Wednesday, September 19, 2018

The Tron at the End of the Rainbow

Someday I hope to be able to say that I've visited every laser tag facility in New York (and right now I'm not too far off from being able to accomplish the that). However, there is one site I have been aware of for several years and yet somehow playing there seemed constantly out of reach...until this past weekend. I'm talking about the Lasertron arena located inside Rainbow Skateland in Lockport, NY.

 

Part of why I have missed this location is distance. It's several hours away from me, so it's not like I'm passing by it often. So I've made efforts only on the sporadic occasions when I'm already nearby. Another reason is timing. I'll take the fault here, but it sure wasn't for lack of trying. From calling ahead to just taking my chances stopping in, I've made roughly half a dozen efforts to work this site into travel plans since learning about it, but when you're working around other events (as has been the case during the handful of times I've found myself out in Western NY) sometimes the timing is just off. I figured I had a good shot at catching them open on my way back from Canada. It was a Saturday afternoon and I figured if I detoured to Lockport I should arrive around 5:00. All FECs are open on Saturday afternoon, right? Wrong! 

 

You see, this place is primarily a roller skating arena with specific open skate times and the Lasertron is a secondary attraction, mostly just for the skaters to have something extra to do between skating sessions. Owner Carrie told me that they rarely have walk-ins and when they do that the people already know they must have a group of six ready to go for them to run tag.

 

Well, I arrived between skating sessions when the place was closed until the evening, but fortunately Carrie and a few employees were still there getting the place ready for later when they would reopen that night.

 

After explaining my blog (and my odd persistence...she remembered me stopping the last time I passed through back in January) they were kind enough to open the arena so I could play a quick one on one game against one of the employees still there. Thanks to Patrick for stepping up!

 



Although the sign outside still says Laser Storm...

 



...this site has been running Lasertron 10 since the new owners took it over a few years back. So Patrick and I suited up and took to our opposite corners of a small, but traditional looking Lasertron field.

 



The game was only five minutes, but that was ample time to give it a decent run.

 



Lasertron is not a game intended to be played 1v1, so it was mostly about keeping the opponent running back to recharge while keeping enough ammo to take a decent amount of shots at the base.

 



We flip-flopped the lead several times during the course of that short game right up to the final seconds, so thanks Patrick for keeping the scores tight. Nice game!

 



And many thanks to Carrie for opening the arena up during their off hours just so I could finally check this site off my list. I appreciate it!

 

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com and www.photonforever.com

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