I recently wondered where the old timers have gone. Some responded. With permission, here is what Bruce 'Charon' Johnston wrote:

I started the game back in the late 80's just after high school. The game was in its infancy back then, and 12 gram, CO2, Splatmasters was the marker of choice. As I recall paintballs were outrageously priced compared to today, somewhere in the area of $.20 - $.25 per ball. Since paintball was a fringe extreme sport at the time, very few people played the game. We were lucky if we had 10 guys out on any given day.

I played every weekend for two or three years, then university tuition ate into my available funds, working to pay for school consumed most of my free time when not studying. On top of everything else the game started to get boring. The same 5-10 guys, playing the same field started to get monotonous, so I backed away from the game.

Read the rest of Bruce's story