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From: srt@ucla-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.games
Subject: PHOTON
Message-ID: <831@ucla-cs.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 16-Aug-84 10:37:23 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucla-cs.831
Posted: Thu Aug 16 10:37:23 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 19-Aug-84 02:42:07 EDT
Organization: UCLA CS Dept.
Lines: 119

I've been meaning to post this for a while, so here goes.  PHOTON got some
press in Newsweek a while back, so if you want more info you can look that
up.

The basic idea behind PHOTON is `Capture the Flag'.  What PHOTON adds is
technology:  a gun and vest set that allows you to shoot the other players
with beams of light.  A game runs like this:

The players are divided into a red team and a green team.  The maximum is
about 5 to a side.  Players put on vests, belt packs, a gun and a helmet.
All together the equipment seems to weight between 10-15 lbs.  The players
are then taken to a briefing area, where they are entered into an Apple
computer (you pick your own psuedonym; I'm "Prince Pain").  You are also
given a chance to try out your equipment and learn the sounds involved if
you are new to the game.

The helmet is a modified motorcycle helmet.  It has speakers over the ears.
When you shoot your gun, a blast noise is echoed into the speakers.  A
slightly different noise is echoed if you hit a target.  A third noise is
echoed if you yourself are hit.  The first noise is ~ gun shot with richochet,
the second noise gunshot with hit, and the third noise something like a
lose noise on a video game.

The vest and helmet have LEDs of some sort built into them.  These glow the
color of your team when you are alive, and flash yellow when you are dead.
These are what you aim for when you are shooting.

The gun is of hefty metal construction.  The barrel holds 4 LEDS that give
off a beam of yellow light.  On top of the barrel is an infra-red detector
in a long tube.  There is a trigger in the usual place, and on the back of
the pistol is a sighting LED.  This lights up when you are on target.  The
LEDs in the barrel don't do anything; they are there to let you know when
you are being aimed at (you can see the light).  The infra-red detector
does the work of spotting other players by registering their LEDs.

The room in which you play is divided into two halves of roughly symmetric
design.  There are two levels, the ground floor and a set of catwalks up
above.  Part of the catwalk area is an observation area and play doesn't
involve that.  The ground floor of each side is again divided roughly in
half.  Part is a more or less open area.  At the far side of this area is
the tower (explained below) and the ramp leading up to the catwalks.  The
other half is divided up into a maze of short passages and rooms.  In the
middle of each open area is alien tower.

Each team starts out by their own tower.  Inside the tower is a triangular
pyramid of LEDs.  This is the `flag'.  If you shoot the other team's flag
three times in ten seconds without being shot yourself (or shooting anyone
else) then you score 500 points (?).  You can only do this once per game.
Shooting a player on the opposite team scores 10 points.  Shooting one
of your own team scores -20 points.  Getting killed scores -10 points.
The computer keeps a running tally of the action, and those on the observation
deck can watch monitors to follow the action.  Getting killed makes your
gun quit functioning for 5 seconds.  You may be killed again during the last
2 seconds of your dead period.

Each game lasts 6.5 minutes.  Midway through, a female voice warns of an
impending alien invasion.  30 seconds later, the alien tower lights up, and
anyone caught in the open is killed and loses 50 points.

GOOD POINTS:  The facilities are generally first class.  The room is a marvel,
really well done.  It is eerily lit in blue lights, and everything is padded
with blue/grey indoor-outdoor carpeting.  There is a smoke machine, strobe
lights and so on.

Munchkins are not allowed, though a number end up playing anyway.  Little
kids can navigate the maze much better, and can be quite deadly.

Strategy is more important than tactics.  A team of 5 people can beat 5 who've
just been thrown together anytime.  There is a lot of defense involved in
playing the game right.  Unfortunately, most of is is spatially based, and
I can't illustrate it here.

BAD POINTS:  The equipment is flaky.  Most of the guns don't fire straight,
and fire erratically when they do.  It is very frustrating to be firing at
someone from 5 feet and not be able to `hit' them.  On the other hand, I
have sniped people across the length of the room (100') so at times the
equipment does work.

Feedback is bad.  Apparently the sound processing is done on-board and the
scoring is done remote.  That's my guess, anyway.  Many times you'll shoot
the pyramid 3 times, get 3 hit sounds, and not score the 500 points.  One
game I shot the pyramid 10 TIMES clean and still didn't score.  I'm not
sure why that would be.

The employees are all high school kids and they don't have the technical
background to maintain the equipment very well.  When something flakes out
they fix it by redoing all the connections and/or changing the battery
pack.  What's more, they think they know everything, and won't listen to
or believe your complaints.

The equipment is far too heavy.  I can understand building for durability,
but this is a bit ridiculous.  The helmet in particular is way too heavy.
Running around with it on leads to a strained neck very quickly.  I see
no reason the equipment can't be lightened by ten pounds.  The battery
belt pack is the only necessarily heavy item.

The helmet is also very restrictive of sight and sound.  Field of view is
about 45 degrees, which leads to a lot of twisting the head around,
compounding the neck strain problem.  The helmet muffles sound so well that
it is basically impossible to talk to another player.  A worthwhile addition
to the game would be walkie-talkies built into the helmet, each team with its
own channel.

Finally, house rules are that a person leaving a game may join the next
game ahead of those who are waiting in line.  I'm not sure why this is, but
it has a couple of consequences:  (1) pisses off people who are waiting
(2) prevents teams from playing together (since there are always a few
people continuing on).

Oh, and the software has a lot of misspellings in it. :-)

FINAL WORD:  I'd play again, and probably will if the occasion arises.
However, I won't go on a regular basis until the equipment is lightened
and made more reliable.

Dallas papers reported that the guy who owns it is selling frachises, so
you may see one soon at an abandoned office building near you...

						--  Scott Turner