Awesome Adventure Machine
The Awesome Adventure Machine also known as "Showroom 2000" was a test stage that was held at the original Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas location.
This was a one of a kind stage that only had one major character animatronic for the show. A first in Chuck E. Cheese history at that time. To make up for absence of the other characters the company came up with an easy solution, and that is to have video screens that features the other cast in walkaround form with articulated heads that interact with the segment of the show. The general concept of the Awesome Adventure Machine was to take guests on many adventures around the world or through time. With Chuck E. Cheese as the pilot for the machine with his many of robotic sidekicks as part of the show.
Stage Features
The Awesome Adventure Machine contain one stage with the Chuck E. Cheese animatronic, and on the right and left side of the show were two projection screens that stood at 10-feet tall. The Chuck E. Cheese animatronic was dressed in a unique outfit at the time. A sporty yellow, pink, and blue outfit - with elbow pads and top it all off with a gray cap.
Household Objects
Throughout the entire show they are about 500 individual pieces scatter around the show area. Behind Chuck E. they were moving background objects. As the main concept of the show was that Chuck E. Cheese, his friends, and the kids built the machine out of junk. The items were everyday household items like wheels, scales, trash cans, iron, basketball, water bottles, plastic, etc.
Lighting
The Awesome Adventure Machine also featured a lot of bright lighting effects. The screen to the left of Chuck E's stage has a lighted zig-zag pattern and the screen to the right has a lighted gear-shaped pattern. There was also an American DJ "Laser Widow" laser behind the right screen that would create shapes on the screen during intermission.[1] Above the screens and leading to Chuck E's stage are several sets of twisted neon lights, which appear to be electrical currents when programmed to quickly flash back and forth.
There were several lighting effects that appeared from inside Chuck E's chamber as well, and above Chuck E was a LED board which could spell out messages and also display designs.
Prop / Supporting Characters
Along with Chuck E. Cheese, the Awesome Adventure Machine featured a variety of robotic sidekicks that surrounded Chuck E. Cheese and the entire show. The main 3 sidekicks that were animatronics include:
Brain-I-Vac - a combination of computers, calculators and a vacuum cleaner who acts as Chuck E.'s first officer; calculating coordinates and keeping the command module tidy.
Dusty - side kick to Brain-I-Vac, a mechanical dog-like device that sniffs out new data for the Awesome Adventure Machine's main computer. Don't worry, his bark is worse than his byte.
O.R.B.I.S. - (Onboard Radar and Bearings Intelligence System), the Awesome Adventure Machine's navigational tracking system keeps Chuck E. on course and out of trouble... also provides time and temperature.
Other sidekicks that weren't animatronics but can be found around the show include: Can Man, Celluloid, Deuce, Drive-In, Duct Head, Flash, Hammerhead, Iron Man, Juice, Kelvin, Lisa, Maoui, Mona, Ohmer, Pinhead, Richter, Sinker, Tank, Tech Totem, Trike Man, Tweeker, and Wastoid
Behind The Scenes / Technical Information
CEC Entertainment, Inc (formally known as Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc at the time) recruited some of the Dallas area's best local talent to assist them in the production of the entertainment for the Awesome Adventure Machine. This team included Brave Combo, a Grammy-nominated musical group based in Denton, script writer Steven White of Plano, (prior work included Barney and Friends), and the Stokes group, an award winning video effects and post production company. The 22-movement Awesome Adventure Machine Chuck E. Cheese animatronic was created by Animation World.
For the show it self it was ran off Laserdisc and used Dolby integrated 7-channel surround-sound system. The 10-foot video screens were operated by two rear-projection screen systems. Which the projectors were located in the back of the show. The Awesome Adventure Machine also had a live camera feed that was originally used to scan the showroom during birthdays but later on used for intermissions also.
The metal pixel art cylinder on the left is a revolving door for technicians to access the back and for live performances. The back's surface area is of the full original 3-stage, they didn't remove the raised stage itself just built around its edge. The Chuck E. Cheese animatronic reused the old mac valve bank formerly used by a CEI animatronic.
The Awesome Adventure Machine outfit was created by Dave Thomas and Shelly Atkins. All the robotic names were named by Chuck E. Cheese's voice actor Duncan Brannan. The two Awesome Adventure Machine's programmers were Frank (former Walt Disney Imagineering employee) and Brian Hagan.
