Laser Quest

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Laser Quest
Type	Private
Founded	Manchester, England (1989)
Headquarters	Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Industry	Lasertag
Website	www.laserquest.com

Laser Quest is the name of a Canadian based indoor lasertag game based around infrared (IR) hand held units and vests, as well as the name of the company which operates each game center. There are over 140 Laser Quest centers world-wide, including ones in Canada, the United States, the UK, France, Portugal, Singapore, Costa Rica, Thailand, South Africa and The Netherlands. The Biggest in the US is 12,000 sq ft. which is located in Washington State.

Contents 1 Overview of Laser Tag 2 Equipment 3 Scoring 4 Game variants 5 North America Challenge 5.1 NAC Champions & Runners Up 6 (ELC) European LaserQuest Championship 7 See also 8 References 9 External links

[edit] Overview of Laser Tag

Main article: Laser tag

The general aim of laser tag is to tag your opponents as many times as possible with one's laser as possible, while avoiding being tagged oneself. The players are equipped with infrared/laser hand held units and packs with sensors on, and let into a large multi-level, maze-like arena filled with ramps, catwalks and windows. In Laser Quest centers, the playing arenas are fog filled and black light lit.

[edit] Equipment

Every LQ center is equipped with approxiamately 30 packs, which are also called vests or ponchos, this number varies with busier arenas having more packs to accommodate larger crowds. The pack is made of a thick canvas-type material that hangs over the shoulders. When laid out flat on a table the vest forms a diamond shape. Sensors placed on various parts of the vest covering the stomach, the lower back, and each shoulder.

The infrared sensors are attached to printed circuit boards, which include red and green LEDs that light up when the pack is active. Each PCB is housed in a hard plastic cover, part of each cover is made from clear plastic to allow the IR beams to reach the sensors. The rear PCB and the two shoulder PCBs are connected to the front PCB via flat eight conductor Cat-5 cabling. The front and rear PCBs are interchangeable as long as the front/rear dipswitch is switched correctly. The front cover also contains the vibrator motor which operates by the quick imbalanced rotation of a weighted cylinder. The datalink is a small PCB housed in the rear cover with an antenna wire that runs up to either one or both shoulders that allows the pack to communicate with the LQX computer.

The actual processors for the pack are kept in the hand held unit, more commonly known as the laser. The laser is attached to the pack via a eight conductor Cat-5 cable that connects to the front PCB. Inside the laser shell is the PCB with sensors and lights, a speaker to indicate the status of the pack, a trigger, and an LCD to display the status of the pack to the player. Although now sold and repaired as one piece, the IR unit and the PCB are two separate pieces. The IR unit is what emits the visible laser your eye sees and the invisible IR beam which "tags" the opponent's packs. The IR unit is a metallic cylinder roughly one inch in diameter and one inch long.

LQX is the name for the main game computer which maintains mission time remaining, registers code names, activates games, runs the Member's Terminal, and runs the score monitor. LQX is run on Windows 3.11 and communicates with the packs via a wireless high speed data unit

[edit] Scoring

Laser Quest players gain points by tagging other players or by tagging the opposing team's base. They lose points when they are tagged by other people, or when they are caught in a trap. The number of points lost depends on where the player hit and game settings. The scale for a typical game is as follows:

• Laser: 3 points
• Front: 5 points
• Shoulders: 3 points
• Back: 4 points

Tagging another player gains a player 10 points, no matter where the other player is hit. Being tagged by the Marshal or (when applicable) by a trap costs 50 points. Tagging the opposing team's base (when applicable) gains a player 50 points. Players always gain more points for making a tag than they lose for being tagged.

Players may also be awarded bonus points based on their accuracy--usually 10 points for every 1% hit rate. In other words, if a player achieved a hit rate of 10%, he or she would be awarded 100 bonus points. This is usually limited to a maximum bonus of far less than the theoretical maximum of 1000 points in order to prevent people tagging one person with their first attempt and then hiding for the rest of the game.

The team score is the sum of all the individual players' scores.

[edit] Game variants

The hardware and software used limit what types of games a Laser Quest center can hold. Up to four different groups of settings can be created; it is normal for everyone on a team to have the same settings, though this is not required. When giving packs within a team different settings, the packs will not be visibly different in-game.

