Lazer Tag Adventures


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This series began right after the first Endless Quest series ended and disappeared shortly thereafter. It uses the same basic format and features some of the same writers and artists. It remains a mystery to me why TSR ended up with a Lazer Tag license, but at least they used it to create some gamebooks; I can't really complain....

The information on this page is as complete as my collection will allow. If you find any errors or have a copy of the book I'm missing, please send an e-mail to demiankatz@gmail.com.


 1. High Spy
Author: Robert Coulson
Illustrator: Jim Holloway
First Published: May, 1987
ISBN: 0-88038-514-6
Length: 128 pages
Number of Endings: 14
Plot Summary: You are Jason Kare, a young athlete trying out for the U. S. Lazer Tag Team in order to compete in the 3010 World Games. Your life becomes a bit more interesting after you overhear a suspicious conversation between two outworlders, however....
My Thoughts: This is definitely rather reminiscent of the espionage-oriented Endless Quest books, except that it's set in a fairly generically-described future in which Lazer Tag is a major sport. It's fairly dated and not overly creative, but at least the game design is pretty good -- there's a focused story, and it takes some intelligent (though not too difficult) decision-making to reach the optimal ending. The Lazer Tag games that one might think would be a major part of the book are pretty unthrillingly described, though, and I can't help thinking that this might have been more fun with some sort of combat system included. Still, while I wasn't overly impressed by the book, I got at least a bit of enjoyment out of it while it lasted.

 2. Danger, Second Hand
Author: Bruce Algozin
Illustrator: Jim Holloway
First Published: May, 1987
ISBN: 0-88038-515-4
Length: 128 pages
Number of Endings: 10
Plot Summary: You are Zip Logan, Lazer Tag MVP; when you investigate a restaurant bombing on the famous planet of Ardria, you end up stumbling upon the world's dark secret....
My Thoughts: Although there is no explicit continuity with the previous adventure, this book picks up with the same characters but gives the reader control of a different individual than before. The book is structured in much the same way as the last one, with a fairly linear path to victory but a few ways to branch off along the way. The choices are less interesting this time around, though, and I really wasn't especially impressed with the story -- it's yet another science fiction parable about discrimination and exploitation, and while it obviously means well, it takes too simplistic a view of a complex issue, offers too easy a solution, and just embarrasses itself by including gratuitous Lazer Tag matches along the way.

 3. Invisible Rival
Author: Bruce Algozin
Illustrators: Artifact Studio (cover), Jim Holloway (interior)
First Published: August, 1987
ISBN: 0-88038-516-2
Length: 128 pages
Number of Endings: 7
Plot Summary: You are team captain Blaze Dekker, and you have an unfortunate situation to deal with: your team has just been accused of kidnapping a whole rival team!
My Thoughts: Like the last book, this one makes use of the same characters as the first adventure but puts a different person into the main spotlight. There's slightly more explicit continuity, though, for this turns out to be another espionage mission. In fact, it ends up being a rather odd tale involving advanced technology and strange mutants, and it almost feels like an exceptionally wordy Be an Interplanetary Spy book. I'm not sure what the title has to do with anything, though; in fact, the same thing could be said of the previous book, unless I'm missing something obvious. In any case, I didn't find the book to be terribly entertaining. In fact, I was more relieved than anything else when it finally ended; perhaps it wasn't a good idea to try to review three of these things in one sitting!

4. The Galactic Games
This book is not part of my collection.


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