History of Paintballing
|
Paintball can be either an indoor or an outdoor game, played as individuals or in teams. It is essentially a game where rival teams hit each other with capsules that contain paint, fired from guns called paintball markers.
|
The idea of paintball started in 1976, when three friends, Hayes Noel, Bob Gurnsey and Charles Gaines were talking about Gaines' recent Africa trip and his thrilling experience of hunting buffalos. The men wanted to develop a game that provided the same adrenaline rush as in a hunt, and where players would be required to stalk and hunt each other down instead of wild animals. Apart from Gaines’ firsthand account of such thrills, Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game too provided the necessary inspiration.
Their new game became a huge success, and as the craze for paintball rocked the entire nation, Bob Gurnsey saw its huge business potential. He established a company and named it National Survival Game, and then went on and signed up with Nelson Paint Company as their sole distributor for paintball paraphernalia. The next step was to appoint franchisees in different parts of the country, which had the right to sell the company’s goggles, paint and guns. The idea was unique and with their domination on paintball equipment, it took just 6 months for the company to make a profit.
Rival companies like PMI surfaced between 1981 and 1983, and with more players and thus more products, the game of Paintball became even more popular. Paintball technology was paid particular attention to, and manufacturers added advanced features like a front-mounted pump and gravity feed hoppers.
|
