Lazer Tag is a brand name for the pursuit game using infrared

toy gun Toy guns are toys which imitate real guns, but are designed for recreational sport or casual play by children. From hand-carved wooden replicas to factory-produced pop guns From Gilroy Gardens and cap guns, toy guns come in all sizes, prices ...

s, generically known as "

laser tag Laser tag is a recreational shooting sport where participants use infrared-emitting light guns to tag designated targets. Infrared-sensitive signaling devices are commonly worn by each player to register hits and are sometimes integrated wit ...

". It was developed by Worlds of Wonder and launched in 1986. As one of America's top hit toys of 1986-1987, Lazer Tag was aggressively leveraged by Worlds of Wonder's retail sales network in an ultimatum to force the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in America ...

into retail stores, allowing its smash hit nationwide launch, which prompted

Nintendo of America is a Japanese multinational video game company headquartered in Kyoto, Japan. It develops video games and video game consoles. Nintendo was founded in 1889 as by craftsman Fusajiro Yamauchi and originally produced handmade playing cards. ...

to lead the nation's recovery from the

1983 video game crash The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...

and dominate the industry. The Lazer Tag brand is currently a subsidiary of

Hasbro Hasbro, Inc. (; a syllabic abbreviation of its original name, Hassenfeld Brothers) is an American multinational conglomerate holding company incorporated and headquartered in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of ...

Nerf Nerf is a toy brand formed by Parker Brothers and currently owned by Hasbro. Most of the toys are a variety of foam-based weaponry, with other Nerf products including balls for sports such as American football, basketball, and baseball. The ...

toy line.

History

Lazer Tag was created by Paul Rago at the toy company Worlds of Wonder in 1986, launching that year at approximately the same time as the home version of

Entertech Entertech was a brand of battery-powered motorized water guns sold in the United States from 1985 to 1990 by the now-defunct LJN. Unlike the colorful designs of many of the simple hand powered pump water guns of that time, most of the Entertech wa ...

Photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they always ...

brand. With reported revenue of $23 million on sales of $320 million for fiscal year 1986, WoW had $800 million in back orders for the Christmas season, mainly for Teddy Ruxpin and Lazer Tag. From 1986 to 1987, the young startup

contracted Worlds of Wonder for use of its retail distribution and sales network, in the nationwide launch of the

. The hit toys of 1986-1987, Lazer Tag and Teddy Ruxpin, were aggressively leveraged by Worlds of Wonder sales staff to force the NES

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

into reluctant nationwide retail stores which were still recovering from the disastrous

. Retailers who balked at hearing the words "video game" received the ultimatum, "if you want to sell Teddy Ruxpin and you want to sell Lazer Tag, you're gonna sell Nintendo as well. And if you feel that strongly about it, then you ought to just resign the line now." Lazer Tag entered the nationwide controversy over the role of

s in violent crime and mistaken shootings by police. On April 7, 1987, 19-year-old Leonard Joseph Falcon was shot and killed in Rancho Cucamonga, CA by sheriff's deputy Daniel Durrant after witnesses saw him and several friends playing Lazer Tag, mistaking the toys for real guns. The deputy soon quit his job. According to some sources, the negative publicity associated with the incident contributed to Worlds of Wonder's bankruptcy and dissolution in 1988.

Shoot the Moon

Shoot the Moon Products of Pleasanton, CA acquired the Lazer Tag brand name after Worlds of Wonder ceased operations in late 1990. The brand name was licensed to

Tiger Electronics Tiger Electronics Ltd. (also known as Tiger and Tiger Toys) was an independent American toy manufacturer best known for its handheld LCD games, the Furby, the Talkboy, Giga Pets, the 2-XL robot, and audio games such as ''Brain Warp'' and the Br ...

from 1996 to 1998, and to Hasbro following its acquisition of Tiger. Tiger released a variety of Lazer Tag-branded products in the mid-1990s, and a series of ''

Star Wars ''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...

''-themed blasters, culminating in a toy collection themed for the 1999 release of '' Star Wars Episode 1''. Tiger discontinued the poorly selling line.

Lazer Tag Team Ops

With a ground-up redesign, Shoot the Moon licensed its next generation product to Tiger Electronics. Released at Toy Fair 2004, Lazer Tag Team Ops (LTTO) features a double-barreled design allowing a tagger to identify targets and confirm hits at a distance, and the ability to self-host timed games of up to three teams with various rules and scenarios, following the game with debriefing and score review. All Lazer Tag-branded products since 2004 are

backward compatible Backward compatibility (sometimes known as backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with input designed for such a system, especially i ...

and can join LTTO-hosted games, each with various capabilities and limitations.

Nerf

branding replaced the now-defunct

labeling on all products in production beginning in 2012. In August 2012, Hasbro released an all-new Lazer Tag line, which allows users to integrate an iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S, or

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...

unit with the blasters. The associated Lazer Tag app converts the smartphone into a

HUD Hud or HUD may refer to: Entertainment * ''Hud'' (1963 film), a 1963 film starring Paul Newman * ''Hud'' (1986 film), a 1986 Norwegian film * ''HUD'' (TV program), or ''Heads Up Daily'', a Canadian e-sports television program Places * Hud, Far ...

unit, which displays power levels and an online leaderboard. The app offers

augmented reality Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be de ...

, unlockable attacks, and gear.

Legacy

Like the ''

'' animated TV series, Worlds of Wonder's Lazer Tag brand inspired ''

Lazer Tag Academy ''Lazer Tag Academy'' is an animated television series inspired by Worlds of Wonder's Lazer Tag (their branded version of the pursuit game referred to generically as "laser tag") that was created by Ruby-Spears Productions. Original episodes aired ...

''. It was produced by

Ruby-Spears Productions Ruby-Spears Productions (also known as Ruby-Spears Enterprises) was a Burbank, California–based American entertainment production company that specialized in animation with another branch in Rome, Italy. This company was founded in 1977 by vete ...

, with one season airing on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

from 1986 to 1987. Three ''

Choose Your Own Adventure ''Choose Your Own Adventure'' is a series of children's gamebooks where each story is written from a second-person point of view, with the reader assuming the role of the protagonist and making choices that determine the main character's actio ...

''-style books are based on the game. The ''Lazer Tag'' video game was released in the late 1980s for the

ZX Spectrum The ZX Spectrum () is an 8-bit computing, 8-bit home computer that was developed by Sinclair Research. It was released in the United Kingdom on 23 April 1982, and became Britain's best-selling microcomputer. Referred to during development as t ...

Amstrad CPC The Amstrad CPC (short for ''Colour Personal Computer'') is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sin ...

, and

Commodore 64 The Commodore 64, also known as the C64, is an 8-bit home computer introduced in January 1982 by Commodore International (first shown at the Consumer Electronics Show, January 7–10, 1982, in Las Vegas). It has been listed in the Guinness ...

. As one of America's top hit toys of 1986-1987, Lazer Tag was leveraged by Worlds of Wonder in an ultimatum to force the

into nationwide retail stores, allowing

to soon lead the country's recovery from the disastrous

and dominate the industry.

References