The Story of the Stargate

The story of the Stargate from rescue to restoration is rather epic! I recently made a visit to Ohio, looking forward to viewing the completion of a really massive undertaking. It truly took my breath away to see the Stargate brought back to working condition after well over a decade! It is now in the perfect location to be displayed for anyone who wants to see it and I want to thank George Raptis of Skyway Laser Storm for all his amazing work in restoring this original Laser Storm Stargate to its full and dazzling glory!

Take a look at the project and then we will discuss how this happened.

This Stargate was one of the many items (the largest item, for certain!) that I acquired when I took on the Laser Tag Museum Collection nearly a year ago. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what to do with it, but it is a very significant part of laser tag history and it is also quite likely that this is the last existing one of its kind, so it had to be treated with the appropriate respect.

The backstory on this piece starts with it being a working, functional entryway at the former Skateland Family Fun Center that had been owned by the Ferraro family in Lockport, NY. In May of 2014 they were discarding many items from their arena and that included some Laser Storm packs, arena walls and decor and this Stargate. With grateful thanks to Logan Lockhart who rescued many of these items, the Stargate was saved and donated with thanks to Brian Ferraro and family with Logan being the conduit to get this massively sized item into the care of the Laser Tag Museum. My understanding is that it had been in storage right up until the time the museum collection was transferred into my care.

For about ten months this item had been kept in my storage unit as I tried to answer one big question…what exactly do you do with a Stargate?

I knew that ideally this item should be seen and be on display where people can visit and appreciate what a special piece it is. Once again, I must thank Logan for making the connections happen as he mentioned this to our mutual friend, George Raptis, who not only has the perfect location for the Stargate to be displayed at his business, but he also has the technical knowledge and was able to restore it to working order. He also had some support and guidance from Gordy Armstrong of Laser Storm, so there are lots of people who had a hand in getting it back up and running.

George and one of his devoted players, Eric, came to New York last month to pick up the Stargate…no small undertaking!

Because this piece is so massive, I wanted to document it from all sides, as only a select few see “how the sausage is made.”

Everything about this was beautifully crafted in the day to align with the images you would have seen in the original Stargate movie. This was by design through a licensing agreement Laser Storm had with various properties to utilize their name and imagery for use as licensed branding within certain arenas. Back in 1994, if you had purchased the Stargate theming for your arena you might have had Stargate themed barrier walls like this.

I must admit, I had never seen the movie until two days before George picked this item up. However, once I did I could really appreciate all the details that went into the creation of this piece!

This Stargate entryway prop is so special and I cannot even fathom how much work went into the restoration. I have no idea what any of these inner parts do.

We will learn more about the process directly from George in an upcoming podcast episode.

Now anyone who visits the Skyway Laser Storm arena can see this Stargate as it was originally intended, with lights, fog and music all working together to create an amazing experience as you walk through it to enter at the start of your laser tag game.

As I consider all that went into the journey of this Stargate, from rescuing it from being discarded over ten years ago to getting it restored and on display at Skyway Laser Storm, I am appreciative of all the people who have been involved each step of the way. This Stargate is in exactly the right place now. Storage was only a temporary place for it.

I could not be happier that it is now in a proper display home at Skyway Laser Storm and this past weekend it was exciting to see it being enjoyed by laser tag players who got their first look at it and could certainly recognize that this Stargate is a very special piece of laser tag history!