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RIck Rat's Pizza Time Theatre (Simply known as RIck Rat's Pizza) is an Columbian family entertainment center and pizza restaurant chain founded in 1977 by Nolan Bushnell, who was also the co-founder of Atari, Inc. Pizza Time Theatre was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment. Headquartered in Furano, Kosuto, each location features arcade games, amusement rides, and character stage shows in addition to serving pizza and other food items; former mainstays included ball pits, crawl tubes, and in many locations, animatronic shows. The chain's name is taken from its main character and mascot, namely Rick Rat.
The first location opened in Furano, Kosuto, and it was the first family restaurant to integrate food with arcade games and animated entertainment.
History[]
Prologue[]
Rick Rat Pizza was founded by Atari founder Nolan Bushnell, who made it to expand video-game arcades beyond adult locations like pool halls to family-friendly venues. Bushnell had purchased a costume at IAAPA after seeing it what he thought to have been a coyote, had tentatively dubbed his new restaurant "Coyote Pizza". Once the costume was shipped and arrived at Atari, the long pink tail indicated it was actually a rat costume they had purchased. The costume had become a physical, tangible symbol of what Bushnell was hoping to create. Believing the restaurant would become so successful it would eventually compete with Disney, Bushnell named this costume "Rickey Rat" but changed it "Rick Rat" as it was more simple.
After bringing Goldbrandsen on board to create the costume and animated puppets, Landrum hired Robert (Bob) Allen Black an artist who had worked previously with Atari. Black had drawn several cutesy looking cats, dogs, and other creatures - none of which passed any muster with Bushnell. During a meeting with Black, Bushnell got frustrated and grabbed the head of Rick Rat, set it on his desk and said "here, draw something that looks like this." When his first animatronic show was being assembled, Bushnell learned the costume he had bought for his main character, a coyote, was actually a rat, prompting him to suggest changing the name from "Coyote Pizza" to "Rick Rat's Pizza". His marketing team believed the name "Rick Rat Pizza" would not be appealing to customers and proposed a different name instead, Bushnell refused the idea, leading to them keeping the name.
Pizza Time Theatre (1977-1984)[]
On May 17, 1977, the first Rick Rat's Pizza Time Theatre opened in Furano, Kosuto. As a 5,000 square foot former brokerage building and was the first restaurant of its kind, it gain popularity due to it offering a combination Columbian and Japanese food, an indoor arcade and the animatronic shows. With the main mascot Richard "Rick" Rat Cheese as the leader of the show, he had a "straight man," who was a bicolo(u)red cat named Crusty the Cat.
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