1981 Play Asteroids and Benefit Muscular Dystrophy (Event)

The 1981 Play Asteroids and Benefit Muscular Dystrophy was a charity event at all 50 then current Pizza Time Theatre locations which lasted from August 24th through September 3rd of 1981. The tournament would be touted as the first national sponsored video game contest.

Description

Customers would participate by paying a $1 entry fee during the hours of 2pm to 8pm from Mondays through Thursdays, where they would be given 5 tokens and a free Coke to play Asteroids. Entrants could play as often as they wished. Age categories were set for 7 and below, 8 through 11, 12 through 15, and 16+. Each store would have an Asteroids Deluxe cabinet to use.^[1] The local winners would recieve prizes such as an Atari VCS with the Asteroids game, which had just released that month, tokens, and CEC T-Shirts. The national winnner would recieve an Asteroids Deluxe cabinet.^[1][2]

PTT would plan to raise $50,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association with the event, with proceeds donating during the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon during Labor Day weekend. It is unknown how much PTT ultimately donated, and if they made any appearances during the 24-hour telethon.