Cyberstar

Cyberstar (Known early on as Cybervision) was an initiative to bring video showtapes to all ShowBiz Pizza Place and Pizza Time Theatre locations, which began in January 1987 through test markets, properly started by 1989, and completed sometime in 1990.

History

Starting in January of 1987, the Arlington, TX (2216 S Fielder Rd) store began testing the first iteration of Cybervision using betamax tapes. Every showtape going forward would have video tapes produced. The videos would consist of shots of the stage performing to aquire different viewing angles for the audience. All of the 1987 video tapes are lost, except when their segments rereleased for later shows.

David Philipson would note two Rock-afire stores tested Cybervision in Austin, TX. Testing dates are unclear, but a diagnostics tape from between late 1987 through 1988 from the found Cyberstar Diagnostic Tape suggest this period.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

Sometime between 1987 and 1988, the Betamax tapes would be swapped out for SVHS tapes, which would continue for the full launch. By the release of the SPP Summertime Showtape in May of 1988, showtapes going forward would contain new animated effects, alongside shots of the characters as walkarounds performing. It is unknown if any stores recieved Cybervision outside of the testing locations during this year.

By March of 1989, the showtapes would change again to recieve new countdown sequences between segments, referencing the new name "Cyberstar" that would be trademarked the same year. These segments would also contain music tracks for the intermissions, replacing the need for the ShowBiz Pizza Program cassettes that had been used since late 1986. In July, the last known program, being Showbiz Pizza Program 18 would release. This may indicate a point where enough stores were converted to not need the casette production anymore. By this point seperate Cyberstar manuals for ShowBiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese's would roll out with the packages.

An unknown amount of stores would still have the old reel systems going into 1990, though it is unclear when exactly the nationwide conversion finished. The currently last known ShowBiz reel would be Birthday Wave/Regular Showtape in April of 1989, and the last known CEC reel was for the CEC September 1990 Show .

References

Correspondance from Gabe Vasquez
Quote from David Philipsen: 'Cybervision was an idea that Paul Linden and I came up with in around 1986. This was before DVDs and before we ever thought of combining video with a show. All shows has traditionally run on reel-to-reel tape decks. Paul and I had played around a little with a couple of VCR formats, VHS HiFi and Beta HiFi. These formats used the rotating head on a VCR to record a much higher quality audio signal. Some professional decks were just starting to become available with the ability to record audio not only on the longitudinal tracks (standard) but also on the HiFi tracks. This meant that they were capable of playing back four audio channels and video simultaneously. After some wrangling, we finally convinced the boss to let us prototype a system that would run a 3-stage show with stereo audio and use the two longitudinal tracks for character data. We called it 'Cybervision'. It was installed in two locations in Austin, TX and the name later morphed to 'Cyberstar'.'
The Cyberstar Diagnostic tape shows the 'ShowBiz Campground' corporate stage, which wasn't installed until around Fall of 1987.