~ Also too, we have added a lot of resources to our website – there are also new resources popping up on the web, one of the new sections will cover these resources to bring them to everyone’s attention.

~ This newsletter has enough content that I actually had to put a table of contents on it!

~ I actually had to tone back on some of the material for this newsletter to get it out on time. Plus this leaves me material for the next newsletter <grin>

~ Please note that some of the material in this newsletter is provided to you raw from the person who wrote it, and other sections have been edited to fit our format a bit better.

New Gear News!

Kapowwe™!

As many of you may have already noticed, Kapowwe™ has started making their own version of Realistic Laser Tag guns! What they are actually doing is taking the crème of the crop of Laser Challenge (LC) guns – the Radar Extreme™© gun set, and installing it into some of there better spring based Airsoft guns – hmmmm, sounds a lot like what Styfle was doing for their commercial grade gear. There have been a lot of people asking for this kind of gear, and with Ed Elbert stuck in the war in Iraq with the Army, I guess it was high time someone stepped up to the plate.

There has been some concern however, as some of the guns people have bought from Kapowwe™ in the past were not the greatest of shells, and there are a lot of taggers who will not go near LC gear. For those of you who are not afraid of LC gear, Cloud Captain has been nice enough to provide us with a review of the gear that he bought from them.

However, they are not going to break if you simply sneeze on them

I've had two of the Kapowwe m4s for about a week. I was expecting the $20 airsoft bodies to be a lot more fragile. Don't get me wrong...I dont think they will survive a full tumble down a hill like some of my metal-bodied AEGs (auto electric gun.)

However, they are not going to break if you simply sneeze on them.

Photofrom www.realistictoyguns.com

Kapowwe suggests that you use the tactical sling included with them. I agree fully. The sling rings are metal too. The lens is mounted in the flashhider of the weapon. I understand why...clarity and all...but I have this awful tendancy to forget my barrel length and drag it across objects while in motion (hence my use of metal airsoft guns).

You power up the gun by inserting the clip. The batteries appear to be in the "black box" and not in the clip...it probably just completes the circuit. The gun is reloaded by pulling the m4's charging handle. A VERY nice touch.

The gun has a capacity of 10 shots if you fire full auto. I have a feeling that it is pulsing one or more times a second...too fast for LC sensors to react. I discovered that if you snap-fire, the gun seems to have 25 or so rounds capacity..respectable for a Colt replica.

I have not had a chance to test range and accuracy yet. The length of my living room is not a good testbed for such things. Considering the guns retail at $80 each...and you get a full radar extreme set worth of part (pistol guts and sensor)as part of the package..its not a bad deal. I figure at least $40 retail on the parts alone. Its not like they just slapped the parts inside the shell either...the shell is functional and adds a lot to the guns panache.

The black box on these puppies seems to house the reset button and the batteries. The box is mounted on the ris rail at the bottom of the foregrip.

They concealed the external wiring with a cosmetic wire covering - so it looks fairly nice. The only problem I have, is that the only object like this you would find on an M4, is a PEQ. These are most commonly mounted on top of the fore grip, and sometimes on the side; but, I have never seen them on the bottom rail. If they include a bit more wire and covering, you could move the box to the top rail which would be more realistic in my mind.

After sending Kapowwe feedback they are looking to try placing the blackbox on the top rail...possibly with a cosmetic chance to make it look a bit more like a PEQ.

I've also just gotten the new model p90 and am anxious to put it through the ringer as well. More to come on this model soon.

For a summaries, pictures, movies of the guns in use, and an idea of what is being carried, check:
http://www.realistictoyguns.com

Ill post more after I field test them Halloween night at the Macon Laser Tag League game.

~Balin DeLoach (Cloudcaptain)

Balin DeLoach is an avid larper and captain of a Milsim Airsoft team in Georgia :

(www.teamblackjack.com).

He reviews products for both Airsoft Atlanta and most recently Kapowwe. He turned to tagging in his search for a safe way to run a science fiction and survival horror games.

EWoW

The Buzz on EWOW

There has been a lot of talk about the new website that poped up not to long ago. At first it was considered to be a prank, as no one had a clue as to who made the website, or who to contact about it. Well the truth is finally coming out of the woodwork, and it looks like a new tag vendor is in town!

