In case it isn’t obvious, I was REALLY into the idea of 90s night laser tag at The Fun Warehouse last night! I showed up ready to rock my Bonne Bell Lip Smackers, my Exclamation perfume, my five scrunchies all at once and every other 90s fashion cliche I could come up with. FWH did their part by blasting the soundtrack of the era, both in and out of the arena. This feels like stepping back in time! Music is one of the most powerful tools for evoking a sense memory of the past

Who would have guessed that Ming Chen loves laser tag too?! The star of tv’s Comic Book Men and a familiar podcasting voice with shows on the SModcast Network joins me as a special guest on this week’s episode of Laser Unfocused Tag Talk to share stories of laser tag, comics and pop culture. ON SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/0xzXT3aqGa2edIlXpcaJBS ON APPLE PODCASTS: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/laser-unfocused-tag-talk-with-tivia/id1632442213 ON YOUTUBE:...

I have been fortunate to have had a few remarkable opportunities to play laser tag with some major names in the industry, like George Carter III (inventor of Photon and father of the laser tag industry), founders of several other laser tag systems, a couple of the “industry princes” and even once with two Olympic athletes. However, I NEVER expected to be able to play laser tag with a real-life ninja turtle (Robbie Rist), a Big Bang Theory alum (Brian Posehn) and one of my fav

My visit to Rhode Island culminated in playing my 650th laser tag arena at Urban Air in Warwick, RI. I had just put in my special trampoline park socks (this is only the third time ever I have been asked to play laser tag in socks!) and meandered over to the arena to see if there was someone to join me for a game. It always kind of amazes me to see how chance encounters make the best experiences on my tag trips. The woman in line behind me (Nikki) saw that I was coming in for

When I asked Jared, the general manager at BattlegroundZ in Lincoln, RI if I could get into a 1v1 game (as I arrived at a quiet moment), I mentioned sometimes the centers that I visit are kind enough to free up a staff member to play a game when I stop in. He asked me how many laser tag arenas I had been to and took a very reasonable double take when I said “this will be 649.” Well, before I had even finished watching the briefing video he had rounded up eight players (staff

I made an impromptu stop at Interskate 91 South in Wilbraham, MA to find one of the most unique arenas I have come across in quite a while. To set the stage, I had driven a fair distance from NY to get here and the majority of the trip seemed to be through road construction, so I found it to be incredibly appropriate/ironic/geographically-aware to find this theme continuing right on into the arena. First time ever that I have been delighted to find road construction! :) When

By the end of the night I was playing beat the clock to visit Whirlyball Texas aka LaserWhirld (love the creative spelling on that!) in Hurst, TX. I did not know what system they were using here and could not even guess from the exterior of the building. I was delightfully surprised to learn I’d be playing some Helios 2. If you wonder why I say “delightfully surprised” it is because of the eclectic combination of elements that I found at this location. My first impression was

When I go to an FEC and ask “do you have laser tag?” you might think the answer would be a simple yes or no. However, lately there has been some grey area with a bit of confusion with some operators and their staff regarding what specifically I am asking to play. This has come up several times now in the context of arenas that have equipment with capabilities going unused. Specifically, I am finding this happening with Gel Blaster Nexus. To be clear, this is not a criticism o

Of all the things I did not expect to happen today, playing laser tag with characters from a video game would have to be the least expected! When I arrived at Adventure Landing in Dallas and purchased my game ticket I had been told to just wait by the Lazer Runner gate until there were other players ready to go in. So I did. As I’m standing there I become aware of two more people joining me in line, waiting for the next game. They look…familiar! ;) Next to me stand Luigi and

I had such a great time tagging at two of the Pinstack locations in the area, first playing the Pinstack in Allen, TX and later in the day visiting Pinstack Las Colinas in Irving, TX. When I arrived at the Allen location at a quiet moment I was lucky to get to play a 1v1 with Edan. We put on our CyberBlast packs and got ready for a game. This arena has an interesting build that feels like it drives gameplay up to the second level. It’s a tight maze, attractively themed and ma