Chuck E. Cheese has been a staple of the American childhood for over 30 years; a place where children can go to play classic games and enjoy pizza and a good time for an hour or two. But what many people don’t know is that, despite the modern advances in technology, Chuck E. Cheese still uses antiquated floppy disks to control its child-amusing nightmare machines.
The Chuck E. Cheese experience has long been loved by children who enjoy the arcade games and shows, but behind the scenes is a selection of technology that, while cutting edge back in the 1980s, has proven unsurprisingly stubborn against the advancing march of time. And it’s been in place for nearly 30 years.
Since 1985, the video game company has used control systems composed of floppy disks to control the computer algorithms and games. On each game in the Chuck E. Cheese arcade, a floppy disk is inserted that contains the individual game’s code, which tells the machine how to act and how to respond to certain inputs.
Every week, on Monday night, the system is rebooted to ensure that all the machines have the same code. For added security and further processing, the floppy disk is also recycled every Monday to ensure that no malicious code is left lurking on the disk.
That means that each Monday night, Chuck E. Cheese locations must shut down and the staff must go from machine to machine to reinstall a fresh floppy disk to reboot the system and continue the exciting Chuck E. Cheese experience for children everywhere.
It’s funny to think that for most people, a floppy disk is a relic of a bygone digital age, but for the children of Chuck E. Cheese patrons, it keeps the games and shows running as they always have. For now, at least, these machines are happily living in the 1980s.
