Diablo Venture Games first opened on April 12th 1986. Since it's inception it remained the only recreational woods paintball field in the San Francisco bay area. Because of it's low key approach to non competitive paintballing, out side of the bay area few people new about it. Venture Games was the home of the original Ironmen in which the owner was a member, way before Bob Long and Dave Youngblood got their hands on it and fought a nasty war over the rights to the Ironmen. Also, Venture Games gave birth to some of the worlds best paintball player. Most notably :
Bob Long
Dave Baines
Glen Takamoto
Johnny Perchak
All the above played their first games at Diablo Venture Games. All with the exception of Bob Long, worked and reffed at Diablo where they grew their paintball skills on one of the hardest and tactical playing fields in the bay area. If you can play Diablo Venture Games, everything else was easy.
Also, many other players like Bob Stear, whom in my opinion would have been one of the best in the world if he had stayed with it and not chosen to get married and have a successful career in the computer industry.
In 2007 unknown to me and with out informing me until October 2008, the property owner sold the land and gave me until January 2009 to pack up and leave. So on January 31st 2009, Diablo Venture Games played it's last game and ceased to exist.
With the closing of Diablo Venture Games, the days of old school woods paintball in the San Francisco Bay Area are long gone. But thanks to one of our customers, we will help start up a new field not to far away. The new field is called Phoenix, scheduled to open in July 2009.
To all our loyal customers (many 2nd generation) that made Diablo a special field all these years...Thank you all, thank you for the memories and may the gods guide your future endeavors safely!
{Note}
Diablo Venture Games Paintball Park opened on April 12th 1986, due to the property owner selling the land; it was forced to close down on January 31st 2009. It was home to the original Ironmen recreational paintball team from 1986 to 1988 before it switched to a tournament team. Home to the Lost Boys, Little Rascals, Wild Geese, Out of Shape, Team Taurus and countless others no one ever herd of but deserve mention in this world of the internet!
www.venturegamespaintball.com
@Heritagefootball76 same here i tried paintball jungle after this place went down its just not the same
snowcamper 1 year ago
Man Venture games was my home away from home. The park was the only reason why i paintballed. RIP Venture Games. And good luck to you Mike.
Heritagefootball76 1 year ago
i was at the final game
Hammerofwar1 2 years ago
nice video i felt like i was whatching a movie
chico644 2 years ago
The final game on 1/31/09 should have ended with a paintball recreation of the final scene from the movie Gallipoli, but instead of the Archie character getting lit up by a machinegun burst in the chest, it should have been the penguin guy. That would have made a great poster for the new site
rranswerman 2 years ago
Diablo venture games was always an amazing place for all kinds of players to play. They'er staff was amazing and Mike is one hell of an awesome dude. I've been to the new field and I can say for sure that it will be another awesome field. Me and my friends are all going to go and play the first game. If you paintball then you should too.
zhou9999 2 years ago
Sad sad sight. But sick new field coming soon.
MisterTruck22 2 years ago
My career has taken me away from weekend paintball, but Mike and his crew at Venture were ALWAYS great. Looking forward to playing at Phoenix soon
CheckSixDotCom 2 years ago