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Official development blog for the PARANOIA roleplaying game. No description is available at your security clearance. The Computer is your friend.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Duane O'Brien's real laser pistol 

Multiple commendation points and the rare, coveted status of Hero of Our Complex are hereby awarded to superfan Duane O'Brien, who has surpassed his earlier achievement of crafting physical Alpha Complex plasticreds. Yes, Duane has now built a prop that will rouse fierce envy from every hardware-hacking Troubleshooter: a genuine, physical, no-kidding PARANOIA laser pistol.
I wrote a series for IBM on putting together an Arduino-based laser tag game called 'Duino Tag. I held off on putting up any info here until the whole series was published. Now all three parts are up. You have to register at IBM developerWorks to read the whole series, but registration is free.

Part One - Gun Basics
Part Two - Firing The Gun
Part Three - Registering Hits

This was a dream project for me. If you read the articles, the rules of the game hinge around the idea that you get six shots before your gun may explode, and you can get hit six times before you’re officially out.

Sound familiar? It should. I built it with PARANOIA in mind. In PARANOIA, you get six clones. And you can fire a barrel six times before it starts to overheat, with potentially disastrous consequences.
Check out the laser pistol photo!

Duane also offers a Duino Tag electronics kit in limited quantities for US$6/kit. "You’ll need to provide your own Arduino and case, as well as some other minor bits (wire, battery, etc)." [Note: Duane is not affiliated with me nor with PARANOIA's owners or publisher. I mention this kit as a public service.]

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Posted by: Allen Varney / 6:05 PM

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