Hi, David --

Sorry for the long delay in replying, I had to hustle to release the
preliminary code for the 2nd model in the new LTTO line as the
schedule got bumped up by a month.

First, let me describe a little bit about the LTTO system to give
everyone a framework for understanding what I'm talking about:

(1) There are presently 2 models to discuss (with many more planned
for the near future): The "Deluxe" is the initial model and should
be on the shelves in Chicago in July, and nationwide (USA) by the end
of August -- I don't know about international, but my best guess
would be that it will also be late August. The second model, which I
will call the "Drone" for now, I am just finishing the development
work on. It should be available in the US in early spring 2005, but
may be released slightly sooner depending on market demand.

The Deluxe is NOT compatible with any previously existing forms of
Lazer Tag (i.e., Worlds of Wonder, ESS, or Laser Challenge), but will
remain forward-compatible with all further items in the LTTO line.
The "Drone" is fully compatible with the Deluxe and all future LTTO
gear, and should also have a "hidden" mode in which it is compatible
with Worlds of Wonder Lazer Tag gear, and therefore also the Tomy
Electronic Survivor Shot which uses essentially the same signal
format.

The WoW/ESS compatability mode is for now limitted to the normal
unlimitted-ammo, 6-hits-and-you're-out game. But I will hopefully be
able to add games with programmable number of hits, limitted ammo,
armorer-recorded respawn, etc. -- if not in this second model, then
in another one in the near future.

So, this means there are really 2 "modes" to think about -- the
native "LTTO mode" allows all of the advanced features to be used,
while the "WoW mode" is essentially just intended to allow the new
gear to be used as if it were older Worlds Of Wonder equipment.

(2) The stystem uses 360-degree sensors that are integral to the
guns, there is at present no means of adding additional external
sensors (but this is undergoing some feasability review for possible
future use). These on-board sensors are fully daylight compatible,
so they can be used indoors or out, in bright daylight, overcast,
shady areas, dusk, or night (though Tiger recommends not using LTTO
at night for safety reasons).

(3) In LTTO mode, the "guns" all emit a 360-degree "IFF signature"
which allows players to lock-on to, identify team affiliation of, and
receive confirmation of tags landed on other players from a
distance. This mimics a passive system, which is to say that it is
the TARGETTING player, not the TARGETTED player, who receives the
lock-on and IFF information -- the TARGETTED player does no know
another player has him locked-up (this is the opposite approach from
that used in the Laser Challenge gear, in which the TARGETTED
player's gun lights up and emits a sound to alert the player to the
impending tag).

(4) In LTTO mode, this "IFF signature" also allows the guns to sense
the presence of nearby hostile guns -- this gives the player
a "danger" or "proximity" warning, alerting him to the fact that a
hostile player is nearby but not presently in your sights.

(5) The default LTTO mode game is for an unlimitted number of
players, and is a last-man-standing-wins, ten-hits-and-you're-out
type game. This game has unlimitted "ammo", unlimitted "reloads",
unlimitted time, fifteen seconds of protective shields, and an
unlimitted use of "Mega Tags" which is a system for increasing
the "hit points" of a tag up to a maximum of four -- usefull for
sniping situations where you'll only get the one shot and really want
to make it count.

The remaining LTTO mode games can have up to 24 players (up to 16 in
the games for only 2 teams), each of whom has a unique player ID and
so these are all fully scored games, where the players (and their
teams where appropriate) are automatically ranked by performance, and
each player can view the head-to-head comparison of how many tags he
landed on any given other player in the game versus how many tags
that player landed on him -- rather like the arena games where you
get a performance printout at the end of the game. In addition, they
are all time-limittted games (selectable fom 1 to 99 minutes)

These games include a user-customised version of the first one (e.g.,
you can sselct how many hits, how much ammo, etc.), the ability to
play and score it as two or three teams of up to 8 players each, the
ability to turn "friendly fire" on or off in team games, and the
ability to transfer health points between teammates in the team games.

