I’m posting the weekly featured exhibit a few hours early while it’s still May the 4th. This is the original concept artwork commissioned by George Carter III to illustrate his vision for Photon, the first commercial laser tag arena game, which was inspired by his watching the movie Star Wars.
With all that evolved from that idea, it seems fitting to note it on this day…May the 4th be with you and let the light shine!
I’m usually the one asking the questions, but this week the tables are turned as I answer questions about my views on what makes for successful laser tag operations along with my co-panelist, Caleb Bittar, during this discussion panel moderated by Russ Van Natta.
Enjoy the Laser Tag: Anchor vs Afterthought panel from the Laser Tag Summit on this week’s episode of Laser Unfocused Tag Talk.
May is Mental Health Month and as laser tag players, we have a rather unique way that we can all be part of the “light up green” campaign…quite literally!
This month, whatever laser tag system you play, if you can light up a green pack during a game, I encourage you to do so and post a pic to show that you “light up green” in support of Mental Health Month and to show solidarity with the one in five people who will experience a mental health condition in a given year. Learn more athttps://mhanational.org/mental-health-month/light-up-green/and tag your photos @mentalhealthamerica to help raise awareness.
This is an issue that I know has directly impacted our community. I will “light up green” packs this month and be vocal about my support for our friends and all individuals who are facing mental health challenges.
In what feels like another lifetime ago, I produced this video for a young woman who wrote and sang a beautiful original song about the mental health challenges teenagers can face. I hope you will enjoy hearing her song and perhaps its message will resonate with you.
If you would like to donate to support Mental Health America, you can do so at https://mhanational.org/donate/. However, it costs nothing to simply help raise awareness.
So together let’s get out into the arenas this month and “light up green” for Mental Health Month!
My home laser tag site just got a new game in the arcade, so I made two trips out to The Fun Warehouse in Syracuse this weekend for the chance to be among the first at our site to play Pixel. The unveiling of this new attraction coincided perfectly with my primary reason for being there, which was meeting up with some of my teammates for members night.
We had another monthly members party scheduled, which is a chance for the more serious players to get together to play against one another other in a wider variety of game formats than we get to play on a regular public night. I was pleased to see the excellent turnout for this night because we not only had members coming from quite a distance away (as far as Rochester, Buffalo and even Dave from Canada), but this event also drew some of the newest members who have just recently joined. It was a packed party for sure!
Axman took the lead on this event, showing up with a list of game formats so we could vote with some democracy on which special games we wanted to play. I love that Photon emulation got the second highest number of votes (yes, I nudged hard for that when people were coming up to vote) just behind Z-Game (another favorite of mine) and it was interesting to see how the choices were reflected in the vote.
I was a bit surprised to see Color Conquest and Challenge Royale tie for third in the vote, only because those are games we play frequently on regular weekends. I always feel like these nights are better suited to be opportunities to experience games that are a little more out of the box, but people like what they like, so we played those formats next, followed by Megabase, Team Supercharge (another surprising vote), Laser Ball and Domination.
I found Laser Ball particularly enjoyable this time as a result of the true teamwork being evidenced. Now, of course that’s how you would hope it works all the time, but sometimes it is just clearer to see the passing, the assists and the successes coming from actually working together as opposed to having a strong player just barreling through (no further comment needed, but we all know what that’s like). My two personal favorite moments weren’t even from scoring myself (though I did enjoy making a clean run through the arena to get my goal), but rather clearing a path along the way to Slayer scoring and then being there to guard when O-Man got his second goal ever. He was over the moon about that and this was a game to document for posterity as a result.
Domination is another format where without teamwork you can’t really succeed, so getting to play these kind of games with members, either at or ascending to a higher level, was far more interesting than the average night…even though I did enjoy playing a regular tag night on Friday as well.
Why was I here on Friday? As I said, I showed up for an extra night just so I could be among the first at this site to have the Pixel game experience. Trying it at trade shows is one thing, but now that we have it in Syracuse, I want to try to do it well. Check out how that first night went and tell me how far I have to go, lol!
The next night I invited my friends to join me and we all got Pixelated playing the simpler game modes to start (I think Mama Bear selected the kids mode for us, but we’ll keep that our little secret) and after a couple of rounds we decided that we are much better at tag, but we had fun with this new attraction in between our laser tag games. :)
Several of us are playing in the Armageddon laser tag tournament soon, so nights like this are important, not only for keeping up chops on the different systems, but also for the camaraderie that keeps us together in between those spread out tournament times. With all of us scattered geographically, it was awesome to get to spend a night visiting, doing what we love and laser tagging together.
Last month I was involved with the Laser Tag Summit, powered by Amusement Expo International in Las Vegas.
Three education panels were dedicated specifically to laser tag. I will be sharing the discussions from that event as part of a series on the Laser Unfocused Tag Talk podcast, beginning with this first panel that I moderated with guests Beth Standlee and Candi Kelley of TrainerTainment. Enjoy!
