Chuck E's Duckies
Chuck E.'s Duckies is a mechanical redemption game made for Chuck E. Cheese's locations in 2000. It is a rebranded version of Wacky Ducks. It was manufactured by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment under license from Jupiter Games.
The game is a custom-designed 2-player cabinet with uniquely drawn artwork featuring Chuck E. Cheese and his friends. The marquee is a pre-cut fiberglass panel displaying Chuck E. Cheese in fishing gear holding a net with a blue fish and yellow duckling in front of him. Below this artwork is a display of rubber duckies surrounded by flashing rope lights and the text "CHUCK E.'S DUCKIES" written in the Chuck E. Cheese's logotype font. Similar artwork can be seen on the LED "TIME REMAINING" display inside of the cabinet, albeit without Chuck E.'s net or the fish and duckling. On the walls inside of the cabinet are murals identical to those seen in Wacky Ducks, however additional artwork of Chuck E., Helen, Munch and Jasper paddling a canoe was included. The game itself consists of 16 rubber duckies on a conveyor belt powered by a 12-volt gear motor that moves during game play similar to that of a traditional shooting gallery and two punching gloves that extend when a button is pressed. [1]The game required tokens to play when it was introduced, however beginning in 2016, locations that still had this game had the token mechanisms replaced with Chuck E.'s Play Pass card readers. It would dispense paper tickets at the end of a session, however, in 2020, all corporate owned locations implemented e-ticket redemption via the PlayPass system.
Gameplay
Chuck E.'s Duckies plays similarly in style to a classic shooting gallery-type game. Upon inserting a credit, the player has 10-30 seconds to knock down as many ducks as possible. The player controls an extending punching glove that activates upon the press of a button. Once the time runs out, the game is over, and a number of tickets determined by the number of ducks hit is dispensed. Chuck E.'s Duckies supports both single player and two player simultaneous game play. In multiplayer, the two players can compete over who can take down the most ducks in the limited amount of time.[2]
Audio
Chuck E.'s Duckies uses identical music and sound effects to the standard Wacky Ducks game in which it's based. It utilizes a custom music loop that plays during game play and throughout this loop, stock sounds of ducks laughing will taunt the player. Every time a duck is stricken with the punching glove, a sound of bell being run will cue, indicating a hit. At the end of a session, a sound of a duck laughing will play as the game begins dispensing tickets.
Chuck E.'s Duckies outputs its audio in mono through two speakers located on the bottom left and right sides of the cabinet. Due to the nature of the game's simultaneous multiplayer, each speaker is assigned to either the left or right player respectively with their sound effects and music playing independent of one another.
Release
Chuck E.'s Duckies would debut in Chuck E. Cheese's locations in 2000 as part of the "New For You" marketing campaign, otherwise known internally as the Phase 3 update. Also part of this update was the Toddler Zone kiddie areas that contained many games and rides designed with small children in mind; Chuck E.'s Duckies was commonly included in several Toddler Zones across the company's locations.
Like Wacky Ducks, the game was manufactured by Innovative Concepts in Entertainment and was produced during most of the 2000s and included in almost every new location to open that decade. Both the standard Wacky Ducks game, alongside this game, were discontinued from production in July 2010[3]and Chuck E. Cheese's introduced several new custom branded redemption games to replace those from 2000 and earlier. Due to its long production cycle and a large availability of parts on the manufacturer's website, it is still somewhat common today and can be found at several Chuck E. Cheese locations worldwide. However, good luck finding the standard Wacky Ducks game as only a couple locations still have that game.