Chico, CA (966 East Ave)

Chico, CA (966 East Ave) was a Chuck E. Cheese's that opened in July 1982 with a Balcony stage, and closed on January 11th, 2011. This location was opened in July 1982 as a Pizza Time Theatre, and then lost the rights to continue operating under the Chuck E. Cheese's license in 2011. A few months later, the store was closed altogether.

Stages
This location opened with a Balcony stage, and some point in 1989 or 1990 converted to C-Stage, a 2-Stage.

In late 2010 to early 2011 the store lost their franchising rights, requiring them to retrofit the characters on stage and remove all mentions of CEC by Wednesday, January 11th, 2011.

The Last Years
During the last few years of Chico, CA operating under the Chuck E. Cheese's brand, the animatronics had mostly stopped working with only some having little to no movements. It's been said that eventually they stopped using prizes from corporate and instead replaced them with dollar store toys. It has also been said that they served frozen pizza they had gotten from a nearby vendor, which ultimately lead to corporate getting involved and revoking the franchise license.

Fun Zone & Pizza
Because the store could no longer operate under the Chuck E. Cheese's franchise, they had to improvise and changed names to Fun Zone & Pizza. This new brand was a shell of what it once was, with the record posters in the showroom completely reskinned, the animatronics retrofitted with generic mascot costumes, and the TVs left on to play Nick Jr. shows from DirecTV.

Closure
This new brand wasn't pulling in as much money as the store owners intended, so they eventually had to close the store. Everything from the store décor, arcade machines, to even the animatronics was sold, despite the animatronics not working as their heads had been removed to fit into the generic mascot costumes.

The later years after closure
The store sat unoccupied for the good majority of the 2010s, until one Fall when the store was converted into a Halloween shop. The location was then left abandoned until September 10th, 2016, when the store was finally demolished.

Present day
As it sits today, the original building is completely gone, replaced by a new building. It is currently a DaVita Dialysis center.

Arcade Machines
These are just a handful of the arcade games visible in the footage available currently.
 * Chuck E. Cheese's Hightops
 * Chuck E. Cheese's Circus
 * Photo Ride with Chuck E. Cheese
 * Chuck E. Cheese's Supershot
 * Cyclone
 * Dance-Dance-Revolution Extreme (Bootleg cabinet)
 * Jurassic Park (1994)
 * Daytona USA
 * Wonder Wheel
 * Caveman Clobber
 * Raptor Captor
 * Monster Wheel
 * Ribbit Racin'
 * Big Bertha (2008 model)
 * Spider Stompin’
 * Wheel of Fortune
 * Wheel of Fortune

Vortex Films/magggie1 on YouTube

 * https://youtu.be/W8EtubUJ76w
 * https://youtu.be/S4nqebm43CI
 * https://youtu.be/JLdBhKEfmbI

The Chicoer

 * https://www.chicoer.com/2011/01/13/chuck-e-cheese-moves-out-of-chico-replaced-by-new-pizza-and-games-venture/
 * https://www.chicoer.com/2016/09/10/former-chuck-e-cheese-to-become-dialysis-center/
 * https://www.chicoer.com/2016/09/10/

Trivia

 * Tony Keser, Chico's franchise owner (1999 - 2011) owned 2 stores -- Chico and Redding, CA. Redding still operates under his ownership to this day.
 * Fun Zone had plenty of art with dinosaurs, including a Dinosaur Mascot costume.