Q-Zar

Q-Zar (called Quasar in the UK and Republic of Ireland) is a type of laser tag that was developed by Geoff Haselhurst and Omnitronics in Perth, Western Australia. The rights were later sold to a company based in Ireland which in turn sold them to Q-Zar International based in Mesquite, Texas.

Basic rules

Like other lasertag games, Q-Zar is played with a gun (or "phaser") that fires harmless beams of infra red light that are detected by equipment worn by the players. There is also a laser pulse on firing, though it is for visual effects only. The basic mechanism of the game revolves around shooting (called "tagging") each other or stationary objects.

The standard game of Q-Zar involves two teams: the red team and the green team (Quasar Elite involves a red and blue team). Each team has a Headquarters (aka "HQ" or "base") to defend from the other team. The goal of the game is to score the most points for the team. You can achieve this by either de-activating the opponents HQ or by tagging the opposing teams players. You may deactivate the opponents HQ by tagging it twice leaving a few seconds between. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Upon being tagged, the following happens, the pack vibrates, makes an explosion noise and the player who has been tagged has a window of one second to fire off a "reflex" shot (providing no shot was fired in the previous second) before the penalty sequence kicks in. After the one second has passed, the six second penalty sequence starts. During the penalty sequence, the phaser says "Defense Shield, Active Active" for the first 3 seconds. For this period, the player may not be tagged and may not tag other people. For the final three seconds, the phaser says "Warning, Warning, Warning." For this period, a player may be tagged, but may not tag other people. If a player is tagged during Warning, the entire process starts over (including getting a 1 second reflex tag). These are the normal durations, the length of each phase of the penalty sequence is customisable with Quasar Elite.

The back of the phaser has a simple LED display. When a pack is not energised, there is a number above a "U" showing. The number is the pack's ID number. The U means that the pack is "Un-energized." When a pack is on during normal play, the top number is the number of lives remaining, the bottom is the number of shots (when a player is out of shots, they lose a life, getting a "Good Shot" resets the shot counter). When a player re-energizes, the display shows how many times the player has energized. When a player is out of lives, the display flashes the amount of time left in the game. If a player holds the trigger down for three seconds, either display will show the time remaining or a "bomb" will be triggered that can deactivate all vests around the player, including those on the same team.

Q-Zar History

The game of Quasar was created by philosopher / inventor Geoff Haselhurst around 1987 in Perth, Australia. The original system was sold to Irish investors in 1991. The name Quasar is still in use today in the UK and Ireland, but due to trouble securing the name Quasar in other countries the company was renamed Q-Zar for world-wide operations. As part of the international expansion of Q-Zar the company relocated to the USA, however manufacturing operations remain in Ireland. In 1996 the company joined NASDAQ and rolled out a short lived child based expansion Q-Kidz. During the 90's they were also in companionship with CEC Entertainment (Chuck E. Cheese). But Q-Zar filed for bankruptcy in 1997 with large quantities of equipment in stock.

The large quantities of equipment in stock resulted in many people and companies purchasing the equipment in bulk, unused packs still appear for sale. In 2000 Will Low purchased some of the assets of Q-Zar calling it Q-Zar World Wide. Will Low claimed ownership of the Q-Zar trademark, but failed to in a class-action lawsuit to force existing centres to pay a licence fee to him. In 2003, JR Robles purchased the Q-Zar assets held by Jarvis Entertainment calling it Q-Zar USA. Quasar in the UK and Ireland remains supported by Quasar UK and Meno Electonics (Q2000). In 2005 Quasar UK (A separate company to the original Quasar company) released a new version named [http://www.quasarelite.com Quasar Elite] with revised software and hardware. The centers remaining in the US and around the world are almost exclusively franchised.

Hardware

Quasar vests have gone through a number of revisions. The original system used a strap based vest, metal housed front and back sensor areas and a hand-held pistol. The back sensor contained the battery, the front sensor contained the CPU and speaker. The pistol was small and contained few parts.

A major revision was the Mark IIIB system which moved most of the electronics in to a larger (quite heavy) two handled gun. The speaker, battery, display and CPU were all moved to the gun, leaving the front and back as sensor only areas. The strap based vest was retained.

