Since 1977, kids have gathered at Chuck E. Cheese Pizza Time Theatres to eat technically edible pizza and play arcade games. Part of the background ambiance was the animatronic band that company founder Nolan Bushnell developed somewhat by accident when he bought a rat costume thinking that it was a coyote costume. He then had engineers develop animatronics to make the rat move and named the resulting character Chuck E. Cheese.
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Alongside other anthropomorphic animal band members named Munch’s Make Believe Band, Chuck E. Cheese sang original and cover songs when activated. Four decades of on-demand concerts followed. But now, the New York Times (sorry, paywalled article) reports that the company is shutting down the last of these animatronic features in Chuck E. Cheese restaurants. Kids these days are more interested in screen-based entertainment rather than the robotics of the 1970s.
-via Dave Barry
Source: neatorama