Paintball Journal

In a rather uninteresting turn of events, Smart Parts sold the rights to use some of Smart Parts’ electronic paintball gun patents in their own manufacturing and distributing processes. Everyone is making a big deal out of it, but it’s probably just Virtue and DP making sure that they are legally covered to continue creating electronics for paintball guns. Smart Parts otherwise could find cause to sue them. That’s how life in the business world is. Better to play it safe than sorry when flirting with similar products to a company infamous for bringing lawsuits to bear on many potential patent infringements.

Smart Parts, Inc. and Virtue Paintball, LLC, [as well as Dangerous Power] announced the signing of a patent license agreement giving Virtue Paintball [and Dangerous Power] a worldwide, non-exclusive license to make, sell, offer for sale, and distribute electronic control units for paintball guns covered by certain Smart Parts’ patents.

Smart Parts owns several U.S. and international patents and pending patent applications related to the use of electronics in the control and operation of paintball guns. These include, for instance, U.S. Patent Nos. 5,881,707; 5,967,133; 6,035,843; 6,474,326; 6,637,421; and 7,100,593, as well as patents and/or pending patent applications in numerous other countries.

Special Ops B114 Bomber Tank. Don’t let it’s size fool you, this tank is one powerful son of a gun. Oh wait. It’s MASSIVE.

They say everything comes back in style, and now, 114 cubic inch air tanks are back thanks to Nitro Duck and Special Ops Paintball. This 4500 psi, 114 ci tank, appropriately named the B114 Bomber, gives you enough air to power your Hammer for hours at a time. Don’t let its size fool you, though. Thanks to aluminum and carbon fiber construction, the B114 isn’t much heavier than your average 45 / 45. The B114 uses a reliable, high-pressure Nitro Duck regulator and sports the SpecOps logo and a camo design right on the tank. Perfect for heavy gunners, the B 114 fits inside the tank pouch of any SpecOps vest and gives you thousands of shots off one fill.

What amazes me is the weight. This tank weighs less than my aluminum 48/3000. I love it. With a remote (which is really the only way to use this), the Bomber can be a perfect choice for a hardcore woodsballer. It’s price really isn’t that bad either.

The Darq7 looks awesome. I’d buy it if I had an extra $1250 laying around somewhere. I like the fact that it comes with the Tadao board. Get your hands on one while you can - they’re only producing 126 of these bad boys.

Features specific to the DARQ 7:
- Lucky 15 one piece barrel / 15″ in legnth / .691 bore size / Gloss Black
- Violent Series Marq Trigger / Dual bearing design / made of Acetron
- Tadao Marq board / Musashi 8 software
- 4 EYE ball detection technology
- Pillow Bolt with 2 piece hammer system
- Bob Long CAM Drive On/Off ASA
- Bob Long Rail
- Warped “Demon” Jewels

A lot of field owners wonder about payment in terms of everyday reffing and tech work.

Most fields only need about two techs tops for an everyday crowd. The ones that I visit have one working most days. Unless you’re in the middle of a huge city and get massive event-sized crowds on a weekly basis, one good tech will be more than fine. It’s worth it to pay the tech, especially if they don’t play regularly. If they are a regular player, then things like paint discounts, free field and air fees, and shop discounts are also ways to reimburse them for their time.

Refs are a little different. For non-tournament work payment is really a little ridiculous. You can find volunteers who will work for paint, or even paint discounts. If you find that your current refs aren’t performing up to par (screwing around, not paying attention to safety concerns) find some experienced players who are looking for a little sponsorship in return for reffing time. No one could possibly complain because reffing recball is extremely easy, no matter how you spin it.

Tournament reffing should be very different. Take the time to find refs who have had experience reffing in larger tourneys, if possible. A common practice is to pay the refs from the tourney entry fee, something like 20-40% going to refs. Depends on the tourney turnout, entry, etc.

These are definitely choices to be made with care. There are balances between quality and expense that have to be um… balanced. Anyway, just a few ideas to spur you along your path of righteous ref and tech hiring.

In my deep, philosophical conversations that I have with my uncle, often we discuss intelligent things like variants of paintball that really ought to be more common than they are. One of these is Paintball Marco Polo.

Imagine, if you will, a sunny day in which about six or seven kids are wandering around the backyard playing paintball. Now, this may seem like an impossible task without bunkers, but no! This variant requires no bunkers at all. Just have one of the kids close his or her eyes and to start the standard pool game that I’m sure you are all familiar with. Instead of catching and tagging the polo-ers, the person who is it shoots them. Or at least attempts to. It’s hard to aim a paintball gun while blind For the bold and adventuresome, this game may even be taken to the watery depths of a waist deep pool. Just be careful not to drop your gun.

As with the last airing of NPPLLive, NPPL is once again looking for guest hosts to pop on at the Boston event that is just weeks away.

Due to the success of the last NPPLLive.com host search, we’re doing it again! We are calling anyone and everyone who thinks they would make a great guest host on the NPPLLive.com web cast to come out to the NPPL Boston Event on Thursday, July 12th or Friday, July 13th to audition at the NPPL Store on the Tournament Grounds at the Brockton Fairgrounds. We’ll be holding the auditions between 9:30am and 12:30pm on both days.

Tell us why you think you deserve a shot at this and give us a quick sample of what you can do. The top tryout choices from each day will be aired on the weekend’s web cast between games so the viewing public can comment. Judges will take viewer comments into consideration when making their decision about who will come back to broadcast from NPPL Center Court with Nicky T on Sunday during the finals. You’ll not only win a chance to sit in the best seat in the house, but you’ll also win a chance to interview the greatest pro players in paintball!

No pre-registration is necessary, just look for us at the NPPL Store on July 12 & 13, 2007, 9:30am - 12:30pm. See you there!

DerDer Revamps Site

Complete with songs, flashy buttons, and new news! It’s good to see DerDer keeping up with the times.

07 Ego/ Etek Laser Eyes / Zick Kit Now For Sale

You can now get these bad boys direct from Planet Eclipse. Laser eyes kind of seem like a dumb accessory to me, but if you have enough money for an 07 Ego or Etek, then I’m sure you’ve got enough for one more sweet looking addendum to your already kick-ass gat.

A Zick Kit looks like a good addition. Many people have mentioned the Ego7’s undesirable kick (which was way less than the 06’s but still noticeable (barely)). The Zick Kit will take care of that, for a mere $40.

Paintball Makes Headlines

Usually I wouldn’t mention it, but today it’s something different. The New York Times actually did an incredibly interesting article about scenario paintball that’s well worth the read. If you go to the New York Times site
and sign up for free, you can read the article.

New E-Vents Colors

Interesting colors, but don’t think they’ll find many fans with the speedball crowd. I hope they don’t overcharge for them (they will…).

New Electronic Boards from Warboards

* Boards include a complete set of firing modes which include PSP, NXL, Millennium, 3-shot, and OMG. The board come with a dipswitch for tournament lock; which restricts setup access and caps the ROF.

* All Boards come loaded with the new MakerTalk software. This connects your marker to the computer and allows you to do everything from changing settings in your gun, to increasing your trigger skills trough the trainer or analyzing your shot information.

* Super-smooth trigger operation.

* Enhanced power management resulting in increases battery life. This includes a real time battery guage.

* Every board kit comes complete with a USB Cable, marker board, User’s Guide and a PC based CD-ROM containing the MarkerTalk applications.

And that’s all the news I’ve got for now!

Ooo. These eight jerseys were made by Hybrid for the Contract Killer / Hybrid sponsored players that made the All-Star rosters. At $125 a little steep for a jersey, but they are by far some of the sickest jerseys I’ve ever seen.