Pizza arcades were the ultimate source of entertainment for kids all over America in the 1970s and 80s. Delicious food, captivating animatronics, and the latest games made for a generation of memories!
Chuck E. Cheese and Showbiz Pizza reigned supreme, but my hometown of Muncie didn’t have either. We’d have missed out on the fad if Tex Critter hadn’t moseyed into town.
Tex Critter’s Pizza Jamboree sounds like something straight out of a Nickelodeon parody, but it really existed. In fact, Muncie was one of only twelve cities lucky enough to have one! The place indirectly owed its existence to the video game pioneer Nolan Bushnell. As the founder of Atari, he tirelessly sought family-friendly venues to showcase arcade classics like Asteroids and Tank1.
Bushnell launched his own venue in 1977. At Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre, thousands of captive Gen X-ers played countless rounds of Atari games as they waited for their pizzas to bake2. A rival, ShowBiz Pizza Place, emerged in 1979. Customers flocked there! Believe it or not, ShowBiz became the nation’s fastest-growing food franchise in 19813.
The secret sauce at ShowBiz had nothing to do with tomatoes or marinara. Its Rock-afire Explosion robots blew Chuck E. Cheese and the primitive Pizza Time Players out of the water! With $3 billion per year up for grabs in the nationwide market for restaurant pizza4, a new wave of competitors like Castle Entertainment joined the fray. The California company announced its entry in April 19825.
Castle had only been incorporated nine months prior. Nevertheless, it operated eleven theme parks and arcades across six states. With plans to go public and sell a million shares in an IPO, the company announced an ambitious new vision for its Honolulu branch. The park would be a prototype showcasing video games, rides, and a lineup of musical robots called “Theatronics6.”
All the pizza arcades gave their robots ridiculous names, and Castle thought Theatronics would set its stores apart from Chuck E. Cheese’s “Cyberamics” and the “Electronimation” at ShowBiz Pizza. To make it happen, the company enlisted AVG Productions to craft its show. Founded by a former Disney Imagineer, AVG delivered a compelling cast of characters headlined by an eight-foot-tall country-fied dragon named Tex Critter.
Castle’s chairman hailed the show as “the finest state-of-the-art technology in computer animation,” describing them as featuring “the most natural movements ever created for computer-animated characters as well as the longest shows7.” Indeed, the robots were a sight to behold! Vintage videos are hard to find, but a few still show Tex Critter, Foxy Roxy, Country Cal, and Skeeter the Snake ripping through a spirited set of songs.
Armed with a band that put the mighty Rock-afire Explosion to shame, it was time for Castle to bring its new concept to the world. The first standalone Tex Critter’s Pizza Jamboree opened in Aurora, Colorado, in 1982. Another opened in Phoenix that July8, and two more followed in the Quad Cities9. Soon, Tex Critter set his sights on the Muncie Mall.
Developed by Melvin Simon & Associates in 1970, Muncie Mall counted Britt’s, W.T. Grant, and Sears as its original anchors. Britt’s and Grant’s eventually gave way to JC Penney and LS Ayres, and a new movie theater helped attract a younger crowd . Unfortunately, the change in consumer habits forced Thomas Steck to shutter his 8,700-square-foot menswear store in November 198110. Tex Critter moved into the space near Sears the following year.
Without ShowBiz or Chuck E. Cheese nearby, Tex Critter’s was a phenomenon. Completely packed on opening night, the place was nothing like Muncie had ever seen! Tex and the gang held court on the main stage, surrounded by a whopping seventy-two arcade games and a pledge to add another thirty. Another room featured an enormous TV hooked to a satellite on the roof11, and yet another served as something the restaurant called a computer learning center
Despite the frenzied chaos captured in WMDH’s live broadcast of the event12, Tex Critter’s wasn’t just about the entertainment; it also offered a full menu. Customers had a wide selection of pizzas to choose from, but the standout was the Big Tex. Pizza arcades have never been associated with gourmet cuisine, but Evening Press reporter Keith Roysdon and a group of friends found that the Big Tex held its own, even against offerings from Godfather’s or Pizza King13.
Quality food, an expansive arcade, and the most sophisticated robots outside of Walt Disney World made Tex Critter’s a smash hit! Castle announced ambitions to expand with twenty-three more restaurants14, but its plans were derailed by the Video Game Crash of 1983. A rush of low-quality games flooded the market, and the industry plummeted. Chuck E. Cheese lost $15 million that year, and the long lines at ShowBiz slowed to a trickle15.
Unfortunately, issues plagued Tex Critter’s from the get-go. Behind the scenes, Muncie Mall sued Castle for unpaid rent shortly after the restaurant opened. Castle filed for bankruptcy in July 198316, and three restaurants closed the following month17. Muncie’s followed in October18. Mall management held out hope that new owners would resurrect the concept. Unfortunately, it never happened9.