The following information was donated to us by Peter J O'Riley:

Hey everyone, especially you who are thinking of making your own equipment.

You ought to take a look at this if you haven't already.

Who Is EWoW

EWoWnow , is a group dedicated to the growth of the industry in Outdoor Laser Tag, initially started by Mr Peter O'Riley of Nth Ireland. EWoW it self is broken into two parts, Hobby and Commercial. So far everyone has only seen the hobby side, and it is as it looks, being run and managed as a hobby product. ( more distributors are needed ) The commercial aspect has now been handed over 100% to Zone System USA to continue the work and funding of its full development. It will be released at IAPPA in Orlando this November. However one commercial product being released next week called the “Supercharger” this is an upgrade “plug in” for another product on the market today. It does exactly what it names implies Supercharges the product for an ultra low cost. (pic attached). From WoW to EWoW-C , adding data coms, PC control and membership and financial systems.

EWoWnow goals

1) Make it easier for novice electronic people to build their own laser tag weapons by providing tools and “simple kits” that are feature rich. For eg see www.ewownow.com/sunblock.html as to the direction we are slowly taking to make it as easy as possible.

2) Support the growth of Outdoor Tag as a SPORT

3) Provide an alternative to existing commercial equipment that is in the market today by providing

a) Upgrade paths to what would normally be stagnant product lines here a "free" design service exists.

b) New product lines from Weapons to PC software

4) Continue development of Outdoor Tag to almost military specifications.

When will it be ready?

It was always planned for December and that is still the target date. The official launch will be at IAPPA late November.

Range

Well that is dependant more on the Lens and Receiver setup, than a protocol, but protocol does help. Using the Sunblock sensors with a standard Vishay IR and receiver pair, we have achieved well in excess of 100m in “bright” sunlight. With our sniper real laser modules 100’s of meters were achieved and FDA safe.

How it all started,

It all started with a player naturally, who though there could be more to the game than what was offered. He did this on his own, and interestingly looked at it from a different viewpoint. He was one of my staff, I guess it was how he thought he could do his own system that was the birth of EWoW. The simplicity of his concept from day one was amazing. I bought into it as test showed it just worked! He will not let me yet release his name.

What actually is EWoW ? ( Here I am sorry, I have to get a bit technical)

To start with we need to look at “What is WoW” - and we find it is nothing more than a set of 1800hz pulses that are modulated with 57kh (56kh for today’s receivers). Now technically, this is also a 55 Hex being transmitted at 3600bps on microprocessor UART modulated with just one stop bit. Easy to implement, no timing needed. A simplistic TX and RX system and a PWM had this running in 15 lines of code (naturally we improved the receiver for the –C versions ) . But it was not all easy as not all possible codes are the same.

Long Distance Protocol Codes.

Now when you analyse the receiver specifications and look at the issues it faces, with all its requirement on the length, of both short and long pulse it receives and needs, just to keep its AGC happy, (especially at low signal levels) there are in fact many other code sequences other than 5555 that can be used, and they work just as well. More than enough for teams, clans or even individual ID’s. All this on WoW's standard bit rate. A full set will be published after its official launch, with development kits to play with on PC’s with all the needed codes already worked out.

Short distance protocol codes

Then for the many more code combinations that simply do not work reliably at long range, they do however work exceptionally happily at short ranges and these are used for Mines, ammo dumps, start stop, referee modes, medic , Captain's codes , flags etc. etc. Here we have used only a tiny percentage and will apply more as needed.

Decision time

As we believe in promoting the team sport aspect we elected EWoW to be Team and Clan orientated protocol to start with in its 16 bit long protocol. For example , Note 5555H is just one shot code repeated X times at 3600hz and that one is WoW compatible.

Second layer protocol. EWoW-C

Working with 3600bps on a PC is near impossible or at least difficult but if you talk to a TSOP at 4800bps or even faster, it works at a very short range. Perfect for downloads and start commands. With this we were able to create a secondary channel in parallel with the standard IR channel using a PC UART. It uses all the same parts , its just a code change. This forms the basis of our second layer that adds all the “bells and whistles” for EWoW-C. During the game its EWoW, At the start and end its EWoW-C. A very cheap, sneaky and exceptionally easy way to implement on the same IR channel. Importantly EWoW-C is almost totally designed for the benefit of field operations.

