A new form of entertainment has come into existence recently: Q-zar. The name is different, but it's basically another version of lasertag. However, Q-zar has many variations and improvements which enhance the relatively unoriginal premise.
   The game is played in a large arena full of obstacles, weird flashing lights, and dry ice, as well as loud music and sirens. Rather typical environment for activities of this sort. Each player is issued a plastic vest with target sensors on the front and back, and a laser gun with its own sensors. Thus, you can be shot from any angle. There are two teams, red and green, and the color of the equipment corresponds to whichever team the player belongs to. Even the laser beam's color matches.
   The object of the game, as a team, is to repeatedly shoot the other team's base-a large, circular structure with a target sensor in the top. The teams each rack up points according to how many times they shoot the opponents' base. Individual members receive points for shooting each other, but there are a myriad of other factors involved in the scoring-the score sheet one receives at the end of the game is more complicated than an income tax form.
   Each player starts out with a finite supply of laser ammunition, but it's way more than most players need. But since the score is partially based on the ratio of fired shots to successful hits, it's harmful to fire recklessly. Not to mention the fact that one is not prevented from accidentally shooting his own teammates (deduct more points). Luckily for novice players, the duration of one shot of the beam is not instantaneous; it's slightly less than a second, which gives one a little time to sort of sweep the beam across the targets. The haze produced by the dry ice provides a medium in which the beam is visible, so that helps, too. A voice from the gun announces when a player hits a target, and also lets him know when any of his sensors are hit. When this happens, there is a period of about ten seconds when that player can't be shot by others, but also cannot fire. To add to the inconvenience, for the last few of those seconds, that player still can't shoot, but everyone else can hit him. And they know it, because the vest flashes like a string of Christmas lights while the player is vulnerable. After being shot four times, the player has to hold his gun up to one of two sensors in the wall. This gives him another four "lives." One can "recharge" any number of times, but of course doing so wreaks havoc on the score.
   Q-zar is located in the building that used to be Club Anarchy. It's across the street and down a little ways from Easyriders, walking distance from Cocowalk. Games are seven or eight dollars per person per game, and each game is twelve minutes long. That probably sounds rather expensive, since a two-hour movie costs the same, but this covers the use of the equipment and the personalized scorecard as well as the playing time, so it's not that bad. And twelve minutes is a fairly long time when you're dodging laser beams. Teams consist of about twenty people. There's some sort of group discount, if you bring a whole group and play each other. Age restrictions appear to be nonexistent, but they do require everyone to sign a waiver releasing them from any liability for injury or death. Technically, it's probably incorrect procedure to allow minors to sign it without their parents, but no one seemed to care when I did so. It's one of the few remaining activities in which people under 18 can legally participate, so go for it before someone decides that it's too violent and traumatic for children.

-Commander William T. Riker, editor