Skirmos lets you play laser tag anywhere, at any time, with anyone
You won’t even need to don a vest pre-encrusted with the sweat of overexcited adolescents
Laser tag? Let me at it!
This isn’t your common or garden laser tag. Any idea how it works?
Yes. You go to dingy ‘arena’ bathed in UV light, separated with ‘bulkheads’ and webbing and pipes that don’t do anything. You put on a bulky, smelly vest covered in plastic boxes and lights and run around trying to shoot the flashing LEDs on your opponent’s torso with an innacurate infra-red laser beam fired from your cracked, malfunctioning gun. Of course.
That’s the laser tag of old. Skirmos is a genius open source laser tag system, which means you don’t need to have to go to a public laser tag place and put on one of those greasy vests any more. You don’t even have to put up with the dystopian techno music these places invariably play.
No more techno?
You’re missing the bigger point. The real magic words are “open source”. That means you get to create your own game whether it’s indoors or outdoors, capture the flag or a complete free for all. If you’re running out of creativity, replicate a scenario from your favourite first-person shooter game. Not one with chainsaws.
But… I like the techno.
.
It gets even more customisable. Sound of gunfire too obvious for you? Replace it with a sheep bleating if you wish. Need a reward system? If you’re on a killstreak, have the LEDs in your gun turn off automatically granting you the power of stealth. A little too quick on the draw? Each player has a unique ID so friendly fire won’t destroy friendships anymore.
Give me the details.
It’s a transparent gun design powered by an Arduino board with colour-changing LEDs and a built-in screen to log essential information such as your kills, health, ammo, and anything else you might need. The Skirmos guns communicate via radio and infrared optics lets your game extend beyond the walls of your local laser tag death arena.
Right now it all looks quite involved, but if you’re not a programming expert, a future drag-and-drop program and site for sharing gametypes will be available to simplify customisation.
I need one. I need one right now.
You don’t have much choice in the matter given that this is a just a baby idea on Kickstarter. Pledge US$99 to be an early adopter – but hurry, because places are running out.
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Source: Kickstarter
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