Important.

It must be remembered the protocol we developed allows for Layer 1 changing, we have not said and do not say that EWoW is "THE" best outdoor IR protocol, its just exceptionally easy to implement, WoW compatible, and so easy to upgrade existing commercial WoW equipment. Every one must recognize that the electronics is only one part of a successful outdoor tag system, the lens and receiver are just or more important to its success. With EWoW , we just wanted and needed to ensure we had yesterday , today and the future covered and most importantly as it is going to be a fully open protocol that will actually be used commercially it stands a small chance of acceptance

Was there ever an EWoW-B ?

Oh yes - but it was a dog and we had to put it down, with EWoW-C now nearing commercial installs we are actually developing EWoW-D, and yes it is also compatible to EWoW-C and hence WoW. This product line (should it work !! it is R&D after all ) surpasses all know features of today’s game, orientated primarily to military purposes. Some of the new EWoW-D features will be on show at this IAPPA and I sincerely believe it will open peoples mind to the direction that is possible.

Peter J O’Riley

pj @ ewownow.com

EWOW CHAT SESSION

(23 OCT 04)

There was a chat session recently put on by Ry Wilton for the EwoW™© system. Unfortunately, yours truly was stuck out running errands and missed the event. The whole transcript however is posted under the Laser Tag Chit-Chat posting section of the Laser Forums posting board (www.laserforums.com).

Here are some highlights that I picked up from reading the transcript:

. For those of you that have seen the MP2 mockup, you may notice that the board looks a bit large, 200mm long by aprox 30mm to be more precise. You will be happy to know that this was more of a proto-type board and not the EwoW-C board that will be released when these go on the market. The board shown with the MP2 is a development board designed to be as a learning tool. It is not going to be the only size offered. There will be more compact boards in the realm of 2x1 inches available as well. It sounds like there will be different boards available for different uses.

There are some screen shots showing some of the projects being worked on:

www.ewownnow.com/Screenshots.html

These photos give an idea of what the EwoW-C will look like.

Wilton mentioned that some of the boards will be sold as cheap as possible to encourage hobbyists. There are no hard core numbers available yet on the prices, but there is a good chance that the displays and sunblock sensors kits are going to be about $10-$15. That will be for the board and its immediate family. Hopefully there will be a full price list around DEC 10^th. It was also mention that a gun hardware kit for the electronics will possibly run around the $70 mark , that is all the alluminium pre cut by laser.

Some of the other features mentioned was that if you have the development kit, you will be able to change the sounds of the gear via computer as often as you want. So much for my marketing idea for Fxonics gear! All in all, this is starting to sound more and more impressive to me. Also, if you are a field operator….or a club planning on using multiple guns, their Mission Controller will be a major asset:

http://www.ewownow.com/MC.html

It was also brought up in the discussion that the EwoW™© guns have been tested against Battle Field Sports (BFS) guns and seemed to do okay; unfortunately, there were not any exact names of who did the testing. It’s only safe to say that the guns were very close to BFS equipment, for what that is worth.

There is also a competition currently going on for gun sounds. if you are interested, look at the following page:http://www.ewownow.com/comp.html The winner of the competition will be announced on DEC 6^th.

One thing to keep in mind, there have been a ton of people who have tried to start a hobbyist system (myself included), it looks like these folks are going to finally pull that dream off. It was even stated, “everything has been designed with the hobbyist in mind, simple electronics, easy software and hopefully low price! “ So we here at 1SLT will definitely keep a close eye on this development, and will eventually try to get some of this gear in stock, to try out and do our own review. If it is as good as it sounds, we will most likely be opening up a new Catalog on our website soon.

Info Summary

EWoW and EWoW-C major internation release is at IAPPA late November, held in Orlando. There will be all new guns, upgrades for existing systems and our full software systems on display.

The Australian "hobby" Release is on December 10th at the PicAxe Trade fair in Sydney.

The EU release is not till the ATEI trade show at Earls Court in London late in January.

