Hi David and guys.

We've just run a tag event on May bank holiday nr Welwyn Garden city with
around 50 players and a whole variety of games.

I agree the hobby is a little moribund but there are still enthusiasts out
there.

There is a skirmish and light LRP day once a month at a site near
Southampton if you are interested and there are a couple of weekend's
planned for later in the year.

Sites to play upon are also difficult to find.

Sensors- well, there are 2 or 3 people selling sensors at the moment -
compatible with Wow and they are very reliable. Plans are afoot for
including other tag systems and having more than 6 hits - we trailed 20 hit
sensors in the Star Wars game at DropZone.

Hope to be seeing you soon!

Graham

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualeclipselrp@...
[mailto:virtualeclipselrp@...]
Sent: 22 June 2006 09:14
To: virtualeclipselrp@...
Subject: [Virtual Eclipse] Digest Number 124

There are 3 messages in this issue.

Topics in this digest:

1. Re: Any VE games lately? (Was: Hi)
From: "Mick" sage_the@...
2. Re: DIY laser tag
From: "david_shepheard" no_reply@...
3. Re: Electic Shock Tag (Was: Any VE games lately?)
From: "david_shepheard" no_reply@...

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Message: 1
Date: Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:44 am
From: "Mick" sage_the@...
Subject: Re: Any VE games lately? (Was: Hi)


--- In virtualeclipselrp@..., david_shepheard
<no_reply@y...> wrote:
>
> --- "David Roman" wrote:
> > So has there been any games lately with this group? I havn't
> heard any news comming from this quadrant in a while. How are things
> going?
> >
> > .....Dave @ www.1SLT.com
>
> Hi Dave,
>
> Thanks for the post.
>
> VE *has* been much quieter than usual for more than two years now. We
> have been running some table top role playing games, but our Lazer
> Tag games have not been happening at all.
>
> :-(
>
> I'm quite sad about this myself as I miss running around and shooting
> at people. More than that I miss the LARP element. For me a 100%
> mecanical game like Quasar or Laser Quest doesn't give me the same
> buzz. I love the fact that I am playing something like a Merc medic
> and am crawling through a bush trying to rescue an injured comrad. (I
> shall have to pop over to 1SLT and see what else is going on in the
> UK.)
>
> :-)
>
> Some other UK Lazer Tag groups also seem to be quieter than usual at
> the moment, so I don't think this is a problem exclusive to VE.
>
> What is the situation like in the USA? Are all the groups as strong
> as they used to be?
>
> As it has been a while since our last game, I think VE would need a
> equipment checking/repairing session, before we could run another
> game. Apart from that issue, I think we could easily be ready to run
> a game within a few months.
>
> I think part of the problem (with VE) is that some of our most active
> members have started families and there is a bit less free time
> available for the club. I know that a lot of our members are still
> finding time for re-enactment and other hobbies, so I think we need a
> bit of a push to get things restarted. (I'm not acually part of the
> VE organising committee, myself, but I will be doing my best to
> support the people on the committee when they do start work on a new
> game. I've got a dead PC at the moment, so have been doing less for
> VE than usual.)
>
> I think part of the problem with 'Tagging' as a whole in the UK is
> that it is *very* tied to the original Worlds of Wonder system. WoW
> seems to be the only company that could build anything that would
> work reliably in sunlight. Most UK groups seem to have started with
> WoW and ignored the systems that have followed in its wake. Reliance
> on stuff that hasn't been sold for years is a bit of a bar to new
> players. If a group doesn't have spares it can't bring in new players
> and if a group can't bring in new players it will eventually loose
> its energy.
>
> Do you know what tag systems are most popular in the USA?
>
> The new Lazer Tag Team Ops *could* come to the rescue of the hobby.
> Their people certainly seem to be very willing to make the system
> compatible with the old signal (which will help groups transfer
> across to the new system when individual players can afford to).
>
> However, as LTTO is marketed to children, they can't fully cater to
> the smaller LARP market. Last I heard they still had the gun and
> sensor tied together. This is something that makes the system much
> less usable for LARP (where we might have unarmed players) but is
> probably essential to get the toy past the marketing boys at Hasbro.
>
> It is a real shame that the equipment must be aimed at children as
> this forces the manufactures to produce low cost items that are not
> as strong as taggers would like. For example most tagging systems I
> have seen make no attempt to waterproof equipment. Tagging groups
> seem fairly able to make this sort of improvment.
>
> The equipment situation at VE is that we pull starsensor circuit
> boards out of their packaging, mount them into military style
> helmets, then do our best to waterproof them. If LTTO start making a
> stand alone sensor (especially with their heads up display option)
> I'm sure that we would be very interested. People (over here) are not
> so hungry for guns as a lot of gun circuits are already available on
> the internet, and guns are not in short supply.
>
> For me the perfect situation would be if Hazbro did have separate gun
> and sensor circuits and was able to give tagging groups discounts
> and/or sell us bare circut boards. I would also like Hazbro and other
> groups to agree on licencing their tag-signals to each other so that
> every tagging system could be used together. At the moment the lack
> of compatibility makes groups and individuals resistant to using new
> kit when it comes onto the market.
>
> This stops groups feeding money back to the manufacturers and
> probably makes them think that we are not a market worth targeting.
> So far every tagging system manufacturer seems to have protected
> their signal, like Betamax video recorders. Nobody seems willing to
> use a common signal, like VHS video recorders did very successfully.
>
> I have a feeling that the current political situation in the UK is
> also going to affect Lazer Tag games in a bad way. There is
> increasing political demand to ban replica guns and this may well
> make tagging (and possibly BB-guns and paintball) illegal in the
> future. Hopefully the attacks on London, will not make the government
> shove though a lot of knee-jerk reaction laws that interfere with
> hobbies that are not a threat to anyone.
>
> That is the unofficial news from me. If I hear anything useful from
> our committee, I'll make sure you are the first to know.
>
> Yours taglessly,
>
> David 'Big Mac' Shepheard
> Webmaster
> Virtual Eclipse
> http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/
> http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/
>