The settings which can be altered are:

Available settings	options	standard game settings
Game type	All-on-all, 2-team, 3-team	All-on-all
Game time (minutes)		15
Number of lives	1+, or unlimited	unlimited
Number of shots	1+, or unlimited	unlimited
Downtime (seconds)		3-5
Shoulder sensors	on/off	on
Laser sensors	on/off	on
Bases	on/off	-
Replenishers	on/off	-
Replenisher values for lives and shots		-
Sentinel effect	on/off	-
Sentinel values for lives and shots		-

The number of shots used can be quite large; in certain game types, players routinely fire 3000+ shots. This will give an accuracy rate of perhaps 5%. This seemingly low amount is a result of constant firing and dodging, as players are not directly penalized for missed shots. The average is 6% ratio of accuracy.

Downtime is defined as the period of time after a player is tagged that they remain deactivated. After the downtime has expired, the de-activated player's pack will re-energise and they are able to play as before.

[edit] North America Challenge

Laser Quest holds a corporate tournament called the North America Challenge, or NAC. To qualify for NAC, members from a particular center must try out The top 9, plus one potential alternate, then go to one of three regional tournaments held in June of each year. The top teams from each of these regional tournaments will then proceed to the continental tournament, typically held in September. The top 20 teams from the regional tournaments(top 7 teams from each regionals get invites) compete in the NAC to determine the best team in Laser Quest.

[edit] NAC Champions & Runners Up

Year	Winner	First Runner Up	Second Runner Up	Consolation Winner	Finals Location
2008 Details	To be played.				Hoffman Estates  IL
2007 Details	9 Deadly Venoms Houston  TX	Brampton Brew Crew Brampton  ON	Team OFF Hoffman Estates  IL	NRH North Richland Hills  TX	Gwinnett  GA
2006 Details	ShadowZ Lincoln  NE	Westland Wolfpack Westland  MI	42 Appleton  WI	Brampton Brew Crew Brampton  ON	Las Vegas  NV
2005 Details	NRH North Richland Hills  TX	9 Deadly Venoms Houston  TX	Westland Wolfpack Westland  MI	Brampton Brew Crew Brampton  ON	Mesquite  TX
2004 Details	Brampton Brew Crew Brampton  ON	NRH North Richland Hills  TX	9 Deadly Venoms Houston  TX	Phoenix Pyros Phoenix  AZ	Rochester  NY
2003 Details	Paragon Denver  CO	Westland Wolfpack Westland  MI	ShadowZ Lincoln  NE	Brampton Brew Crew Brampton  ON	North Richland Hills  TX
2002 Details	Paragon Denver  CO	Phoenix Pyros Phoenix  AZ	9 Deadly Venoms Houston  TX	ShadowZ Lincoln  NE	Norridge  IL
2001 Details	Paragon Denver  CO	Westland Wolfpack Westland  MI	San Antonio San Antonio  TX	Austin Austin  TX	Colorado Springs  CO
2000 Details	Phoenix Pyros Phoenix  AZ	Paragon Denver  CO	Tulsa Whoopdonkeys Tulsa  OK	Westland Wolfpack Westland  MI	Toronto  ON
1999 Details	Phoenix Pyros Phoenix  AZ	Paragon Denver  CO	Austin Austin  TX	NRH North Richland Hills  TX	North Richland Hills  TX
1998 Details	9 Deadly Venoms Houston  TX	Phoenix Pyros Phoenix  AZ	Armageddon Lincoln  NE	Mesa Mesa  AZ	Knoxville  TN
1997 Details	Team MAD Madison Heights  MI	Paragon Denver  CO	Oshawa Oshawa  ON	Phoenix Pyros Phoenix  AZ	Downers Grove  IL
1996 Details	Oshawa Oshawa  ON	London London  ON	Brampton Brew Crew Brampton  ON	Charlotte Charlotte  NC	London  ON
1995 Details	Oshawa Oshawa  ON	Brampton Generals Brampton  ON	Brampton Wildfire Brampton  ON		London  ON

Main article: North America Challenge

Laser Quest holds a corporate tournament called the North America Challenge, or NAC. To qualify for NAC, members from a particular center must try out The top 9, plus one potential alternate, then go to one of three regional tournaments held in June of each year. The top teams from each of these regional tournaments will then proceed to the continental tournament, typically held in September. The top 20 teams from the regional tournaments(top 7 teams from each regionals get invites) compete in the NAC to determine the best team in Laser Quest.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] (ELC) European LaserQuest Championship

This Consists of teams from UK, France and Holland there are 9 players. The tournament takes place every year in alternating participating country. 2007 championships were held in Longwell Green, Bristol the cup finals was won by Sorry Team, with LQ Legends winning the plate finals. ^[1] The 2006 cup finals were won by LQ Legends with Badgers winiing the plate final held in Eindhoven Netherlands, the 2005 event was played in Reims France.^[2]

[edit] See also

• Lasertag — the general sport

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Laser Quest official site
• LQ Arena - Forum boards and more for Laser Quest members.