Page 22 - Old School Gamer Magazine Issue #42 FREE Edition

member of the crew by replacing Crusty. Surprisingly, the robots weren’t put there for kids at first.
In an interview with The Atlantic, Bushnell stated he wanted to bring the family in under the guise of free entertainment. He said, “...the kids knew that if they said, 'I want to
go to Chuck E. Cheese and play the games,' the parents would just see themselves spending money. But if they said, 'I want to go see Chuck E. Cheese entertainment—and it's free,' they'd be good to go.”
With the first location succeeding, Bushnell wanted to franchise. Robert Brock, a financier who
had started the Inn Operations company before finding out about the pizza arcade venture, signed on to spread Chuck E. Cheese across 16 states, but requested something from Bushnell in return. Brock wanted the half-body animatronics to get an upgrade, with more moving parts and legs. Bushnell did have this idea previously, as
he had met Aaron Fechter at the IAAPA and expressed interest in purchasing Creative Engineering, but was denied. However, Bushnell completely forgot about this until later, which sealed the fate of everyone involved in this story.
Robert Brock found out about Creative Engineering himself
and realized that working with a manufacturer and inventor himself would cut the middleman, Nolan Bushnell in this case, out of the
equation. Brock went behind Bushnell’s back and struck a deal with Fechter, and the two developed a new company, Showbiz Pizza Place. Showbiz had their own animatronic band, and this one used Fechter’s expertise to design a band that were full-body, expressive animatronics.
The Showbiz band, the Rock-afire Explosion, had a unique lineup
of their own. The highlight was Billy Bob Brockali, a goofy-looking hillbilly bear who played bass and sang. He was joined by a bird called Looney Bird, dog Duke LaRue,
Fatz Geronimo the piano-playing gorilla, surfer dude polar bear Beach Bear, mouse cheerleader Mitzi Mozzarella, and ventriloquist wolf Rolfe DeWolfe and his puppet Earl Schmerle, who has a mind
of his own. Fechter and Creative Engineering also programmed and created each show themselves, with Fechter even voicing a few of the characters.
Fechter’s involvement in Showbiz was initially an exciting prospect for him. He desired creative freedom and also wanted proper compensation for his efforts. Fechter was given 20% of the ownership of Showbiz Pizza, as well as a minority stake in its shares. Showbiz quickly gained momentum in the market, thanks in large part to its higher quality animatronics. Showbiz also catered to parents better than Chuck E. Cheese
did, famously having secluded restrooms for parents to duck into and watch soap operas while their kids played games and watched Billy Bob slap the bass.
Bushnell did not sit idly by when Brock went to Fechter. He sued
his former financier for breach
of contract and reached out to Warner to get help franchising Chuck E. Cheese. Warner now owned both Atari and Bushnell’s pizza place, but he still had to find outside financing to open more locations. Bushnell was able to drum up support, and soon both Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz locations were popping up across the United States. Both companies were operating in the black, and Chuck E. Cheese became a publicly traded entity in 1981. The next year, Bushnell won the court case, and Showbiz was set to pay him $50 million over 14 years. Even with this payment plan, Showbiz still seemed to have a bright future, even alongside Chuck E. Cheese.
1983 brought a massive blow to the arcade business. The infamous Video Game Crash, in which the video game industry in America saw a massive downturn in profit, hit arcades hard. This, of course, included Showbiz, but it hit Chuck E. Cheese even harder. All those Atari arcade games were tied directly to Atari’s wellbeing as a company, and they were arguably the largest victim of the crash.
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