I would like to introduce you to the sport of paintball. Paintball is an addictive game for everybody. Players range from six to sixty, and are of any race or sex. There are many different ways to play, and an almost infinite amount of equipment for you to choose from. It is a great sport because of all the different types of equipment, and playing fields and other players can be found almost anywhere. Paintball is a very new sport. The first games were played by a few enterprising players who used cattle marking guns to play. Their paint was non-washable and expensive, costing up to a buck a ball. The first game was played on June 27, 1981. They played capture the flag against each other with Nel-Spot 007 pistols. The winner captured all the flags without firing a shot. In April of 1982, the first outdoor field was opened in Rochester, NY. Also in 1982 Paintball Marketing Incorporated was founded to market and distribute paintball products. In 1983 the first national championship was held with a $14,000 dollar purse. Also in 1983 the first foreign paintball field opened. In 1984 the sport was introduced to Australia and the first indoor field was opened in Buffalo, NY. From this point, paintball started to “snowball”, picking up interest in foreign countries and on the internet. New high-tech paintball products are invented all the time, making the sport increasingly more complex. Paintball has become a high-tech sport compared to the guns of the last couple of decades. For a long time, all of the guns ran off of 12 gram Co2 which would shoot up to 40 shots. The guns were pump action, and would hold a small amount of paint. The paint itself would cost up to a buck a ball. Masks were often safety or ski goggles. Today, guns are run by a small computer manufactured into them. They run off of large bottles of Co2, nitrogen, and compressed air, which will shoot up to 2000 times. Guns are semi-auto, ...
