Q-Zar

Q-Zar (called Quasar in the UK and Republic of Ireland) is a type of lasertag that was developed in Ireland.

Contents

1 Basic rules
2 Q-Zar History
3 Parts of the Q-Zar system
4 Types of Q-Zar games
5 Q-Zar game options
6 Q-Zar tips and tricks
7 External links

Basic rules

Green Q-Zar Packs hanging the in the Vesting Room

Like other lasertag games, Q-Zar is played with a gun (or "phaser") that fires harmless beams of light that are detected by equipment worn by the players. 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. Each team has a Headquarters (or HQ) to defend from the other team. The goal of the game is to score the most points for the team. The fastest way to do this is to deactivate the opponent's HQ. This is done by entering the opponent's HQ and tagging it twice. Players may also tag members of the other team for points. Whichever team has the most points at the end of the game wins.

If a player is tagged by an opponent, a few things happen. The pack vibrates, makes a special noise and the player who has been tagged has a window of one second to fire off a shot (called a Reflex Shot) before the penalty sequence kicks in. After the one second has passed, the six second penalty sequence starts. 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).

The back of the phaser has a simple LCD display. When a pack is off, there is a number over 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, also, 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, the display will show the time remaining. Doing this can also trigger a "bomb" that can deactivate all vests around the player, including those on the same team.

Q-Zar History

The game of Q-Zar/Quasar was created by Geoff Haselhurst around 1987 in Sydney, Australia. The original system was sold to Irish investors and named Quasar (The name still in use today in the UK and Ireland). 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 relocates to the USA, however manufacturing remains in Ireland. In 1996 they join the NASDAQ. During the 90's they were in companion with CEC Entertainment (Chuck E. Cheese). But in the late 90's Q-Zar took the turn for the worst they were seeking protection of bankruptcy but in 1997 when they filed for bankruptcy. In 2000 Will Low own some of the assets of Q-Zar calling it Q-Zar World Wide. In 2003, JR Robles, and Tim Foster purchased the Q-ZAR assets from Jarvis Entertainment calling it Q-Zar Systems. 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 [Quasar Elite] with revised software and hardware. All the remaining centers in the US and around the world are almost exclusively privately owned.

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 believe to be due to Q-Zar defaulting on a payment - the reason for the non-payment is not clear. 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, 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.
PCQ Software is DOS software used to set up games, track scores, and print out scorecards.

Types of Q-Zar games

Energize is the standard game of Q-Zar. Each player is given a certain number of lives depending on the game (for example, in Energize 6, each player has 6 lives). If a player runs out of lives, they may go to an Energizer of their color and gain another set of lives.
Supercharge is played in the exact same way as Energizer, except that HQs may not be tagged until players are Supercharged. To become Supercharged, a player must tag 5 opponents (and the phaser must say "Good Shot" each time). When a player is supercharged, the following things happen:
*The phaser says "A-A-Active."
*All lives are gained back.
*All lights start to flash on the player's pack.
*Each pull of the trigger will cause three shots instead of one.
*If a player is tagged by an opponent, he or she will lose Supercharge status.
Eliminator is exactly what it sounds like. A player gets a certain amount of lives to play with. Once that player is out of lives, that player is out of the game. Lives are given one at a time, so players must return to the Energizer once they are tagged by an opponent. Players also gain a life by getting a "Good Shot."
Stun is exactly like Energize except players get infinite lives.
Battlefield is a game where unused packs are energized as mines and placed around the arena. They fire shots at nearby players every couple of seconds.
Gauntlet is a game which involves only one person (no teams). The player will need to run back and forth, de-activating both energizers as much as they can.
Blackout can be played with any of the above rules, but all the lights in the arena except for those on the bases and energizers are turned 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. (Defaults to OFF)
No Reflex Shot does exactly what it sounds like. This option turns off the reflex shot. (Defaults to OFF)
No Defense Shield turns off the 6 second penalty. (Defaults to OFF)
Bombs allow players to hold down the trigger for three seconds to fire a bomb. Bombs will hit any players nearby. (Defaults to OFF)
HQ Reset Time is minimum amount of time between HQ deactivations. (Defaults to 30 seconds)
HQ Delay Time is maximum amount of time between the two shots required to deactivate the HQ. (Defaults to 2 seconds)
Shots per Second sets how many shots can be fired in one second. (Defaults to 1).

Q-Zar tips and tricks

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

Doubling (AKA Twixing) takes two lives off of 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/Donging 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 (Bonging in the UK and Ireland) 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 of 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.
Fun Mode/Kiddie Mode is a set of alternative sounds for Q-Zar. It is seen as annoying by most players.
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 instead.
Plugging is when a player uses a small plug or a key to reset the Q-Zar pack. Because the packs only records players that have tagged the pack, resetting the pack erases this information to make it appear that the player has never been tagged. This is very easy to detect by other players due to this also resetting the shot counter and it will appear that the player has hit people while firing few or no shots. This is a bannable offense at most Q-Zar centers.
Covering 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.

External links

[Quasar and QZar Players Forum] - A site used by Quasar and Q-Zar tournament players around the world.
[TRUTNEE LaserTag Portal] - Russian site (English translated site, too) with detailed information about all types of laser tag.
[International Laser Tag Association] - a non-profit trade group of laser tag operators and developers with members worldwide.
[Laser Arena Database] - UK based Database project for all things laser tag.
[Quasar Elite Spain] - Distribute the spanish version of the game.

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