Tiviachick Loves Laser Tag

A BIG Experience at Dezerland Park

When I told Scuba that we were going to play laser tag at an entertainment complex that was 850,000 square feet he looked at me very skeptically, like I couldn’t possibly have gotten that figure right. However, Dezerland Park in Orlando, FL actually IS that big and we got to play using the Netronic Eclipse indoor taggers in their inflatable laser tag arena (a smaller piece of the big picture…I will guess the arena size to be around 2500 square feet), making this an interesting stop for multiple reasons! :)

I don’t often get to play this system. The Eclipse taggers we used are part of Netronic’s indoor equipment, which I have played three times now and each time with a slight variation…once with phasers only, once with the full Galaxy Eclipse spherical sensor pack with the phaser attached and this time with the lighter vest with the smaller sensor targets and untethered phaser.

I felt like the sounds I was hearing in this game were slightly different from those I have heard when playing this system before, but the key information conveyed aurally is “I’m wounded” (as you are being tagged), “The player is dead” (self-explanatory) and “Go, Go, Go!” (when you come back up after being deactivated).

We entered the arena and I was surprised to find how far back it went.

The space plays predominantly lengthwise and with two of us in the game we pretty much stuck to the far end of the space.

The phaser screen gives key health updates during the game, so I found myself looking at it frequently.

It felt like a longer game experience and was an enjoyable cat and mouse kind of game. We came out of the arena feeling like we got quite a novel experience!

Scuba took the win on this one. Good game!

It was cool to experience a different kind of laser tag game, as this was Scuba’s first time playing Netronic.

As mentioned, laser tag was only a small piece of the entirety of what Dezerland Park had to offer. We were told this place was formerly a mall and that its namesake, Michael Dezer, turned into a garage for an amazing car collection before transforming it into the entertainment complex it is now, complete with movie theater, go carts, food and arcade on a scale you have to see to believe. Vintage and custom vehicles are showcased all throughout the building, which is home to the Orlando Auto Museum, all under the same roof!

There were some amazing cars on display!

I must say, Ecto-1 was my favorite vehicle here.

So, if you are looking for a BIG experience in Orlando, you will find it at Dezerland Park with everything but the kitchen sink and laser tag too!

Comments or Questions?

Monday, November 25, 2024

My First Game of Gel Blaster Nexus Laser Tag

After trying this out at their booth at IAAPA, I headed out after the show to play my first game of Gel Blaster Nexus Laser Tag with my friend and laser tag teammate, Scuba Steve.

We visited the Main Event location in Orlando where they are alternating the Gel Blaster Nexus using projectile gellets in one style of game against laser-only games of laser tag that do not involve any kind of projectile. This really helps me to properly define that this gear functions as two-in-one game equipment and to say that this now really does have a place in the laser tag discussion as well. A year ago when the product debuted at IAAPA I had difficulty categorizing it because, even though the game always had an IR signal being sent and received (the minimum definition for laser tag) simultaneously happening alongside the physical projectile, when the gellets were used it really was a hybrid. But now with two functions for the gear available as options, with or without gellets, I can more comfortably call at least the one version “laser tag”…and now, so do they! And that is the primary reason we sought it out while in Florida.

So, always ready to try something new, we showed up and were truly treated like VIPs for this experience.

We were greeted at the arena entrance by Bryce and a couple members of the Main Event team who were training on this new gear. The briefing room was set up with vests on one side, which could be paired up with any of the phasers on the other side.

I selected one of each and was shown how to pair them by tapping the side of the phaser to the red phaser sensor on the front of the vest.

Once connected we could select a team color by tagging the portal target of our preferred color choice.

The process is simple for the user, but I can see tremendous benefit to an operator in having these pieces be interchangeable. With my phaser and vest glowing blue, we were just about ready!

After watching the briefing video (hosted by Senior Vice President of Trends and New Markets, Steve Starobinsky) we entered the arena. I have to pause and say this arena is striking because it appears to be a hybrid of two highly recognizable arena designer’s styles between the inner maze walls by one and the outer perimeter walls by another. For whatever the reason this was done, it made for a very distinctive style and I like the look of this arena a lot! And as this is the 590th arena I have played (yep, counting down to my 600th arena soon) it’s cool to find design choices that can still surprise me. :)

I started the game at my base with Scuba on the opposite side of the field.

The actual base is one of the Gel Blaster portals.

Portals are scattered throughout the arena and when they are glowing a particular color they can be tagged for a power-up. When a tag hits your opponent’s vest it turns red for a moment to indicate the hit.

We had an awesome game experience, chasing and tagging each other throughout the arena. See for yourself in this video of our first game of Gel Blaster Nexus Laser Tag.

Good game Scuba! We returned to the vesting room to check our scores.

Now, we had not yet set up our Gel Blaster accounts at this point, so you will have to trust that I was playing as the Strange Lemur while Scuba was the Busy Lemur, lol. Kudos to whoever came up with those code names! However, we rectified that for the next game by signing up for the free app to track our scores and allow us to enter our actual codenames.

Note to Gel Blaster…we need a character icon choice that looks a bit more like me! :)

We decided that after having a great time playing the laser tag version that we would try it with the gellet projectiles as well. We switched colors this time. For this we needed to wear protective face masks. You can’t tell, but when they said “say cheese!” we were both smiling under our masks!

Playing with gellets is a different experience all together. I imagine this would be most appealing to gamers who enjoy airsoft and paintball, but the hit is mild enough that it works for me too.

I was able to automatically reload by tilting my phaser on its side, which you can see in this video of our first Gel Blaster game with gellets. You can also really hear the difference between this and the laser tag game.

We earned our first stats for the app.

I thoroughly enjoyed this experience! It is completely different trying it out at a trade show booth versus playing an actual game in a proper arena setting. The Gel Blaster Nexus Laser Tag game is one that I would love to play again, and with a list and map of their operating arenas right on the app, I assure you I will be seeking out more opportunities to play this during my upcoming tag travels. We had a blast…or should I say a Gel Blast!

Comments or Questions?

Preparing to Share My IAAPA Highlights

This is not my IAAPA recap. This is my “I’m home, time to absorb and slowly unpack all the good things that just happened” post. This is me telling you that some of my stories will be a bit out of order, but I am preparing to share all sorts of amazing adventures from my time in Orlando for IAAPA 2024 along with everything that followed (trip to Tampa) as I invite you to share my experience.

Please bear with me because there is a lot to unpack here, but suffice it to say, IAAPA 2024 was amazing and I have the photos and videos to back that up. More on the way soon!

Comments or Questions?