''Laser Arena'' is a 2000

first-person shooter A first-person shooter (FPS) is a video game genre, video game centered on gun fighting and other weapon-based combat seen from a First person (video games), first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action directly through t ...

PC game designed to simulate laser tag. Play modes include Free for All ( Deathmatch), Team Match, Duel, Domination, and Mega Target. Players have three "health canisters", and every hit diminishes one of them. After three hits, the player counts as "dead" and has to respawn after a delay. The game is based on a heavily modified

Quake engine The ''Quake'' engine (part of id Tech 2) is the game engine developed by id Software to power their 1996 video game '' Quake''. It featured true 3D real-time rendering. Since 1999, it has been licensed under the terms of GNU General Publi ...

,LaserArena Enhanced Mo
"Laser Arena Homebase"
''Playspoon'', June 15, 2011 and despite being a budget-title, features some elements that were unique at the time of release. For example, the game models "Lasertag Grenades" which emit a vast number of shots in all directions, tagging every player in the vicinity. The "Mega Target" game mode is rather novel in that it requires players to hit three targets strewn across the playing arena, before they are allowed to enter a "core" in which they shoot a final target to score a point. As an added element, automated defense turrets shoot at enemy players, and some can be converted to fight for player's team by shooting at a sensor above the turret. This disables the turret for a few seconds and, if it's a convertible turret, makes it fight for player's side until an enemy deactivates/converts it again. The game does not feature different weapons, instead the player can collect powerups that increase the firing rate or the hit damage (thus reducing an enemy's energy canisters by two instead of one) for a limited time. The graphics engine offers Glide,

OpenGL OpenGL (Open Graphics Library) is a Language-independent specification, cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface (API) for rendering 2D computer graphics, 2D and 3D computer graphics, 3D vector graphics. The API is typic ...

, and software rendering.

Multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system (couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

supports up to 8 players either competitively or against bots via LAN or

GameSpy GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameS ...

. Although not officially supported, the game is moddable, and a single mod named "LaserArena Enhanced" exists, improving textures and sounds as well as adding some useful keybinds that were not available in the original game.

References

{{reflist 2000 video games 2015, Inc. games First-person shooters Laser tag Multiplayer and single-player video games Quake engine games ValuSoft games Video games developed in the United States Windows games Windows-only games