In addition, there are games where one of the other teams
is "neutral" (you are not supposed to tag them), and games where
there is a specific actively-scored physical area, the control of
which is what the players are competing over ("King Of The Hill").

****

So, with those things in mind, let me address as many of your points
as I can here:

> Great! VE just uses six hits and you're out in it's system
> but I know that a lot of other groups want ammo counters
> and different hits for different players.

These are all supportable in the LTTO mode. Right now there are no
games where different players have different number of hits, but such
a game could be defined without much trouble and has, in fact, been
on our list of games to develop.

> I hope ...[you haven't]... slaved the gun and sensor
> together. We don't always have guns in our games for
> all characters and non player characters, but everyone
> has to have a sensor in case they are shot.

In LTTO mode the two are inextricably linked (the player and his gun
are one), though some future accessories could conceivably serve as
don't-shoot targets. In the "Drone"'s WoW mode, you could just use a
StarSensor for non-combatants while combatants had both a STarSensor
and a new Lazer Tag Team Ops gun -- the combatant's body sensor would
register hits "on the player" while the gun sensor would disable the
gun if it was hit repeatedly without the player taking body hits.

> > (3) Physical areas like rooms or car-ports can become
> > actively scored to make a zone of contention.
> Sounds interesting, but how much do physical area sensors
> cost? (a ball park figure will do).

Nothing! The sensor is already in the gun. What you do is set-up a
transmitter that broadcasts a signal which tels all receivers that
they are "in the zone". All of the LTTO guns currently have modes in
which they can serve as this transmitter, so there is nothing special
to buy. BTW, a "non-combatant hostage" could hold this transmitter-
mode gun, so that the players in the game are competing for physical
control of the hostage (unfortunately there is no way to tag-out the
transmitter in the two present models, so the "hostage" is guaranteed
to "survive" the game -- for now! But that just needs a new game
definition to change it).


> > (4) The Host can set a whole variety of options...
> That is great. How long does it take to do that? Is
> it done with dip switches or another unit and an IR
> signal? Can I set up one unit and copy all the
> settings over to the others?

It only takes a few seconds to program each game, the "host" player
does this on the keypad of his gun and then the settings are
automatically transmitted to all of the other players. All they have
to do is indicate which team (if appropriate) they would prefer to be
assigned to.

> That sounds great. But can I turn it off? I might want to
> give some players "unsophisticated guns" that don't have
> IFF in them. If IFF can be turned on and off we can make
> it an in-character "add-on" for players to buy.

In LTTO mode, the IFF is central to the way the system works. I
suppose we could possibly develop future units that DON'T have IFF
(or which don't receive other players' IFF info until it is "paid
for"), but that's not really in the plans right now. Still, I'll
considere it -- maybe I can make a hidde mode that enables or
disables IFF receiving. But this would always default to "receives",
and your players who had not "paid for" IFF would have to manually
turn it off at the start of each game -- a process that you'd
probably want a "game marshall" to verify manually. This need to be
default ON is because the main focus of our market will be the people
using LTTO in it's native mode rather than for LARPG's, and they'd
get mighty upset if the guns could accidentally be left in a "blind"
mode without them realising it was set-up that way.

> > (6) Players receive audio and visual feedback as to
> > whether or not a fired tag landed on the target player.
> Can we turn off this feature? We might want to put a gun
> into "sniper" mode and not have it make the noise.

Yes, both models have a soft-mute (hold down one of the keys for 2
seconds to disable sound effects, do it again to turn them back on).
In addition, the Deluxe model has a switch to turn off the internal
speaker (which everyone would be able to hear) but leave the headset
speaker (which is extremely quiet, the only reason you hear it at all
is because it sits right over your ear) turned on.

> Hmmmm. I don't like the idea of this. How can you shoot
> someone in the back?

