Celebrating 10 Years of Blogging at My Home Site

There is no way I could have celebrated the ten year anniversary of TiviachickLovesLaserTag.com without playing some laser tag in the place where it all began, at The Fun Warehouse in Camillus, NY.

Ok, yes, technically Fun Junction was my very first laser tag home, but ever since 2014 I have really considered both of these arenas to be my “home sites”, as they were both the places where I regularly spent every weekend when I began writing my blog ten years ago. However, FWH is the one that is still going strong and where I am still able to enjoy laser tag a decade later, so it was awesome to be able to celebrate this milestone “back at home” with friends who are both my teammates and active members here as well. 

The actual blog anniversary is officially on December 16th, so I will definitely have something cool to share then to commemorate the date, which everyone helped me with at the start of the night. We gathered in the party room to film a fun video intro with congratulations being expressed (watch for it soon) and then…cake!

In case you couldn’t tell, this is my favorite was to celebrate…

But this is a VERY close second!

One of my earliest blog posts (back when I knew almost nothing about laser tag and I was simply journaling online) was called “Faking Photon”. This was all about my first time playing Laserforce’s Photon emulation at FWH, which is my favorite game format, so of course we had to play it again tonight! As has become the tradition here, whenever we play Photon, I give the briefing, complete with a short history of the game to make sure the light still shines!

We went into the vesting room and got ready to play. I was on the red team.

Fun fact: George Carter always played Photon on the red team too. Maybe that’s good luck! :)

Returning this night felt a bit nostalgic. And if we really want to take a deep dive down memory lane, here are a few of my favorite memories playing at The Fun Warehouse over the last ten years.

Big thanks to all my friends who came out to celebrate with me! Slayer, Axman, Mama Bear, Nobody, Fenrir, AlexBoxes, DogeBuster and RazorWires made this night so much fun!

Thank you to Tim, Beanz, Fox, Brenden, Alex, Jackal, Ethan, Jared, Zac, Ruth, Lenny, Cody, Brian, Cass and anyone else who has been part of the staff over the years who have made this place such an awesome place for laser tag. An arena is simply a building, but it is the people there who make it a place to call home. You all rock!

Comments or Questions? 

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com 

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com

and https://tiviachick.wixsite.com/photonforever

and https://lasertagmuseum.com

The Same Name Game - Part 3

It’s Museum Collection Monday! Here’s another instance of a product that shared a similar name with another product (the other product was Canadian). I’ll only show you the front (at least I’m about 95% sure this is the front!) because if I showed you the other side you could simply read the name off the back panel. ;) 

Instead, you can find the answer in this week’s featured video exhibit at https://lasertagmuseum.com/exhibits/noteworthy/.

Comments or Questions? 

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com 

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com

and https://tiviachick.wixsite.com/photonforever

and https://lasertagmuseum.com

Laser Tag at IAAPA 2024 (Podcast)

It’s time for the annual “Laser Tag at IAAPA” episode of the Laser Unfocused Tag Talk podcast!

My favorite part of IAAPA (and the primary reason that I attend) is chatting with the laser tag manufacturers to learn more about their latest innovations they are bringing to the game and find out where they think the laser tag industry is headed. There is a lot of optimism for the future of laser tag. Hear about it directly from the laser tag manufacturers in attendance at this year’s event!

ON SPOTIFY:

https://open.spotify.com/show/0xzXT3aqGa2edIlXpcaJBS

ON APPLE PODCASTS:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laser-unfocused-tag-talk-with-tivia/id1632442213

ON YOUTUBE:

https://youtu.be/_RAE_X-s6kg?si=VjwjsFiOGZz-z_zS

Comments or Questions? 

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com 

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com

and https://tiviachick.wixsite.com/photonforever

and https://lasertagmuseum.com

Just Opened! - LaserMaxx Danvers

You may have heard about the new LaaerMaxx locations that are being opened in former Laser Quest buildings in the U.S. and Canada. I have played and discussed a few of them myself. Well, this past weekend during my travels to Boston, I detoured over to Danvers where a new LaserMaxx location has just opened within the last two weeks!

Walking into LaserMaxx Danvers felt very nostalgic. This had been one of my favorite LQ sites, so it was really special to get to play here again. I was greeted at “Mission Control” (do they still call it that?) by Anna aka Megatron who remembered when I used to show up for the Ironman games back in the day. So nice to see a friendly face from the LQ days! She got me into a game right away and I joined a group headed into the briefing room.

As familiar as it felt, there are a lot of new things happening here as well. First of all, the vesting room is full of colorful LaaerMaxx Evo 6 packs (the newest version). 

They kind of remind me of Christmas tree lights! And the familiar space themed background art still makes me smile.

I pulled pack number three from the rack and got ready to play.

As the other players made their way into the arena, I could tell from their comments that they were already in awe of the space. After all, these arenas are huge game spaces!

I have only had a few opportunities to play LaserMaxx, so I began by re-familiarizing myself with the gear as I tagged with my opponents, which refers to everyone because this was a free for all game.

The phasers have flashlights (a feature I have mixed feelings about) and you must press down the button on the front that activates the flashlight in order to fire the phaser.

If you are tagged you will hear a sound repeating three times from the pack speakers. In my opinion this sounds like a cat’s meow, but I’m sure that will not be the popular consensus. :)

When your pack comes back up you have a brief moment of protection before you can be tagged again, so you definitely need to be aware of the timing as your opponent returns from a deactivation. Another important thing to know is that your points can both increase and decrease throughout the game. In the final 60 seconds of the game everyone gets rapid fire at the same time. This is a fun minute of frenzy! 

This arena looks better than I remember! Anna pointed out that the airbrushed art is new, but where I see brush strokes the art was there before.

There are also some changes to the arena build including this area that used to be a closet!

And there are now vibrant accents on the floor to help guide players out of the arena.

Anna told me they took over this building in May and had been preparing the arena to open ever since, with LaserMaxx Danvers officially opening on November 15th.

I had so much fun with my first game! Even though I had a schedule to keep, as I was getting ready to leave I saw a group of guys show up talking about how this place brings back memories. LQ players? Real competitors? I had to stay and play a second game!

It was even more fun the second time around.

I hope that more players with fond memories discover that the arena they loved has been resurrected with a new owner, new name and new gear. I am so glad I had a chance to play a couple of games at LaserMaxx Danvers. I’ll be back!

Comments or Questions? 

Contact: Tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com 

Websites: www.tiviachickloveslasertag.com

and https://tiviachick.wixsite.com/photonforever

and https://lasertagmuseum.com