The Rock-afire Explosion

**soundwave** · 07 Jul 2008, 03:00 PM

There is a documentary in the Fall coming out about the The Rock-afire Explosion, the animatronic band that was featured at Showbiz Pizza Place restaurants. Basically it was a Chuck E Cheese competitor but I was never (un)fortunate enough to have a SPP near me.

I've become fascinated with these horrific beasts. These things are more advanced than the Chuck E Cheese robots and 10x scarier. Each voice and instrument is synced up. There are a bunch of videos on Youtube about these things.

Penny Arcade linked to a Rock-afire performance of an Usher song last week. ANyone actually see these things live?

**Gonzo** · 07 Jul 2008, 03:47 PM

Yeah, I remember them from when I was a kid. They could be creepy at times. But seeing them now just brings back memories.

There are videos on youtube from people who have bought these and programmed them
to lip sync new music. Some are pretty good.

**Scourge** · 07 Jul 2008, 04:13 PM

Didn't Showbiz own Chuck-E-Cheese?

**Gonzo** · 07 Jul 2008, 04:14 PM

I thought that too but wasn't sure.

**Scourge** · 07 Jul 2008, 04:15 PM

wikipedia:

In 1984 the company purchased the assets of Chuck E. Cheese's, after that company declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. They then proceeded to change the name of the company to Showbiz Pizza Time, Inc. Both restaurants were kept operating as separate entities. After disagreements over a period of years with Creative, Showbiz management decided to go ahead with a restructuring of the restaurants called "Concept Unification". This would consist of renovating all Showbiz animation into Chuck E. Cheese characters, as well as renaming all stores to "Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza".

**edit** Also, Nolan Bushnell was the guy who started Chuck E. Cheese.