DEBERT, N.S.

For paintball players, getting a chance to play in a Diefenbunker is better than Christmas.

Dave Harrison of Dartmouth, N.S., said it's like when "all your Christmases come at once."

"The venue is amazing," Harrison said. "I've never seen anything like this before; we're normally out in the woods."

The former avionics technician with the Royal Air Force said playing paintball in one of six underground bunkers Canada built in the 1960s to withstand a nuclear missile attack is close-quarters combat — despite it being the largest indoor paintball venue in North America.

The labyrinth of hallways and rooms provide plenty of opportunities for concealment — and ambush.

About 120 players came from all over the Maritimes on the weekend for the two-day event at the former military base located 100 km north of Halifax.

Players were divided into two teams — Canada and Russia — to simulate a 1983 NATO exercise in which Canadian soldiers had to repel an attack from Spetsnaz commandos.

Mark Wright of Charlottetown, P.E.I., said it was the most fun he's had playing paintball.

"The fact that we got to play it in an underground bunker from the Cold War era, we couldn't pass that up," Wright said of what could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Paint splotches covered the walls like bugs on a windshield and, in some spots, so many paintballs had slammed into the wall that paint dripped down to form puddles on the floor.

Jonathan Baha'i recently bought the Diefenbunker at a tax sale.

Although he's not a paintball player, the owner of a web-hosting company wanted to reach out to the community.

"The previous owner really burned a lot of bridges," Baha'i said of the bunker's past as a data storage site.

Baha'i bought the bunker for his business, but before he settles in he thought he'd open it up to indoor paintball and called Gary MacKenzie.

MacKenzie, the owner of a paintball club across the street, helped organize the event with an army of volunteers.

"I've been doing this for over 20 years and this is the best crowd of guys I've ever had," MacKenzie said.

He said it was pure luck that Baha'i called him and asked him if he wanted to organize Diefenbunker: Under Siege during the winter when paintballers normally take a break.

"I'm on the phone doing backflips," MacKenzie said.