I miss PizzaTime, that place really rocked back in the day.

[Blade]

Lately it seems like there are fewer and fewer arcades around where I'm living. They used to have all sorts of games and whathaveyou. I remember when Chuck E. Cheese's used to be called Pizza Time (FYI it was founded by Atari), where you could eat pizza and play arcade games and lose track of time in there, the pizza didn't taste like rubber, and they didn't just cater to baby-sitting little kids.... This was an age when 4 player arcade games were hot, games like Superman and Arkanoid kicked your ass, Pacman was still a cocktail, and shmups were just getting started. Yup, the 80s were good years for me.

Nowadays I'm hard pressed to find a decent shmup in these parts, it's mostly Tekken, Soul Calibur, Mortal Kombat, Time Crisis, House of the Dead, DDR, Drummania, and Car sims.... Maaaybe I'll find Galaga once in a blue moon or maybe Asteroids, but other than that...

I've been to places like Aladdin's Castle and quite a few others, but it's just lame that they don't cater to shmups as much as they used to.

[Accutron]

I remember when Chuck E. Cheese's used to be called Pizza Time (FYI it was founded by Atari)

Founded by Nolan Bushnell some time after he sold Atari to Warner...an alternative cash cow for him because he was contractually obligated to stay out of the game dev business. Chuck E. Cheese had several alternate regional names...the ones in Ohio in the early 80's were called Showbiz Pizza. I have lots of memories from that place...Zaxxon, Phoenix, birthday parties etc.

There's apparently still a Chuck E. Cheese in Knoxville, and my kid has been nagging me to go. I wonder what they're like these days?

[landshark]

I never really went to that place, but we had one called Enchanted Castle that was along the same lines. It was a castle themed restaurant where half of the place was the restaurant and theatre (puppets singing etc), and the other half was arcade games. I spent much of my youth there.

They later expanded it with an indoor mini golf and a laser tag arena.

It still exists, I just haven't been there for many years.

[alpha5099]

I've never been to a Chuck E. Cheese's, but the mall in my old town had a Cyberstation, one of the many chains of arcades owned by Namco. In hindsight, it was actually a pretty shit arcade, the only thing coming close to a shmup was Galaga. Still, I have fond memories of playing Virtual On and Revolution X (I don't care what anyone says, I still love it, I still play the Genesis port every so often) and whatever Point Blank game they had there.

Every once in a while, I'll be in a mall that has one of those Namco arcades, and they just piss me off. Nothing but crap. Too many ticket redemption games, lots of 3D fighters and racing games. Maybe a Silent Scope and a DDR machine. The only thing that ever catches my fancy is a Time Crisis machine or an old light gun game I can double fist. (That sounds dirtier than I want it to)

[FatalError]

The last time I was at a Chuck E. Cheese's (where the pizza's scalding hot) was when I was very young. I remember playing Dragon's Lair for the first time at a Chuck E. Cheese's. I hung out more at a place called Celebrity's (those who are old and live(d) in Colorado know exactly what I'm talking about) to play games and have overpriced food.

On a somewhat related note, I'd like to take a few seconds to mention that I really miss Shakey's Pizza.

[Accutron]

I remember playing Dragon's Lair for the first time at a Chuck E. Cheese's.

Hey, me too.

[captain ahar]

it was Showbiz here in michigan. anyway, showbiz housed my ONLY arcade 1cc, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a brawler, but what the hell. a couple years later i did come close to the same feat in the sequel, Turtles in Time though. i remember telling others who came up to the machine that they couldn't join in. hahaha

after all these years, those two games are some of the only ones i have clicked with immediately.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you live in California, you can still find a Chuck E. Cheese franchise (although it's not what they were back in the early 1980's). The very first Chuck E. Cheese restaurant was built across the street from the infamous Winchester Mystery Mansion that was built non-stop by Sarah Winchester in the late 1800's in San Jose, California.

Yes, the "good ol' days" of going to Chuck E. Cheese back in the early 1980's were for the arcade games (and of course, the pizza). The first few years that my local Chuck E. Cheese was in business, they had a bunch of cocktail arcade machines that were placed in seperate booths (facing towards the show stage area of course) so you could eat pizza and play your favorite arcade game at the same time. In the mid 1980's, my local Chuck E. Cheese's had what was known as "Teen Night" in which if you were between the ages of 13 to 17, you could pay $7.50 to play all the games you wanted + all the free pizza & drinks for a few select hours.

I remember when Chuck E. Cheese had a national contest to give away full size arcade machines including a brand new Q*bert arcade upright valued at $3,000 U.S. dollars (back in the day). You had to collect special stamps to stick to a special game piece map...by collecting as many as three or four special game stamp pieces to "collect" a prize -- you'd win! Of course, the more times you visit, more chances of getting a few game stamps to see if you could win at least something. I did not win anything but it was fun to at least try. I thought watching Chuck E. Cheese and his motley crew put on a show while eating pizza was cool...it was considered state-of-the-art audiomatronics.

