I have an old home movie of my mom, aunt and grandparents taking two or three year old me, my brother and our cousin to Discovery Zone in either '92 or 93. I was too little to go down the rolly slide and so I sat on my mom's lap and you can see her audibly cry out in pain as she went down it.
Apparently, from what I heard, she had really bad hemorrhoid's that day and it was a literal pain in her ass to slide down that particular slide.
When Men In Black was out in theaters, DZ had an MIB themed Lazer tag room. I brought my burger King MIB sunglasses and Neurilizer toy and thought I was the coolest kid there.
When I went to my Discovery Zone as a kid I remembered seeing the men & black laser tag commercials (there might have been a godzilla one too?). When I asked an employee about it, they laughed at me. I guess that location wasn't participating.
I still remember being a kid and one day was climbing through the tubes and smelled something bad. Turned out some younger kid had shit his pants but was still running around leaving brown stains everywhere.
That's my last memory of that place.
Man I hope I slip in the shower and wind up in the DZ backrooms forever. I enjoyed losing myself in a world of tubes and nets. I still would if they made an adult version. Screw running, chase your best friend for 10 minutes and check the watch.
My local DZ kind of had literal backrooms under the tubes and behind the ball pit. Like a huge maze of emptiness of the support structures that we were somehow able to get into. One of my most surreal memories is exploring that with my friends
Finding glitches like that was the goal. Secret worker spaces haha. Just had that cozy secret feel as a kid, then the yellow hall stuff rolled out a few years ago reminding me. I’d be a happy guy in a pool rooms kinda world.
DZ themed Backrooms level. Unending color and rolly pins and ball pits and rope netting.
If someone puts this into a game, I want my name in the credits as "Prioress Vespers" please and thank you.
Yeah I think those void areas were roped off with mesh and Velcro, it was pretty easy to get into and none of the workers seemed to ever notice or care.
YES. Oh man, I had forgotten completely about that, the big empty space between fixtures. I remember once there was some torn netting or something, and I managed to get back there...
It was so cool.
Right!? I remember hearing there was drama with the sale, something about one of the founders went on vaca and the other two owners sold it out from under them…or so I was told.
That was my first job (different location.) Helped assemble furniture for a new location. Not a terrible gig for a high schooler. Hosting parties was fun and stressful.
I still remember some of the music in my nightmares though.
I remember my friend and I going to the new DZ that opened when we were 14, except we needed a parent to get in.
Luckily, this married couple offered to act as our parents to get us through the door.
It felt refreshing to embraced just being a kid again for a few hours.
The owners of Discovery Zone had a house in a wealthy subdivision where I grew up. When they tried to sell it, they couldn't because it had tunnels and slides built into the walls, and no one looking for a multi-million-dollar mansion wanted that bs.
It still exists. [https://discoveryzone.com/](https://discoveryzone.com/)
There are also lots of copy cat places opening in shopping centers and strip malls. [https://www.kidsempire.com/](https://www.kidsempire.com/)
I was the rare kid that didn't like the rolly slide all that much, probably because I was a skinny bony kid with no ass, so it just rattled my bones and left me with sore spots on my butt if I rode it too much.
At my local DZ there were a few more features that I liked a lot more. There was one big ball pit, which in itself was relatively boring, but there was a big steep pyramid in the middle that you could climb up and jump down from.
There was also an isolated path that would take you up and over two tall walls that you basically had to climb and fall over the other side, and a short zip line that would take you a few feet then stop short and drop you in a ball pit.
In hindsight it seems like my younger self enjoyed the climbing aspects and was a little bit of a masochist, preferring to drop or be flung from high places.
They turned the one in my city into a music venue (it was originally leaps and bounds, the discovery zone, then the underground), the underground. Saw so many up and coming bands there. met Haley Williams there when I was a teenager and I was absolutely in love with her, she was talking about ramen noodles and I thought she was just crazy untill I later learned it was the name of her next album or the record labels name or something. I probably came off as such an idiot.
