Reader Greg Gaub is a Lazer Tag aficionado – who knew, right? The new system sounds cooler than I expected, and he was even kind enough to offer a bunch of community links and project pages after his great review.
Remember Lazer Tag, from Worlds of Wonder back in the 80’s? Well, the inventors of Lazer Tag, Shoot the Moon Productions, haven’t disappeared. Not only did they develop another Lazer Tag system for Hasbro/Tiger in the late 90’s, but they’re at it again with a whole new, much more advanced system called Lazer Tag Team Ops.
Lazer Tag Team Ops (LTTO) toys take the best of laser tag games, arena laser tag (like LaserQuest/Q-zar, etc), and FPS video games, and puts it into a laser tag toy. Not only can you play a quick game of classic tag (10 hits, unlimited ammo, last man standing wins), but also a slew of cool hosted games. Hosted games use one tagger (read: gun) as the host unit to determine game type and game settings, then all other players join that game. Game settings include Team Tags (friendly fire), Medic Mode (ability to transfer tags from one person to another), length of the game Time, number of Tags, number of Mega Tags (up to 4 hits in one), Shield time, and the number of 10 shot Reloads. After the game is over, all players return to the host for a debriefing, which causes all the taggers to share their data. Ranks are assigned, and each player can see how many times they tagged every other player, and how many times every other player tagged him. Player and Team Ranking each depend on the type of game being played and how it’s scored by the tagger, usually a factor and/or sum of how many tags you landed and how many times you were tagged. Hosted game types range from 2 or 3 team games, to Hide and Seek, 2 and 3 team Kings, and something they call “Own the Zone.” Top it all off with a system sophisticated enough to provide hit confirmation when you tag someone else, proximity alerts, and audio/visual confirmation of hits/tags and more. There’s even a HUD (Heads Up Display) you can wear if you want.
It’s really freaking cool, and definitely much higher tech than previous consumer laser tag toys. But, as we all know, nothing is perfect. Since the 1990’s version, Lazer Tag taggers have had the sensor integrated on the tagger, rather than on a vest or chest-worn device. This is good in that you can’t shoot blindly around a corner and not get tagged, but it’s no less difficult to cover the sensor while playing. Just turning around usually does the trick, and the opposing player won’t be able to tag you. Then again, you can’t launch tags without opening yourself up to tags as well. For those with large hands, the grip might be uncomfortable, but you’d have to try it yourself to know for sure. The Shield button is a second trigger below the main trigger, and is easily pressed by accident, causing you to be unable to tag someone (but at least you also can’t BE tagged). You learn to hold the tagger more carefully with these two minor flaws. Also, the stock tagger has really poor sights. The sights are on the SIDE of the tagger, leading to a tendency of people to hold it “gangsta style” while shooting. Since the sensor is on top, turning the tagger sideways results in blocking the sensor on the side of you that only sees the bottom of the tagger. Finally, the HUD is not very comfortable, even for the kids. You’ve got to bend them outwards to make them not pinch your temples. Also, the LEDs in the HUD aren’t bright enough to see well in mid-day light, because they are bounced off of a mirror and then a semi-reflective, translucent eye piece which causes them to lose a lot of their brightness.
Now, all that said, it’s still a GREAT system, and Lazer Tag lovers like me look forward to future products that resolve many of these issues. We’re fortunate enough to have the ear of one of the guys at Shoot the Moon for our feedback. Also, as with anything sufficiently geeky, many people have taken to modifying their taggers in some way. You don’t have to use the HUD at all, so a couple of the flaws are eliminated very quickly that way. Some, including me, have added red-dot sights, and chopped up the HUD unit to use the guts in other ways. With some of the wild and crazy things some guys have done with old Worlds of Wonder gear and other brands, it’s only a matter of time before we start seeing LTTO guts put into guns that look like something out of Aliens or Predator… or Predator Vs Aliens. Many of us are also looking forward to accessories for our cool new toys like an official red-dot sight, rumble pack for sensory feedback, a new HUD design, and newer, cooler taggers.
For $50, you can pick up an LTTO Deluxe set, which includes two taggers and two HUD units, at most toy carrying department stores.
And just to make the whole thing even more high tech, a guy is already developing a Palm OS app to record game stats and scores after a game is over. It’s manually entered, but since the guns themselves don’t store game data after a new game is started, it’s better than nothing. The Palm OS app will sync to a windows conduit for spreadsheet access to past games for archiving and stats.
Read – Home Page [LazerTag]
Read – Laser Tagger Profile Database [GGaub]
Read – Unofficial Lazer Tag Home Page [FuzzyCouch]
Read – Lazer Tag Discussion Board [Boardhost]
Read – Lazer Tag Palm OS App [LaserSedgeny]
DiscHub: QW12FG
