Chuck E Cheese's
It was about maybe 4 years ago when I stopped at a Chuck E Cheese's in Green Bay, WI out of sheer nostalgia. I hadn't been to one since about 1982 when I lived in Las Vegas, Nevada so seeing one in my native Wisconsin (and remembering how cool it was back then) I was pretty stoked.
It felt like someone took a mallet and smacked me square in the sack after I walked through the doors. A lesson in both location and hindsight. This location was pathetic: a few arcade games on either side of the doors, the order counter, a wide open space with tables and a small kids jungle gym area that equaled what you see at a McDonalds, a small area off the main floor for soda refills, some more arcade games, and an air hockey table, then the stage with the animatronics, however most of the entertainment came from a myriad of TVs mounted on the walls. It was so....sterile. So devoid of fun. My wife asked me why I was so disappointed and thus begins my description on how Chuck E Cheese's, of Las Vegas and 1982, was....
My family lived in a small apartment complex that was a couple blocks from a grocery store and then across the street from that was Chuck E Cheese's. It was a huge building, at least to a 7 year old. We went in to check the place out and it felt as if my eye balls popped out of their skull. The place was dimly lit and had a variety of rooms. Off the main path to the service counter was the first of two stages. The first room was the home of the canine Fab Four called The Beagles. All dressed in Beatles attire and of course, sang Beatles songs when one dropped a a token in the coin mech by the stage room entrance. There you could sit at a table and eat while you watched and listened. The other stage room was larger (more tables and chairs) and was the lair of The King, a lion who sang Elvis Presley tunes.
Moving on into the building we see (though memory gets a bit foggy as the place was renovated around 1982-1984 when I left Nevada) the main stage area, with I believe a soda station preceding it. The place was huge with the rat and his pals on stage singing a variety of older and I think more modern songs. Off to the right on the wall were a bunch of hands, hooves, etc. that clapped when the stage show ended. A true electronic dinner theater experience. Kids usually sat and watched in awe, every once in a while taking a bite of pizza or a slurp of soda when the group was playing. Under the stage was a small room that you could go into-it was totally black and lit only by a strobe light. If you would happen to knock on the wall, someone would knock back! Very freaky, but very fun. Eventually off to the left of the stage was another room that had a female animatronic (a cow I think) and a true "theater" that I think showed movies or movie shorts.
To the right of the stage was where the real fun began: the arcade and playroom. The game room was total gamer's heaven. All kinds of games were there and I sampled many. I got my first crack at Dragon's Lair (which was defective unfortunately), played a couple of FMV games like Super Cobra(?) and some jet game I can't think of, a driving simulator along with all the popular games of the time (Centipede, Tempest, etc.). Of course, there was always skee ball-I think there were like 10 machines of just skee ball. Then there was the playroom. After entering and ditching your shoes, you got to indulge yourself in a variety of pens (areas that were separated by rope-netted walls) like the moon walk, a pool of plastic balls, and another moon walk room with some funky climable pedestal in the middle. There was a maze with a mirrored ceiling with walls that were about 3 feet or so high. At the exit of the maze was a gigantic carpeted hamster...er human wheel. There was a slide system along one wall, with strobes flashing in the slides themselves. Later on the playroom was expanded with a ramp and a floor with small hills that you could either run on or swing across with a knotted rope strung a wheeled piece on a steel track in the ceiling.
I finished my story to my wife and friends and they sat and contemplated what I had described (during which I was animated, pointing and using my hands as I spoke). They looked at the place we were in now and they too now looked disappointed. As my sister in law said, "This place here sounds like a mere shadow of the place you were at."
We left the place and went about the rest of our day. From that point on I have not returned to that place. This was the third major disappointment history has given me (the first two was things that were gone when we returned from Nevada. One of those I'll touch on sometime) and I hope when I return to Nevada to see my old haunts that the Chuck E Cheese of the past is still alive today.
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still playing games
Originally Posted by bargora
Unless the asians are there, in which case I'll be looking like a big loser....