While it IS physically possible to have a target player hold his gun
on the other side of his body where you (behind him) cannot tag it,
in most such cases the target will either very soon turn one way or
the other exposing the gun's sensor, or if they are staying
stationary then they are probably behind a wall or barricade that you
can "splatter" a carefully placed shot off of into their sensor.

> At the moment many UK taggers have
> taken WoW Lazer Tag StarSensors, pulled out the innards
> and used a circuit called a Y-rig to put one sensor on
> the front of the head and one sensor on the back
> of the head.

We have something similar to this on the drawing boards. PLease keep
in mind, the initial models and accessories are aimed prmarily at the
mass-market, which has shown a strong preference for simplicity
(e.g., no extra sensors to wear) given the choice -- particularly
since the vast majority of the "mass market battles" will be face-to-
face or face-to-side encounters. However, if past patterns are a
guide, the chest-head-back sensors will be supported as soon as there
is a strong enough user base out there to support the R&D and
manufacturing cost of making them.

> The disadvantage of an integrated unit is that if I put
> my gun down I can't be easily shot.

But you also can't score -- you've effectively simply taken yourself
out of the game.

> I would think that a lot of LARPers would prefer to have a head
> sensor in something that fits adults and is comfortable! (IE not
> anything like a WoW StarCap, with its hot foam and hard front, and
> not anything like a WoW StarHelmet, which I nearly got stuck on my
> head as it was too small!)

lmao! I think I have a permanent flat spot on my forehead from that
StarCap... and the less said about the helmet, other than that it
looked really cool in the "star wars" years, the better!

Seriously, though the initial Deluxe model is ergonomically best
suited to young kids' hands, we have been fighting to make sure
future models will be better suited to adults and kids at the same
time -- and the "Drone" model is the first fruits of that, it is much
better suited to an adult's hands from what I have seen so far. As
for clothing and web gear, I am a very stong proponent of always
making this stuff at least easily modifiable with readily-available
webbing from a fabric store, even if it is not possile to make it fit
all sizes right out of the box.

> However as a pure combat system. You are probably looking
> to keep the price down.

At first, that is always a major concern. This is primarily a TOY,
not a hobby combat-simulation tool, so we are under pretty brutal
price restrictions. But again, just look at the history of all
previous tag systems: they all start out as minimally-priced toys,
and as the user base grows to include enough adults and other
advanced players, the focus shifts to more advanced products with
higher price points which allow better features to be added.


> > (9) The LCD display allows...
> I'm sure a lot of taggers will love this. But please
> make it as damage proof as possible. If it breaks
> easily then I won't want to get one.

LCD's are pretty fragile things and there's just not much that can be
done about this. However, we have mounted it slightly above and
behind where the "toggle" would be on an old german Luger pistol,
facing rearward towards the user and upwards -- it's pretty darned
hard to hit it on anything accidentally (though you'll want to be
carefull to not just throw it into a duffle bag full of hammers). It
is recessed, providing some protection. But your point is an
excellent one -- a nice acrylic or polycarbonate see-through
protector would be a great accessory. I'll bring this up with
Tiger. If they don't want to do it, I'll see what it would cost to
have a stack made up at the local plastics store, and see if I can
offer them at cost to people who expect to use their guns in harsher-
than-normal consditions.

> > (10) Sound effects can be ... through a headset worn
> > by the player.
> > (11) Headset also ... projects images of 3 "Alert Icons"
> > in space in front of the user
> The real disadvantage with guns that connect to headsets
> is that you can not put down the gun.

lol, weren't you just complaining that the integrated receiver meant
people could cheat by putting down the gun? make up your mind! :-D

Seriously though, the headset is optional -- you can play with it or
without it. All information shown in the headset is duplicated on
the gun's LCD, and the gun has an internal speaker (though other
players will also be able to hear it) as well. You could also wear
the hedset but just unplug it from the gun if you needed to set the
gun down temporarily.

