When I was a kid, video games were just becoming a thing. I suppose it was a pretty unique time to be alive because I was there when the first arcades were becoming a thing, I saw them evolve over time and eventually saw them fade into obscurity. Yeah, I know we have Dave and Busters and what not but if that is the only sort of arcade you have ever seen than I don't think you really know what an arcade is.
For me, as a kid the best place in the world and subsequently were I and all of my friends would have our birthday parties, was at Showbiz Pizza
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Creepy character in the back of that advert aside, Showbiz really was a fun place to go eat as a kid. I would imagine that parents didn't mind it so much either because it was a pretty inexpensive place to take the family for dinner as well.
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The dining area had an animatronic band in it called the Roackafire Explosion that would play classic tunes and even some originals. These songs were so popular among us kids that we would actually buy the records to take home with us. These characters were obviously robots, and even really young kids could figure that out, but the banter that took place between the various members of the band was pretty fantastic and funny as well. Of course this was the 80's so all of it was extremely innocent as well.
That was all fine and dandy but was NOT the main reason why I enjoyed going to Showbiz. I wanted to go to showbiz because it also featured the largest arcade in the city that I grew up in.
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If the game existed and if it was just on the market, Showbiz had it. A lot of older kids and even adults would come to Showbiz not to eat but just to play the games. You were probably allowed to smoke indoors at that point in time also, I don't remember but it was the 80's so the answer is probably yes.
They also had skee-ball there, but while some people enjoyed that and wanted to collect the tickets for the prizes (which were all garbage and skee-ball is such a sham to begin with) I had zero interest in that aspect of things at all.
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This was also the first place that I ever saw a Dragon's Lair machine, which was featured prominently at the front entrance and was the only game in my life up to that point that I can recall cost 50 cents per play. There was always a mob of people around that machine including me, although since I was only given a certain amount of quarters by my parents, I wasn't prepared to gamble them on a game that looked as difficult as Dragon's Lair.
All in all, Showbiz Pizza was an amazing experience as a kid and none of them exist today. The few that were like it were rebranded as Chuck E Cheese. Those still exist today, but they are more of an indoor playground for kids and don't really even feature much in the way of video games. So I suppose that I was one of the few that ever got to experience it.
What about you? Did you ever go to a Showbiz?
I had my 11th birthday party at a Showbiz.
The one nice thing about Chuck E Cheese is that they still have Skee-ball. At least the one near me does. They also have a few video games among all the ticket redemption games. it's just that most new arcade games are crap. They are very few and all seem to be made by a company called Raw Thrills.
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Hey, someone that has a shared memory of how awesome Showbiz was! The animatronic performances were pretty great at the time but there are some pretty funny videos out there of people that have gotten their hands on some of them, stripped them down, and the robots that are inside are creepy looking as hell.
The arcades disappearing in a general sense was tragic but it was an eventuality with the home consoles getting better and better. Back in the 80's and early 90's the arcade versions of the games were always better than the home versions, but I don't see how that would even be possible these days since the PS5 and even PS4 games look like movies.
PS: Skee-ball will never die :)
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I always thought the animatronics were pretty creepy even not stripped down. That was just part of the entertainment value :). I'm pretty sure I have a couple of photos from that birthday party around somewhere...
The death of arcades was sad. I'm afraid the death of movie theaters might be next. I remember for a time there were two arcades in the mall near me. Aladdin's Castle and Pocket Change. The fighting craze, starting with Street Fighter II, was really the last big hurrah for arcades. I keep hoping they'll make a come back one day but it seems unlikely. I still want to build or otherwise acquire a MAME cabinet one of these days...
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