Prior to the international launch of Quasar as Q-Zar the vests were redesigned again. The gun shape was retained, however it was remoulded in a lighter plastic greatly reducing the weight of the gun. In addition the strap based vest was dropped in favour of brightly coloured plastic body armour style vests.

Two different systems were developed for Q-Zar as its next generation system. Neither of these systems made it to production, the first is believed to be due to Q-Zar defaulting on a payment. The second system, IQ, was in development when the company collapsed, by all accounts it was horrendously bug-ridden.

With the release of Quasar Elite the gun size was reduced due to advances in laser technology reducing the space requirements of the laser. Other changes to the gun were made to improve reliability and ease of servicing. The coloured body armour was retained but the team colours changed to Blue and Red, however the size was slightly reduced and straps changed from elastic to seat-belt style.

Parts of the Q-Zar system

*Packs are the main component of the Q-Zar system. They are the vest and the phaser unit and they are worn by all players in the game. Packs store information about players and allow players to play the game.
*Network boxes may be configured in one of three ways. As an Energizer, Network Boxes transmit game data between packs and the main computer and allow players to gain more lives depending on the game setup. As an HQ, teams may attack and defend them. As bombs, the Network Boxes can shoot players.
*Scoreboards display scores and the time remaining in the game.
*Software on an i386 PC is used to set up games, track scores, and print out scorecards. The older Q-zar software was MS-DOS based, but the new elite version is MS-Windows based.
*Marshall Gun/Phaser. A special gun that is capable of changing team and energising packs.
*Recharger. In the vesting room there are power cables which charge and reset the guns. Usually marshalls carry "pins" which are simply the plug from a charger cable used to reset guns.

Types of Q-Zar games

In the standard game of Q-Zar, called Energize, player is given a certain number of lives. Once a player runs out of lives, they may gain a new set by going to one of their team's Energizers. Eliminator is similar to Energize, except players only have the lives they start with. Once a player runs out of lives, he or she is eliminated from the game. Supercharge is a variant of Energize usually played by experience players. In it, players must tag five opponents before they are able to de-activate their opponent's headquarters. Stun is used for beginning players; it is the same as Energize except players have infinite lives (technically players have infinite lives in Energize, but in Energize, they do not get them all at once). Battlefield is another variation where mines (which are unused packs) are placed around the arena as obstacles. A gauntlet game is played by one person. Their goal is to de-activate both energizers as much as they can. Finally, a blackout game is played with all lights off.

Q-Zar game options

The Q-Zar software has many built in options that can be used in combination with the main game types above to create many different types of games.

*Solo/Spies set the way teams are sorted. In a game of Solo, there are no teams. Players may tag players of any color, they may re-energize at any colored energizer and they may deactivate either color HQ. In spies, the computer chooses a random 2-minute interval for each player for them to be "spy." When a player is a Spy, they may tag any player (their team or not) for points. Spies may also be tagged by their own team. Players will know when they are spy because the pack will make a higher pitched sound when firing and the display will have four "U"s on it. Spies and Solo are mutually exclusive. This option's default setting is off.
*No Reflex Shot does exactly what it sounds like. This option turns off the reflex shot. This option's default setting is off.
*No Defense Shield turns off the 6 second penalty. This option's default setting is off.
*Bombs allow players to hold down the trigger for three seconds to fire a bomb. Bombs will hit any players nearby. This option's default setting is off.
*HQ Reset Time is minimum amount of time between HQ deactivations. This option's default setting is 30 seconds between HQ deactivations.
*HQ Delay Time is maximum amount of time between the two shots required to deactivate the HQ. This option's default setting is 2 seconds between shots.
*Shots per Second sets how many shots can be fired in one second. This option's default setting is one shot per second.
*Fun Mode/Kiddie Mode is a set of alternative sounds for Q-Zar. This setting is perceived as annoying by most players.

Q-Zar tips and tricks

Q-Zar's tips and tricks are common knowledge to advanced players.

