On Sunday, I went and played laser tag with my daughter.
While I did feel relatively old after pulling a calf muscle halfway through, it was a lot of fun. The vests have blinking LED’s that go dark when you’re hit, and the guns actually shoot laser beams, so you could see where you were shooting. As an added (safety?) measure, there was a sensor on the grip of the gun that wouldn’t allow it to fire unless it felt your hand on there. I spent most of my time roaming from corner to corner, up the stairs, down the stairs, corner to corner. Since my daughter was on a different team than me, I’d run into her every once in a while and we’d shoot, laugh, and then run away from each other.
There were some other parents in there, and for the most part they roamed pretty well, and we too would laugh whenever we encountered each other.
There were two exceptions however. Two of the dads decided to “camp“. Personally, I hate campers, because there’s no flow to the game. They’re just sitting there picking off people. Boooorrinng. So, in my wandering, I made a point to sneak up on the campers and pop them from a position where they didn’t realize it. I got each of them to exclaim “Damn!” when they figured out I was just sitting there shooting them over and over and they couldn’t see me. Once I got them enough, I would take off and roam some more.
A lot of fun.
I was telling my daughter that back in the day the setups on this were much more bulky and you had to wear an entire helmet. I found this article: Laser Tag born in Houston and Dallas .
Most of my memories recalled the Photon on Chimney Rock – even though I only played there a few times. I had entirely forgotten the Star Laser Force place, or “Star” as we called it. Star didn’t last too long from what I recall, and later became a Gymnastics Training Facility. It also coincidentally was right down the street from where my friend Jeremy and I years later had an accident in his Honda CRX – some dude in a giant buick took a turn in front of us and we slammed into it. My memory of Photon was that it was built inside an old Safeway, had two levels, and pounding music. The helmets were so bulky (and blurry) that with my glasses on it was a lost cause. I hated it because I couldn’t see where I was going, much less shoot anyone.
The other thing I remember from the heights of the second level (watching the action) was that it was nowhere near as fun watching as it was playing.
The interesting thing about the article is that it pegs Star Laser and Photon (both in Texas) as the earliest forms of Laser Tag as we know it. I know the concept was weird when I first played at Star, and I think I remember walking into the strip center style small office with grey berber carpet, then being let out into the warehouse to play.
I remember it being pricey, and that sure hasn’t changed. The blood-pumping adrenaline rush you get from hunting people lasts just a short time.
Good thing my daughter only wanted to play it once.