Battlefield Live: Mike's Combat Games, LLC - Non-BFL - Lasertag on steroids for pain-free teambuilding and fun! No pain, painless paintball and airsoft alternative. More exciting than traditional lasertag, laser tag and lazertag.

Battlefield Sports' Competition

I like Battlefield Sports' gear and I'm very happy with it. All the same, you can find folks that complain about it. Those complaints range from the fact that it uses 20-year-old communications protocols that don't allow the guns to have things like variable damage (which is true) to accusations (typically without examples or proof) that Battlefield Sports is the Microsoft of the lasertag industry (which might be fair sometimes). Elsewhere on the site I talk about why I think Battlefield Live is the best choice for a commercial field owner, but to be fair I wanted to highlight some of the larger players besides BFS. I'm more than willing to discuss the BFS vs. anyone else issue, just e-mail me. Please note: I am not saying that the systems below aren't fun. I'm just willing to argue that for a commercial operation none match Battlefield Live for viability and success potential.

Land Trooper
The Land Trooper system is Chinese-manufactured and designed by Swedish engineers. There's one model of gun and it uses 8 sensors: 2 on the gun and 6 head sensors mounted on a harness. They've got GPS tracking on each gun that lets you review the game after the fact, showing where each player is and even allowing you to establish a laptop at team bases where team commanders can see where the troops are real-time. Each gun also has RF communications to the system. The system is controlled by a central control box (no referees needed) that supports up to 4 teams with 63 players on a team. The whole thing is relatively portable, provided you have power for the central box. They have an unusual life/death relationship. The guns are "one hit, one kill," but you're only dead for 10 seconds. After that your gun is "frozen" for 30 seconds plus. You can take hits (lengthening your frozen time) but can't shoot. After a specified number of lives you're out of the game and the gun directs you to outside the play area. Their site has minimal info and to get more you've got to call China. Thanks to Mike (aka Micke, aka Mikael) W for the clarifications.

Adventure Sports (Old site)
US manufacturer. Crazy huge feature set. LOTS cheaper than BFS. Wildly configurable. BFS-compatible. Dialable range(!). Cosmetic body parts (barrel, stock, grip, etc.) are swappable, customizable and easy to configure. 2000 foot range. Danger of players feeling "dumbed down." (I talk about that here but should probably include a discussion somewhere on the site of feature glut and the complications it can cause.)I have issues with the AS concept of game balance. A decent discussion of game balance is far outside the scope of these summaries, and so obviously I need to add a page about that, too, at some point in the future to this site. Also, they say that having too many models on your field can frustrate players, at least in birthday parties and fair-style events. As someone with six models on his field, let me say that I've never had anyone be upset by choice, whether in milsim/open play games or at high school grad parties and other events with over 100 people. The key is in properly introducing the guns. Don't run down a full set of all the variables, just tell people the difference between what a big gun does and a small gun does and they'll pick one that's pretty. I've never personally had problems running games (even with kids) and offering 6-7 choices of guns.

Lazer Tag Team Ops (LTTO)
My wife and I actually have a respectable pile of this equipment, in no small part due to the fact that we registered for it when we got married. It has all but disappeared from retail now but you can still find guns available on eBay if nothing else. Also, they're remaking the guns under a slightly different branding. The guns come in three models (that actually have a lot of variation and good game balance) ranging from pistols to rocket launchers. They also have a ridiculous number of reasonably customizable games, cross-communication between guns, time syncing, "overheating," and tons of stats post-game. The downside? The guns have more buttons than an octopus can handle, long range (1000'+) but quiet sounds and a lightweight toy feel and look. I talk about them on my page that discusses why I stick with Battlefield Live gear.

Mantiz lasergame system
Made in the Netherlands, the Mantiz system looks like a video game, but not immersively so. It's comparable to what you'd expect from a console system light gun, which they're proud of. The key feature is that the system runs without referees and is controlled instead by their Centipod box. It has a crazy huge feature list and lets you run lots of types of games, use it as a mine, medic/ammo box and more. They claim to be maintenance-free but give no details. I suspect that the claim refers to not needing referees. It sounds to me like it would be cheatsville when it comes to public sessions. I found better pictures at http://www.lasercombat.nl/ .

Digital Fire Fight
A do-it-yourself-ish system with prefab kits, DFF focuses on everything being very modular and with tons of details being handled constantly by the gun. One unique feature that they tout is barrel heating: if you fire your gun too constantly the gun "overheats" and won't let you fire. When that happens (remember the modularity?) you can unplug your sensors from the gun, pull out, say, a pistol, plug in and fire. BFS-compatible mode. ABS (high grade plastic) guns. Lots of things for players to keep track of. Milsim focus that probably wouldn't lead to being family-friendly.

FragTag
FragTag is an open-source tag format. This means that all of the code, the protocols and everything are all public knowledge and you're welcome to modify whatever you'd like when you use it for yourself. You can program the guns to do anything you want. There's a sizeable FragTag community but aside from wiring the motherboard itself just about everything is do-it-yourself. Most FragTag players are in Australia. Most own their own guns, many of which are older BFS guns that have had their guts stripped out and replaced by FragTag guts. The system is VERY flexible, extremely customizable and focuses on military simulation rather than on the general public.

MilesTag
The page I have linked here is actually Mini MilesTag (called MiniMT or MMT) which is completely do-it-yourself lasertag. On the site is also the information for MilesTag itself. MMT runs a simplified version of MilesTag and lets you plug your guns into your computer to customize their functionality. In general, MilesTag is very similar to FragTag but the two systems are not compatible. Either way, MilesTag guns are also often hand-built conversion jobs using off-the-shelf toys that have had the appropriate parts installed in them.

Steradian Technologies
Steradian makes kid-looking gear in bright colors but with bodies that are sturdy enough for a business. It's birthday party gear on the go. They have grenades, ammo boxes, medic boxes and a game control box that lets you set the configuration you want guns on and clone the settings on each gun you point it at. They've got two models that essentially only differ in their customizability. The guns start at $400 each. Complete family-play focus, minimal potential for the milsim crowd.

Lazer Combat Technologies
Based in Australia, LCT produces their own brand of cast-aluminum (!) gun using FragTag guts for the most part. They also sell casings by themselves and a range extender for the BFS Spitfire.

Obviously, no list can be complete. After compiling this this list I found someone who had more vendors but less info. Check it out at http://www.1slt.com/CGD/CGD.htm