Back in the mid eighties, before the craze really took off I was in a small group who were mostly military and a few off base civilians who spent way too much time and money on this. We had two competitions, standard capture the flag which in some ways probably led to my enjoyment of Doom so many years later and hit man. Hit man was simply that, everyone put their name in the hat and five bucks. Only rules were, you could not shoot someone in uniform or at work. Take the target name from your hit.
Lots of hilarity and some good bruises but those were mostly remedied by disallowing freezing the paint balls. Some really unsettling conversations with local and base police, paint ball guns can look like a gun in the dark and if you alter their color it can lead to problems. Most of us had that old standard green CO2 powered model whose name escapes me.
Speaking for myself, I never even took the hit man game as anything more than fun, we never had anyone freak out about losing. Most took pride in just not getting tagged by the next meeting and i think only once did someone take the pot, it usually ended up as that weeks pizza.
Laser tag was definitely not the same, the primary difference being it doesn't hurt if you screw up.
Freezing paintballs is an urban myth. The hard ones are those that are left out in the sun and humidity the shell absorbs moisture which causes them to "rubberize", they bounce rather than breaking which transferred more energy to the player. Paint made in the 80s and 90s is nothing like modern paintballs, bad manufacturers/brands like Monsterball are long since dead. Safety is still important masks and gun safety prevents 99.99% of paintball specific major injuries. (bruises and small cuts can still happen).
> some good bruises but those were mostly remedied by disallowing freezing the paint balls
Christ, man. I've gotten pretty good bruises using just regular paintballs at regular pressure. We've banned people from our neighborhood games because they would turn up the pressure to get more distance - their velocities were unsafe, and would put a pretty big dent in sheet metal.
I had one of those! I modified it with a metal disc on the back of the cocking mechanism to make it easier on the hand, and put an extended length magazine on there (you had to aim up between shots so the balls would roll into the chamber)
Yep, we had a bunch of these we rented out at our paintball field when I worked for a small company in high school. It was a blast. Working the "concession" stand (selling paint, renting equipment) wasn't that much fun, but I got to referee an equal if not greater amount of time (our field had a central area with an abandoned building and we can climb on the walls to watch multiple groups).
Also I could play free whenever I liked (off hours).
i had one of those too, it was super fun! my favorite was a clip fed pistol that was really fun, but totally innefective :P
one of my friends who will remain unnamed wanted to play "Force power paintball" one weekend camping, he grabbed a stick and wanted to "test out his force powers" deflecting a paintball. let's just say he's no jedi...
Lots of hilarity and some good bruises but those were mostly remedied by disallowing freezing the paint balls. Some really unsettling conversations with local and base police, paint ball guns can look like a gun in the dark and if you alter their color it can lead to problems. Most of us had that old standard green CO2 powered model whose name escapes me.
Speaking for myself, I never even took the hit man game as anything more than fun, we never had anyone freak out about losing. Most took pride in just not getting tagged by the next meeting and i think only once did someone take the pot, it usually ended up as that weeks pizza.
Laser tag was definitely not the same, the primary difference being it doesn't hurt if you screw up.