hi just joined the group and rea dur messgae. you nkow theres another
system on the market right now. But its got a twist. Its got
something that sends a shock to your hand every time the chest sensor
is hit. I know this might not appeal to all Taggers but i thought i
mention it alll the same in case anyones interested






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________________________________________________________________________

Message: 2
Date: Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:39 am
From: "david_shepheard" no_reply@...
Subject: Re: DIY laser tag


Hi heghduq,

Shouldn't your name be written HeghDuQ?

A lot of people making DIY tag guns seem to stick to rifles as they
give you a lot more room to play with. One common trick is to use a
rifle with a grenade lancher and put IR emmitters into a grenade
launcher (instead of the rifle barrel) as it gives more room for a
big lens.

Getting things to fit into a handgun, or in your case, a hand phaser
is really going to cut down on your space (*especially* if you are
trying to retain the original sound board).

You might be able to gain a bit of extra space by switching to a high
power battery and using resistor to stop the current burning out the
circuit (a small camera battery might be able to fit in a part of the
phaser that is currently empty). This could allow you to put one of
the circuits in the handle where the batteries go now (you might need
to glue the battery compartment shut if you do this - use a hot glue
gun as you can pick it off later if you change your mind).

Getting the tag circuit and the phaser sound circuit to work in
paralel or in series might cause problems so you might want to try
using a different battery for each circuit and fitting a relay to
trigger the second circuit. It is probably best to keep the original
circut board where it is as I think it is attached to the switches. I
think you could probably connect the wires that currently go to the
phaser light to a relay switch and connect that to a separate tag
circuit housed in the battery compartment. The wires from the tag
circuit could then go back up to your IR emmitting diode.

Andy is right in his comments about bare emmitters, but you might get
a slight performance enhancement by mounting your LED inside a chrome
bezel like this one:

http://www.maplin.co.uk/free_uk_delivery/LED_Chrome_Bezel_2073/LED_Chr
ome_Bezel_2073.htm

(If that link is broken onto two lines you will have to reassemble it
to get the right page.)

A chrome bezel would reflect a bit more IR in a forward direction and
cut down slighly on the sideways spread. It isn't as good as a lens,
but is better than using nothing. The entire assembly might still fit
inside the hole where the original light was, although you might need
to do a bit of careful carving with a dremel or similar tool to get
it to point in the right direction. Don't forget that as you are not
using the bezel for its orignial purpose you can ditch the retaining
nut if it is in the way. There are probably a few bezel types in your
local electronics shop and some might be slighly smaller than others,
but be careful to get one that fits with your IR LED.

