created in 1977 in san jose, california by atari founder nolan bushnell, it started out as chuck e. cheese's pizza time theatre. in 1984, cec got bought out by then-competitor showbiz pizza place from topeka, kansas and changed their corporate name to "showbiz pizza time". in 1989, brock hotel management(then owners of spt) sold it's "monterrey's tex-mex cafe" brand to them and spun off spt into a separate company. in 1991, all showbiz and pizza time stores re-branded as "chuck e. cheese's pizza" and in 1998 spt changed their corporate name to "cec entertainment". in 1999, cece bought out their primary competitor, discovery zone and in 2014 they bought the "peter piper's pizza" chain. in 2013, cece got bought by apollo global management as was / is put up for sale.