This is the last Photon-related post for a while – I promise.

It’s been twenty years since my buddy Jeff and I have seen a Photon arena. We were Oklahoma City regulars, “weekend warriors” as it were, tearing up the arena with the attitudes (and vigor) of fifteen year olds. We’re twenty years older now; both of us have jobs, wives, and kids … and yet from time to time we still talk about “the good ol’ days of Photon.” We’ve even taken our own sons to play lazer tag with us at a new local arena, but it just wasn’t the same.

As I previously mentioned, a fellow by the name of Jim Strother recently built a new Photon arena in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma (just outside of Tulsa). The story behind Jim’s Photon arena has been a series of ups and downs: Jim announced he was building a new Photon arena (yay!), it took longer than expected (boo!), an opening was planned (yay!), it was delayed (boo!), another opening was planned (yay!), Jim announced he was $64,000 behind in rent and that the Photon would never open for business (big boo!), and finally, Jim announced that he would open the arena for one day (May 10th, 2008) for people to come and play in his arena (bittersweet yay!).

Although Broken Arrow is only 130 miles away, truth be told I’m not sure how far I would have driven to experience Photon one more time. The fact that it was only a two hour drive simply made it more convenient. And asking Jeff to go along was but a formality; I knew he wouldn’t pass this opportunity, either.

I expected to experience a rush of memories when entering the arena, but what I didn’t expect was getting that feeling in the parking lot. The sight of the Photon logo hanging above Jim’s arena brought back a flood of memories. This was going to be awesome.

A sign from above.

The lobby is barren and unfinished, save for a desk, an “arcade” (one arcade game, one pinball machine, one soda machine) and a display case containing some ancient Photon artifacts (the old paperback book series and at least one original Photon game ticket). (No offense to Jim about the arcade — I know it is unfinished, I just get a kick out of seeing an arcade that has 29 fewer games than I have.) Save for those few items the lobby is bare, probably 2,000 square feet (a guess) of emptiness. I suspect that if and when Jim’s arena does in fact open, this space will be filled. Photon just wasn’t the same without crappy space hot dogs and nachos.

The lobby.

As you approach the actual entrance to the arena, things begin to look more Photon-esque. The familiar red and green helmets sit on stands, beckoning warriors to take them for a spin. Immediately next to the entrance sits the Star Trek-inspired computer system, where warriors check in and are added into the game computer. The Photon logo appears several times in this area; on the radio transmitter and the belt charger, for example.

Mount up.

Walking out on to the arena is like stepping into a time machine. Once you strap on your helmet and enter the playing field, it’s obvious where the majority of Jim’s time and money has been spent. The arena seemed small to me; then again, I’m quite a bit bigger than I used to be — my old grade school seems pretty small to me these days, too. Many of the differences between Jim’s field and the old Oklahoma City field are due to new laws, regulations, fire codes and handicap-accessibility. There were several minor differences between Jim’s field and the one I remember playing on, but nothing major. To be honest it was difficult to tell if some of the differences weren’t due to my own faulty memories — at times even Jeff and I couldn’t agree as to how things “used to be.”

The green tower.

Jeff and I stayed for a couple of hours. Jeff played one game, during which his pod accidentally reset and he was forced out of the game early. Surprisingly, I didn’t play any. To be honest, I didn’t really go to play; I went to capture the day, which I did. I took somewhere around a hundred digital pictures; Jeff took another hundred or so. On top of that, I videotaped three complete games. I don’t know if Jim’s arena will open or not. I hope it does, but if it doesn’t, at least I was there the one day the doors were open. Jim still has a lot of technical glitches and bugs in the system to iron out, but considering all the work that’s already been done these last few things seem like minor obstacles, at best.

Here is my official Photon Photo Gallery. It consists of approximately 200 pictures taken by me, Jeff, and Herald, another Photon fan who showed up and took pictures (the pictures are labelled by photographer; I don’t want to take credit for Jeff or Herald’s work!).

In addition to the 200 photos, here are some video clips.

Here is a video Herald shot of the arena with the house lights turned on:

And here are the videos I shot:

00: Suiting up, preparing for a game:
01. Game One: (shot from upper deck, no external lights)
02. Game Two: (shot from upper deck, camcorder light turned on)
03. Game Three: (shot from arena floor, camcorder light turned on)
04. Between Games: (shot from arena floor, camcorder light turned on)

Thanks again to Jim Strother and his wife for all their hard work and generosity. Jim, you did it! Hopefully you’ll be able to overcome this last hurdle and get the doors open. We’ll definitely be back for the grand opening.

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Jeff and Rob … two veteran Photon warriors.