Are you old enough to have gone to "pizza arcads"/"pizza theaters" with animatronic puppets and shit before Chuck E Cheese became the only remaining residue of such things?
>>21101040I remember going to the Shakey's in Bossier City for pizza in the early 70's, but don't remember any animatronics. Actually, I've only ever heard of such things as a Chuck E Cheese affectation.
>>21101040I grew up in the '00s, and there were still a bunch of places like bowling alleys, roller rinks, and laser tag arenas that had arcades built in, and they all served that cheesy pan-style pizza that's ubiquitous with those places. I almost exclusively went to those places for birthday parties and school events. No one wanted to just go there with a few friends because everyone had game consoles at home.
>>21101040any small shop thats owned by a progressive and that has a nice basement is fine by me
>>21101111Different things, these places were for like really small kids, they had sing along shows with creepy puppet bands, since you're gen z this is what your "five night freddies" is based on, it was a real thing and very popular in the 80s-mid 90s or so, Chuck kind of took over and lost a lot of the creepy robot shit, these were more like a combination of a robot theater, a shitty kiddy arcade, and an indoor playground/playplace like you see at Chuck E
>>21101040No, but I did go to Chuck E Cheeses'... Like, once I think.My family was more of a McDonalds Playplace sort.
>>21101135kino, I only ever went to chuck e cheese and then after 2000, I went to the big boy lazer tag arcade where they had Soul Caliber, House of The Dead, and Hydro Thunder, some of my favorite games. The chuck e cheese I used to go to had Beach Head 2000, but who remembers that.
>>21101040born in 82 and had a couple of birthdays at Showbiz Pizza - which was later bought out / merged with Chuck E Cheese. Showbiz had more of a dark nightclub feel and was cooler
We had a Showbiz in the mid-80s. During the summer I would walk to it and play videogames. It was early on weekdays usually so I had the whole thing to myself. The animatronics were doing their thing before a huge empty room. Can remember playing Tron, Gyruss, Qbert, Front Line, Mach 3, and Dragon's Lair. And some skee-ball too.
Oh yeah I remember one of the jokes the animatronics would tell."Ladies and Gentlemen: We have an announcement. Could the person with the license plate SJD 424 XRG 933 PJJ 295 ULJ 583 KDC 583 please move your car? Your license plate is blocking the driveway."
>>21101040Mid '80s was Showbiz Pizza Place. Gigantic video arcade, plus the animatronic shit that everyone ignored. Can't remember if the food was even edible - I was 12 years old so I'd pretty much eat anything. Chuck E. Cheese was the later, low-rent version of Showbiz.
>>21101040There was a local one, I don't think it was busy and I think it was really dark inside.A few years ago I got dragged to a Chuck E Cheese. The only saving factor was an Initial D cycraft arcade that had motion while driving the car.
>>21101221>Beach Head 2000, but who remembers that.I do, that game was fuckin greatSaw it at a resort a few years ago and played again. Was still fun!
>>21101040I wonder how much rape went down at those types of places...
Showbiz, or at least the one in my town, had a tunnel under the stage with flashing strobe light so it looked like real life was being played on a shitty GPU that could only do 5 FPS. I'm sure they got rid of it when epileptic kids had seizures.
>>21101111>No one wanted to just go there with a few friends because everyone had game consoles at home.quads of sadness
>>21101221>>21103349That's the one where you put your head in a helmet thing with a screen inside? They had one at a local movie theater.
You now remember the really depressing Super Bowl ad Facebook made for their VR world.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BSFpc4YtJU
Only went to 1 or 2 because of my rich cousins birthdays
>>21103354I'm not the only one
Yup we had Mr Gattis pizza in the Houston area and my God it was so depressing kek
>>21103439wtf
I grew up in the central valley of California and we had a regional chain called John's Incredible Pizza that was somewhere between a chuck e cheese and a dave and busters in target age demographics. They had some kiddie stuff but they also served alcohol so parents had fun too. Anyway that place completely mogged Chuck E Cheese so I never really went there.
>>21101040Many of these were actually a Chuck E. Cheese that went under and were bought out by someone who kept it alive under a diff name.
>>21104880They were in the news a few years ago when a small roller coaster malfunctioned and kids smashed their face or head into the safety bars.http://abc7.com/news/6-kids-hurt-as-roller-coaster-malfunctions-at-riverside-pizza-shop/1753446/
>>21101040yesss those were the days. I went to "Circus Pizza Circus Arcade" which we just called Circus Circus. We never touched the food, it looked pretty bad. but we did enjoy the Rock-a-Fire Explosion. and by 'enjoy' I mean 'gave me nightmares' but.. the games were fun.at the time it felt like going was a rare treat, but when i think about the timeframe.. my parents must have been taking me there every couple months.
>>21101221i so wanted to try laser tag.. closest there ever was was at one of those.. yknow, expo things, where they have a variety of activities and show off products.. they had 'laser tag' in a tent that was over in five seconds and you had no idea what you were doing.
>>21101040Yes. The day my pizza arcade got X-Men vs Street Fighter was the greatest day of my life as a kid
>>21105362pretty sure it's the other way around. at least where i lived. they were all different local brands, then they turned INTO chuck e cheese.>>21105493how the fuck is there a rollercoaster at a place like this.. that's.. significantly more money than they can generate.
>>21105961We had a place like this with a roller coaster at the mall here called "Jeepers", it was a pretty small roller coaster, like a childrens one that just goes in a circleThat was their big gimmick instead of a robot band or furry costumes, otherwise they had the standard tube bases playground, arcade cabs, pizza
>>21101112Ya think you're hot shit, don't cha?
>>21103420Yep that's it. >>21103439I don't watch football but I remember this. What an absolutely dystopian feel to that ad. Barely anyone uses that VR world now anyway.
discovery zone
One Peter Piper Pizza that was in my city had a Rockafire Explosion. I remember going there a couple of times leading up to/during Kindergarten, which was in the mid or late 90's.
>>21108456Hell yeah!>>21105961Same with >>21109119
>>21104752My parents would make the drive to Beaumont to go to Mazzio's. Worth it, no animatronics but quarter games and the pizza was far superior. They're still in business, last I checked, but I can't bear to look to see if they really are anymore after I heard that the Suncoast finally closed.
>>21105362https://www.youtube.com/shorts/NowPMPEZxn4Major Magics wasn't
>>21109188>>21101040Little bit of Michigan history, apparently the guy who designed the Major Magics animatronics was the drummer from the band MC5
>>21105953Yeah, broForgot the name Circus Circus, then changed to CeC by meI remember street fighter the most but then there was another smallish arcade at the mall that was way cooler, where older kids hung out
Also visited the Mall of America once when it was pretty new and White as snow, when Mortal Kombat came out.Good times
>>21103354not enough
>>21105961It's pretty small.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HSM_KT4f8o
>>21103354It wasn't frowned upon back then like it is nowadays. Sigh
The pizza hut in my hometown had MK3 until the mid 2000s.>>21101569chuckle
>>21109119I don’t know how far Peter Piper went but we had these in Phoenix in the 90’s idk if any are still around because I don’t live there anymore. Chuck E Cheese was really low end in comparison. I remember going to Chuck E. Cheese right before Covid and it was really depressing. It was like someone put a bunch of ripoff arcade games and ski ball in a daycare with a pizza oven
