Laser Tag

Growing up in the 80's I have vague recollections of Laser Tag and it's rival product Photon (at least I think that's what it's called). I never played it when I was little but I always wanted to. So when I was at my nephew's 6^th birthday party this weekend and was invited to play “Lazer Tag” with him and a bunch of his 6-8 year-old friends, I wasn't sure what I was in for. I'm fairly certain that the Laser Tag of the 80's was never quite like what I experienced. For starters, the equipment, a gun shaped like a UPC scanner, and vest with glowing target areas, made everyone look vaguely like a Wal-Mart employee going to war. With the soundtrack from the N64 Goldeneye and the movie Mortal Kombat blasting in the background, a dark maze with strobe lights flashing, blacklights giving everything an ethereal glow, and 7 other people running around trying to shoot you with lasers, it was just like an FPS - the most tiring one I've ever played. After 15 minutes of that, my feet felt like lead and my lungs felt like they had been scraped out with a wire brush (I'm still coughing crap up that I swear has been there since middle school, but I guess that's what happens when you weigh in at nearly 300lb and don't exercise, then suddenly run around like you're seven years old again). That was the best “multi-player” fun I've ever had. Just goes to show you, despite FPS Doug's insistence to the contrary, RL is waay better than FPS.