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Toys Entertainment Games

Summer FPS - Lazer Tag and Super Soaker 73

Posted by Zonk from the aren't-there-bears-outside? dept.
hapycamper writes "If you want to play your very own 'real life' version of a first-person shooter, two choices include a water fight using Super Soakers or the more technical Lazer Tag brand. GamerDad Unplugged has written up an overview of both systems. In testing, the high end Super Soakers don't seem to be worth the cost unless water capacity is your main requirement. Meanwhile, home Lazer Tag equipment performs well, but can be problematic in indoor settings."
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Summer FPS - Lazer Tag and Super Soaker More

Summer FPS - Lazer Tag and Super Soaker

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  • Bah! Super Soakers all the way. That guy was just using a limited selection of Soakers. http://www.wcnews.com/chrisreid/supersoakers.html [wcnews.com]
    • I've never played Lazer Tag, but isn't there a score thing on the vests? Supersoakers aren't good for organized play because there's no way to declare a winner. For screwing around, they're fine, though.
    • The early SS offerings were pretty pathetic. I could piss a bigger stream than those SS 50's. At the time I had one of the off-brand soakers (I don't remember which brand) that used a simple piston attached to a large tank backpack, and it was a lot less expensive too. No SS model of the time was a match for it.

      • The early SS offerings were pretty pathetic.

        And the early computers were pathetic... No transistors. Just vacuum tubes and relays...

        You have to keep in mind the times. When the super-soakers came out, they were something completely different. The SS represented an entirely new drenching technology. Before, water guns were those trigger-operated things that could dump a tablespoon of water in a minute at a distance of 5 feet. SS were the first company to use a pressure-driven system, as opposed t

    • And for the truly hardcore, you can put ice in the tank along with the water.

  • Darn Kids! (Score:5, Funny)

    by poena.dare ( 306891 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @06:59PM (#13098848)
    Super Soakers? Lazer Tag? Bah humbug!

    In my day we simulated first person shooters with LAWN DARTS and you could only respawn after the bandages came off!

  • Super Soaker + Laser (Score:3, Informative)

    by centauri ( 217890 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @07:19PM (#13099054) Homepage
    Seems like I read about a hack that combined a laser with a super soaker. The beam of the laser was somehow aimed to follow the stream of water, so when you shot the water it gleamed with color. Be hard to see in anything but low light, but could be cool.

    Anyway, I never had much luck with my Lazer Tag sets. The targets never seemed to trigger unless you were extremely close and both gun and target were stationary. I had more fun with Photon, Lazer Tag's pudgier cousin. You could play that with just the guns, as they too could register hits. Lazer Tag definitely had more style. I even learned how to twirl those weird guns on my finger.
    • Its funny you mention it, I had the exact opposit experience. My friend had the Photo, and I had a Lazer Tag set. We ended up playing Lazer tag more often as it we found his Photon set to be more difficult to use and less "fun". We also played outside in trees and bushes, and if I remember correct, the cords/harness of the Photo had a tendency to get snagged on stuff.

      • Re:Super Soaker + Laser (Score:3, Interesting)

        by Megane ( 129182 )
        Even better (as far as "FPS experience" goes) was Photon in a genuine "Photon Center". They had darkly lit arena areas with lots of walls and halls and ramps to an upstairs area. The equipment was also heavy. The battery pack weighed ten pounds alone! I remember that I learned I could warm up by jogging in place while holding a pair of 2.5 gallon water jugs, just before leaving to go there.

        It even had n00b fragging (a term which wouldn't be invented for at least another ten years), which I think was a

        • In the UK we had Quazar and Laser Quest. I played both a LOT, I represented my city on the national Quazar league and played for our local Lazer Quest team. The two games were quite different, the LQ equipment was heavier and much more accurate - it was way to easy to score a hit with Quazar (which was mainly aimed at kids). LQ was more like paintball, larger arenas, more "rough", and lots of crazy game variants played after hours. As for n00b fragging, yes it happend (a lot). I would go down to practise an
        • *tear*

          I miss my childhood.

