Chuck E Cheese Related

CEC Related Tokens

The tokens listed on this page are from restaurants that were created by CEC Entertainment Inc. (formerly Showbiz Pizza Time Inc., and before that Pizza Time Theatre Inc.) Although Peter Piper Pizza was acquired by CEC Entertainment Inc. in 2014, almost all of their tokens were produced before the acquisition, and PPP was not created by CEC so their tokens are not listed here. A separate page has been created for PPP tokens.

The catalog numbers for these tokens are of the standard arcade token form created by Stephen Alpert and Kenneth Smith for their book Amusement Tokens of the United States and Canada in 1979.

Metal Composition

Different compositions were used for this group including brass, nickel-plated brass and copper plated nickel.

Token Diameters

All CEC Related tokens are .984 in diameter.

Die Alignment

All CEC Related tokens were struck in medal orientation.

Zapp's Bar & Grille

Zapp's Bar & Grill was a restaurant that was created by Nolan Bushnell in 1983. Zapp's was meant to be an adult version of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre that adults could go to play arcade games and see animatronics while drinking alcohol.

Zapp's Bar & Grill was founded in 1983 by Nolan Bushnell. Zapp's was created as an adult form of Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. The restaurants featured an animatronic of the mascot Wolfman Zapp who would sing songs by the bar.

Zapp's Bar & Grill only ever opened three locations, each with their own unique animatronic. The restaurant chain wasn't much of a success sadly, and by 1993 all locations were closed.

In 2016 one of the three Wolfman Zapp animatronics were found in a local town parade. People tried asking around to find out who owned it, but there were no leads. The Wolfman Zapp animatronic hasn't been seen since. It is unknown what happened to the other two animatronics.

TJ Hartford's Grill & Bar

TJ Hartford's Grill & Bar (Formerly TJ Hartford's Sports Grille) was a single restaurant and company created by CEC Corporate on October 1, 2001 and lasting to February 17, 2008. The only location was located at Lewisville, TX (1960 S Stemmons Fwy).

TJ Hartford's would begin as a concept within CEC Corporate to grow their restaurant business. As a juxtaposition to Chuck E. Cheese's children-centered marketing strategy, TJ's would appeal to an adult demographic by being a large contemporary dining restaurant- including a bar and multiple dozen TV's scattered throughout the building for sports entertainment. CEC Corporate considered TJ's to be "-a new expansion vehicle to compliment our future growth strategy".

The company would be created as TJH Restaurant Group, Inc. in 2001. The first location would open on October 1, 2001, though another source also states September 2001- possibly a soft opening. The restaurant would feature arcade games for additional entertainment, crafting special tokens for the machines. At some point the company would switch to quarters for play. Plans to open a second TJ's in 2002 would be considered, but never materialized.

By April of 2003 the company's logo would change from a more fancy design to a rougher bolder look, alongside its name changed from TJ Hartford's Grill & Bar to TJ Hartford's Sports Grille. The company's website would also be given a brighter and flashier look, now with the slogan "The Grill is on." 

By mid-June of 2004, the company would reduce the cost for playing its arcade games from a quarter down to a nickel. A kids menu would also now be featured in the restaurant, alongside Happy Hour drink specials. By November 29th of 2004 the company would begin offering fundraising parties for companies, where 10% of proceeds from food purchased would be given to the organization. By November 4th of 2006, the location would now offer late night specials.

The store would close on February 17, 2008. The location, its equipment, and its land would sell in April of 2008 for $1.3 million. In connection with the sale, a $0.8 million grain was also had with "Other operating expenses".

Grundy's Entertainment Center

Grundy's Entertainment Centre, an arcade game and water slide venue affectionately known as Grundy's, opened on a long weekend in March, 1981. Situated in the heart of Surfers Paradise at the beach end of Cavill Avenue, it was developed by media entrepreneur Reginald (Reg) Roy Grundy.

The opening of Grundy's took place at the same time as plans to remove vehicles and permanently turn Cavill Avenue into a pedestrian only mall. The idea for a pedestrian only mall had initially been trialed in 1978. Following the success of the trial, Cavill Mall, the first of its kind in Queensland, was completed in 1982.

It appears that what occupied the space was initially called Reg Grundy's World, which cost $5.5 million and featured the Charlie Cheese's Playhouse, amusement park, mini golf, shooting range, arcades, rides and 4 waterslide flumes ($1.2m for the waterslides). The Charlie Cheese venue reportedly included a number of animatronic animals that would entertain children with performances.

Cavill opened with one of the last Cyberamics Portrait / Shelf Stage with the Stage having balcony elements, décor, & a Cheese Crawl. Cavill also opened with Dolli DImples as their one & only Cabaret act.

In 1981, After PTT went public, plans were made to develop international locations, a location was set to open in Australia. The location was in a entertainment venue called "Grundy's Paradise Centre" in Surfer's Paradise, Queensland. The location had a Balcony styled Shelf Stage, Dolli Dimples as the Cabaret act, and Madame Oink as the guest star. The Showtape used was probably either Around the World with Madam Oink or Madame Oink III - "Tunnel of Love". The location would be featured on an Australian News Broadcast in 1981 & another the same year. The Location closed in 1982 & was relocated to Creek Road in Carina, Queensland.

Pizza Showtime Theater

Pizza Showtime was a family restaurant and entertainment centre operating in Perth, Western Australia from 1980 to 1984. Similar to the American Chuck E. Cheese chain, it was a sit-down pizza restaurant complemented by arcade games, and animatronic characters.

The restaurant was located in the now demolished Grand Theatre building, Located at 148 Murray Street – a site now occupied by Grand Theatre Lane, showcasing a small cafe, and multiple storefronts. It featured space-invaders-style game consoles built into the customer tables operated with tokens and had an animatronic stage show.

The animatronic stage show featured: a compère, a dog named 'Bert Newhound', a piano playing kangaroo known as 'Melton Pom' (next to a joey), singing koalas with 'Lottie' being the lead, a wise cracking horse by the name of 'Ned Kelly', a dingo named 'Ringo Dingo', a dingo on the wall, who was in love with Lottie; Australian actor Jack Thompson was the voice for the "Ringo Dingo" character, and a violin-playing Black Bear - the only non-Australian character, who came from Gatlinburg, Tennessee, USA and played "The Devil Went Down to Georgia"

Creative input to the design of Pizza Showtime was supplied by Paul Gregory and John Franke. Gregory was appointed the manager of the Pizza Theatre Division of Allied and Leisure industries in October 1980. He immediately went on a two-week tour of the US's audio entertainment and fast food restaurants. Though not stated, this probably included Disney World and Chuck E. Cheese.

Franke was involved with Disney, particularly as a member of the Manufacturing and Production Organization (MAPO). MAPO was the group responsible for the creation and production of Disney's Audio-Animatronics. Franke's contributions at Disney included leading projects such as the creation of the Tiki Birds for Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room, which was a pioneering effort in the field of animatronics.

Franke also designed the entrance to Pizza Showtime in Perth and played a part in the design of Pizza Showtime's animatronics.

The animatronic robots cost "in excess of $100,000" and are claimed to have had "more movements than any Disney character".

Pizza Showtime closed down around 1984 and the robot characters were dismantled and sent to Sydney. The restaurant was originally intended as a starter for a chain of 'Pizza Theatres' around Australia, owned and operated by Allied & Leisure Industries, along with Gregory under the supervision of A&L founder Malcolm Steinberg, who is the current owner of the Timezone arcade game franchise. The building was subsequently converted to an Asian food hall and was demolished in 1990.