 million compared to an operating profit of $ 100 million in
17013-753: The last Road Stage location opened in June 1992 in Sun Valley, California . In February 1992, the Cyberamic 2-Stage debuted at the White Settlement, Texas location, featuring Chuck E. and the band on two separate stages. The last location to install a 2-Stage was in Florence, Kentucky between 2002 and 2003. In March 1992, the 1-Stage debuted at the Waldorf, Maryland location, featuring all characters together on one stage. The last location to install
17172-948: The location opening in February 2024. In February 2023, a third Chuck E. Cheese location opened in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago , after the Chaguanas location in 2014, and the San Fernando location in 2016, although the San Fernando location closed sometime in January 2023. At the time of the Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago opening, Chuck E. Cheese had planned additional international locations to open in Jamaica in late 2023, Guyana in 2024, and another in Jamaica by 2025. As of October 2024, CEC Entertainment owns and operates approximately 465 Chuck E. Cheese locations in
17331-500: The machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates. In 1968, Bushnell graduated, became an employee of Ampex in San Francisco and worked alongside Ted Dabney . The two found they had shared interests and became friends. Bushnell shared with Dabney his gaming-pizza parlor idea, and had taken him to the computer lab at Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory to see
17490-410: The machines were averaging around US$ 400 a week each; in several cases, when bar owners reported that the machines were malfunctioning, Alcorn found that it was due to the coin collector had been overflowing with quarters, shorting out the coin slot mechanism. They reported these numbers to Bally, who still had not decided on taking the license. Bushnell and Dabney realized that they needed to expand on
17649-404: The main stage, a cut out background, and 2 lowering recording studio and sports stadium backdrops. Chuck E.'s stage and the "APPLAUSE" and "ON THE AIR" signs were recycled from Montfort Drive's Studio C 2000 stage. The stage curtains would be removed by late April 2010 and side video walls would be replaced with flatscreen TVs in early 2012. Former CEC entertainment director Jeremy Blaido ordered for
17808-829: The name Charlie Cheese's Pizza Playhouse. The name change had to do with the common meaning of the word "chuck," which in Australia is a reference to the phrase "to throw up.". The first location, located in Surfer's Paradise, Queensland, relocated in 1982 to a location in Carina, Queensland. In January 2024, it was announced that Chuck E. Cheese would be making its return to Australia with a multi-unit franchise partnership with Royale Hospitality Group. Consecutively, Pizza Time Theatre, Inc. also opened at least one restaurant in Hong Kong and Singapore , which both closed shortly thereafter as
17967-424: The opening of ShowBiz Pizza Place, Bushnell sued Brock and Topeka Inn Management over a breach of contract. Brock immediately issued a counter-suit against Bushnell, citing misrepresentation. The court case began in March 1980, and the courts ruled in favor of Bushnell after he successfully argued that ShowBiz was imitating his unique concepts. The ruling forced Brock to pay Bushnell a percentage of annual revenues from
18126-415: The parent company of competitor ShowBiz Pizza Place . The merger formed a new parent company, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. , which began unifying the two brands in 1990, renaming every location Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza. It was later shortened to Chuck E. Cheese's in 1994 and Chuck E. Cheese in 2019. The parent company, ShowBiz Pizza Time also became CEC Entertainment in 1998. Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre
18285-922: The plan of expanding to Japan first opening in Tokyo . These never materialized. An expansion for the Philippines was planned, and the first location would have opened by 2000. However, these plans (like Pizza Time Theatre's plans for future expansion) never materialized. In the Middle East, locations would open in Saudi Arabia beginning in 2001, the United Arab Emirates in 2008, Jordan in 2019, Bahrain in 2021, Qatar in 2022, and Kuwait in 2024. Three new locations would open in Puerto Rico between 2003 and 2008. Another plan to open in
18444-585: The popular Donkey Kong as a pack-in game and add-ons that could play Atari 2600 games. Further, Activision, Imagic, and other third-party game developers like Parker Brothers had started releasing Atari 2600 titles that rivaled Atari's own games, reducing Atari's market share of games to 40%. Distributors started to cancel the Atari orders they had placed the prior year, which Gerard said they were "blind-sided" by, having never faced this type of competition before. Additionally around October 1981, Atari looked to other licensed properties for games. They secured