Tag is going to the dogs…literally! I set out bright and early, headed for tag at The Fun Warehouse in Syracuse first thing in the morning. Why? A fundraiser event was going on in support of the Seventh Heaven Rescue, which is a local dog foster/adoption organization. I was only a participant in the event this time, showing up simply as a player who wanted to support the cause, but on the heels of my most recent Tag 4 A Cause, you can imagine how raising funds to help this kind of organization really speaks to me.
I chatted with a few of the volunteers who told me that this is a foster-based rescue organization. Rather than operating out of a fixed location, they look for people to care for the dogs as foster animals until/unless they are adopted into permanent homes.
At their table they had pictures of some of the dogs in need of adoption as well as T-shirts for sale to support their mission, so for the rest of the day I wore mine both in and out of the arena.
The fundraiser was an enjoyable three hours of tag early on in the day. These hours saw more kids playing in the game and one young girl decided to become my sidekick for the day. I really enjoyed being able to show her how to tag the bases and get plenty of points. I shall call her…Tiny Tivia, lol! Everyone really enjoyed the event and it was great to know that our tag was helping to make a difference for the dogs they help.
The timing was perfect to share something else as well. While working on my recent video discussing a new element in the SM5 game I had reached out to a fellow laser tag player in Australia asking for her to lend her artistic talent to my project. My sincere thanks to Lucie Dunovska (aka Lucidun) for providing me with an awesome piece of art for the video that was equally fitting for this occasion!
Lucie, this is amazing! And the volunteers from Seventh Heaven Rescue loved this as well, clearly impressed to see that our laser tag community is worldwide. Considering the time difference between the USA and Australia, it is amazing that Lucie and I were communicating in real time, right when this fundraiser was happening!
I really support any organization that works to provide care for animals. I am unable to foster a dog because I am already a gecko mama, but having any pet simply means I understand very well how much animals need us and how much they bring to our lives.
That’s why I am so glad that I was able to be part of this event and that Seventh Heaven Rescue was able to benefit from people supporting their cause while playing laser tag. Love it!
I got the opportunity to end my work week with some local laser tag, which is a sentence I don’t get to say often! Usually I’m off traveling to find new laser tag arenas in other states, but this time I was delighted to discover something that is basically right in my own back yard. How astounding is that?!
I ended my day out in the eastern part of my region, as I often do, in the town where the company I work for has a satellite office. Then I kept driving just eight minutes to the east. Yep…eight minutes put me in the next town over where I got to play some Helios CE laser tag at The Local in Schenectady for the very first time!
This may be the best kept secret in the area. Let me explain how it is possible for a laser tag to be right under my nose without me knowing about it. I actually had a general awareness of Via Port, which I had looked up an online a couple of years ago. It appeared to have several cool things happening in a revitalized mall that includes a major aquarium and a few other unique attractions. At the time when I first looked into this, it appeared to not have laser tag, so in that moment I mentally just set it aside. However, we all know that businesses grow and evolve, and apparently laser tag was added at this location in the fall of 2023. And yet it took a trip to Virginia and a conversation with a mutual friend who mentioned “I think Jeremy is involved with laser tag in that area” for me to take a second look. I’m so glad I did!
The “Jeremy” he referenced is Jeremy Gaddy, a familiar name in the laser tag world, who is now general manager at The Local. It was awesome to get to catch up with him when I stopped by, as it had been several years since we first met down in Florida at IAAPA. I have played at many laser tag arenas that he has operated in the past, so what a pleasant surprise to now find him living up in my neck of the woods and to hear about all that The Local has to offer. This business includes a variety of attractions ranging from escape rooms to blacklight mini golf, arcade, food and drinks and even (my second favorite thing they offer) a karaoke room! But of course I walked in “laser focused” on playing laser tag, so he immediately set me up for a game with Alyssa and we went in to check out the arena.
This was all the more awesome to me because, while most people would enter and simply see a cool arena, I saw some familiar history. Jeremy gave me the backstory about the origins of the early-design CW theming inside the space as we prepared for the game. It’s a single-level arena, about 2000 square feet, with black lights galore and some extra lighting effects to keep things interesting! :)
My favorite design element is something that I recognize is being used in a completely different kind of way. Check out this structure that houses the blue base.
It’s a classic arena piece that has been repurposed in a new way to fit within the space with a completely different functionality than how you typically see it. Love the ingenuity!
Tagging with the CE equipment and the phaser style that I used when I first started playing is something that always feels special to me.
Who would have guessed I’d be playing laser tag tonight? Ok, anyone could have guessed that, but who knew I’d be playing so close to home?
While this visit was just a quick stop at the end of my work week, knowing that laser tag is now a truly local option for me at The Local makes me certain I will be back for more soon!
