Leaving Long Island, Tron On The Way Back

The last laser tag location I got to play on Long Island was at Laser Bounce.

 

Here we got to play some Lasertron 10.

The arena was on the small side and set up a little differently than I expected. We were told to shoot the bases which were located at each side’s painted alien.

However, the game master also instructed that there were hidden targets on the towers. Now, this was an unusual turn of phrase because where these targets were “hidden” was actually on the arch where I would normally look for a base anyhow…so it sort of sounded like it was presented backwards, but a distinction without a real difference.

The game went for a solid 15 minutes (instead of being broken up into a couple of shorter rounds as I am accustomed to with Tron) so running back and forth across this arena got exhausting rather quickly.

But all in all it was a good game and a great way to end this visit to Long Island.

 

Then on the way back a mid-point stop brought us to Kingston Lanes where there was more Tron to be played. This time it was a free for all in their arena adjacent to the main attraction here, a bowling alley. After registering at the computer terminal it was time to put on another pack for a final game before heading home.

I really prefer free for all Tron games and this one was all about being stealth. I love that! This was a chill, low key way to end the trip and I really enjoyed. This site had more of a cool tone with its blue lights and sleek arena design.

What a great, somewhat impromptu weekend adventure going to and from all these arenas and traveling down on Long Island. I absolutely love getting to have a wide variety of laser tag experiences. This will certainly tide me over until my next multi-state trip that will be coming up soon. What a great time I had exploring so much tag in southern NY!

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Q-Zar NY

The main reason I wanted to tag on Long Island was to have a chance to visit Q-Zar NY. After having such a great time playing at Q-Zar in Concord, CA I wanted to experience the game again in a real arena (not just in a ‘geddon setting) and since the options are pretty limited (to Concord, CA, Carle Place, NY or Tampa, FL) this was the main catalyst for my weekend excursion.

 

Now, since the choices are few and far between I can really only compare between the NY and CA sites. NY definitely felt smaller. The lobby area was packed with people and it felt a little bit like we were sardines. After logging my info at the ipad station I made my way to the front to get game passes for the night.

 

There was a display set up at the counter with their merchandise.

 

The souvenir choices were a little more limited. I asked if they had t-shirts (they did not) and the guy behind the counter jokingly offered to sell me the one off his back for a dollar. This guy clearly didn’t expect me to say “SOLD!” :) I was hoping their selection would be more like what I purchased in Concord (because I wanted to get another metal Q-Zar water bottle), but I still found a few goodies to take home while waiting for the games to be called.

 

Once inside the briefing room I reviewed the map…

 

And we sat to watch the briefing video. Where in CA I was impressed with the video briefing that seemed contemporary and clear, this one was a little more cartoonish. I’m really not sure if these videos were produced by the company or by an individual connected with the site.

I felt pretty good about this game even though my score put me somewhere in the middle of the pack. That’s ok though. For the number of times I will ever get to play I was glad just to have an enjoyable time playing again without any pressure. I really wish there were more options because I think I could do well with this system if I had an opportunity to really practice.

 

By the time we were done playing Q-Zar I was exhausted from a full day of travel and tag…but after a chance to eat a late dinner and crash at the hotel I knew I would be ready for more tomorrow!

 

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Lazerland of LI

OMG, Lazerland of LI was PACKED on a Saturday night! When I went to the counter to buy my game passes I asked if I could get into the game that was going in at that moment. However, there was no chance of that. In fact I was sent to wait in a line for the next opportunity and just barely got into that game because they had so many people there waiting for a chance to play some Nexus in the arena. Now THIS is the kind of game I was looking forward to!

 

The arena was two levels and that made it feel a lot bigger than it probably was (although it was certainly a decent sized space). It almost felt like two separate games were being played between the two levels. The only thing I really wasn’t wild about was that instead of ramps they had stairs leading to the top.

 

I honestly feel that stairs should never be built into an arena. Even when you tell people not to run there is bound to be some quick movement. While I was there I watched two grown adults who were not moving all that quickly inadvertently knock each other down just from not watching where they were going, so I hate to see stairs brought into the mix as well. And I was particularly cautious going up and down between the two levels. But other than that I thought this was a cool arena and I was glad to see how busy they were.

