I first learned to play laser tag in April 1997 during a trip to San Jose: I hopped over to my friend Liz's birthday celebration in Berkeley, which included a couple of rounds at Lazer X. It was great! The walls were painted black, and fake smoke and strobe lights added to the confusion. Some people tried to stay still and hide in the many nooks and crannies, but most of us kept moving and shooting, which added to the excitement. Each game was 12 minutes, but went by very quickly. I came in 7th out of 12 for the first game, and moved up to 3rd for the second game, which was a rush! I never thought I'd do so well, since most of my gaming at the time involved people sitting around a table.

Side note: Afterwards, we all went back to Liz and Robin's, where the ceremony of turning out the lights to blow out the birthday candles apparently caused a sympathetic power outage around the neighborhood. But hey, they found flashlights and the cake was excellent, so a good time was had by all.

Oddly, when I recently (Halloween weekend, 1999) played at UltraZone in Arlington, VA, I didn't do nearly as well, even though I've been working out and am better fit now. At UltraZone, though, in addition to shooting each other you're supposed to take out bases (which give you much more points than just shooting folks). I appreciate the strategic element, but seem to be better at the mindless run-and-shoot (hit more folks and was hit less the second game that evening, though).