Sunday, September 9, 2018

Final Test



This short video is from the final testing and photo shoot for the Star Laser Force pack. I used a flashlight to "shoot" the pack and score points.

Interestingly, you can't just shine bright light on the sensors to set it off; it has to be a pulse. With my hand on the switch the "pulses" were about 200mS. If you step through the video you'll see there is an additional delay of about 200mS before the first visible response. This filtering of ambient light sources was all done with discrete components and a couple of 74LS132 Schmitt trigger ICs.

Regrettably none of my videos have sound, so I've lost my chance to record the "boom" or hit sound. It's nothing, really, just a discrete noise generator circuit that was meant to sound like a gunshot. If I had to build a replacement "boom" sound board tomorrow I'd probably use a 76477 sound chip. The results would sound about the same.

Monday, July 9, 2018

Off to the Laser Tag Museum

Isn't it amazing that laser tag, which was thought to be a passing fad when it was invented, is more popular than ever today? 30-plus years later, we all benefit from the technical progress over the years. I admire Erik, the curator of the Laser Tag Museum, for using his extensive connections in the industry to round up examples of nearly every known commercial laser tag system, and to try to write the very specific history of this unusual intersection between electronic game and sport.

The Star Laser Force pack has been refurbished expressly to be set up for display in the Museum at a future date. My primary goal was to get it to light up, giving it the same appearance as it would have had in its native arena. It wasn't too hard, but some parts, especially the helmet, were time consuming.

After some experimentation, I found that I could feed power into the BOOM sound module as well as the main board, so the restored helmet's new speaker now works as well, instead of just the lights. You may ask, who cares if there's a hit sound, if it's just sitting on display? If you've been following along, you know that you weren't allowed to take pictures in the arena at Star Laser Force for a reason. So consider it an Easter egg of sorts, that when you shoot a flash picture of this pack, you'll actually be shooting the pack and you may be able to score points. Since it's designed to score using strobe flash only, I found it to be a bit tricky with a mobile phone LED, but it can be done at close range, and I have been blinking the "flashlight" feature on my phone at the pack to carry out most of my shooting tests.

Panoramic photo of the Museum's displays showing at least 19 different systems.
Old photo of some of the Museum's displays.

Front view of the restored laser tag pack with illuminated score display.
Kick me
So if you should happen to visit the Laser Tag Museum some day in the future, you may come across this Star Laser Force pack on display. If so, please shoot it. You may hear in response, through the display glass, a tiny burst of sound, a faint sigh from the past.

Plus you'll score 10 points. Hooray for our side.

Thursday, February 22, 2018

Restored Star Laser Force pack (suit)

Here are a few photos of the restored Star Laser Force pack.
Front view of the restored laser tag pack displayed on a dressmaker's dummy. It is red in color with a dull-colored aluminum box on the front, and a white holster tube on the side. Cables go up and over the shoulders to the back. There is no gun.
Front view.

A side view of the laser tag pack. Both the front and back aluminum boxes are visible, and the shoulder pad is prominent in the center.
Side view.

A three-quarters rear view of the restored pack showing the back box, the helmet being plugged into the top of the box.
Back view.

Front view of the restored laser tag pack with illuminated score display.
Powered up and ready (no gun available).
Three-quarter view of the front of the pack from the left side. The room is dark and the red LEDs on the helmet are glowing. A glowing red LED display on the front box reads a score of 310.
Powered up and functional, excluding gun.