The History of Paintball In 1970 James Hale invented and patented what would become the first paintball gun.  The origanal paintball gun was used by farmers and ranchers for marking trees and cattle.  The first paintball was capsules filled with thick oil based paint. In May 1981 Paintball began in New Hampshire USA.  The pricipal creators were Bob Gurnsey (sporting goods retailer),  Hayes Noel (stockbroker) and Charles Gaines (writer). On June 27 1981 the first game was played.  12 Players competed agianst each other using Nel-Spot 007S pistols.                          They played capture the flag.  The winner captured all the flags without firing a single shot. The first outdoor field was opened in Rochester New York by Caleb Strong in 1982. Charles Gaines marketed paintball as the National Survival Game (NSG). PMI (Persuit Marketing Inc) was founded to market and distribute paintball products. In 1983 the first NSG National Championship was held with a $14,000 cash purse. Caleb Strong opened the first indoor field in Buffalo new York in 1984. In 1988 IPPA (International Paintball Players Association) was founded as a non profit association dedicated to the education,  growth and safety of paintball. 1992-1993 Nppl was founded and the NPPL Pro AM series started.