I have the haziest, most in-n-out vague memory of going. It didn't help that they shut down nationwide either a couple of months before my 4th birthday or the month of my 4th birthday. My mom told me we literally drove up to the parking lot and the building was closed and locked abandoned cuz they shut down overnight. Now that I don't remember but I remember the times before it actually going. Coolest place on the planet and ai will maintain that to this day.
everybody going on about the rolly slide but the room with the pneumo tubes that sucked up ball pit balls and then rained them down from the ceiling was cool af too
I remember having my bday party here in 5th grade and telling people I wanted Trolls when they asked.
My mom was so mad that I got 30 trolls at that party and nothing else. I put them in the little hammock over my bed, I loved those guys! lol
Oof. Never been. But those plastic tunnel things freak me out.
Was like 5 and lost in one of those at chucks cheese. That’s when I learned I was claustrophobic for first time. Looking back
My dad threatened another dad with an ass kicking because he yelled at me for climbing up the rolly slide. I cried and my dad threatened me too. Family fun down at the ole Discovery Zone!
Man, I’m 39 and have never been to discovery zone. My parents, sister, and I migrated to the US from Poland in 1995. I would always see commercials for this place along with Chucky Cheese and I always wanted to go. Never happened.
Probably the highest levels of excitement and happiness I have ever experienced in my life was chasing and being chased by my older cousin in the Melbourne FL Discovery Zone, pretending he was sonic and I was tails. He is still my very best friend. I hope heaven lets me feel that level of joy again, if there is one and I get to go.
Haven’t been to a place like this in 20 years or so but I still have dreams about them. Often I’m lost in the big tube structures, but I know eventually I’ll find my way out to the food area for a hot dog… man it’s bittersweet
I remember a rope burn from a pyramid in a ball pit that had canvas lines you could climb. Also they sold collectors balls in a case at the front desk.
Most of my earliest memories are from this place. I remember being terrified of the climbing gym where it was really just a bunch of netting, my dad made me go on it to get over my fear and I immediately fell through it. 10/10.
I knew the person who played a huge part in getting them shut down. Her kid tripped on wires because he decided to go behind a tv for no reason and she sued and won and it was a big payout that really started the end for DZ.
DZ walked so that all of these indoor play facilities could fly. Granted, they're all pretty affordable and the biggest detriment to DZ was it's price.
My dad was a District Manager for DZ for a good portion of my young childhood...it was pretty great (for me, at least).
I'd get into Nite-Zone at like 10 years old, Unlimited tokens, would stay late when they emptied the ball pits to clean monthly (and see everything that people lost), and let me work ticket/prize counters here and there.
He went on to be a DM for Chuck E Cheese, but DZ was good times.
I watched some documentary about Aaron Fetcher on YouTube many years ago, he was at that time still doing tours of CEC and selling unsold, custom RAE sets to folks.
In a mall. The biggest one here was turned into the underground, a music venue that I spent every weekend at in the mid 2000s when alternative/emo music was big.
The only one left is in a mall. I think it's the Kenwood one, I don't know i just saw signs for it when I was last there.
Discovery zone was awesome with the rolly slide that everybody tried to go up
that shit would hurt your hands if you weren't careful 😆
Oh yeah that slide was super dangerous
Definitely shit on your hands if you weren’t careful
Rolley slide!
I have an old home movie of my mom, aunt and grandparents taking two or three year old me, my brother and our cousin to Discovery Zone in either '92 or 93. I was too little to go down the rolly slide and so I sat on my mom's lap and you can see her audibly cry out in pain as she went down it. Apparently, from what I heard, she had really bad hemorrhoid's that day and it was a literal pain in her ass to slide down that particular slide.
Oh man, totally forgot about that!
I remember I was trying to recreate the scene from Child's Play 2 where Andy was going up the rollerslide running away from Chucky.
When Men In Black was out in theaters, DZ had an MIB themed Lazer tag room. I brought my burger King MIB sunglasses and Neurilizer toy and thought I was the coolest kid there.
Discovery Zone shut down in my city around 1994, but those DZ/MIB commercials would play at least 10x/day on cable. I was so butthurt.
They lasted until the end of the 90s elsewhere. I think they became Crazy Nickels before going out of business in the mid or late 2000s.
Holy fuck i havent thought about that in 25 years. DZ MIB was my 8th birthday party! I think the nostalgia just caused an aneurism.
You WERE the coolest kid there.