EWOW is also running competitions to give away 10 MP-2 assembled Guns, where the winner is the player who submists the best set of sounds for the MP-2. Deatails will be on the web site:

www.ewownow.com

There are 5 competitions of 2 MP-2 each.

Other Venders..
To try and be fair, there are many other venders out there that should be mentioned that develop outdoor gear for both the hobbyist and consumer. This list only covers those that we are aware of and can verify personally. There are probably several other companies out there as well. If you are aware of someone who is not on this list, please let us know about them. I plan to try and feature various vendors in future editions of THE LASER HORIZON, if you would like to be in the newsletter, contact me at: droman@1sourcelasertag.com
Company	Website	Any News
Miles Tag	http://lightbrain.8m.com/mtdesign.htm	Miles Tag is a Do It Yourself system made by Jim Robertson. Currently considered the best of the home brew gear systems by many, Miles Tag just released version 3.14, which is now available for download. Includes Gladiator Mode and now allows 250-round clip size. New version 4.XX available soon for download. This is intended for a new PCB design that mates to back of LCD. The PCB will be (1.3" x 2.5"). Includes full ISD sound support and Player "Handles". New updates to the MilesTag site. Posted some new code versions and schematics. Includes the new Gladiator Mode that I described earlier on this board. And Version 4.XX includes long awaited ISD sound support! 4.XX also allows naming of the first 16 Players with a 5-character "handle" that appears in the LCD when you are hit. Jim is working on an expanded version of the MiniMilesTag using the new PIC12F683 chip that has 2K program memory (vs 1K in the '629). This will allow me to add in some of the missing features. For more information contact:thelightbrain@yahoo.com
FragTag	http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/fragtag/	Status: - gun board code is at version 0.99, expecting to release version 1.0 with a week - gun board PCB design in finalised, 10 final prototype PCBs arrived and have been verified - many new features have been implemneted, including the ability to run timed games, an hour meter, dual sound modes, dual configuration (arcade/realistic) - Master controller device is close to completion, with full scoring for 96 players, god gun and referee functions - Utility boxes are 95% complete; 1 platform can do ammo/health or respawns, with optional charge/recharge feature, optional automatic use, all configured via a PC graphical interface. - a few pre-production sales are happening this week, expecting full production in a matter of weeks. To summarise, we have been very busy completing the system lately and are very close to release. We are firmly backing MilesTag as the free, open, unencumbered protocol of the future.
LaserCombat Technologies	www.lazerarmoury.com	Currently engaged in a large meet to test holding a large annual event in the AU in the future. More news to come in the next newsletter.
Tactical Field Simulations	www.tfstag.com.	Has just hit the market with our new Outdoor Laser Tag gear and will be presenting at the IAAPA Tradeshow in Orlando, Florida Nov. 16-20. Booth: Booth 1274
Laser Chaser	http://www.laserchaser.com	No New News…….
Steradian	http://www.steradiantech.com	IAAPA Booth: Booth 186
Battle Field Sports	http://www.battlefieldsports.com	BFS is one of the longest running Outdoor Laser Tag Equipment vendors around. To find out what they are up to, check out their great newsletter LOCK N LOAD™ at: http://www.battlefieldsports.com/latestlockandload.pdf IAAPA Booth: Booth 1158

GAMES & SIMULATIONS

NEW SECTION

This is a new section that I’ve decided to add to our newsletter. Every once in awhile people come up with a new game, try it out, and post it somewhere that it gets my attention. This section is devoted to new game ideas that people come up with. Give the games a try, and then post what you think of the games. <CLICK HERE for THE LASER HORIZON POSTING AREA!>

Ball Room Blitz!

At one of the recent Steradian Chat Sessions (which are held on Wed nights in the Tag Sport Chat Room on www.1SLT.com), Tom Baker had us brainstorm on new tournament ideas (transcript available). One of the ideas that I came up with, and others elaborated on, is a game I am herby dubbing as The Ball Room Blitz!