I recall watching a behind-the-scenes special on Entertainment Tonight in the mid 1980's about how the people who put on the shows using special software and hardware that was used to make sure all the robotic characters properly lipped-synced to what was being played...very interesting technology back in the early 1980's. I fondly remember that the flags would wave (after the end of each show) and there was a box that featured different animal hands that would applaud at the end of each show. Very elaborate shows and all the character would get new costumes each week to attract new customers into buying more pizza and staying to enjoy the show revues. You could redeem your prize redemption tickets at Jasper's Country General Store...mostly kiddie, junky prizes but they were at least functional.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[Vexorg]

Back in those days I don't think I ever went to a Chuck E. Cheese's, but there was a place called Pistol Pete's Pizza (A couple in Albuquerque NM were the ones I went to, I think there were also some in Texas as well) thad had a nice selection of games back in the day. I'm pretty sure they're not around anymore.

[landshark]

it was Showbiz here in michigan. anyway, showbiz housed my ONLY arcade 1cc, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a brawler

I wish I could do that. That game's hard.

[Zach Keene]

The Showbiz I went to growing up kind of sucked. Sure, it was cool at first (fond memories of Q*Bert and Xevious and Discs of Tron and...), but they never maintained any of the damn arcade machines. Worse they rarely if ever got any new games to replace the old broken ones once they finally got rid of them.

However, they did have a Bozo the Clown bucket game (worked pretty much like the TV show) and dispensed increasing numbers of tickets for each bucket you hit. Since I was tall for my age growing up I could get three buckets easy just by leaning over. Got many more tickets for my tokens this way than that damned Skiball, at which I sucked massively.

And I hereby end this nostalgia post by moving to Off-Topic.

EDIT: OK, I'd rather end it with this [url=http://rock_afire.tripod.com/info/history/index.html]History of Chuck E Cheese/Showbiz page[/url].

[captain ahar]

it was Showbiz here in michigan. anyway, showbiz housed my ONLY arcade 1cc, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a brawler

I wish I could do that. That game's hard.

it was the only game i would play there. well, that and that frog chute thing that i mastered for huge ticket return.

[nullstar]

Chuck E. Cheese had several alternate regional names...the ones in Ohio in the early 80's were called Showbiz Pizza. I have lots of memories from that place...Zaxxon, Phoenix, birthday parties etc.

Are you sure? We had Showbiz in southeastern PA, but I'm pretty sure we also had Chuck E. Cheese. (Though the Showbiz local to me eventually became a CEC., but I think it was something else for a while in the meantime.)

The thing I found most annoying about Showbiz was the fact that they never got new arcade games. Sure, they had probably 100+ games...but it was the same games for like five years, with them getting the one "major" new game each year. The local arcades, OTOH, generally did a better job of bringing in new stuff every couple months.

[Zach Keene]

Chuck E. Cheese had several alternate regional names...the ones in Ohio in the early 80's were called Showbiz Pizza. I have lots of memories from that place...Zaxxon, Phoenix, birthday parties etc.

Are you sure? We had Showbiz in southeastern PA, but I'm pretty sure we also had Chuck E. Cheese. (Though the Showbiz local to me eventually became a CEC., but I think it was something else for a while in the meantime.)

If you check the link I posted earlier, Showbiz started out as a competitor to CEC/PizzaTime (legal battles ensued, of course.) So whether your town had one or the other (or both) during this period wasn't a regional naming issue.

Eventually Showbiz ended up buying out CEC and turning all of the locations into CECs.

[disposition]

Founded by Nolan Bushnell some time after he sold Atari to Warner...an alternative cash cow for him because he was contractually obligated to stay out of the game dev business. Chuck E. Cheese had several alternate regional names...the ones in Ohio in the early 80's were called Showbiz Pizza. I have lots of memories from that place...Zaxxon, Phoenix, birthday parties etc.

There's apparently still a Chuck E. Cheese in Knoxville, and my kid has been nagging me to go. I wonder what they're like these days?

There certainly is. I went there not too long ago for my girlfriend's son's birthday. Their target market isn't the hardcore gamer, so their selection is limited to mainly racers and ticket games. It's funny, because I don't remember showbiz sucking that bad. (of course I was so young that it didn't really matter what games they had, I suppose)

There was still a CEC in Pigeon Forge too; or at least there was the last time I was there, but it's been around a year or so...

-Nathan

P.S. I spent the majority of my youth at the arcade in Putt-Putt in South-Knoxville. Much better than Showbiz/CEC, Aladdin's Castle, etc. IMHO.

[captain ahar]

the Chuck E Cheese i played TMNT at still exists (albeit across the street from its original location), they got rid of all the good stuff though. the best thing they have now is this huge set-up with Crimson Skies on it (that didn't work when i was there last).

it was still fun to go and blow an insane amount of money there with my gf at the time (every game is now a quarter, and the bill still kills you).