Remember back when Chuck E Cheese used to be good?

[Captain B. Zarre]

Alright, everyone. It's time to travel back to 1990.

The restaurant / family fun center "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza" was in full charge. They took control over Showbiz Pizza about 3 years prior, and concepts from CEC were still combined with original SPP traits. Watch this bday video and check out how awesome everything was back then. Try and find the brilliant condition Space Shuttle pinball in the background!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMz7ZemRzWg

Do you have any pinball-related memories at Chuck E. Cheese? Please tell, I used to be interested into this place a bunch.

 

[Edan-Grossman]

In the 90's, I would play the star wars trilogy at Chuck E Cheese. My parents would always grab me a stool to step up on, so my head would be above the playfield glass. I recently played a star wars trilogy machine, and it immediately hit me with my childhood memories. Playing it now as an adult, I realize that this game is only decent and not great, even for its time. Despite all that, plus its shallow ruleset, and repetitive gameplay, I still enjoy it a lot and would definitely be interested in owning one someday, because it was THE game I played as a child, and it was THE game that got me into pinball.

I recently went to that same CEC with a young relative (probably about my age when I went there) and they didn't have any pinball machines. Most of their games were ticket redemption games, but they still had the ski ball lanes and basketball games. I remembered where the star wars pinball machine was located and it seems to have been replaced by a redemption game. I think CEC was much better in the 90's than today.

My most memorable part of playing star wars trilogy was firing the ball from the x-wing through the tie fighter drop targets and blowing up the death star. I thought it was brilliant how that game tied in the dmd video with x-wing ball cannon and the most memorable scene of that movie.

 

[CycOd3liC]

Our local CEC has LOTR and SPP, both beat to hell.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Our local CEC has LOTR and SPP, both beat to hell.

And places like that wonder why their pins don't make much money. Maybe if they kept them in halfway decent shape they'd actually get a fair amount of quarters/tokens dropped in them.

 

[netizen]

Never had a CEC.
We got the knock-off Bullwinkles restaurant and fun centre complete with creepy animatronic band that went off by timer every 30 minutes; across the street there was a roller skating rink.
Good Times!!

 

[Sexton Hardcastle]

Never had a CEC.
We got the knock-off Bullwinkles restaurant and fun centre complete with creepy animatronic band that went off by timer every 30 minutes; across the street there was a roller skating rink.
Good Times!!

Until last weekend, when we took our daughter to another kid's birthday party, I'd never been Chuck E Cheese... Was not impressed. I do, though, remember the Edmonton Bullwinkles in Belvedere very well, and also the crap robotic band going on. lol

 

[superballs]

Mmm back when i thought cardboard with yellow grease tasted good...I mean...erm...never.

There were always better places for pinball around.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

Never had a CEC.
We got the knock-off Bullwinkles restaurant and fun centre complete with creepy animatronic band that went off by timer every 30 minutes; across the street there was a roller skating rink.
Good Times!!

I think I recall that Bullwinkle's used to have this water show with lots of fountains going off in time to classical music, kinda like liquid fireworks. Am I mixing up this show with somewhere else?

Also, maybe they had a R&B pinball? Probably not, because of "Wrong hat! Wrwowoeorwrong hawrowronghat!"

 

[netizen]

I think I recall that Bullwinkle's used to have this water show with lots of fountains going off in time to classical music, kinda like liquid fireworks. Am I mixing up this show with somewhere else?

Also, maybe they had a R&B pinball? Probably not, because of "Wrong hat! Wrwowoeorwrong hawrowronghat!"

The Bullwinkle's I have seen ads from on Youtube that were in the States definitely had the fountains, but the ones in Canada were Ghetto ass. They smelled faintly of vomit and their big attraction was that parents could get beer while the kids amped up on sugar and whack-a-mole, iirc.

Oh, there was most certainly a Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends pinball machine from Data East.

 

[Bowflex]

I don't remember the pizza ever being good and I am happy I never actually jumped in the big tank of foam or balls since it has been reported those things are nothing more than a cesspool of children's pee and feces (Although it always looked fun). But I do remember when they had lots of great arcade games and all the fun skee ball and whack a mole. Now they only ever seem to have redemption games and that's about it. Sad.

 

[dtown8532]

Chuck E Cheese was after my time but I do remember Show Biz and Major Magics. I remember the robot bears on stage and the giant ball pit. I feel bad that I don't remember any of the pins that they had. I only played the video games as a child. However, I do have fond memories of playing a sit down Atari Star Wars in all its vector graphics glory.

 

[DrainoBraino]

Mmm back when i thought cardboard with yellow grease tasted good...I mean...erm...never.

There were always better places for pinball around.

Hah that's funny because Chucky Cheese is the first restaurant food I had as a little kid that I thought sucked. I remember eating their pizza and being like "Uhg this is horrible. How does a restaurant have food this bad?" Up until that moment I thought all restaurants were magic places where the food was super amazing at all times. Lost my innocence that day.

 

[Mick Morry]

When was Chucky Cheese ever good? That's like calling Denny's the king of American breakfasts. I think just about any pizza franchise is better than chucky cheese. If I am in the USA I would be going to places like Marion's pizza in Ohio. Now that is pizza!

 

[mystman12]

I used to go to Chuck E Cheeses quite a bit. There was a SPP at one where I used to live. I remember it being in pretty good condition, though the ball was hugging the left side of the playfield. I tried telling someone that the machine was tilting to the left but they tried it and said it was fine. It then took me one year to realize they thought I meant the game was tilting. The last time I was at a CEC was about six months ago. It was fun, but there wasn't any pinball there. Also, I never went to CEC in the 90's, only the early 2000's.

 

[gooche77]

Chuck E Cheese's in the 80s was arcade nirvana. 90% of the place was video game cabinets unlike today was it's basically a gymboree w/ redemption games.

I don't remember the quality of the pinball scene as most of my 5 yr old attention was on games like Jungle Hunt and Tapper.

 

[Tabe]

Chuck E Cheese's in the 80s was arcade nirvana. 90% of the place was video game cabinets unlike today was it's basically a gymboree w/ redemption games.

I don't remember the quality of the pinball scene as most of my 5 yr old attention was on games like Jungle Hunt and Tapper.

This.

Heck, I even remember the pizza being halfway decent back then too. We used to get field trips there for school if our classrooms won pizza parties for whatever contest. It was always a lot of fun. Lots of video games, lots of fun.

 

[Emergency_Room]

The first time I ever went to Chuck E Cheese (actually it was still Showbiz but had already pretty much converted to Chuck E Cheese) I was about 5 and went to my cousin's birthday party. I don't remember really what games I played but I am pretty certain I mainly played ski-ball and also played in the ball pit. The next time I went to Chuck E Cheese I was about 8 or so. I still was not into pinball and played mostly the redemption games. The next time I did wind up going to Chuck E Cheese was the church was going to take all the young kids to Chuck E Cheese and had the teenagers go to assist them. By that time there was not any pinball there.

The one place I did remember going as a kid and playing a bit of pinball was Discovery Zone.