Splatmaster

That is pretty sweet.  I've never heard of it before.

thejudge wrote: That is pretty sweet. I've never heard of it before.

From 1981-1983 Charles Gaines, Hayes Noel, and Bob Gurnsey were the only show in town. They were the ones that came up with the game, marketed it, and secured equipment and supply lines. Originally the game was a 3-way monopoly of NSG (National Survival Game) Nelson (Who supplied the markers) and RPS (RP Scherrer Pharmaceuticals who supplied the paint).

Nelspot 007's are basically two steel tubes that use panel supports which are hand-welded in place to hold the entire assembly together. Add in the costs of the machined bolt, hammer, sear assembly, valve, valve body, and power-tube, and it all gets rather expensive to produce. NSG determined that they could make a paintball marker out of mainly plastic components that they could then sell cheaply to franchisees and players. That put the potential for more control in NSG's hands, securing their survival for at least a few more years. The problem was, they were short-sighted to the fact that there were no long-term exclusivity agreements or even the broad-based patents you see today, to keep other people from buying 007's through Nelson or outdoor supply companies rather than NSG, or to keep other companies from inventing new paintball markers. NSG eventually lost ground to the independent fields (such as Skirmish USA operated by Paul Fogel) which had a much smaller playing area and concentrated on high-conflict games rather than the large-area low-conflict stealth games of NSG's format. They also began to lose out on marker sales to companies such as Benjamin Sheridan and PMI who come out with their own paintball markers which offered greater possibilities than the un-modifiable splatmaster.

NSG attempted to adapt to the situation by creating a double-action hi-capacity paintball marker in the splatmaster rapide, but it was too little too late. NSG eventually folded and the only remaining testaments to their existence are the splatmasters and rapides you see on e-bay and (until recently) the name "Survival" in Survival New York which was eventually renamed to "Cousin's Paintball Plattekill" after it was bought out.

Edited by tallen702 - 29 November 2007 at 12:33pm

They were the ones that originally sold paint to NSG, nelson actually made the original paints.

A lot of the stuff I know about the old days comes from a combination of experience (I played as early as '93) and research. If you want to learn more, I'd suggest picking up the Complete Guide to Paintball. I still have the first edition, so I can't tell you what any of the later editions have in them, but I'm sure they still have a lot about the history.

Edited by tallen702 - 29 November 2007 at 3:08pm

wow...thats all I can say

carl_the_sniper wrote: Mack wrote: carl_the_sniper wrote: Mack wrote: carl_the_sniper wrote: Why would you post that plastic piece of wall mart crap on this forum? Correction time:That is not a "plastic piece of wall mart crap." That is an NSG Splatmaster, the first paintball marker produced specifically for paintball. It is a piece of paintball history. It is the marker that brought the game to the masses.  It is quite probable that if this marker hadn't been produced paintball would still be a game played by just a few guys in camo with Nelson pumpguns in the woods. You don't get them at Wal Mart* either. *Note correct spelling for future reference. Read the above post fool. Note the posting times fool. Noted fool.

Good for you fool.