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Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

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Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#81

Post by grubbs »

TravHatesMe wrote: post #8

Gaming companies contributed to the death of LAN parties too. They killed the "split-screen" gameplay that would support 2-4 players on the same machine. They wanted each player to require their own copy of the game. They killed LAN support, forcing you to play on their servers. Culturally we saw a shift towards social isolation. People are more comfortable talking over a mic.

Attended a LAN party in Manassas, VA back in early 2000s. It was literally in a barn with 100+ people. No Internet as it was pretty rural. I don't think this would even be possible now with no LAN option in modern games.

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#82

Post by [deleted] »

agrippanux wrote: post #52

Sophomore year in college (‘97) was the height of LAN parties for me. Our dorm building wasn’t wired for internet yet so about 12 of us got together and took it upon ourselves to create our own network. We cajoled the NetOps dept at UCSD to give us old repeaters and bought a ton of BNC wire to connect everyone. Of course the facilities dept didn’t like rogue wiring running all over the massive dorm complex so they wo…

[deleted]

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#83

Post by grubbs »

mmcgaha wrote: post #79

My 18-year-old son still packs up his big ass computer and monitor and spends the weekend gaming at his friends house. They don't call it a LAN party but at the end of the day they are still having a lot of fun and socializing with people in real life.

That's great! Glad to hear it's still happening. Some of the best memories of HS and college :)

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#84

Post by Farbklex »

giantg2 wrote: post #64
TravHatesMe wrote: post #8

Gaming companies contributed to the death of LAN parties too. They killed the "split-screen" gameplay that would support 2-4 players on the same machine. They wanted each player to require their own copy of the game. They killed LAN support, forcing you to play on their servers. Culturally we saw a shift towards social isolation. People are more comfortable talking over a mic.

"Gaming companies contributed to the death of LAN parties too. They killed the "split-screen" gameplay that would support 2-4 players on the same machine." Even consoles suck with this now. It seems like none of the big games support more than 2 players.

Exactly. I wanted a coop split screen shooter for the PS 5. I checked out 4 games. None had coop splitt screen. 2 were alway online which would require me to get a PS Plus subscription.

Games were: Back 4 Blood, Call of Duty Vanguard, Rainbow Six Extraction, Alien Fire Team Elite.

I still invite friends for Xbox 360 LANs. Just connect two consoles and play with 8 players. It is super fun and the hardware is dirt cheap.

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#85

Post by grubbs »

I once held a LAN party in my parents three car garage. In the middle of summer lol.

Used Netgear 10/100 switches that we found dumpster diving in a tech park type area. My father (career engineer) even helped me run Cat 5E to the garage and install a jack.

After the 10th person or so showed up we blew the first circuit 15A circuit :) Learned pretty quickly how to fix that issue.

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#87

Post by spiritplumber »

What we did (northern Italy, 1996-2010) was take an old storeroom, fill it with old desktops that would get cycled as technology got better, and have a permanent setup that capped out at 8 computers. The two most popular games were DN3D and Starcraft, with NFS2SE being added once we got eight voodoo cards. Great times, great memories, I'm still in touch with about half the people who showed up :) basically it was like having a little arcade, except free. House rules were no smoking (lots of smokers in Italy) and you're expected to contribute by buying sodas and snacks for the fridge, and donating old parts.

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#88

Post by spiritplumber »

bestouff wrote: post #35
thenthenthen wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Internet killed the LAN party

I (roughly) hear it on the tune of "video killed the radio stars". Yes I'm old.

mp3 killed the video star https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPHLSC635CM

Re: Just a bunch of idiots having fun: a photo history of the LAN party

#89

Post by spiritplumber »

bergheim wrote: post #54
dudul wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. LAN parties were amazing. I have such fond memories of gathering with 3 to 5 buddies in a basement for an entire weekend. The games were fun but more often than not they were just a background activity for an epic hangout.

Why says they are done? Next weekend me and 3 friends are doing our annual LAN-party. We are all older, but it is still so much fun. Super excited!

Take pictures!
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