| Paintball is a sport in which participants use | | | | paintball. Gaines won. |
| compressed air guns called markers to shoot paintballs | | | | The friends quickly realized they had a created |
| (marble-sized, .68 caliber, gelatin capsules filled with | | | | something special. In the following months, they devised |
| colored polyethylene glycol "paint") at other players. It is | | | | basic rules for the game fashioned along the lines of |
| in essence a complex form of tag, as players struck | | | | capture the flag, and invited friends and a writer from |
| with paintballs during the game are eliminated. | | | | Sports Illustrated to play. They called their game |
| Paintball draws a wide array of players worldwide, and | | | | "Survival." The article on paintball was published in the |
| the Sporting Goods Manufacturer's Association | | | | June 1980 issue of Sports Illustrated. As national |
| estimates that approximately 10 million people play | | | | interest in the game steadily built, Gaines and Noel |
| annually in the United States alone. | | | | formed a company, National Survival Game, and |
| Insurance statistics show that paintball is one of the | | | | entered a contract with Nelson Paint Company to be |
| safest sports in existence, safer even than golf. | | | | the sole distributor of their paintball equipment. |
| Games can be played either indoors or outdoors and | | | | Thereafter, they licensed to franchisees in other states |
| take various forms. Rules for playing paintball vary | | | | the right to sell their guns, paint, and goggles. Due to |
| widely, with most designed to ensure that participants | | | | their monopoly on the market, they turned a profit in |
| enjoy the sport in a safe environment. | | | | only six months. |
| The sport requires a significant amount of equipment | | | | The first games of paintball were very different from |
| and has even developed its own slang. | | | | modern paintball games. |
| History Paintball began as a simple hunting game | | | | Nelspot pistols were the only gun available. They used |
| between two friends in the woods of Charlotteville, | | | | 12-gram CO2 cartridges, held at most 12 rounds, and |
| Virginia. in 1976, Hayes Noel, a stock trader and his | | | | had to be recocked after each shot. |
| friend Charles Gaines, a writer, were walking home | | | | Dedicated paintball masks had not yet been created, |
| through the woods and chatting about Gaines' recent | | | | so players wore shop glasses that left the rest of their |
| trip to Africa and the thrill of hunting buffalo. Eager to | | | | faces exposed. The first paintballs were oil-based and |
| recreate the adrenaline rush that came with the thrill of | | | | thus not water soluble; "turpentine parties" were |
| the hunt, and inspired by Richard Connell's The Most | | | | common after a day of play. Games often lasted for |
| Dangerous Game, the two friends came up with the | | | | hours as players stalked each other, and since each |
| idea to create a game where they could stalk and | | | | player had only a limited number of rounds, shooting |
| hunt each other. | | | | was rare. |
| In the months following that fateful day, the friends | | | | Between 1981 and 1983, rival manufacturers began to |
| talked about what sorts of qualities and characteristics | | | | create competing products, and it was during those |
| made for a good hunter and a good survivalist. | | | | years that the sport took off. Paintball technology |
| They were stumped, however, on how to devise a | | | | gradually developed as manufacturers added a |
| test of those skills. It wasn't until a year and a half later | | | | front-mounted pump in order to make recocking easier, |
| that George Butler, a friend of theirs, showed them a | | | | then replaced the 12-gram cartridges with larger air |
| paintball gun he had found in an agricultural catalog. The | | | | tanks, commonly referred to as "constant air".These |
| gun was a Nelspot 007 marker manufactured by the | | | | basic innovations were later followed by gravity feeds |
| Nelson Paint Company and was used by cattlemen to | | | | and 45-degree elbows to facilitate loading from the |
| mark cows. Noel and Gaines each purchased a pistol | | | | hopper. Eventually, the manual "pump" marker was |
| and had a duel in what became the very first game of | | | | replaced altogether by semi-automatics. |