Once upon a time, in a land, far far away, two different companies, designed motorised hoppers...
Mr Viewloader, thought that an Egg Shaped hopper, would be really cool..especially if it could feed faster than his current product, the Revolution (Revvy)...so, he set about making this hopper and eventually, came up with an all black hopper (apart from feedneck) that could reliably feed 13/15 Bps constantly. It proved very popular. Later, he came out with a new, faster Board, which he affectionately named, the "Y Board", being as he already had an "X Board" in his Revvy hoppers...This Y board, was a touch faster than the standard board, and was more friendly to itself, and the motor, it was also adjustable, via a little knob near the switch....Finally...after a bit more R and D...he came up with the Z board...faster still and could feed at around 20 Bps, or so he though...but because its still just a gravity feed hopper, it could only really feed at around 17 Bps consistently....Mr Viewloader, looked at his new loader, and saw that it was good and so did many paintballers across the world.
With the new style boards, Mr Viewloader, released the "Evolution 2", which had a choice of clear, black or smoke coloured shells.
A little way up the road from Mr Viewloader...lived a man called Mr Odessey.
Mr Odessey also had designed a hopper some time ago, that was quite different from Mr Viewloaders...his hopper was called "The HALO", and because Mr Odessey was a pushy man, his loader was a force feed loader.
It didn't hold as many balls as "The Egg", but it did use eyes like "The Egg" but was made of much sterner stuff...this meant that you could stare lovingly at "The HALO", for long periods of time, admiring its ability to feed at 20/22 BPS, without the lid, shells or battery door breaking.
Mr Odessey's loader was very popular with paintballers...as it could keep up with the new, faster paintball guns out there. However, as with all high performance things...HALO had some problems...one of which was the way that it forced paint out...which...could mean that the paint would break inside the loader....a messy business, that renders the hopper useless until you had 3 hours to clean it...so....Mr Odessey listened to the voice of ballers everywhere, and designed the "HALO B"...this hopper had a different board in it, that was easier on paint...it also used a rubber belt, between the pulleys that drive it, rather than having two direct drive cogs...this meant that the belt could slip, if too much pressure was exerted on the paint...which helped reduce crushing incidents...this was greatly received by the paintballing community....and..with all the money Mr Odessey made...he designed two new boards...first came "the Z Board", this had special anti jam software, which helped increase the life of the motor...by trying to clear jams, by pulsing...if not...it stopped to let you clear it....still fast as well...then...in a moment of madness he thought;
"I wonder how fast we can push paint out of a HALO?"
And, low and behold...the Victory Board was born...this could feed at adjustable rates from 17 to 35 bps...which enabled people, to reduce the pressure on the balls, if they were too fragile, for a mild compromise in feed rate...or...use hard balls and feed around 30 BPS into their gun...yummy.
After much success...the only way Mr Odessey could think of making his hopper better, was to incorporate a means, whereby...if a break occurred, or if the hopper failed to work....the user could still feed paint from his hopper....so...The Rip Drive was born. This had a small wheel, under the hopper, that was linked to the paddle inside, so...by turning the wheel...you could pressurise the ball stack, and have around 12 shots available too you, even if the hopper didn't work, with each turn.
Mr Odessey looked at his hopper....and saw that it was good...and so did many ballers...leaving their trusty Eggs as backup's in case the HALO went wrong...which sometimes it did, but not so much these days...now Mr Odessey spends his money on Holidays and Hookers, which is why he is never there, to sort out sending parts and stuff to people that ask for them.
The above is taken from, "Balls and Battery's" by S.Keet.
Other books by the author, include:
"How to shoot your load in 10 seconds"
And
"Turning Sh!t into Gold: The Smart Parts Story"