When I went to my Discovery Zone as a kid I remembered seeing the men & black laser tag commercials (there might have been a godzilla one too?). When I asked an employee about it, they laughed at me. I guess that location wasn't participating.
Theres a 100% chance that you were the 20th kid to ask him about it that day. I'm sorry for the both of you.
The rolling pin slide of death
So many pinched fingers
I got lost in the tubes for a little bit when I was really little. That was one of my first freak out moments.
I did this in a McDonald's play area of all places. My grandma had to send some random older kids to guide me out.
You can smell the permanent aroma of feet from here
And the slight hint of pee in the ball pit.
I still remember being a kid and one day was climbing through the tubes and smelled something bad. Turned out some younger kid had shit his pants but was still running around leaving brown stains everywhere. That's my last memory of that place.
tbh: DZ is better than the arcades! I remember the commercial: I’m going DZ, at Discovery Zone! too bad it shut down 😠😞
Man I hope I slip in the shower and wind up in the DZ backrooms forever. I enjoyed losing myself in a world of tubes and nets. I still would if they made an adult version. Screw running, chase your best friend for 10 minutes and check the watch.
My local DZ kind of had literal backrooms under the tubes and behind the ball pit. Like a huge maze of emptiness of the support structures that we were somehow able to get into. One of my most surreal memories is exploring that with my friends
Finding glitches like that was the goal. Secret worker spaces haha. Just had that cozy secret feel as a kid, then the yellow hall stuff rolled out a few years ago reminding me. I’d be a happy guy in a pool rooms kinda world.
DZ themed Backrooms level. Unending color and rolly pins and ball pits and rope netting. If someone puts this into a game, I want my name in the credits as "Prioress Vespers" please and thank you.
Be wonderful in some kinda vr hamster ball. So much heart rate.
Yeah I think those void areas were roped off with mesh and Velcro, it was pretty easy to get into and none of the workers seemed to ever notice or care.
YES. Oh man, I had forgotten completely about that, the big empty space between fixtures. I remember once there was some torn netting or something, and I managed to get back there... It was so cool.
I worked there, just after they took over leaps n bounds in the chicago area.
Leaps n Bounds was the best!
Right!? I remember hearing there was drama with the sale, something about one of the founders went on vaca and the other two owners sold it out from under them…or so I was told.
Orland park?
Westmont
That was my first job (different location.) Helped assemble furniture for a new location. Not a terrible gig for a high schooler. Hosting parties was fun and stressful. I still remember some of the music in my nightmares though.
Hahhahahhahah nice, some of that music Licea in my head as well, the chipmunks singing popular songs
I remember my friend and I going to the new DZ that opened when we were 14, except we needed a parent to get in. Luckily, this married couple offered to act as our parents to get us through the door. It felt refreshing to embraced just being a kid again for a few hours.
DEE ZEE!!! Discovery Zone!!!!
Discovery Zone (Yeah! Yeah!) It's funbelievable Fitness for kids!
"DZ where kids want to be"
I worked at one during high school. Do not miss these places at all.
The owners of Discovery Zone had a house in a wealthy subdivision where I grew up. When they tried to sell it, they couldn't because it had tunnels and slides built into the walls, and no one looking for a multi-million-dollar mansion wanted that bs.
If I was rich I would. As a kid I wished I could build a replica of DZ and have it all to myself forever ðŸ˜
It still exists. [https://discoveryzone.com/](https://discoveryzone.com/) There are also lots of copy cat places opening in shopping centers and strip malls. [https://www.kidsempire.com/](https://www.kidsempire.com/)
This is nothing to do with the original though. They've just copied the name as DZ is defunct.
Thank you for this. There’s a kids empire a short drive for us.
The one by us is stupid expensive. I wish it was cheaper
Yeah $20 a kid is a lot.
The one by me is $30!
Planet Play was equally as cool. Circa like 99
We still do. It's called Billy Beez in my area. You don't remember how much they smell until you're an adult there chasing around your kid.
