The video game crash of 1983 proved the key to resolving the feud between Chuck E. Cheese’s and The Rock-afire Explosion, though probably not on terms the former would’ve liked. Having lost $15 million that year, Chuck E. Cheese’s creator and Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell was forced to file bankruptcy. Per Vice, Robert Brock took advantage of his competitor’s misfortune by buying it up. Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza Time Theatre became part of the rechristened Showbiz Pizza Time Inc.
Having bought his rival, however, Brock opted not to throw Chuck and his friends out. He initially maintained them alongside The Rock-afire Explosion. But for whatever reason, the character Chuck E. Cheese enjoyed greater popularity with guests. Responding to demand, Brock stopped having Rock-afire characters made, creating friction between himself and their creator, Aaron Fechter. When Fechter refused to sign over the rights to the band, hoping to expand them beyond pizza parlors into a full franchise, Showbiz responded by dropping them altogether.
That left Fechter and The Rock-afire Explosion without a host, and ShowBiz with high-quality animatronics they could refurbish with the characters they still had. By 1992, Showbiz Pizza Time no longer made ShowBiz Pizza Places. Everything was Chuck E. Cheese’s, and the full-figure robots that had once been Rock-afire characters had been transformed into an updated version of Chuck E. Cheese and his crew.
