Paintball - The First Game

[Bill]

Worldwide History

While the first recognised game of Paintball took place in June 1981, there have been reports of ad hoc games dating prior to this. In 1970 Daisy Manufacturing (more commonly known as makers of BB guns invented and patented a gun that was designed as a tool to be used by farmers for marking cattle, and foresters for making trees.

Soon after this some enterprising people worked out that a great game was to mark other people instead of cattle or trees and the seeds of Paintball were sown.

June of 1981 saw what is generally recognised as the first organised games of Paintball being played. This occurred in New Hampshire in the USA. (see page 2 for details)

In 1982 the first commercial Paintball field was opened in Rochester, New York, USA.

1993 saw the first fields open in Canada and the establishment of the National Survival Games (NSG) National Championships.

The first English field opened in 1985, and from there, Paintball spread to the rest of Europe by the early 90’s.



Paintball In Australia

In late 1984 Paintball arrived in Australia. It was at the Gold Coast war museum, Mudgeeraba, In Queensland. The Gold Coast being a major tourist area ensured that Paintball was exposed to numerous visitors from around Australia.

1991 saw the legalisation of Paintball in NSW, and the opening of the first NSW field near Newcastle, followed shortly afterwards by fields in Sydney.

October 2003 saw the legalisation of Paintball in Western Australia. Even prior to Legalisation, WA had a strong Paintball scene with teams competing in events held in other states.
The legalisation of Paintball in WA has seen this grow even stronger with the AXL and Super Sevens series now holding a round of their national events in WA.

2007 finally saw the legalisation of Paintball in the Northern Territory, leaving Tasmania the only state in Australia where Paintball is illegal.

[BREAK=Paintball - The First Game]

This following page is from a scanned copy of the Survival Game Magazine I found floating around on the net many years ago. It describes the events leading up to the first recognised game of paintball, and the game itself.


The survival game story
The survival game began as a two year discussion amongst three man on the nature of survival. One of the man, Hayes Noel, as a successful stock trader in New York City, held that survival was primarily an instinct, easily transferable from one environment to another. For example from the streets of Manhattan and the jungle of the American Stock Exchange, to the woods of New Hampshire. Noel argued in short that someone who had learnt to compete and survive successfully in one context could bring whatever instinctive abilities he had developed to another context and apply them with similar success.

The other side of the argument was held by two countrymen from New Hampshire. Robert Gumsey and Charles Galnes who believe survival to be a function of specifically learned behaviour applicable to particular environments. “We did not argue that we could survive as successfully as Knoll in an urban environment; we did argue, loud and loudly and usually over strong drinks that he could not get along as well as we could in the woods.” Mr Guernsey continues by explaining the process of organising their objectives. “We needed a format. We knew that we wanted some sort of contest, held in the woods, which would reward more or less evenly whatever abilities a contestant had to bring to it. The contest would test the traditional and various survival mechanisms (such as wit, stealth, boldness, etc.), again more or less evenly; and which would allow full competition among a widely diverse group of competitive people from diverse backgrounds and professions. We wanted a contest both physical and mental, the winning of which could be achieved in a variety of ways in which a contestant might successfully either stalk or attack, run or walk, hide or distain hiding, confront or avoid confronting. We developed an outline of rules and objectives and when a friend found in a farm catalogue a CO2 powered pistol, which shot paint filled pellets accurately to about 30 yards, we had what we were missing -- a vivid and symbolic consequence for faulty survival strategy or execution. The survival game was born.”

The first game was played in June of 1981. There were 12 players, among them a doctor, a venture capitalist, an ocean sailor, a stockbroker, a forester, a movie producer and a number of writers. The design of the game was such that each player was supplied with a paint pistol, protective goggles, and a compass and a map of the hundred acre, wooded playing field. The game commenced at 9 am. Each player was directed to a predetermined starting position around the periphery of the field alone and out of sight of the other 11 players. None of the players had previously been into the field, which was divided by judges into four quadrants. At the centre of each quadrant, its position indicated on the game's map, was a flag station hung on a tree. At 9.30 a whistle blast began the game, the point of which was for a player to make his way into each quadrant, capture a colour-coded flag from each of the four flag stations (a whistle was regularly blown at each station by a judge positioned there to help players not expert with a compass to locate it), and escape from the playing field to one of two home bases, located at either end of the field, without being shot or otherwise marked with paint by another player.

“ This first game (which was won in two and a half hours by the forester, without ever shooting, or being shot at by another player) was a phenomenal success,” reflects Charles Galnes. “It was everything we had hoped it would be -- challenging, exhilarating, and fascinatingly reflective both in various ways it was played and did the various ways in which the man who played it lived. The careful played it carefully; the shrewd played shrewdly; the aggressive played aggressively.” And though an outdoorsman won it, Noel and the other city man were in fact able to successfully bring to bear on the game, on this mock survival situation in the woods, what they had learned of life and how to survive it on the streets.

Writers of three national magazines, Tim Cahill, “Outside,” Tony Atwill, “ Sports Afield,” and Robert F. Jones, “Sports Illustrated,” were there in the first game, and when their stories about it appeared in those magazines they set off a year long spate of further publicity and a nationwide interest in the survival game. To respond to that interest the inventors incorporated and started a dealership network throughout North America. These dealers set up their own playing fields, purchase equipment through headquarters in New Hampshire and then rent and sell to the public. The original individual game is still played but more popular now is the team version were 20 or more people hold flag stations at opposite ends the playing field and attempt to be the first to capture the opponents flag without being marked by paint pellet. The game now incorporates a little hide and seek, tag, and capture the flag all rolled into one.

In the spring of 1984, a major breakthrough occurred for the game - the first water soluble gelatin paint was developed, saying goodbye to the non-washable oil-based paint. By February of 1985, further developments were made with the production of the single shot SplatMaster marking pistol, the first pistol ever designed specifically to the game. The Rapide semi-automatic pistol followed, then on to the fully accessorised rifle, the Rapide Comp. Today the NSG line of products is still being manufactured with the commitment to quality and customer satisfaction being the first priority.

As of September of 1992, the National survival game has over 500 playing fields throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Both league play in regular play to need approximately 75,000 people per week in the United States alone.

What started off as a discussion amongst friends has now firmly established itself as the originator and forerunner of a new multi-million dollar industry called Paintball. The National survival game has proven that it is here to stay.