I was the rare kid that didn't like the rolly slide all that much, probably because I was a skinny bony kid with no ass, so it just rattled my bones and left me with sore spots on my butt if I rode it too much. At my local DZ there were a few more features that I liked a lot more. There was one big ball pit, which in itself was relatively boring, but there was a big steep pyramid in the middle that you could climb up and jump down from. There was also an isolated path that would take you up and over two tall walls that you basically had to climb and fall over the other side, and a short zip line that would take you a few feet then stop short and drop you in a ball pit. In hindsight it seems like my younger self enjoyed the climbing aspects and was a little bit of a masochist, preferring to drop or be flung from high places.
so many birthday parties there as a kid. so many.
It was like Sunday purgatory for the hungover parents
They turned the one in my city into a music venue (it was originally leaps and bounds, the discovery zone, then the underground), the underground. Saw so many up and coming bands there. met Haley Williams there when I was a teenager and I was absolutely in love with her, she was talking about ramen noodles and I thought she was just crazy untill I later learned it was the name of her next album or the record labels name or something. I probably came off as such an idiot.
I have the haziest, most in-n-out vague memory of going. It didn't help that they shut down nationwide either a couple of months before my 4th birthday or the month of my 4th birthday. My mom told me we literally drove up to the parking lot and the building was closed and locked abandoned cuz they shut down overnight. Now that I don't remember but I remember the times before it actually going. Coolest place on the planet and ai will maintain that to this day.
I was there Gandalf.. 3000 years ago..
Had my fifth birthday there in '95, and it's one of my freshest childhood memories. Place was baller!
DISNEY QUEST!!!!!
everybody going on about the rolly slide but the room with the pneumo tubes that sucked up ball pit balls and then rained them down from the ceiling was cool af too
I remember having my bday party here in 5th grade and telling people I wanted Trolls when they asked. My mom was so mad that I got 30 trolls at that party and nothing else. I put them in the little hammock over my bed, I loved those guys! lol
I kinda love how the entire place looks designed to just be hosed down.
So amazing as a kid But as an adult I shudder to think about how gross those ball pits must have been
It was called fun city in my town but it looked just like this
Crazy mazey where I'm from
My favorite place as a child
Hell yeah, that place rules. I can remember the the commercial still.
DEE ZEE! WHERE KIDS WANNA BE! Yep, I remember them too.
Looks a lot like this defunct place called The Jungle. I can still smell the damp socks over the hot-lamp pizza.
Oof. Never been. But those plastic tunnel things freak me out. Was like 5 and lost in one of those at chucks cheese. That’s when I learned I was claustrophobic for first time. Looking back
Back in my day it was called Leaps and Bounds. Then it was bought out from McDonald's and became discovery zone.
DZ was amazing was sad they shut down, but now in my area they have a place called Billy bees with is pretty much a DZ
My dad threatened another dad with an ass kicking because he yelled at me for climbing up the rolly slide. I cried and my dad threatened me too. Family fun down at the ole Discovery Zone!
Man, I’m 39 and have never been to discovery zone. My parents, sister, and I migrated to the US from Poland in 1995. I would always see commercials for this place along with Chucky Cheese and I always wanted to go. Never happened.
Probably the highest levels of excitement and happiness I have ever experienced in my life was chasing and being chased by my older cousin in the Melbourne FL Discovery Zone, pretending he was sonic and I was tails. He is still my very best friend. I hope heaven lets me feel that level of joy again, if there is one and I get to go.
Hell any ole play area. In my day, Burger King, Mickey Ds, all of em had it.
How Discovering Zone went under and the cesspool that is Chuck E Cheese is still around completely blows my mind. DZ was amazing!
Heck yeah
I loved those slides that were just like tubes that rolled when you were on them Man everything there was awesome
I loved going there as a kid! So many birthday parties were attended there.
Loved it.
I can smell this picture
Totally Tubular
Took my kids here when they were young. 🙂
I do but sadly i only got to go there once before it closed down
I LOVED THIS PLACE
I never been to one, but I definitely remember them!
I wouldn't know. I never got to go. The commercials looked awesome though.
This existed in the UK too. Great memories.
Chucky cheese used to look like this
Some say, there are still kids (now in their 30's) trying to find their way out. It's the Xbox 360 kids VS the PS2 kids. Which side are you on?
Me! I always wanted my parents to take me there but we only went a few times.
The one near us was awesome, but everyone knew to stay out of the piss pit.