*Doubling (AKA Twixing) takes two lives off an opponent in one tag cycle. Doubling requires precise timing by one or two people, and requires the second tag to be fired at the moment the reflex shot is fired.
*Clearing/Bonging is one of the most used team techniques. If a teammate is in his or her "Warning" phase, tagging the teammate will immediately clear that player's pack to normal. This, however, costs points. It is sometimes called donging or in the UK and Ireland it is called Bonging because of the sound the packs make when they are tagged by teammates. In addition when tagged by your own team your pack gives 1/5 second of protection from being tagged, allowing a teammate to prevent the other team tagging you.
*Cancelling exploits the fact that Q-Zar packs use the same wire to transmit and receive information, and have a bug that results in incoming shots being ignored when the visual effect laser is turned on. This means that they can not fire and be hit at the same time. If a player pulls the trigger at the same time they are tagged, even if the player does not tag anyone, the pack does not detect the incoming signal.
*Setting/Bouncing exploits the fact that shots are a simple Infrared signal. This means that they will reflect off shiny surfaces, including, but not limited to skin, bright walls and the packs themselves. Players can use this trick to fire shots around walls. Generally, "Setting" or "Mirroring" is used to mean a teammate standing in a strategic position to reflect the shot while "bouncing" is used to mean reflecting a shot off the arena. In some cases the framework of an HQ allows a player to bounce a shot into the opposing HQ from several feet away.
*Time Left Holding the trigger in for a number of seconds makes the gun say, "time left" and the display shows the amount of time left in the game. Doing this while Bombs are enabled will fire a bomb first then display the remaining time.
*Plugging/Fusing is a bannable offense at most Q-Zar centers which occurs when a player inserts a charging pin or other conductive object into the charging socket on the bottom of the gun which causes the pack to reset. The other players packs still retain information about when they were tagged whilst it appears that you have never been tagged. Fusing is very easy to detect by other players because the shot counter is reset and it will appear that the player has hit people while firing few or no shots.
*Covering/Blocking is when a player strategically holds the phaser or positions their body to make themselves harder to tag. This is not allowed in some centers, and is mostly used by expert players in Tournaments. The common types of covers are named Porkchop, 2G, crab, lean back and rifle (aka high block).
* Energise Base Hits. Two hits on a base are required to deactivate it, the gap required between the first and second shot is configurable on Q-Zar and Quasar Elite, with a window of around one second for the second shot. In a game of Energise or Stun it is possible for a player to shoot the base on a reflex. A player who has tagged the base once but has been shot has over a second to use their reflex. If timed correctly the reflex shot can be used to deactivate the base. Assuming the default 3 seconds defence shield followed by 3 seconds vulnerable period is used, and a 3 second base delay is setup: Player 1 is able to shoot the base and get shot by Player 2. During this time the base will issue its "self destruct" announcement. 3 seconds later player 1's defence shield has dropped to "Warning" state. If player 2 tags player 1 now, he is able to use his reflex shot to complete base destruction. The counter to this tactic is to wait until the player is on their final warning before shooting them (or out of warning if the players speaker can not be heard), by this point the base will no longer be active and the player has to start the destruct sequence again.
*Clipping is the act of "clipping" the back sensor onto a corner of a wall making it un-shootable from a forward standpoint. If combined with a block can prove a very effective defense position.

Q-Zar/Quasar Tournaments

There are active tournament scenes in many countries across the world, including USA, UK, Ireland, Italy, Russia and Equador. Tournament formats are the same for USA, UK and Ireland, and always use 1 shot per second, reflex shot and defence shields, other settings may vary depending on the actual event, with most events being Supercharge with 6 lives. Other countries play with settings local to their tournament scene.

Events lasting 2+ days are regularly held one to five times per year in the UK and Ireland. Italy runs a national tournament once per year. The USA tournaments are infrequent as the number of centres have reduced and the player-base has dwindled.

External links

* [http://www.spaceandmotion.com/Haselhurst-Biography.htm Biography of Quasar Inventor Geoff Haselhurst]
* [http://www.quasarforum.co.uk Quasar and QZar Players Forum] - A site used by Quasar and Q-Zar tournament players around the world.
* [http://www.quasarelite.com Quasar Elite] - Developer and manufacturer of Quasar Elite equipment.
* [http://www.quasarelite.es Franquicias Quasar Elite] - Developer and distributor of the Spanish and Portuguese version.
* [http://www.lasertag.org International Laser Tag Association] - a non-profit trade group of laser tag operators and developers with members worldwide.
* [http://www.laserarena.co.uk Laser Arena Database] - UK based Database project for all things laser tag.