18603-505: The programmers at Atari, and was known to have called them "spoiled brats" and "prima donnas" at times. The changes in management style led to rising tensions from the game developers at Atari who had been used to freedom in developing their titles. One example was Superman in 1979, one of the first movie tie-ins that had been sought by Warner to accompany the release of the 1978 film . Warner, through Kassar, had pressured Warren Robinett to convert his game-in-progress Adventure from
18762-495: The rapid growth of the company. As an industry, the video game market reached about $ 1.7 billion in 1982 and was expected to reach $ 3 billion in 1984, rivalling revenues of the film industry, and making the video game industry an overall lucrative prospect. To try to remain competitive against Mattel's Intellivision, Atari requested all of its distributors to commit to orders for home console games in 1982 in October 1981, as to allow Atari to anticipate production numbers and meet
18921-483: The recording rights to Fechter following CEI's Liberty Show production (in commemoration of the Statue of Liberty 's centennial in 1986), but they did not return the programming rights. In 1989, ShowBiz Pizza Time became a public company with its stock market launch . The following year, it severed all ties with CEI and began restructuring the restaurant chains under "Concept Unification". The change consisted of removing
19080-487: The remaining chain brand, alongside moving their stock to the NYSE with the ticker symbol CEC. CEC Entertainment has since acquired additional family restaurant properties, including 13 locations of the now-defunct Discovery Zone in 1999, and all locations of Peter Piper Pizza in October 2014. Peter Piper Pizza still operates under that name. In 1981, the restaurant opened its first international franchise in Australia under
19239-529: The rights for Raiders of the Lost Ark in late 1981 shortly after the release of the blockbuster film that was released earlier that year. Similarly, after the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial was released in June 1982, Warner chairman Steve Ross negotiated directly with Steven Spielberg to secure video game rights estimated to have cost Atari $ 20−25 million , to make a video game based on
19398-504: The rights to the concept and characters from Warner for $ 500,000. Gene Landrum then resigned from Atari and was made the restaurants' president and chief operating officer. By the end of December 1979, there were seven PTT locations, six in California and one in Nevada ( Sparks ). Its "Cyberamics" animatronics were produced fully in-house by PTT employees. To expand beyond California and the west coast, Bushnell began to franchise, resulting in
19557-413: The same quarter in 1982. Atari was still struggling with excess inventory of its Atari 2600 games, and the Atari 5200 had not been as successful as the 2600. The golden age of the arcade was waning, and the arcade division was failing to turn a profit. Further, Atari's venture into home computers was not as successful, as they were losing a price war with Commodore International . Atari had gained
19716-477: The show be removed in 2012 due to internal controversy with new entertainment director Robert Gotcher at the time, leading to Gotcher being fired that year. The Star Stage at the Dallas, Texas Chuck E. Cheese's location ended up being removed in August 2012 after over 2 years in operation. In September 2010, a new stage titled the "Chuck E.'s Make Believe Band" stage (also known as Concept Unification 1-Stage by fans)
19875-429: The signing of the franchising agreement that the company's technology would continue to evolve. However, prior to the opening of his first location, Brock decided to void the agreement with Pizza Time and enter a partnership with CEI, forming ShowBiz Pizza Place, Inc., in December 1979. The Brock Hotel Corporation assumed 80% control of the company, while the remaining 20% stake went to Creative Engineering. CEI produced
20034-499: The success of the Cinematronics game Space Wars in 1977–78. Their first vector graphics game, Lunar Lander , was a modest success, but their second arcade title, Asteroids , was highly popular, displacing Space Invaders as the most popular game in the United States. Atari produced over 70,000 Asteroids cabinets, and made an estimated $ 150 million from sales. Asteroids along with Space Invaders helped to usher in
20193-428: The technology principles they had learned from arcade and home console games, using solid-state electronics over electro-mechanical components to make them easier to design and repair. The division released about ten different pinball units between 1977 and 1979. Many of the machines were considered to be innovative for their time but were difficult to produce and meet distributors' demand. The second new venture in 1977