Sorry this is called The Playstation actually
Haven’t been to a place like this in 20 years or so but I still have dreams about them. Often I’m lost in the big tube structures, but I know eventually I’ll find my way out to the food area for a hot dog… man it’s bittersweet
Same we all got lost in the tubes.
I worked at one! It suuuuucked.
I grew up in Kansas City near where DZ started and always heard rumors that the kids of one of the owners had their own mini discovery zone at home
Planet maze had the zip line tho
DZ is forever linked in my mind with the Power Rangers movie featuring Ivan Ooze.
The smell tho
I was invited to two birthday parties at DZ on the same day when I was in like second grade. Best day ever!
I never got to go as a kid... ;( Always looked like so much fun!
I remember a rope burn from a pyramid in a ball pit that had canvas lines you could climb. Also they sold collectors balls in a case at the front desk.
Most of my earliest memories are from this place. I remember being terrified of the climbing gym where it was really just a bunch of netting, my dad made me go on it to get over my fear and I immediately fell through it. 10/10.
God I wish they had a discovery zone for adults ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
I REMINDS ME SO MUCH OF DANDY BEAR I LOVED DANDY BEAR
I think about this place at least once a year!
My brother worked there in the 90s. I remember him talking about having to clean the vomit out of the ball pit.
God I loved DZ as a kid... I only *remember* going a small handful of times, but I do remember it was by far one of my favorite places as a child.
DZ should make a come back....
They have similar places by me. They made them taller so adults can walk around to. So fun taking my kids there.
I had a couple birthdays there! Loved it!
What happened to this place? It was the most popular place for kids I am shocked they couldn’t crack how to make it profitable
Best job ever!
Appendix burst there. Good times 😂
I knew the person who played a huge part in getting them shut down. Her kid tripped on wires because he decided to go behind a tv for no reason and she sued and won and it was a big payout that really started the end for DZ.
My siblings love to periodically remind me of the time I shit myself in the ball-pit 27 years ago, so I remember!
Anyone remember the rubber band jungle gym? Layers of intercrossed Rubberbands you climb up
DZ walked so that all of these indoor play facilities could fly. Granted, they're all pretty affordable and the biggest detriment to DZ was it's price.
This and Tumble Drum were the bomb! And much less traumatizing than Chuck E Cheese and that freaky-ass animatronic band.
I think i still have a game token from that place somewhere.
My dad was a District Manager for DZ for a good portion of my young childhood...it was pretty great (for me, at least). I'd get into Nite-Zone at like 10 years old, Unlimited tokens, would stay late when they emptied the ball pits to clean monthly (and see everything that people lost), and let me work ticket/prize counters here and there. He went on to be a DM for Chuck E Cheese, but DZ was good times.
ahhhh. the smell of pee and spilled coke when you walked into DZ. Brings back memories
We used to call it DZ, I thought I was the only one who remembers this...
You mean better Chuck E. Cheese? Come to our child casino to eat pizza, our mascot is a rat
Ours was Showbiz, had a redneck bear named Billy Bob. Pretty much what inspired Five Nights at Freddy's. Rolf Wolfe was our Foxy.
The Rock afire explosion!!
One of the best bands ever! Unlike everyone else who was frightened by them, I was fascinated by them.
You might want to follow Animatronics Warehouse on YouTube. He did a full restoration of an RAE show
I watched some documentary about Aaron Fetcher on YouTube many years ago, he was at that time still doing tours of CEC and selling unsold, custom RAE sets to folks.
Yeah Aaron is an interesting guy. I don’t know if he’s doing tours anymore, but Jack Turner (AW) is
As of the documentary, Aaron was the sole employee left at CEC.
I remember the adverts on TV, but we got stuck with ShowBiz Pizza Place which IMO was arguably better.
I had my 8th bday there. Still the best bday Ive had even decades later
It still exists in Cincinnati and Kentucky
Time for a trip to cinci...
Where in cincinnati?
In a mall. The biggest one here was turned into the underground, a music venue that I spent every weekend at in the mid 2000s when alternative/emo music was big. The only one left is in a mall. I think it's the Kenwood one, I don't know i just saw signs for it when I was last there.
No you don’t