Gaming History You Should Know – The History of Showbiz Pizza’s Band June 28, 2020

When I was a 90s kid, I was in love with arcades. It didn’t have to be special, but it had to have all the latest games, and maybe some VR headsets. However, if you were an 80s person, you might remember a specific arcade franchise that also served pizza and offered a cute animatronics show with anthropomorphic animal musicians. No, I’m not talking about Chuck E. Cheese, I’m talking about Showbiz Pizza.

Showbiz Pizza was an early amalgamation of restaurant and arcade, a business strategy later perfected by places like Dave and Busters. Unlike Dave and Busters, Showbiz Pizza would offer more than just arcade games while they waited for their food, their restaurants included a custom animatronics show starting an entirely original band, The Rockafire Explosion.

I know what you younger people are thinking, didn’t Chuck E. Cheese have an animatronic band and why haven’t I heard of The Rockafire Explosion but I’ve heard of Chuck E. Cheese? The Rockafire Explosion was a casualty of Mr. Cheese, but not in the way you might have guessed. So who created this crazy animatronic band, what is up with their characters, and why are they so fondly remembered to this day? This independently produced documentary, titled simply The Rockafire Explosion, answers all of those questions. In wake of Chuck E. Cheese declaring Bankruptcy this week, I think it is the perfect way to cap off your week.