20352-647: The updated Munch's Make Believe Band character designs. In November 1990, ShowBiz Pizza Time debuted a new stage show for future CEC locations called the "Road Stage", being the first Cyberamic stage to use the Munch's Make Believe Band format to coincide with Concept Unification. The Road Stage featured a full-bodied Chuck E. Cheese Cyberamic standing on a platform, while the rest of the half-bodied band characters were set on buildings. The first location to install this stage opened in Jonesboro, Georgia in November 1990, and
20511-487: The venture had several roadblocks. In a 2018 interview Alcorn described the situation as "an utter disaster beyond recognition". Bushnell said "We didn't realize that Japan was a closed market, and so we were in violation of all kinds of rules and regulations of the Japanese, and they were starting to give us a real bad time." Gordon "fixed all that for us for a huge commission" according to Bushnell. Atari sold Atari Japan to Namco for $ 500,000 , through which Namco would be
20670-455: The wait time and the build schedule—very few components, and not too many ways to screw it up." Prior to founding Atari, Bushnell would drive around the Bay Area with Atari co-founder Ted Dabney looking at different pizza parlors and restaurants to brainstorm concepts. "Chuck E. Cheese was always his (Nolan's) passion project, even before Atari was a thing," said Dabney. "He wanted to start
20829-410: The world. As of 2024, franchising is only available for markets outside of the United States. By 2012, CEC was struggling with decreasing revenue. They ran a rebranding campaign, changing the Chuck E. Cheese mascot into a slimmer rock star mouse who plays electric guitar. Voice actor Duncan Brannan , who for 18 years had characterized Chuck E. as a hip and young mouse, was replaced with Jaret Reddick ,
20988-486: The years, these animatronics have often been supplemented by (and in recent years been completely replaced by) costumed characters . When the first location opened in 1977, the animatronic characters were featured as busts in framed portraits hanging on the walls of the main dining area. The original show featured Crusty the Cat (the first character to face retirement as he was soon replaced with Mr. Munch in 1978), Pasqually
21147-568: The “Ninja Run” at the Grand Prairie, Texas location. Beginning in 2025 it will be installed in more locations in the US. In August 2024, the company announced a national tiered membership program. The COVID-19 pandemic had been financially damaging to the parent company during 2020, and with an estimated $ 1–2 billion in debt, the possibility exists of all CEC properties being forced to close if bankruptcy refinancing fails. CEC Entertainment solicited $ 200 million in loans to finance
21306-482: Was actually a rat, prompting him to suggest changing the name from "Coyote Pizza" to "Rick Rat's Pizza". His marketing team believed this name would not be appealing to customers and proposed "Chuck E. Cheese" instead. The company adopted the rat as their mascot. The first Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre opened in San Jose, California , in 1977. In 1978, when Atari's then-corporate parent, Warner Communications refused to open additional locations, Bushnell purchased
21465-852: Was an immediate success, and Bushnell purchased the Pizza Time restaurant from Atari for $ 500,000 in 1978, stepping down as chairman and forming Pizza Time Theatre Inc. As Bushnell marketed the franchise, hoping to expand into new markets, the concept attracted high-profile clients such as Robert L. Brock , known for his extensive portfolio of Holiday Inn hotels. In 1979, Brock signed a multi-million-dollar franchising agreement with Pizza Time Theatre Inc., planning to open as many as 280 Chuck E. Cheese's locations across 16 states. Shortly thereafter, Brock noticed that companies such as Creative Engineering, Inc. (CEI) were designing more advanced animatronics, and he became concerned that competitors would emerge with better technology. Bushnell had reassured Brock at
21624-501: Was being offered at premium prices. The company placed more attention on the video game aspect of the business, but the popularity of arcades was beginning to decline in the United States. As a result, Chuck E. Cheese revenues began to fall by the end of 1982. The video game market crashed in 1983 , and by the middle of the year, Pizza Time was operating in the red. Bushnell's debts became insurmountable, and Pizza Time Theatre Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on March 28, 1984, reporting
21783-400: Was brought on from Warner initially to help with marketing but eventually took on a larger role in the company, displacing Bushnell and Keenan, and instituting more formal employee policies for the company. Ahead of entering the home console market, Atari recognized they needed additional capital to support this market, and though they had acquired smaller investments through 1975, they needed
