This past Wednesday (1/23/2008), I went with my friend Andy and six other guys from our church to play laser tag at Lazer Gate. Andy and I are probably 10+ years older than the other six guys who are all in college or just recently graduated.
We played two games, each twenty minutes long. It was so much fun! We played in teams. I was on the red team both times. For the first game, it was just the 8 of us, so we played four on four. For the second game we had another ten people join us, so there were three teams.
Each person wore a vest that contained the energy source (i.e. batteries), lights (with the color of your team - red, blue or yellow), sensors and the phaser attached to it. There was a sensor (the target for someone who's gunning for ya) on the front and back and on each shoulder of the vest, as well as two on the phaser. The phaser was designed so that you had to hold it with two hands in order to fire it. The goal of the game - to shoot the enemy without getting shot (of course). If you got shot, then your phaser was deactivated for 15 seconds.
The arena is dark, lit by black lights, with a few distracting flashing lights around. And of course there is loud music, which helps mask your movements but also the movements of others. The arena has two levels. On one end is a maze of walls, both levels. There are no steps, just ramps going up and down between the levels. At the other end of the arena, catwalks comprise the second level while the first level has various hiding spots.
It's a really intense experience. Maybe because we don't do this often, but we didn't stick together and work as a team very much. It was basically every man for himself, assisting your team mates if the opportunity presented itself but nothing coordinated like a well-trained SWAT team.
The computer system kept track of everything - how many times you fired, how many of those resulted in hits, who you hit, where you hit them, who hit you, where they hit you, etc. It's pretty cool. All of these factors add up to a score. After each game you receive your scorecard, based on the name tag on your vest. The vest I used for both games had the name Aurora. Below are my two score cards (you will note on the second scorecard that it is even possible for someone to receive a negative score).
I think I did pretty well - number 3 both games. The number one and two slots were held by the same two guys both games as well, - Seth and Eddie, respectively. I won't mention where my friend Andy ranked :-).
It was a lot of hard work. I was dripping sweat. And the legs, Oh the legs! Specifically the quadriceps. We did a lot of squatting, crouching and running in a crouched position, trying to present as small a target as possible. The catwalks and many of the ramps only had half walls on them, so you tried to keep the shoulder sensors below the level of the wall. All that adds up to a lot of work for the quads, especially for this desk jockey. By the end of the first game my legs were burning and I could feel them starting to tremble. Half way through the second game I started wondering how much longer was the game going to last because I was not sure I could go down one more ramp without collapsing.
At the end of that second game I knew I was done. However, none of the younger guys seems anxious to go for a third, so that was the end. Driving home, I set the cruise control so as to take the strain off of my right leg.
As bad as the pain was that night, it was so much worse the next three days. My quads were so sore that it was painful to walk and almost excruciating when navigating stairs. The handrail became my best friend. Though I've never played football, I imagine that doing two-a-days must make you feel something like this. Today was the first day I could walk up and down stairs without having to hold onto the handrail, either to support myself or as a precaution lest my legs give out. The pain is down to the level where I would expect if I had had a really good weight-training work out - sore but tolerable.
I was glad to find out that it wasn't just me, the old man, who's legs were hurting. Seth, who blew everyone one away in points both games and is still in college, was just as bad as me. In fact, he still was holding onto the hand rail at church today. He told a story on himself - on Thursday or Friday he was going to cross the road, trying to beat a street sweeper, but when he started to run, his right leg just didn't work and he collapsed onto the road. Don't worry, he's fine, he didn't end up in the tangles of the sweeper's brushes.
Seth asked me today if I would be willing to go again. I replied to give me about a month to fully recover and then I would be willing to go again.
3 comments:
Sounds like ya better get in training soon! What you need is a session of setting in a hot whirlpool. Ahh, the joys of encroaching middle age!
Mom and Dad
So funny! Poor Andy. Let's just say I laughed a lot and gave very little sympathy! :) Congrats on your score!
It sure is tough getting old, isn't it? : )
I have played Laser Tag a few times & it was SOO fun. We have done this on 2 ZAP nights with the youth. That is where you stay up all night & eat pizza & drink lots of Mountain Dew. I have to admit, I was pretty terrible (usually toward the bottom of the rankings), but I enjoyed myself anyway. The one pet peeve I had was when you lost power after getting shot, the vest made a noise as it "came back to life". So I would try to sneak up on people while I couldn't be shot & then shoot them & run off, but the noise made that difficult. Funny thing is, I kept trying - might explain the low score!
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