Chuck E. Cheese Is Still Using Floppy Disks to Control Animatronics

(Credit: Eteixido/Wikimedia Commons) Whether you frequent Chuck E. Cheese or haven’t had to think about the sticky children’s arcade chain for a while now, you’ll probably be surprised to learn that what’s bossing around those creepy animatronics isn’t a digital file or even a CD—it’s a floppy disk. A Chuck E. Cheese employee has shared that 20-year-old technology is powering every move made by the mouse from your nightmares.

Stewart, a young employee with the username @showbizpizzaman on TikTok, often shares behind-the-scenes videos at Chuck E. Cheese. Combined with his mullet and mustache, Stewart’s videos at the children’s arcade and eatery are pure nostalgia: checkered floors, neon booths, and greasy cheese pizzas abound. But based on the comments on one of his recent videos, few people seem to have expected that nostalgia to go a step further by way of the floppy disk. In a video from January, Stewart demonstrated how to “install a new show” on Chuck E. Cheese’s animatronics system. Just seconds in, he picked up a floppy disk and showed it to the camera.

“Can you believe it? We’re still getting [floppy disks] in 2023,” Steward commented before popping the disk into a computer behind him.

@showbizpizzamanHow to install a new show at Chuck E. Cheese♬ original sound – Stewart

Steward said this was his location’s last floppy disk show “before the remodel,” suggesting that the chain (or at least his arcade) is finally transitioning toward more modern hardware. That’ll probably relieve employees like Stewart, who had to wait a solid minute for the arcade’s bulky computer to download the commands on the floppy disk. According to the video, these commands translate to the animatronics’ movements onstage. Every time Chuck himself, his bird friend Helen, or Pasqually the pizza chef sing or dance, it’s because the floppy disk told them to.

This means Chuck E. Cheese is officially joining a pile of organizations still clinging to floppies like they’re some sort of ancient life raft. A few years ago, Boeing was found to have performed software updates via floppy in its 747s; while some of the jets were transitioned to more modern systems, others stuck with their decades-old hardware. In 2016, Americans were horrified to learn that the US nuclear force system still ran (in part) on floppies. The program allegedly took until 2019 to finally ditch floppies entirely.

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