By the way, if you need to glue the bezel or the emmitter to the body
*try* to glue it to the same side that the electronic circuits are on
(so that you don't need to put in longer wires than you need to).
Remember that you are probably going to have to take this thing apart
to change the batteries.

If you mount the entire thing inside the phaser it shouldn't be too
visible from the outside, but a bit of perspex (which could perhaps
be slighly red) should cover it up (and make your weapon more
waterproof) if you are concerned.

Be warey of mounting the emmitter on the outside of the phaser as the
spread will be so big that it hits people on your own team. Also be
cautious of powering up the tag circuit too much as the IR might leak
through the sides of the phaser body. (I actually know a guy that
made a "bazooka" gun circuit so powerful that it shot out of the back
of his drain-pipe and hit people behind him!). If you get that
problem with your phaser you can try gluing something like aluminium
foil to the insides of the gun, but be careful to not create a short
circuit if you do that (you might get away with just doing this to
the front section around the LED).

Good luck with your project.

Hi Andy,

Nice to see you are still around. Was it you doing the open source
tag project? How is that going? I lost your website URL. If you are
doing any new tag stuff (and haven't already added your site to my
links pages) let me know where to find it.

David "Big Mac" Shepheard
Webmaster
Virtual Eclipse Role Playing Club
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/

--- "Andy" wrote:
>
> The lens doesn't need to be so big. In fact, if you wanted a very
short range tagger, you could skip the lens entirely.
>
> The space you have is almost impossible to make a lens assembly
fit - 3/16 is smaller than most 5 mm IR emitters. If you are willing
the use a bare emitter, you could get a range of 20-30 feet, but
anything more than that will require extensive changes to your phaser.
>
> -Andy in Indy
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: heghduq
> Sent: Sunday, June 04, 2006 11:15 PM
> Subject: [Virtual Eclipse] DIY laser tag
>
>
> Greetings and salutations. I happened upon your group after a
long
> surfing session looking for help on a project but have a small
dilema
> and a possible challenge for any electronics techs out there. I
have a
> Star Trek Next generation type II hand Phaser. I wish to add a
IRLED
> WoW Laser Tag compatable electronics package to the existing
sound
> board with out compromising the external appearrence of my hand
Phaser.
> From ehat I have seen in the DIY sections of several Laser tag
sites
> the minimum required length of the IRLED emitter is 4.5 inches
with a 2
> inch Diameter magnifying lens. My dilema comes in lack of space
and
> shape. I have at best 2 inches in length for the IRLED emitter
tube.
> the other issue is the shape of the lens. It can only be 9/16th
of an
> inch long and 3/16th wide. this would make it rectangular in
shape and
> quite small. would it be possible to do this?





________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Message: 3
Date: Thu Jun 22, 2006 1:20 am
From: "david_shepheard" no_reply@...
Subject: Re: Electic Shock Tag (Was: Any VE games lately?)


--- "Mick" <sage_the@h...> wrote:
>
> hi just joined the group and rea dur messgae. you nkow theres another
> system on the market right now. But its got a twist. Its got
> something that sends a shock to your hand every time the chest sensor
> is hit. I know this might not appeal to all Taggers but i thought i
> mention it alll the same in case anyones interested

I've heard of something like that but don't know the actual name. Do
you know their website?

It is an interesting idea, but if I was going to upgrade, I would
probably go with the new Lazer Tag Team Ops system from Hazbro. LTTO is
perfect for tag apart from one thing -they joined the gun and sensor
together to keep costs down. Sadly this makes it much less useful to
the LARP communty as we like to have head mounted sensors so that
players can be unarmed (or can holster weapons and still get shot at).

However, I've spoken to one of the developers and they are willing to
make the next generation of the new guns backwardly compatible with the
original WoW signal. This would make it possible to run a game with
both types of gun and replace equipment gradually.

I'm hoping that the LTTO system will become popular enough that they
decide to try out a separate head mounted sensor similar to the
original Worlds of Wonder one. If they do that they might be willing to
sell bear circuit boards to LARP groups that want to mount them into
military style helmets.

If Lazer Tag Team Ops sounds interesting to you then turn down the
volume of your PC speakers (to avoid the annoying music) and visit
their website:
http://www.hasbro.com/lazertag/

Once you get there look for the tiny square volumn control to turn the
sound of and you can put your PC volume back to normal.

David 'Big Mac' Shepheard
Webmaster
Virtual Eclipse
http://virtualeclipse.aboho.com/
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/virtualeclipselrp/





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