As I continue my third time laser tagging around all 50 states, I flew from Texas to Montana before renting a car to drive my way across the Midwest. My first stop was a visit to Wild Rose Action Center in Billings, MT, home of the Bad Bear Laser Tag. I found a cute little Montana bison at the airport to be my mascot for this leg of the trip. When I walked in to play I was greeted by Josh and Kat who gave me a tour of their new location. The owner, Richard, took over the lase

I used to keep a list of all the arenas I had visited simply to have a running tally of my growing arena count. However, lately my list has become a necessary double-check as I can no longer trust my “old lady” memory to remember what arenas I have already played! That became evident when I walked into Malibu Jack’s in North Richland Hills, TX thinking “this looks just like that other arena I played” before I saw the Alamo and smacked my head thinking “Wait, of course I have

I would have been able to tell that the Pinstack in Westlake, TX was a brand new facility, even without seeing the inside of the arena. However, with the mint look of one of Art Attack’s new themes (which I affectionately dub “Synergy”) it was like walking into the heart of a two-story computer! I have noticed that Pinstack has added several new locations, including this one, since my last exploration trip about a year ago. My thanks to Nolan and Tate for facilitating the gam

There’s a first time for everything and, when I stopped by Andy B’s in Denton, TX my request to play some laser tag turned into the first time one young staff member ever played. I’m delighted my visit was the catalyst for her first laser tag experience! Just a side note with a personal opinion. I believe playing every attraction at least once (but especially laser tag) should be part of the onboarding process for any FEC when they hire a new staff member. It makes them more

It’s no secret that everything is BIG in Texas! And I certainly had a big experience with the unique laser tag equipment and arena I found at TX Laser Combat in Plano. This was the start of a massive ten-day long tag trip that would have me traveling from one side of the country to the other and it gave me a reason to start this journey with a visit to Texas. I had been invited by owners Paul and Malorie Korney to visit their tactical arena and see how they have completely re

Full of appreciation and gratitude, I stopped to take a moment to reflect on the most amazing week that I could have NEVER planned! And yet, somehow all the pieces fell perfectly into place. :) Because it will take me some time to properly write up all the adventures of the past week I want to give you an overview of what has happened. I will have MANY articles forthcoming with much more detail about all these visits individually. Please watch for that because blogging to pr

This week on Laser Unfocused Tag Talk we hear from Steve Barnhart, owner of Lazertag Extreme in Simi Valley, CA who stepped into the laser tag industry by taking over an existing business and bringing a fresh perspective to operating it. 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: https://youtu.be/6Q_aG7wV36Y?is=qwXXczIlZ35NV_-Z Comments o

I traveled down to Baltimore, MD to join some friends in giving a proper sendoff to a legacy laser tag facility that has meant a lot to many people in our laser tag community. Due to the closing of the Eastpoint Mall, we had to say goodbye to Ultrazone Baltimore, but not without a few loyal players turning up one last time to play on their final weekend of operation. Kudos to Jason Helton, a former employee of this site, for coordinating a final gathering with a nice group of

I thoroughly enjoyed joining in for some laser tag with a group playing at Monster Mini Golf Towson in Parkville, MD where we got to enjoy some Zone Helios 2 in an upstairs arena. I timed it perfectly to get into this game! The single-level game space was a nicely done, bright neon apocolyptic setting with cool props, interesting base housings and bonus targets around many of the maze corners. The colorful centerpiece structure in the middle is an eye-catcher that gives a hin

Ok, that title may only be amusing to me, but follow my logic. For the longest time I would take the same set of photos in the identical three locations at every Main Event I played. At that time most of them were following the same blueprint to the letter. If the graphic on the mural was in the wrong spot I’d say to myself (mostly in jest) “this arena must be a foot shorter.” In recent years many new locations have emerged for the brand and several have gotten updates to the