The man who co-founded Atari, Inc.; Nolan Bushnell, also founded Chuck-E-Cheese in 1977. After selling his portion of Atari, Inc. off to Time Warner, Mr. Bushnell took the money that he had received and decided to make a pizza chain that was also part arcade. Though it was initially fairly successful, Chuck-E-Cheese filed for bankruptcy in 1984 when it was purchased by a rival pizza chain and revamped to become much more successful. There are now over 500 restaurants in the Chuck-E-Cheese brand.
It should be noted that Nolan Bushnell had always admired Walt Disney and wanted to work for him for many years. He created Chuck as an homage to Mickey Mouse.
