3-Stage

ShowBiz Pizza/The Rock-Afire Explosion
In 1980, the first ever 3-Stage opened up at the second ShowBiz Pizza Place in Jacksonville, FL (9820 Atlantic Blvd), with the original location in Kansas City, Missouri, receiving the stage soon after. The stage was quite different from the Wolf Pack 5, although some elements stuck with it. The stage would periodically be modified for events, like the [Statue of Liberty's Centennial or Christmas, where Rolfe DeWolfe would be replaced with another character, including The Statue of Liberty, Santa Claus or Uncle Klunk. The late 1980s would see some alterations, including Billy Bob getting a new, outdoorsy backdrop and CyberStar video screens being added, but that was only a hint of what was to come.

ShowBiz Pizza Time/Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza
In 1988 or 1989, ShowBiz Pizza Time, Inc. unveiled a new concept, redesigning the 3-Stage with the intention to use the Pizza Time Players in order to save money on licensing. The original concept was set inside a house, and combined Stage Left and Stage Center to make a larger Stage Left, and all the prop characters were replaced with a "traveling" Mr. Munch animatronic. The plan sort of wasn't received that well by executives, including Jul Kamen, who wanted to keep some of the elements of the Rock-Afire Explosion in the new show, so a less drastic concept, named "Concept Unification" was unveiled. Mr. Munch would have a deep, strong voice, and a center-stage presence like Fatz Geronimo, instead of having a raspy, Cookie Monster-esque voice, although his personality would remain largely the same, Helen Henny was always a "clucking old hen", but Kamen wanted to "Mitzify" her in order to appeal to young girls, Jasper, while still reusing Beach Bear's old mech, would now serve his position as a guitarist, rather than merely playing a banjo.

TODO: Finish 3-Stage History

Stage Effects
The 3-Stage had a variety of show effects that would be added and removed over the years, with most stopping by the late 2000's.

Curtains
Curtains would continue to be used until September of 2005, where stores would disable their curtains, leaving all three open at all times. The last showtape to program new segments with curtain signals was the September 2005 Show, though reused segments and live shows with curtain signals would continue to appear up until the January 2014 Show.

Munch Jr. Spotlight / Gobo Light
During the 3-Stage's first few years, the original Antioch spotlight used for the Rock-afire would instead be pointed at Munch Jr. This changed with the September '94 show, where stores added a gobo to the spotlight reading "The Chuck E. Cheese Show", and pointed it at the center stage. This gobo light would then be used going forward for the introduction of showtape segments, no longer being used for Munch Jr. The last showtape to program new segments with gobo signals was the September 2005 Show, though reused segments and live shows with curtain signals would continue to appear up until the January 2014 Show.

House Lights
The house lights were a programmable signal for controlling the showroom lights, allowing the entire room to dim. Despite this being a newly installed effect for the 3-Stage, it wouldn't go used until some time between the Environment '92 show and the July 1993 Show. During its usage, the lights would only dim once a programmed segment would start, and were never programmed in any special way outside of this function. The lights would stop being programmed for new segments either in the September 2006 Show, or the Holiday 2006 show.

Flower
The CU Flower (Animatronic) was a special effect only tested in a few Texas stores after the debut of the 3-Stage. Its only movement is its mouth, which used up the original bit number for Dook's left ear movement, going unused when Concept Unification converted him to Pasqually. Its earliest known appearance being programmed in a showtape is the Environment '92 show, and its last known is the Awesome Adventure Machine (Show).