          I spent 10 hours at a Photon Center in Wildwood NJ, on my 11th birthday.

          I spent many days there :) /was pretty good at it too, 2160 points in an 8 minute game (started at 1000 because managers didn't like to start it at 0 cuz bad people would end up with negative scores)
    • That's not a laser, that's just an LED in the water tank. The surface of the water stream reflects some of the light back in, keeping it in the stream, kinda like a liquid fiber optic.

  • Uh... paintball...airsoft? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Uh... paintball...airsoft?
  • Seven or eight years ago, My brother, our two friends across the street, and I would often play 2vs2 laser tag, and it was always great fun. Besides, I would consider Super Soakers much too ample a training tool for more sinful, solitary activites...
  • Or if you have some balls you can play paintball. How did they leave that one out?
    • Because it stings, and is not for pussies?
      • And don't forget the cost difference.

        Laser tag and Super Soakers should be under $50 for the pair.

        To get decent painball equipment will take around $100 each -- that that just barely qualifies as decent. You could get set up real nice for around $200 or so, each.

        Super soakers are refilled by water (almost free) and pumping action (cost of food). Laser tag is refilled by batteries. Rechargables can reduce the cost. Paintball requires CO2 (rather inexpensive, but not available from you corner drug stor

  • Airsoft (Score:4, Informative)

    by Bios_Hakr ( 68586 ) <xptical@g3.14mail.com minus pi> on Monday July 18, 2005 @07:57PM (#13099370)
    Don't forget about Airsoft. While too violent for children, it's perfect for people who think paintball is too messy or want something more realistic. A basic pistol can be had for $100 and will preform nicely at less than 20 meters. Get the biodegradable pellets for outdoor fun; indoor cleanup can still be a pain.

    Oh, and be careful where you play. Breaking out a realistic-looking pistol around the office can really break some of your more "fragile" coworkers.

    • Re:Airsoft (Score:3, Informative)

      by Dachannien ( 617929 )
      Actually, you can get basic spring-loaded airsoft pistols for $25, but you might not have as much fun since they're not semiauto and the slide tends to be on the stiff side since there's a big ol' honkin' spring behind it.

    • Re:Airsoft (Score:2, Informative)

      by kyojin the clown ( 842642 )
      tokyo marui have a range of low powered electric guns which are pretty decent for kids. they still require eye protection (of bloody course), however you are unlikely to be looking at any major injuries. they have a selection of caricature assault rifles which are obviously toys, and a couple of pistols which are not caricatures and likely to get you shot by armed police if you aren't careful..

      also, if you are a keen airsofter, or have just a passing interest in the sport, please support UK airsofters by

      • also, if you are a keen airsofter, or have just a passing interest in the sport, please support UK airsofters by signing this petition. The government is looking to ban the sale of imitation firearms, which will essentially be the death of the sport in the UK.

        How much more of this stuff before the citizens pick up arms and revolt against the King of England? It worked for America a couple of centuries ago. Well, there is the fact that you don't actually have a king right now. But you most likely wil

  • Isn't that more like a FPS?

  • Super Soaker rules (Score:3, Interesting)

    by iridium_ionizer ( 790600 ) on Monday July 18, 2005 @08:00PM (#13099397)
    Laser tag seems to have a higher cost of adoption and despite there being a built in scoring system, I've heard that sometimes its not so easy to get a direct hit.

    For SuperSoakers, however, you can easily tell when someone has been shot. By the damp and dripping areas of their t-shirts. Unfortunately, there is still difficulty in determining a winner in a team-match.

    One idea for a solution is this: after a concluding a team-match a team could strip their t-shirts, hand them to the other team, and wring the loose water into buckets. Whichever team has the least, amount of water wins. And by having the other team wring them out, they have an incentive to wring every last drop. But you would want the other team to watch so that they aren't adding extra water.

    Of course if you wanted to make things really complicated you could do SuperSoaker Counterstrike and have a bunch of referees keep track of which body parts get hit and how often, but that's overkill methinks. Oh and if you are as worried about eyes as the Gamerdads are just use sunglasses.
    • One idea for a solution is this: after a concluding a team-match a team could strip their t-shirts, hand them to the other team, and wring the loose water into buckets.