> Please please please, talk to your competitors and try
> to agree on standards because if someone goes to a game
> with 50 or 60 players they are FORCED to use compatible
> equipment.

Sadly, this just doesn't work out in the "real world" of corporate
compettition -- I've posted a bit more about it on Adequate.com's
lazer tag forum under "The Future of Lazer Tag":

http://www.adequate.com/LazerTag/community/Forums/DCForumID3/1.html

However, the Worlds Of Wonder signal is now public domain, so that
mode is accessible to all comers. That's why we are adding support
for it, because it is still in widespread use by serious taggers and
we want the serious Tagging community to appreciate our new gear for
it's unique abilities and more-than-compettitive price.

I understand that you don't want to (and arent going to) toss out all
your old gear just because my design isn't compatible with it. I
understand that the hobbyist/homebrew and super-high-end gear is
always going to have features that I can't match because of the
pricing structure and legal issues I face in the toy industry. But I
also understand that the scarcity of the old gear, time required to
build hobbyist/homebrew gear, and expense of buying the super-high-
end gear is keeping the tagging community smaller than it should be --
too many kids today find it much easier to just play video games or
go paintballing, and that lack of "new blood" isn't good for the
future of tag sports. I aim to change this by providing a good, low-
cost product that will not only be super attractive to new players
(because of all of it's native-mode features) but also provide at
least a basic compatability with the established serious tagging
community so young people will get more involved in serious Lazer Tag
gaming again. The way I see it, they will probably want my equipment
for what it does, and then want the hobbyist/homebrew/advanced
equipment for the really involved tag games and LARP's (as they'll
get a chance to try many of these types of games with the new gear
that they will already own). Similarly, I suspect the serious
taggers/LARPers will see what I've done with LTTO, and find that it
just offers too many cool new otions to NOT use it's native mode in
some games, even if most of the time they just use it as a source of
new-manufacture commercial equipment for their existing WoW/ESS games.


> We generally go out in the night as well as in the day,
> and also spend time inside buildings (like scout huts).
> The conditions the sensor has to cope with are sunlight,
> strobing neon lights and night time. It also has to cope
> with rain. (Because we wear head sensors they have been
> waterproofed inside to avoid short circuits from sweat).

None of this should pose a problem -- especially in native LTTO mode,
but my testing of the WoW/ESS compatability mode looks like it will
work great under all of these conditions as well. As for the rain,
you'll need to apply som sealant along the seam where the various
body pieces meet, but it sounds like you're used to that already.

> The standard battery used with the WoW Lazer Tag sensor
> (PP9) runs out too quickly for a game so we have made
> recharcable battery packs that have more capacity than
> we need.

The new LTTO gear seems to run about 17-20 hours of actual continuous
use on a set of 6 "AA" ("LR 6") batteries. Longer than that if you
have the internal speaker turned off or the headset disconnected (so
there's no draw from the visual alert LED's).

> Range of weapons varies as many taggers hand build weapons
> using toy riffles, various large lenses (often an inch
> across) and all sorts of focal lenghts. Some people stick
> with a WoW StarLite but others have automatic guns. In our
> group we prefer long range weapons to have narrow beams and
> wide beam weapons (grenade launchers) to have short ranges
> and slower firing rates.

Since you use such a variety of "weapon" types, I think the LTTO gear
(in either LTTO or WoW mode) should fit in well with your games. My
initial testing seems to indicate that in WoW mode the LTTO gear will
tag WoW and ESS sensors further than the WoW/ESS gear will tag the
LTTO sensor, but that's probably just a wiring issue that I can
resolve soon.

LTTO gear has a beam angle about halfway between the original WoW
Starlyte (+/- 1.5 degrees) and the Tiger Lazer Tag (+/- 6 degrees or
so). We are using beams of about +/- 3.5 degrees. In WoW mode, the
firing rate is currently limitted to essentially the same as the
original Startlyte pistol, but if time permits I may add a rapid-fire
mode like in the Starlyte Pro rifle.

