OFGs of MCB: What was paintball like in the transition from pump to semi?

[IronHorse]

SoCal paintball in the early days: every weekend you'd go to the field to see what someone invented since last week. -- Jessica Sparks

[Frog of Peace]

I first heard heard of paintball around 1990 through my friends in Alsace (France, close to the German border) . We were about 14 years old, strapped for cash (none of our parents were divorced) and played tabletop RPGs every weekend and the od LARP.
My first game was at a place called "the tracker" in Lyons with rentals VM68. I had fun, but it was dangerous, the place was a former factory with metal stairs drooling of slippery paint. I didn't like the VM, a marker shouldn't shake like a firearm!
Pumps were still popular in France because they were about half the price, and many love them for the same reasons you guys do. You still saw PGPs next to Automags with attached gas-factories in magazines.
On the German side, it was semi only.
Most guys bought VM68s, a few stingrays (the only cheap semi), mags, a tracer and I bought a sterling bronze.
I remember a stingray guy being upset my pump could shoot faster😁
I never felt outgunned till we played a German sponsored team. We shot between 50 and 500 balls a day, they shot hundreds of balls through bushes till one got thru. First-time
time I didn't enjoy the game.
Much later, I bought an Ion, but as I often played with newbies, the sterling still saw more use.
As that often isn't enough of a handicap, I try crazy stuff that wouldn't work against experienced players.
Beeing taken out by a newbie is something to be proud of!
If they get repainted head to toe every game, they are not coming back.

[DocsMachine]

While I was not exactly on the cutting edge of things like you So-Cal'ers, I can add my two cents worth of early semiauto.

Second game I ever played, somebody brought out an SMG. After the required demos in the parking area, everyone was of course afraid of it. On the field however, we soon realized the paint didn't go as far, was more likely to bounce even if they did hit you, and it took the user forever to reload. (He spent a lot of time chasing clips, too.)

Not long after that, somebody brought out a 68 Special. Again, after parking lot demos, we're all in fear of it. It was considerably more effective on the field, but not the Rambo's Magic Machine Gun it was first thought to be. The effectiveness was hampered a little by the 45-round "ammo box" loader and the necessity of reloading with 10-round tubes, and the fact it didn't take long for the player to start to 'spray and pray'. First few games, he played with it like a pump- taking time to make aimed shots. Towards the end of the day it was "there's a shoe! Shoot! Shoot! Keep shooting!"

And not long after that, one of my friends picked up a then-brand-new Illustrator, a 140-round Indian Springs loader, and full case of paint for himself. That was a 2500-round case of RP Scherer, when the rest of us would often share a case between half a dozen of is- AND try and make it last a couple weekends.

Same game- we're all in fear of it 'til we actually start playing. He wasted 3/4s of that case that weekend- an amount similar to somebody going through five or six cases a day, today- and we're all pretty sure he got fewer eliminations than before. (Previously he had a Grey Spirit, shipped directly from Colin.)

I, personally, couldn't afford a semi 'til the Poison came out, and buying that hunk of s**t was a mistake. In '92, I think, maybe '93, I bought a well-used 'Cocker that already had some mods. (Rock, some aftermarket bolt, a trigger shoe ) By '94 I had it pretty well pimped out (is that even still a word anymore?) and stuck with the semis 'til '96 or '97 when the Phantom VSCs started getting big.

Still a big pump fan, but it's been a long time since anyone around here put a pump-only game together.

Doc.

[coyote]

It has always been my opinion that powered hoppers and the availability of hpa made semi platforms practical.

I came into the sport in 1999. Fields with hpa were loaded with players committed to the arms race. Players with big budgets had Shockers and Angel LCDs.

CO2 only fields tended to have a lot more self equiped blowback players.

Further down the timeline than the 'pump to semi transition , but relevant to the conversation.