CR80 News' Nate Ahearn reports on the potential for RFID to enable "live action gaming for the physical world." Think laser tag -- but much, much cooler.

The Mobile Radicals have created a game called Pac-Lan (get it?) that uses mobile phones and RFID tech to enable a "live" version of Pac-Man on a playing field. "Situated on the field is a series of color-coded discs, each with its own unique RFID tag," Ahearn writes. "Each Ghost and Pac-Man is uniquely identified by an RFID tag worn in the costume. Pac-Lan can also read the location of the ghosts in relation to the last pill that he collected, and just like the classic arcade game, the hero can collect power pills so he can hunt down and kill the ethereal stalkers who then have to restart at the center of the map."

Similarly, in Spain, Négone has created an interactive game called La Fuga (The Breakout) in which up to 300 players wear passive RFID tags and PDAs on wrist straps. "The objective of the game is to escape from a futuristic prison environment that contorts itself depending on player performance," Ahearn writes. "As contestants move into different sections of the playing field, their location is picked up by several RFID readers that tell the game system to spit out questions to the PDA on the player's wrist. Answer the questions correctly and the pathway continues to open up, doors popping open like something out of a new-age horror movie. Get out of the prison before time runs out and victory is yours."

Meanwhile, Mattel is working on HyperScan, a more domesticated version of the RFID gaming experience -- but it's the physical experience of games like Pac-Lan and La Fuga that truly redefine "computer" gaming for an RFID-enabled environment.

More on La Fuga here.