You start with a field the size of a Basket Ball Court. You can use a very large box with a hole cut in it, just large enough to STUFF (should not be easy to get the balls in if thrown) the balls into the box – the boxes should be the same size and at least waist high, but not higher then the head level of the shortest player playing. Where the hole is on the box is up to you – just as long as the hole(s) are in the same location for all teams involved. At the start of the game, a box with MANY small nerf balls are randomly spread in the middle of the tournament arena. Each team starts lined up on their edge of the arena. When the game starts the players try to get as many balls as possible into their box.

Engagement Rules:

-If you are hit and you are not holding a ball……you must count 2 Mississippi’s and then resume play.

-If you are holding a ball, you must toss it in the air and pick up another ball.

-If there is one ball left, and you threw it in the air, you cannot touch the ball again till someone else has been shot holding it.

-If there the last ball is on the ground, the closest person to the ball MUST pick it up……no running out the clock with a ball on the ground.

-If you are tagged out, you must go to your base, count 10 Mississippi’s, then reset your sensor and rejoin the game.

The team with the most balls in their goal box when the time runs out or all the balls are collected wins the game.

If you try this game, please contact us and let us know how it went, and if you came up with any more necessary rules. Have Fun……… Dave

Laser Tag Football

Recently a group from the U.K. posted an interesting game on their forum, and from the comments of those that played, they had a BLAST! (pardon the intended pun). For those readers in America, please keep in mind that to a majority of the rest of the planet, football means soccer – although, from what I understand, the players in this game used both hands and feet…..so …um…..never mind on that thought!

Please note that its getting late so I’m going to put this in here as mostly raw form straight from the emails!

The following is copied from an email from Trent, Stephen (STEVE), being that I didn’t get a chance to get permission from him to post his email address, you will just have to go and join the uklazertag news yahoo group if you want more information: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/uklazertag-news/

- Two teams of equal size
- Two goals about 100-150 yards apart
- One bright yellow ball ("space hopper") in the middle of the playing field (which in this case was a pine plantation which provides some cover/protection for players)
- Each team has to try and score a goal in their opponents goal, whilst defending their own goal and preventing the other team scoring
- each player has a weapon, if they want (some just did loads of running) ideally pistols or short range weapons
- each player has 6 lives (so that they have a good chance of getting at least near the goal before dying!!)
- When they lose all lives they have to return to their own goal and can then recycle back into play after two minutes
- If they are carrying the ball when they die, they must drop the ball but play continues until a goal is scored
- When a goal is scored, everyone returns to their own goal, the ball is placed in the middle again and play restarts

I played ref, basically following the ball wherever it went to prevent foal play and to make decisions regarding questionable goals (there were a lot of them, hence the emails!!!!!!)

We played until everyone was too tired to play any more as the game proves to be a very energetic fast paced game!!!! It happened to be 3-3 when players started saying "can we make this the deciding goal" and as I always say, it wasn't who won or lost, but the taking part that really mattered!!!!!!!!!

My highlights were:
1 - Sending Andy Hammond to the sin bin (2 minutes behind his own goal) for physically rugby tackling Jenny to try and get the ball off of her (I took this opportunity to remind him that tag was a non contact hobby!!!!)

2 - Watching Adam during a cracking run for the final goal actually using soccer skills to kick the ball forward several times to gain a lot of ground towards his opponents goal!!

3 - Seeing the use of great innovation to move the goal over the ball when a shot at goal went wide - it was a controversial decision to give those goals, but I admire that level of thinking in a tag game!!!!

4 - My own triumph of the day - trying to blow up a space hopper in front of all the players with the stopper still in the inflation hole!!!!!!!!!!!

Note: The players were carrying the ball, kicking it, basically anyway to move the game on.

Hope this helps get a better picture of the madness - I am sure we can get some photos to you!!!

Cheers,
Steve

WEB RESOURCES

LaserTag Database

Remember when you first found out about Laser Sport and you thought it
was the coolest thing, but you didn't know anyone else who liked it too?
You might have asked your friends and got them to play once or twice,
but it just didn't click for them like it does for you. Well, what if
there was a place you could go to find other Laser Sport enthusiasts in
your area to contact them and set up a game? If that sounds like a good
idea, then keep reading for more information about the Laser Tagger
Profile Database!

