Family Bowlaway staffers Tyler Kristophel and Justin Hevesy explain the rules of laser tag to a group of eager players. While the game is simply played for fun by many, companies can also use it as an employee team building exercise.

BUTLER TWP — Now a decade old, Laser Storm is still a leading attraction at Family Bowlaway Fun Center.

Each weekend, groups with as many as 100 or more competitors come to the center to zap their opponents in the Black Light Arena.

"People say it's an adrenaline rush," said Rachel Pinkerton, a junior at Mars High School and president of the United Methodist Church Butler District Youth Group.

One weekend in late January, the group hosted a sleepover with 121 members playing Laser Storm and bowling into the wee hours of the night, according to Family Bowlaway manager Andy Hevesy.

"Laser tag is like tag," said Kevin Caparosa, co-owner of the center. "Instead of touching someone, you use beams of light."

Participants divide into two teams with up to 18 members. They suit-up in the "ready room," pulling on a vest with a power pack, a helmet with either red or green LEDs to distinguish the teams, and a "phaser." The phaser fires a beam at opponents or their base.

"In normal tag, when you're tagged, you're out," Caparosa said. "In laser tag, when you get tagged, your equipment goes out. When you get tagged, the headset blinks to let people know."

The player then has to go to a re-energizing station to reactivate the equipment and continue the game.

"Besides tagging an individual, you can tag your opponent's base," Caparosa said.

Tagging an individual earns a team one point. Tagging the base earns 10. A computerized scoreboard keeps track. Some team members play offense, and others defend the base.

"It's a combination of tag and capture the flag," Caparosa said.

Scenes from different eras of science fiction adorn the entrance to the arena, with murals of Flash Gordon, Robbie the Robot, and the Starship Enterprise.

The ready room where players gear up is decorated like a space ship.

The arena is lit with black lights and everything glows with fluorescent paint. Strobe lights, fog and pulsating music add to the effect.

There is a maze of barriers, and barrels to hide behind."In Laser Storm, teams are physically separated," unlike other versions of laser tag, Caparosa noted. "It makes you work as a team.""It's like a game of tag, but more intense," Pinkerton said. "It's kind of like capture the flag, only constantly going."It's very into trying to beat the opponent. You have to move quickly. If you're into competition, it's the game to play."Caparosa said Laser Storm is not just for young people."We see a lot of companies use it for team building," he said. "You develop strategies when you work as a team."Caparosa and his brother, Joe, co-owners of the business, built a 10,000-square-foot addition to the center for the laser tag arena, a video arcade, party rooms and an ice-cream parlor. The Laser Storm arena opened in 1997.Joe Caparosa Sr. started in the bowling alley in 1951 when he bought Penn Lanes, now P.J. Billiards, at 154 N. Main Street.In 1956, he built Bowlaway Lanes at 350 Hansen Ave., later the site of the Bantam Cafe, and now, the Hansen Plaza medical and professional office building.After a fire at that location in 1983, the company, which now included Caparosa's son Joe, who took over in 1978, bought Family Lanes at 1805 N. Main St. extension, currently the location of Ghost Riders bar. There they expanded, adding 12 lanes to the 16 existing ones, and combined the names, calling it Family Bowlaway.Kevin Caparosa joined the company in 1984.In 1992, they moved to the current location at 540 Fairground Hill Road where they built a new, 40-lane bowling alley, keeping the name Family Bowlaway.

Pierson Marlowe of Sarver plays Laser Storm at Family Bowlaway. In laser tag, a beam of light replaces a player's touch.