We are holding a special event this coming Mothers Day (Sunday May 13th). Moms get to prove to their kids how awesome they are! Moms and their family get to play for the discounted price (12% off), or they can donate their discount (with TagParty matching the discount) as a contribution to Maryland Sheriffs’ Youth Ranch to help those who lack an Awesome Mom of their own.
The Ranch is a 24-hour foster-care facility for boys between the ages of 10 & 18 and its mission is to assist youth in becoming productive members of society.
Licensed by the State of Maryland Department of Human Resources/Social Services Administration. Residents are referred by their local Department of Social Services or Department of Juvenile Services. They come from families who have been troubled by drug or alcohol abuse, mental illness, poverty, incarceration, abandonment, abuse, neglect, or family crisis.
The idea of a youth ranch came from the Maryland Sheriffs’ Association over 25 years ago. Concerned law enforcement officers envisioned a program designed to help at-risk youth. Their goal was to prevent delinquency caused by an unstable home life.
You will get a chance to get a taste of the “Hunger Games” for yourself this April 2nd -6th. We will be holding “Hunger Game” style sessions down at the TagParty RECON Field or Arena.
You can become a Tribute for a session of Outdoor Tactical Laser Tag Action and see if you can survive the game. Played on our 4 plus acres of woodland arena at Savage Mill, TagParty RECON’s “Hunger Games” pits your survival and hunting skills against your fellow Tributes.
Released into the outdoor arena you have to find your weapon and supplies. but the Gamemakers have added a new twist! The Gamemakers at TagParty have provided advanced weapons and require the Tributes to not only survive to win, but also to collect tokens, thus forcing the Tributes to explore the arena and not simply hide – the Gamemakers want to see more action!
You can get more information and book your Hunger Game Session here
The expense of the small coin batteries and the trouble they caused, when they died and the scopes stopped working, made me take on the project to power the scopes off the main Tagger battery. I wanted to retain the ability to change the color dots on the scope, so I came up with a means of replacing the coin battery with a coin contact (first picture below). The required resistor is inside the tagger body and integral with the cable which draws power off the serial port connector. The scope remains practically intact with only a small hole in the top cap, and with the wire and coin contact removed the scope will work with a battery if needed.
With the sight power mod completed, I set out to make the job of sighting-in the taggers easier. To do this, and also to provide a target for people to practice on, I put together the electrical system shown in the pictures below. The small sensor box has a µMT board and a relay inside which drives the “trailer” break light off a 12V power battery . It is very bright and can be seen in bright sunlight at well over 500 ft. I can add the shroud, to keep the sensor itself out of direct sunlight and guard against stray fire from the field.
Xappr and appBlaster have just released holders for your iPod/iPhone which enable you to play first person shooter (FPS) games . Xappr when used in conjunction with the ATK app will turn it into a laser tag system. Hasbro has also stepped up their product offering and their latest system, while being a stand alone tagger (based on the LTTO/LTX systems and backwards compatible), will also offer enhanced capabilities through an iDevice connection on their Nerf branded lazer tag system.
While I personally love the idea of utilizing the features of an iDevice to expand the game play in laser tag, I have concerns with sticking an expensive iDevice on a tagger that can take some serious damage in game play. Not only could it cost you the $ value, but there is data and information that could get lost. Hopefully the holders on the taggers provide sufficient protection to reduce this concern.
It looks like there is going to be re-invention of laser tag, and with the new iDevice systems it looks like an older demographic could be involved.
Call Of Duty – Modern Warfare 3: We will be at the COD MW3 Midnight Release events at 2 Maryland GameStop Stores tonight; Columbia Mall and Dobbin Road. Come and play while you wait to pick up your game.
There is a lot happening, we just have not had time to communicate our activities. We have been very busy getting the RECON field up and running, and our mobile business has continued to be busy all through October and bookings for November are picking up.
The RECON field in Savage is starting to get busy, following the recent promotions (see what is happening on the website and on the Facebook page), and we have just introduced a new ticketing system to help speed up the registration process.
Based on the feedback we are getting, we look to have a winning combination in terms of location and the unique adventure offered at the Recon Field in Savage. As we get more experienced players we will add to the complexity and difficulty of the game play and also segregate games by player’s capabilities and difficulty.