1SLT’s TAGGER RESOURCE

The Laser Tagger Profile Database was created specifically for fans and
players of laser sport of all kinds, from consumer laser tag like Lazer
Tag, ESS, and Laser Challenge, to pro tag like Laser Quest, Steradian,
Battlefield Sports, and more. It's for anyone and everyone around the
world, not just people far away from you. It's very easy to use, with a
simple form to create your own profile in the database. There's a quick
and easy way to update your profile at any time, without having to wait
for a webmaster to do the update for you, and the search and listing
feature lets you find specific people, or just browse the entire
database. Top it all off with the fact that it's free, and it's run and
hosted by a fan of Lazer Tag and you've got a site that can benefit
everyone, and isn't trying to sell anything either. This is purely for
the fans.

The thing is, right now it's still in its infancy. It needs more people
to know about it and make use of it for it to grow and become more
useful. The more people that create profiles for the database, the more
useful it will be to everyone that visits. Hopefully, sometime soon, a
new player will be able to come to the database, plug their general
location into the search form, and find players in his/her area to set
up some games with.

To see the site, read a little more about it and how to use it, and to
add your profile and check out the profiles of those who have already
submitted theirs, please point your browser at:
http://www.ggaub.com/ltag/

This Article Written By: -Greg

1SLT’s Begginings

Perhaps one of the least talked about things on the posting boards is buying and selling Laser Tag gear.

When I first got back into Laser Tag about 2 years ago, I got real excited about making and selling home brew gear. I started working on my Fxonics line of Laser Tag microcontroller……but then all of a sudden, several other people stated they were doing the same.

I had already purchased a Website, but the thought of making gear when several other people were already doing it seemed like a waste of time. So, I thought to myself, what can I do with this website?

Then it dawned on me – with all these people making home brew laser tag gear, everyone is going to need a central place to sell this gear!

It was at that point that One Source Laser tag was born. I wanted to provide a service – a place were people could exchange ideas and buy and sell gear.

Well, after a while, it became clear to me that a lot of those people that were going to make all this cool gear to sell were more full of words then they were of actual intent.

It became clear to me that if I was going to be able to afford to keep my website which was costing me almost $80 a month (paypal didn’t exist at the time and a credit card merchant account requires a 4 year lease), I was going to have to figure out a way to make some money to keep the website alive.

At first I tried buying and selling gear with the website and using Ebay as a backup. This does pay a little bit, but it is a lot of work for the pay. I soon realized that wasn’t working.

Next, I decided to try Associate programs. All kinds of articles talk about how easy it is to make mass amounts of money by doing simple advertising on your website. So, I signed up for several services. But soon I discovered, its darn near impossible to find anyone selling items that would appeal to the Laser Tag crowd.

At first I tried just using random pop-up ads, and watched the number of visitors to my website go from roughly 100 a day to around 15 a day. It seems that people hate pop-ups as much as I do – go figure.

Eventually though I found certain ads that I could place here and there….as well as a massive web page devoted to Ebay listings…finally, this brought in a trickle of funds…roughly about $30 every month or so.

I then started concentrating on increasing web traffic. I worked on trying to develop the best links list on the website, started a taggers page so people could locate others in their area.

I tried hard to find others who actually are making and selling gear and give them a spot in the catalogs…….not to make money, but to make the website a better resource.

I also tried my hand at writing beginners articles…and thus the BLT CAT was born. Unfortunately, writing these articles takes hours and hours of work. Unfortunately, the interest in these articles was very small…and I eventually realized that for the most part they were not worth the time as a visitor attractor. For those of you who are interested in the BLT CAT, I havn’t given up on the articles……but unfortunately they have become a low prioriety for the time being.

Anyway, to try and wrap this up before running out of column space…

(Note: Click on any picture to expand it to full size)

…as you can see from the above chart for the year of 2004,

.the website now pulls in about 300 visitors daily when I don’t advertise, and as high as 3000 visitors on a daily basis when I do advertise (although I suspect, a lot of that traffic is from non-interested patrons that were dragged to our website by some crazy pop-up system…..thus I don’t advertise that way any longer).

With the number of visitors at a satisfactory level, I have now turned my attention to getting 1SLT back to the resource center that it was originally intended to be.