      An especially good solution if you're playing co-ed.

    • One idea for a solution is this: after a concluding a team-match a team could strip their t-shirts, hand them to the other team, and wring the loose water into buckets. Whichever team has the least, amount of water wins. And by having the other team wring them out, they have an incentive to wring every last drop. But you would want the other team to watch so that they aren't adding extra water.

      most fun with mixed genders.
    • Oh and if you are as worried about eyes as the Gamerdads are just use sunglasses.

      Ahhhhh yes....just what we need, more NEOobs running around trying to backflip off of walls. And they'll also be blaming glitches in the Matrix when they get hit with water. On the plus side, if you're paintballing, you can really hurt them when they try to go back [new-dream.de].
    • Since some people's unclothed bodies are best left unseen, perhaps we could weigh them before the match, and then after. Smallest difference wins.
  • If anyone is interested in seeing pictures of friends of mine and I playing what we called Super Soaker Wars, take a look here [nuxx.net]. This is back in the summer of 2001, and was quite a bit of fun. In order to make the game more interesting we generally played in a friend's rather large back yard with CTF-style games. The flag was a cylume lightstick positioned beneath a tiki torch. If you got wet, you were out.

    There was (understandably) a lot of honor system involved, but it was all in good fun so it worked out
  • I remember playing this so long ago, lots of fun. Kind of. The only problem playing it now would be that I'm so used to multiple weapons (thanks UT2004), that just one would suck. And I have a feeling people would complain if I brought a rocket launcher in.
  • I had one of these. Most powerful Super Soaker made :D Thing weighed a ton though...
    • I believe you are mistaken. I *think* the CPS 2000 [netfirms.com] was the most powerful Super Soaker ever made. It was modified to become the 2500 with a differnt, less-coherent nozzle after some injuries (retinal detachment? i forget.) caused by the 2000. I believe there was also a wussified version of the 2000 released as a stopgap before the 3000 and its less-coherent water stream.

      I had a friend in college with one-- it was truly impressive. Of course, it was empty after like two shots because of the size of the
    • Nice try, but the CPS 2000 was more powerful. I have the MK1, which had to be toned down after a dude lost an eye. The MK2 shot farther but not with as much water. The 2500 had variable stream widths, but none were as powerful as the mk1 2000's beam of death.
  • let me get this straight... they compare lazer tag and super soaker and it's lazer tag that doesn't work well indoors?
    • They assumed you would know to use super soaker outside, and they were just pointing out that with indoor lazer tag, you can pretty much just shoot into a doorway and hit everyone in the room.
      ---
      A guy walks up to his friend and sees him hitting himself on the head with a hammer. "Why are you doing that!?", he asks. "Because it feels so good when I stop.", was the reply.
      Generated by SlashdotRndSig [snop.com] via GreaseMonkey [mozdev.org]
  • I used to work in a Tuxedo Rental store when I was a teenager. All of the merchandise had those UPC style barcodes that allowed us to track when a customer returned them and such. We had the hand-held wireless readers that let you scan a bit away from the desk. They would beep whenever you scanned. At night when the mall closed we'd strap on some rental vests inside-out and play laser tag with the readers. It was great fun and didn't get us in trouble because nine times out of ten the stupid wireless s
  • I know it's perhaps best just to buy one of the cheep plastic ones, But is their a way to build your own better Super Soaker? I have a feeling someone's done it, and I bet the people of Slashdot know someone who's done it. Now is it worth it, is the question. Tony
  • Laser Challenge v2 is one of the best systems ever put out. They have some newer stuff and some older stuff but I'd recommend going for v2 (or v3/"radar" in a pinch).
    If you can find it, it goes for about $15 CDN for a vest (with front and back sensors) and pistol. You can also get a sniper rifle and a "shotgun" for $15 each. We've fitted our sniper rifle with a cheap hunter's scope from Canadian Tire and it works great.
    The v3s are nice because they can be set for team play but IIRC you can't get a back sens

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