Tex Critter’s departure from the Sears wing left a gap in the Muncie Mall that remained unfilled until 1985. That year, a clothing store called Sixteen Plus took over the space. Eventually, the storefront was subdivided. Over the years, it was home to Circus World, Kay-Bee Toys, Maurice’s, the Gap, and Dress Barn21. Most recently, Game Stop and the urban planning program of Ball State University took up residence there.
More than two decades after Tex Critter’s shut down, Muncie finally welcomed an honest-to-goodness Chuck E. Cheese in 2004. With E-Tickets and Play Passes, the place barely resembles the pizza arcades I remember! Nevertheless, I expect new generations to create cherished memories of their own, much like Tex Critter fans did forty years ago.
Many of those memories involve animatronics, but pizza robots are a dying breed! Chuck E. Cheese recently announced it would remove them from nearly every restaurant23, and the Rock-afire Explosion from ShowBiz Pizza exists only in private collections. Memorabilia from Tex Critter’s is even harder to come by. I only know of one set of Theatronics that was saved. Even game tokens are rare!
Artifacts from Tex Critter’s brief stopover in Muncie may be in short supply, but memories aren’t. The city’s pioneering pizza arcade left an indelible mark on those fortunate enough to have experienced it themselves! Although most remember the storefront as Gap or Dress Barn, a select few will always treasure its time as Tex Critter’s Pizza Jamboree for as long as the mall still stands.
This post makes use of marks and logos that are copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owners. They are used solely to identify elements of the subject in the context of critical commentary. This should constitute a “fair use” referenced and provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law.
Sources Cited
1 Bowman, E. (2023, December 1). A visit to the last animatronics still singing in Chuck. E. Cheese. All Things Considered. Web. Retrieved December 15, 2023.
2 Packer, L. (1979, October). Catering To Kids. Food Service Marketing. Trade journal. Print.
3 Kloss, G. (1981, August 6). It’s not your typical pizza place. The Milwaukee Journal Green Sheet. p. 1.
4 Latest fad – drive up pepperoni (1982, July 5). The Petaluma Argus-Courier. p. 15.
5 Smith, K. (1982, April 7). The Honolulu Advertiser. p. 60.
6 Warhol likeness to tour country (1982, October 28). The Daily Press [Victorville]. p. 17.
7 Lupak, G. (1982, July 28). New pizza chain seeks slice of business with entertainment centers. The Arizona Republic [Phoenix]. p. 146.
8 (See footnote 7).
9 (Renkes, J. (1982, September 5). Animated showdown at the pizza corral. The Quad-City Times [Davenport]. p. 43.
10 Baur, M. (1982, March 4). Steck’s Closing Out, but With Hope of Renewal. The Muncie Star. p. 7.
11 Roysdon, K. (1982, November 6). New mall restaurant offers entertaining family meals. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 20.
12 Baltimore, S. Lost Muncie (2017, September 3).I did a live remote broadcast from Tex Critters in the Muncie Mall on WMDH during their grand opening. [Comment]. Facebook.
13 (See footnote 10).
14 13 Roysdon, K. (1983, November 10). Public invited to Nov. 18 performance by mime artist. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 20.
15 Theobold, B. (1983, August 18). The Quad-City Times [Davenport]. p. 8.
16 Langberg, M. (1983, July 9). Castle firm to file for bankruptcy. The Fort Lauderdale News. p. 32.
17 (See footnote 15).
18 (See footnote 14).
19 Wilcox, S.E. (1983, November 15). New owners may reopen pizzeria in Muncie Mall. The Muncie Evening Press. p. 15.
20 Two new clothing stores for women open in mall (1985, March 25). The Muncie Evening Press. p. 21.
21 Roysdon, K. (2013, January 30). Goodbye khakis, hello dresses. The Muncie Star Press. p. A1.
22 Chuck E. Cheese files bankruptcy (1984, March 29). The Santa Rosa Press Democrat. p. 4.
23 Jones, H. & Collins, L. (2023, November 15). Bye-bye band: Chuck E. Cheese removes animatronics from all locations except one. NBCDFW [Dallas]. Web. Retrieved March 30.
I had forgotten all about Tex Critter’s. I was in college when they came to Muncie, so was not of te demographic that would have frequented the place. I was at the age when I would considered the place cheesy. (sorry) 🙂
That name, by the way, was almost surely a play on the name of the then-famous country music star Tex Ritter. Ritter had been well known in movies and in records in the 1930’s-50’s
I’m familiar with Tex Ritter, but I just learned today that he was John Ritter’s father. I didn’t know that!
Also, I’m surprised his estate didn’t sue