New Laser Tag Arena Opens in Helena

Montana Advanced Laser Tag may look retro and unassuming from the outside, with its sharp
sign and bold green and pink painted bricks framing the door, but if you take the time to step
inside, you’ll see that it’s anything but your parent’s old laser tag arena. Instead of stepping right
into a shop, you’re instructed to go down a set of geometrically painted stairs, through a door
and turn left down a dimly lit corridor. Before you’ve even entered the laser tag maze, you’re put
into the adventuring spirit as you make your way to the arena. Once you go through a final door,
you’re suddenly immersed in lights. To your right is the maze, built from tall, black walls where
you’ll occasionally see a piercing light peek over the top. To your left, a desk to check in, a
table to hang around and even further north, a cozy hangout room with plush beanbags, a large
TV, a shiny Christmas tree, and some of the most modern gaming equipment money can buy.

The owners, Cameron and Maria Jorgenson, pride themselves on being the only laser tag arena
in Montana to offer this modern of equipment, with over 50 playable games, realistic sounds,
and people talking, “It’s literally like a video game in real life. It doesn’t get any closer,” Cameron
says. “While I wanted to bring my childhood into this area I wanted it to be modern, I wanted it to
be fresh, and I wanted it to be something never done here.” ... “It’s completely customizable. We
can create any game we want to. My thing growing up was Nintendo 64. That was the main
thing when I was growing up. One of the top games on that was GoldenEye 007. So I am writing
in the software a 007 game so we can have that here. A lot of people, including myself, love
Star Wars, so we have a Star Wars game that we play here. I have a Fortnite game that we did.
The ability to bring something that your guys’ age group is pretty much already addicted to,
online gaming, like Call of Duty, Halo, Fortnite, Rainbow Six-these are the top games right now.
It’s really nice to say, ‘Hey, you guys play this at home. I can give you it in real life,’ which was a
big thing when I was young. With that software and these taggers I have the ability to bring
these games and those scenarios to life, and it blows kids mind.“

Along with laser tag, they also offer some of the most modern Virtual Reality games on the
market. Currently, they have to two Oculus Rifts, but plan to install a virtual reality machine
before Christmas where you strap in and get moved around with the game. Cameron says, “I
want to get into haptic suits. Haptic suits allow the players eventually to feel what’s going on in
the game. Not painful. But they’ll be able to feel like where bullets are hitting. In the VR they’ll be
able to feel rain drops, wind, and stuff like that”

The Jorgenson’s weren’t always in the laser tag business, but wound up here in the end due to
a few factors. “My wife always wanted to do something for kids, that’s her heart. My heart is
with veterans. I’m very military oriented. I have a strong military background. [While I never
served, people that have, have my heart have,] so I wanted to give something back to them. We
were originally looking at opening up a mobile coffee shop because I’m extremely addicted to
coffee. So we probably wouldn’t have made much money going that route. I probably would
have drank all the product. It would’ve been fun, that was the original plan. I stumbled on the
company that makes this tagger by complete accident. The more I looked into it, the more I saw
the customizable options and what it was leading to, I really wanted to get into it so I spoke to
my wife about it and we just looked at what was available here. Not just for kids, because kids
like this, but this is definitely geared more towards teens and young adults.That is our target
audience. We looked at what is there to do for your age group and there's nothing. Unless you
bar hop - if you’re old enough - or get into trouble, that’s really your only options. So, we went
full-fledged into this and dumped all of our money into it. I quit my job and went full time into the
business to grow and expand as much as I could.”

The Jorgensons also stress that laser tag is a great form of therapy for veterans. They’ve had
great success working with veterans. “We have really realistic guns that resemble like the M-4
rifles.That is a favorite among our vets.” Cameron explains how using weapons in a safe and
fun environment can help veterans returning home realize that they don’t have to be ready for
battle all the time. It’s a form of therapy.

Along with wanting to help the community, Cameron also grew up playing laser tag. “I grew up
in California, unfortunately,” he jokes. “There was this place, Scandinavia Island. Arcade, laser
tag, go carts, mini golf. It was great, It was amazing. When I stumbled on this, it just brought
back all those childhood memories. It was like, kids nowadays don’t have that. The biggest thing
they have is turning on there XBox or Playstation and shutting the world out. So, we wanted to
bring that into the forefront of today. The only way to reach them is to reach them with what they
know.”

If you’re interested in becoming the best laser tagger in town, you may want to try League
Battles. Cameron explains how Montana is set to host the first league battle of its kind. “A
couple weeks after we did our grand opening, the student director at Carroll College had driven
by and saw our sign and gave us a call. He goes, ‘Hey, for whatever reason I decided to take a
different route to work today and I saw your guys’ sign.’ And he was like, I’m interested in a
tournament, league battle type thing. So we got him signed up. They’re going to be coming on
February 8th. They’ll be here the entire day. They’re gonna run a hundred-plus kids through
here and that’ll be the first league battle that’s ever been done with the equipment.” Thanks to
modern technology, you can download an app and create a tagger profile, racking up points and
making teams, so you can truly see who’s top dog.

“We want kids to come down, have fun,instead of being out there causing trouble. I want
everybody to know we’re here. Even if you want to utilize our services or not, I just want
everybody to know that there’s an option here for you guys to have fun.”

Montana Advanced Laser Tag’s hours can vary, but they’re usually open from 6 p.m. to about 9
p.m., with Friday and the weekends open later.