> I believe that most UK groups use WoW. However I think there is a
> Laser Challenge community in the USA.

There are both WoW/ESS and Laser Challenge communities here in the
US, but neither seems to be as active as the UK community. As
mentioned before, I can't pursue Laser Challenge compatability at
this time for legal reasons, but hopefully we can all find common
ground on the WoW/ESS signal format and then develop it from there.

> If your gun signal is generated by a digital circuit then
> perhaps you could make that bit open source (or user
> reprogramable) so that players or groups of players
> could change the signal to any other system they want
> to use.

It is generated entirely in the microprocessor, but unfortunately for
cost reasond that processor is entirey mask-programmed ROM. For that
matter, it is die-bonded to the board and covered under epoxy, so
there's no way to get at it to modify anything.

While I could not in good conscience disclose all the details of the
advanced LTTO features and how the communications protocol supports
them, I am pretty sure it would not be a problem for me to disclose
the basic tag and IFF beacon signals we use in the default game. For
that matter, though, all of the communications details (or at least
enough information for a clever hacker to figure out the rest) will
be available to the public once the patents are published.

> We have a medical system where people get randomly injured
> in specific locations after they have been shot several
> times. If we could integrate something like that into a
> sensor it would automate stuff for us, but that would be
> a one off program for just our group.
> We would love to have a box that plugs into the sensor
> (either with a physical connection or IR) to act as a
> medical diagnosis unit and show the "injury" that a
> player has suffered.

Actually, we have a capability of doing something sort-of like this --
the creation of "hostile active areas" which can randomly fire tags
at players, including only at players of specific teams (e.g., an
area-denial smart mine). This capability is not used in any of the
existing games, but all of the LTTO gear will know how to understand
and react to these area signals should they encounter them from a
future device.

In addition, in our Team games there is a selectable capability for
players to render "medical assistance" to one another. However, it
may not be quite what you are thinking of -- what it does is allow
one player to transfer some of his health points to another player on
his team who is either (A) in imminent danger of being tagged-out, or
(B) needs to be built-up into a "bulldog" for attacking a strogly
defended enemy position. There are some limitations to this mode,
explained in the instructions for the product.

> Our sensors also represent "forcefields" in a VE game and
> we use another device to reset the forcefield. If we could
> program some code into our own hats to do that then we
> would have those big grins.

Hmm... I think you could do the "forcefield" thing by having a future
accessory (already planned for) that could generate the "hostile
active area" which would seriously tag any player trying to cross it -
- but which, if you repeatedly tag it first, would be disabled for
either a fixed period of time or until a "tech" came along
and "repaired" it. It's avery interesting idea, definitely a
different way of interpretting the active areas than we had
originally envisioned.

> I know that some taggers are interested in grenades that
> do multiple hits in one go or even knock someone down
> instantly.
> This could either be done as a grenade launcher/bazooka
> type weapon or a bomb that a player must defuse.
> So if your hit system could tell the sensor how many hits
> to loose a lot of people would like your system.

That's already in there. AT present, there is a mode (Mega Tags,
already mentioned) where you can "piggy-back" extra hit points onto a
tag before firing it. In addition, some future "weapons" will
naturally fire more powerfull tags. Land-mines, hand grenades, and
some really really cool area denial weapons are on the drawing boards
already, but I can't say too much about them just yet. Suffice to
say, we have spent a TON of time imagining what people will want to
do with the new capabilities we have added, and we plan to meet those
needs!

> That is all I can think of, but I'm sure there are other
> people out there that can tell you more.

Thank you VERY much! It's a great help to see what everyone is doing
with the existing gear, what they wish they could do with it, and
what ideas you've come up with that never even crossed out minds. I
can see I have even MORE months of long nights ahead of me as I
prepare the future "infernal devices"!