Chuck E. Cheese Roll

A photo of the game in a store.

Chuck E. Cheese Roll is a CEC branded Skee-Ball machine that was found in many of the restaurants. It is distinctly different than the “Skee ball” and “Alley Roller” games, which were also found in restaurants later on. It dates all the way to Pizza Time Theatre, and early on was one of the only ways to earn tickets in the restaurants. ⁽¹⁾

Appearance and Scoring

The game operates like a typical Skee-Ball machine; a token is inserted and skee-balls slide down, which are rolled up a ramp and into various scoring hoops. The lowest hoop is worth 10 points, followed by 20, 30, 40, and 50. Some machines featured 100-point hoops in the top left and right corners, but others did not. The colors of the machine were not consistent over the years, as the ramp part of the machine has been red, yellow, black, and the marquee and theming changed several times as well.

Marquee variations

As the game was used for many years, a few different versions of the marquee artwork were used. The first one, which may have been a prototype or only used in a few locations, showed Chuck E. Wearing his derby on either side of the scoreboard. The title of the game is shown in a blue ribbon, and the background is yellow. This artwork of Chuck is exclusive to this scoreboard. The next version has artwork of Tux Chuck situated in the Skee-Ball hoops holding a Skee-Ball. This has a back and orange/yellow color way, which is on theme for the Pizza Time Theatre restaurant. A generic artwork of Chuck E was edited to be used on this scoreboard. There is another Pizza Time Theatre variant, which has the classic artwork of Chuck with his cane at the top. The background is white, and the detailing is blue, red, and yellow. Above the game over light is the branding of the company that produced it, The Norton Co. The final variant has artwork of all of the main characters playing Skee-Ball, with the scoreboard above their machine. 5 versions were made.