21942-459: Was conceptualized by Westerville, Ohio -based brand agency Chute Gerdeman for Chuck E. Cheese's, and this idea became the "Star Stage". The Star Stage debuted in April 2010 as a test stage at the new Valley View Mall/Montfort Drive location in Dallas, Texas , replacing their Studio C 2000 stage. The Montfort Drive location's Star Stage reused the 32-movement Chuck E. Cheese animatronic, and the scenery included 2 side vertical video walls, curtains for
22101-475: Was critically panned and later became known as one of the worst games ever made , though it sold 2.6 million copies in 1982, in 1983 suffered massive returns making it a financial failure. In December 1982, Warner Communications announced that it was expecting significant decline in investor earnings of about 40% for the fourth quarter of the year mostly as a result of slower game cartridge sales from Atari. Warner still remained confident that overall it would see
22260-555: Was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell , who sought to expand video-game arcades beyond adult locations like pool halls to family-friendly venues. His experience in the amusement park industry, and his fondness for the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Country Bear Jamboree at Disneyland , influenced his concept for Pizza Time Theatre. He has said, "It was my pet project ... I chose pizza because of
22419-431: Was high-demand product that season, and established Atari with a viable home console division in addition to their arcade division. By 1976, Atari began releasing home Pong consoles, including Pong variants, under their own brand name. The success of home Pong drew a similar range of competitors to this market, including Coleco with their Telstar series of consoles. In 1975, Bushnell started an effort to produce
22578-417: Was hired in February 1978 as president of the Atari consumer division. Kassar helped to develop a commercialization strategy for these games through 1978, and oversaw the creation of a new marketing campaign featuring multiple celebrities unified under the slogan "Don't Watch TV Tonight, Play It", and bringing in celebrities to help advertise these games. Kassar also instituted programs to increase production of
22737-403: Was incorporated in the state of California on June 27, 1972. Bushnell and Dabney offered to license Pong to both Bally and its Midway subsidiary, but both companies rejected it because it required two players. Instead, Bushnell and Dabney opted to create a test unit themselves and see how it was received at a local establishment. By August 1972, the first Pong was completed. It consisted of
22896-414: Was incredible belittling and humiliation of people. We'll never do business with them again." Stating that "Atari has never made a dime in microcomputers", John J. Anderson wrote in early 1984, "Many of the people I spoke to at Atari between 1980 and 1983 had little or no idea what the products they were selling were all about, or who if anyone would care. In one case, we were fed mis- and disinformation on
23055-444: Was kept on as president of Atari while Bushnell stayed at CEO. Having avoided bankruptcy, Atari continued to expand on its arcade game offerings in 1975. The additional financial stability also allowed Atari to pursue new product ideas. One of these was the idea of a home version of Pong , a concept they had first considered as early as 1973. The cost of integrated circuits to support a home version had fallen enough to be suitable for
23214-588: Was later spun off into Boomis, separating itself from the rest of the company. These stores managed to successfully remain in operation until the 2000's, with one in Aguascalientes auctioning off equipment (including the retrofitted Chuck E. Cheese animatronics) as late as October 2018. In August 2022, it was announced that the first Chuck E. Cheese in Egypt would open in Sheik Zayed's Royal Mall, with
23373-523: Was named chairman and chief executive officer of the restaurant division. Based on customer research, Frank instituted a number of changes to appeal to younger children and parents. Specific measures included increased lighting, a redesigned food menu, table service, self-serve fountain drinks, a revamped ride selection, and distinct toddler areas, but relations between ShowBiz and Creative Engineering began to deteriorate. Aaron Fechter , founder of CEI and creator of The Rock-afire Explosion, claimed in 2008 that
23532-422: Was not involved. The two quit Nutting and established offices for Syzygy in Santa Clara ; at that point not taking a salary yet since they had no products. Bally then offered them a US$ 4,000 a month for six months to design a new video game and a new pinball machine. With those funds, they hired Al Alcorn , a former co-worker at Ampex, as their first design engineer. Initially wanting to start Syzygy off with
