Cyberamics Betamax

Cyberamics Betamax is an obscure predecessor to the C&R SVHS (Pre-93) format that was tested at the Arlington, TX (2216 S Fielder Rd) from January 1987 to some time in 1988. The format was used to bring video to showtape performances. It is unknown if the formatting of the tape was similar to C&R SVHS (Pre-93), or just the Cyberamics Reel format with video.**

History

Starting in January of 1987, the Arlington, TX (2216 S Fielder Rd) store began testing the first iteration of Cybervision using betamax tapes. This would be done for every tape of that year before Cybervision would make its way to the rest of the stores in early 1988. All the video for these tapes are lost, and assumedly not even in CEC Corporate’s possession. Getting footage of Arlington during 1987 may yield new footage of these tapes.

A quote from David Philipson many years ago also discusses the system, though he notes two stores had the old system, and were instead in Austin, TX. It is unclear if these were two extra stores, or if he meant to say Arlington, or if one was in Arlington and one in Austin. There being two stores also leads to the idea that the other store was indeed a ShowBiz store as shown by the RAE betamax tape. ^[1] Another option is that the second store is White Settlement, TX (7750 Scott St), which was the main store filmed at for Cybervision/Cyberstar and training videos.

The Cyberstar Diagnostic Tape for the Rock-afire was notably produced in 1988 on Betamax. It has not been confirmed if this tape was used like previous CEI Betamax tapes on an external monitor, or if it was produced for the early tests of Cyberstar. Only one copy of the tape has ever been found.

Potential Showtapes

The potential tapes that debuted on this format include:

• CEC Movie Magic
• CEC Faves / House Showtape
• CEC Home for the Holidays
• CEC Personal Favorites Showtape
• CEC Rock-N-Roll Classics Showtape
• CEC Summertime / TV Westerns
• CEC TV Westerns
• CEC Working / Summertime
• CEC Country / Faves
• CEC Grammy Awards
• CEC Summertime
• CEC Tune Machine / Country
• CEC Chuck E Cheese Live
• CEC Dance Showtape

Given the earliest Cybervision showtape was Tune Machine / Country, and that the Betamax stores were in the test market area, this is likely when the prototype format was phased out for Cybervision, but it still could have taken place later in the year at either store.

Reused & Updated Footage

A few of the tapes in this list were rereleased for Cybervision, including likely the same original footage.

• Summertime
• Tune Machine
• Country

Eventually Cybervision would swap its footage style from filming at White Settlement, TX (7750 Scott St), and instead filmed at the CEC Corporate offices with a bluescreen. The last footage of White Settlement known was CEC Dance Showtape in September of 1988, and the first at corporate was CEC Fractured Classics in January of 1989. It is currently unknown if 1987’s CEC Home for the Holidays was kept at stores to be used for 1988, or a reissue was sent out. If a reissue was sent out, it either contained the previously used White Settment footage, or contained the footage seen in the next year’s CEC Christmas '89 / Wave Bday at corporate.

Chuck E. Cheese Shows (CEC Best of 1988) contains Country, Faves, and Tune Machine. The Tune Machine video is of White Settlement, but Faves and Country are instead done at corporate, indicating the video for these segments were redone entirely, though it is unclear why Tune Machine was also not redone.