I also took the opportunity to note…those walls! But I’ll have a bit more to say about that in a future post. :)

My favorite part of this visit (besides getting the high score)…

 

…would have to be the shopping for tag swag! They had a nice assortment of promo items for sale, so I picked up a hoodie, a t-shirt and a water bottle for my collection. What can I say, shopping and laser tag are definitely the best combination of my favorite things to do!

 

Thanks Lazerland of LI for a great time!

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Karma Is A...Ruthless Shooter :)

The next stop was a business owned by the family of Mike O., one of my Baltigeddon teammates from a couple of years ago. It was actually a nice surprise to cross paths with him again as we entered into the lobby of Active Kidz, which had a name that (thankfully) did not fully describe the turnout of players. They actually had a nice blend of all ages including kids, teens and adults to make for a decent game of Laserforce. Unfortunately, they were not set up to accept my membership card to give me a proper level balance, so I was sent in as a level one just like everyone else.

I grabbed a pack called Karma got ready for the first of two games.

I really enjoyed playing at this site, from targeting the reactor…

…to setting off the warbot…

 

…and taking the bases while enjoying a couple of very full standard games.

 

Well, as you might expect Karma is a…ruthless shooter. Yep, we’ll end the sentence that way. I played appropriately (i.e. I wasn’t the “try hard” I could have been), but I still took first in both games…I really wish I could have had that 19,702 on my account to bump up my average!

 

And my thanks to Amir (the game master) for permitting me to take some arena pics afterwards (as they have signs posted about this I really do appreciate the accommodation they made for this blog). Had a great time. And Mike…hope to see you again at the next ‘geddon!

 

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Long Island Laser Tagging...First Stop, Laser Kingdom

For awhile now I’ve wanted make a trip down to Long Island for a weekend just to check out the tag sites. So when my original weekend plans got changed at the last minute I decided that this was the perfect time to do it.

First stop once we got to Long Island was the Laser Kingdom in Farmingdale. There are actually two Laser Kingdom locations, but timing would not allow a visit to the Coram site to happen this trip.

(

We walked in to see a game in progress through the big observation window. They were playing some classic Hyper Blast in an “unusual terrain”. Once inside I got a chance to check out their arena design. It was a mountainous space design with lots of cave-like structures in place of traditional arena walls. These were fun!

I always enjoy an unusual design and aesthetic. Plus I don’t play Hyper Blast all that often. This was a smaller arena, but a worthwhile visit to start the weekend adventure…and they had some tag swag for me to take home too!

 

Maybe next time I’ll get to the Coram location, but for now I was happy with one stop at the Laser Kingdom before continuing my way down the Long Island Expressway. :)

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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

Another Case of Arena Identity Crisis

I recently paid a visit to Wood N Wheel in Ulster Park, NY as I was headed down to Long Island. I was fully expecting to play a game of Laserforce (which I did).

 

But when the woman behind the counter handed me this ticket…

 

I knew right away this was going to be another case of arena identity crisis. One of my personal pet peeves is when I see an arena that runs one laser tag system while using logos and branding from another… and I’ve noticed this the most with former Storm arenas. This was exactly the case here. I asked this woman about this inquiring whether they actually run Laser Storm (knowing the answer already) and completely without irony she said “no, we run laser tag”. (face palm…but a little humorous as I read that sentence back now)

Although they do run Laserforce (and I swear this was the first pack I picked up…the Legend pack just always finds me)…

 

…upon entering the arena there was no question in my mind. There was a maze of fabric barriers hanging from the ceiling.

Perhaps a Storm player can confirm this, but I assume that the term “Wilsoning” has to be a reference to peeking over one of these walls and being all “howdy neighbor!”

 

And I have to say it was something of a unique experience playing in this space using Laserforce. There are not mirrors per se, but there are several reflective surfaces which allowed tagging at unusual angles. Paul came with me for this trip and we both felt it was a fun game and a good midway point to stop on route to the rest of a weekend full of laser tag down on Long Island.

 

Comments or Questions?

Contact: tivia@tiviachickloveslasertag.com

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