Laser Tag Museum Logo
    Laser Tag Museum Logo

    Laser Strike

    Laser Strike pack and phaser - Acquired from John Prescott
    Laser Strike phaser - Acquired from john Prescott
    Laser Strike phaser (rear speaker)

    Founded By: Hugh Robinson

    Originated: June 27, 1986   Date Closed: 2006

    Number of Locations: 10

    Personnel of Note:
    Hugh Robinson, Co-founder
    Bill Twiss, Co-founder
    Barry Robinson (Hugh’s twin brother)
    Tom Mills
    John Timoney
    Kevin Williams
    Stuart Poole

    First Facility: 229 Tuam Street, Christchurch, New Zealand                   

    Equipment Overview: Laser Strike equipment included a pack with front and back sensors along with an attached phaser.

    History: While researching the paintball industry as he searched for a potential business investment Laser Strike co-founder Hugh Robinson of New Zealand happened to find a news article about Photon. That sparked the inspiration for Robinson and his partners to develop a new laser tag system which resulted in the creation of Laser Strike. 10 locations utilized this laser tag system and operated with it in both New Zealand and Australia. More laser tag systems can be traced back to find inspiration from Laser Strike than from any other single brand.

    From an article update made on May 5, 2013 –

    Laser Strike’s co-founder Hugh Robinson sent an email to the former Laser Tag Museum Curator which included several informational highlights quoted here:

    “Myself and Bill Twiss had 50% of the shares and then my twin brother, Barry Robinson, Tom Mills, John Timoney, Kevin Williams and Stuart Poole shared the other 50% in various percentages.

    We had originally wanted to set up a paintball operation to provide cash-flow to fund a forestry partnership most of us were involved in. However, in the middle of our planning Photon hit the news and we saw a newspaper article on that and decided that made more sense given the variables of the New Zealand climate.

    We commissioned a small (now defunct) electronics company called Axiom Electronics to develop a prototype system for us. Once we had proved the concept to be sound Axiom then produced our first set of 20 packs and we set up our arena at 229 Tuam Street in Christchurch.

    Media interest was enormous once we opened the venue and we were swamped with demand for gear so we went to a larger, more established electronics company called Wormald International who produced the next four sets of gear for us. However, maintenance issues were enormous and Wormald’s ended up going bust so the remaining 9 sets of equipment we had manufactured were made by Van den Berg Industries Ltd who also struggled with reliability and also ended up going bust.

    Centres were opened up in:
    Dunedin, Invercargill, Wanganui, Palmerston North and Napier in New Zealand (all company owned). Also licensed centres opened in; Porirua, Mt Maunganui, Auckland (2), Hamilton.”