23691-471: Was one of Atari's last games based on transistor–transistor logic (TTL) discrete logic design before the company transitioned to microprocessors . It was engineered by Steve Wozniak based on Bushnell's concept of a single-player Pong , and using as few TTL chips as possible from an informal challenge given to Wozniak by Atari employee Steve Jobs . Breakout was successful, selling around 11,000 units, and Atari still struggled to meet demand. Atari exported
23850-406: Was rebranding the Atari VCS as the Atari 2600 to create a more consist product naming system. The Atari 5200 did not do well on the market as it lacked backward compatibility with Atari VCS/2600 cartridges, a feature offered by the Colecovision . The Atari 5200 only sold about one million units before it was discontinued in 1984. By the end of 1982, Atari had hired 4,000 additional employees for
24009-459: Was released in September 1977. Most of the launch titles for the console were games based on Atari's successful arcade games, such as Combat that incorporated elements of both Tank and Jet Fighter . The company made around 400,000 Atari VCS units for the 1977 holiday season, most which were sold but the company had lost around $ 25 million due to production problems that caused some units to be delivered late to retailers. In addition to
24168-497: Was removed in April 2023 during the West Melbourne location's 2.0 remodel renovations. Following the removal the Dallas, Texas (Montfort Drive) location's Star Stage in August 2012, a new stage premiered at that location, referred to as "Circles of Light", utilizing the animatronic Chuck E. Cheese produced by Garner Holt for the previous Studio C series of stages. The stages were manufactured by Corman & Associates and
24327-529: Was retained as president. For Warner, the deal represented an opportunity to buoy their underperforming film and music business divisions. Along with Warner's purchase, Atari had established its new headquarters in the Moffett Park area in Sunnyvale, California . During Atari's negotiations with Warner, Fairchild Camera and Instrument announced the Fairchild Channel F . The Channel F was
24486-477: Was retired. The Chuck E.'s Make Believe Band stage is Chuck E. Cheese's latest stage featuring the full band to date. On April 26, 2011, a new test stage titled the "Galaxy Stage" debuted at the new Chuck E. Cheese's location in West Melbourne, Florida . The Galaxy Stage was themed around a futuristic city, and was the first stage not to use the Studio C name. It did not expand beyond its test location, and
24645-569: Was subsequently renamed Atari Games Corporation. Atari Games, Inc. was then renamed Atari Holdings, Inc. and remained a non-operating subsidiary of Warner Communications and its successor, Time Warner, before being merged back into the parent company in 1992. While studying at the University of Utah , electrical engineering student Nolan Bushnell had a part-time job at an amusement arcade , where he became familiar with arcade electro-mechanical games . He watched customers play and helped maintain
24804-646: Was tested at the Whitehall, Pennsylvania location. It reused the Concept Unification animatronics from the 3-Stage and put them all together on a single stage with new backdrops. On this show, Munch's Make Believe Band would be renamed to Chuck E.'s Make Believe Band, likely as an attempt to make Chuck E. Cheese more of the star. 2 more CU 1-Stage shows would be installed at the Springfield, Illinois and Columbus, Georgia locations in 2011 before it
24963-551: Was the best-selling VCS game, bringing in over $ 200 million . However, because of the poor technical implementation, Pac-Man caused consumers to become more cautious on rushing to purchase new games in the future, and tarnished Atari's image given that the company was trying to compete against low-quality third-party titles that were starting to flood the market. Atari discovered in 1981 that General Computer Corporation (GCC) had developed hardware that could be installed onto arcade games to give operators additional options to modify
25122-553: Was the first of the Pizza Time Theatre (later known as Chuck E. Cheese), based on the pizza arcade concept that Bushnell had from the start. At this stage, the concept also allowed Atari to bypass problems with getting their arcade games placed into arcades by effectively controlling the arcade itself, while also creating a family-friendly environment. The first restaurant/arcade launched in San Jose, California , in May 1977. Atari hired in more programmers after releasing
25281-413: Was then shortened to Chuck E. Cheese's by March 1994 after a redesigned concept. During the mid-1990s, the character Chuck E. Cheese began to see significant design changes. His vest (or tuxedo suit) and derby hat were changed for a baseball cap, casual shirt, and optional sneakers in an attempt to appeal to a younger audience. In 1998, ShowBiz Pizza Time renamed itself CEC Entertainment, Inc. to reflect
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