Outdoor Laser Tag History

“Lazer Tag” was a product created in 1986 by Worlds of Wonder. Don Kingsborough, the founder of WoW, built on his mid-1980s success with Teddy Ruxpin, a bear who reads stories.

Playing outdoors with this Lazer Tag equipment, players fired sensors used by other players to “tag” them. If you get tagged a certain number of times, you’re out.

The Worlds of Wonder Lazer Tag equipment uses a 57.6 kHz carrier frequency modulated with a 1.8 kHz signal.

Worlds of Wonder ceased production of its Lazer Tag team when it closed in 1988.

But the invention spawned a thriving hobby market for secondhand guns. Fans were teenagers and adults eager to use the equipment for live action role-playing games (known as LARP). These LARPs often simulated military training exercises, such as patrolling, reconnaissance, or capturing a base.

And, the term “laser tag” continued to be used to describe many games of the same type.

Ten years later, Tiger Electronics licensed the Lazer Tag brand and began producing its own Lazer Tag equipment. Tiger Toys licensed the Lazer Tag logo to produce Lazer Tag guns. Unfortunately, these new weapons were not backward compatible.

Other companies also began to produce tag systems. For example, ToyMax’s Laser Challenge line, Tomy’s Playmates/Sega Lock-On and Electronic Survivor Shot, etc.

These, however, these mass-produced products were designed to be worn by children and not gamers. A variety of commercial outdoor laser tag manufacturers such as Battlefield Sports and Pulse Ranger emerged in the late 1990s. Since then there have been several imitators that have come and gone.

This new generation of laser skirmish equipment focused on providing equipment that would accommodate LARP execution for team building activities or scenario execution such as a live video game.

So whether you’re old enough to remember the original toy or just must have the latest innovation, outdoor lasertag is a lot of fun.