History
The Awesome Adventure Machine production started as early as 1995. The original idea of the complex Awesome Adventure Machine stage was an attempt to bring Chuck E. Cheese into the 21st century. Pressure from competitors like Discovery Zone was forcing CEC to rethink its entertainment options, and a greater focus was placed on the availability of "free" entertainment.
Trademarks for the Awesome Adventure Machine were applied on May 16, 1996 with the premiere of the Awesome Adventure Machine show released early in July of 1996 for existing shows. Around that time at the backrooms of the Arlington Texas Location was the programming site of the Awesome Adventure Machine, as they built an platform that was an replica of the Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas 3-Stage platform and only have the main stage of the Awesome Adventure Machine.
On August 11, 1996 installation of the Awesome Adventure Machine Began at the original Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas location and two weeks later on August 21, 1996 the Awesome Adventure Machine officially debuted to the public. Most reviews came out positive stating that families will have a kick out of the show for it's colorful and wacky atmosphere.
As the general public liked the Awesome Adventure Machine show, Showbiz executives did not enjoy it as much as the public did. Former employees who worked at the Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas location during the Awesome Adventure Machine period recall corporate execs coming to see the show and commenting that it was far too expensive to install system-wide. Before the Awesome Adventure Machine was installed Dick Frank (former CEO of Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc) famously said "We don't need animatronic shows in our restaurants". Thus making the Awesome Adventure Machine experiment a failure.
The Awesome Adventure Machine premiere showtape ran from August 1996 through April 1997. The Awesome Adventure Machine never got a Holiday 1996 show nor Chuck E's Juke Box show (January 1997). Programming for 2nd Awesome Adventure Machine show took place at the Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas location after hours. The 2nd Awesome Adventure Machine showtape debuted on April 1997 and ran through August 1997. Around this time the Chuck E. Cheese's outfit had a minor change on the outfit, changing the pink to purple on the outfit. The final Awesome Adventure Machine showtape debuted on August 1997 through November 1997.
On October 23, 1997 the trademarks of all Awesome Adventure Machine content were abandoned, which this marked the end of Awesome Adventure Machine concept as a whole. Around November 1997 through January 1998 the Awesome Adventure Machine show was removed from the Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas location and all of the shows parts and props were thrown away and destroyed. With one piece of the show was saved from CEC themselves, The neon display sign was saved and was on display at Department Offices until being thrown out years later. After the Awesome Adventure Machine show was removed. They replaced the show with the all new concept called "Studio C" and the Studio C Alpha show replaced the Awesome Adventure Machine at the original Montfort Drive, Dallas Texas Location.[2]
Lost Media
With short lived experiments comes lost media and the Awesome Adventure Machine is no exception. All of the Awesome Adventure Machine laserdiscs are lost. As around the late 1990's and early 2000's department 18 threw away a lot of laserdiscs copies. Thus finding a Awesome Adventure Machine laserdisc copy very impossible to find and it is expect that these copies will never be found or save as laserdiscs are infamous for rioting a lot over time. Thus a lot of the Awesome Adventure Machine content are or will be lost forever.
Footage of the Awesome Adventure Machine show in action is extreme scare. In March 2002, Brian Hagan (former Department 18 Studio Manger and Awesome Adventure Machine programmer) shared 3 never before seen video clips of the Awesome Adventure Machine and a picture of the full show to the public. These were the only known media of the Awesome Adventure Machine show for about 20 years with an newspaper clipping that contained an new image of the show.
In August 2021, Jon Rice (former Vice President of Marketing) shared new never before seen images of the Awesome Adventure Machine and in December 2021, Brian Hagan shared the full length Awesome Adventure Machine footage of April 1997 with laserdisc audio from the laserdisc player. Aside from that, those are the only found media of the show that are currently public.
No home video of home photographs have been found or been shared yet. The only known lost Awesome Adventure Machine footage is the news coverage segment. Around August or September 1996 local North Dallas news team WFAA (Channel 8) aired an entire story segment on the Awesome Adventure Machine and in the segment they filmed parts of the Awesome Adventure Machine's Premiere show. As of now the segment story has yet been found.
Trivia
- The Command Module's sliding door was originally a beige vinyl screen with the Awesome Adventure Machine Logo. It was replaced with gray shutters due to it becoming caught on itself and getting stuck.
- The internal name for the Awesome Adventure Machine was "Showroom 2000".