Skirmos – a 3d printed laser tag game of the future.
Laser tag has always intrigued me. I love playing outdoors, and I’m always looking for a new game to simulate combat without actually putting anyone at risk. Enter Skirmos, a futuristic vision of laser tag.
History of Tag
While all my friends at school had Lazer Tag, I was one of the unfortunate kids that ended up with Photon guns. I tried some indoor arena laser tag for a while, even played in their tournaments. I also played a lot of paintball and airsoft but they have their limits, too, and they’re not exactly something for all ages.
Reinventing Laser Tag
Enter the Skirmos, the first laser tag game to incorporate all the functions of 3D shooter games with the excitement and energy of playing outdoors.
Mods
Imagine a customizable future where you can vary everything. Maybe holding a location will give you a secure flag feature. Hook up your Skirmos to your PC and start make changes. Change out ammo amounts, burst rates or reload times. Maybe limit ammo or create a special zone for reloading. Change the rules of the game to suit your style.
How Does It Look?
LEDs light up the gun with varied colors allowing players to know who’s on which team. An LCD display on the back gives the player vital information and objectives and looks a lot like the displays you would commonly see on shooters in Halo or Aliens. The gun overall looks pretty sweet in white, while not too menacing, decreasing the chances of getting mistaken for the real thing.
Designing In The Future
The cool thing about Skirmos is that this technology would have cost millions of dollars to develop in the past, but thanks to things like 3D printers, Kickstarter and open source computer hardware, it’s relatively easy to start building your own projects. It’s amazing that in such a short time technology once only in the hands of those mega companies and labs can now be purchased cheaply. I feel like we will be seeing replicators that will punch out major products for us soon.
Flexibility with Open Source Technology
Built around the Arduino platform, it’s open source for those who like to tinker. I could also imagine a lot of different devices emmerging like turrets or bases with shields.
I really hope it pans out for the Skirmos team and consumers so we see these on the store shelves in the near future!
What would you like to see with a new laser tag system? Let us know.
