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The Promised LAN

tpl.house

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Re: The Promised LAN

#131

Post by palata »

kentonv wrote: post #28

Heh, of all arguably-valid definitions of "LAN Party" I think this one is as far away from mine as you can get. Traditional LAN party: Everyone brings their computers to one place to connect via a LAN, where they play games, swap files, demo stuff to each other, etc. My LAN party: All my friends come over to my house and use the computers that I have already set up for them. Nobody brings their own. The point is to i…

I agree with that: to me a LAN Party is about having the players physically in the same place.

I don't call it a LAN Party when I plan an evening to play with my remote friends, it's just a "game night".

Re: The Promised LAN

#132

Post by DmitryOlshansky »

bombcar wrote: post #102
brudgers wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you aren’t using IPX/SPX, it isn’t a real LAN party. Or there’s true Scotsman all the way down to the turtle.

Null modem LAN parties!

I recall playing Warcraft I with my friend over null modem. Kind of boutique LAN party.

Re: The Promised LAN

#133

Post by xarope »

kentonv wrote: post #28

Heh, of all arguably-valid definitions of "LAN Party" I think this one is as far away from mine as you can get. Traditional LAN party: Everyone brings their computers to one place to connect via a LAN, where they play games, swap files, demo stuff to each other, etc. My LAN party: All my friends come over to my house and use the computers that I have already set up for them. Nobody brings their own. The point is to i…

Only 1 (one) cat picture. This is wrong... :-)

Re: The Promised LAN

#134

Post by fc417fc802 »

omnicognate wrote: post #128
fc417fc802 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Context is important. If the pictures are captioned "check out this awesome treehouse I built" then yeah I don't expect anything further. Whereas if they are captioned "this treehouse is my absolute favorite place to hang out" or "everyone should build one of these for themselves" or "building this treehouse saved my relationship" or whatever then I am going to find myself wondering why that might be. Like if I tell…

I don't know why we're even having this debate, but this thread is in response to someone literally complaining they didn't say what games they play on it (as if they necessarily even do). They've given plenty of technical info about it - certainly more than they're obliged to, which is none - and anyone who would do something like this is going to do it their own way anyway. I'm clearly in the target audience as I'm…

Probably because I'm in the same camp as the person you originally responded to. It's an intriguing project and clearly a lot of effort has gone into it so I'm left wondering about how it's being used. If I were going to build something similar (as they advocate) what might I use it for?

> around half of the people on the LAN have thermal receipt printers with open access, for printing out quips or jokes on each other’s counters.

> there’s a 3-node IRC network, exotic hardware to gawk at, radios galore, a NAS storage swap, LAN only email, and even a SIP phone network of “redphones”.

The above is from the linked essay about the current sordid state of the internet. It gives a few ideas for fun pastimes but honestly not a lot. Gaming with close friends is probably the majority of what I'd use a LAN setup like this for so naturally I'm left curious what I might be missing out on.

Re: The Promised LAN

#135

Post by lucideer »

kentonv wrote: post #82
lucideer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough the (only) LAN parties I ever experienced "back in the day" were pretty similar to yours: 1. there was one smallish computer lab tucked under a stairs in the science department in university, in which all of the computers had been "compromised" in some fashion & games installed for student LAN parties. Mainly after hours for those living on campus. 2. In the first tiny little company I ever worked for…

Laptops??? There weren't gaming-capable laptops in the 90's, and besides that, the ultimate status symbol at a LAN party was lugging in your 80-pound 20" Sony Trinitron CRT.

This is what I thought which is what confused me - I guess lugging around CRTs just seemed a little much.

I don't live in the US though so perhaps we just missed out on that rite of passage not living somewhere where kids are more likely to have access to a car.

Re: The Promised LAN

#136

Post by nickdothutton »

I love this idea, not least of all because it was one of the things on my "todo" pile that never gets any smaller. Congratulations guys. I miss the small community I found on the early Internet, before Eternal September. When small groups of people get together in a space that is both "confined" and "limitless" great things can happen.

Re: The Promised LAN

#137

Post by vgb2k18 »

kentonv wrote: post #82
lucideer wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funnily enough the (only) LAN parties I ever experienced "back in the day" were pretty similar to yours: 1. there was one smallish computer lab tucked under a stairs in the science department in university, in which all of the computers had been "compromised" in some fashion & games installed for student LAN parties. Mainly after hours for those living on campus. 2. In the first tiny little company I ever worked for…

Laptops??? There weren't gaming-capable laptops in the 90's, and besides that, the ultimate status symbol at a LAN party was lugging in your 80-pound 20" Sony Trinitron CRT.

Mate, my pentium 100mhz laptop played quake, carmageddon and nfs with at least 15fps in the 90's~

Re: The Promised LAN

#138

Post by trklausss »

Wait until governments shut it down due to "piracy"...

I hate when people that don't know anything about this scene make laws. It just kills the fun in them...

Re: The Promised LAN

#139

Post by hypercube33 »

vgb2k18 wrote: post #137
kentonv wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laptops??? There weren't gaming-capable laptops in the 90's, and besides that, the ultimate status symbol at a LAN party was lugging in your 80-pound 20" Sony Trinitron CRT.

Mate, my pentium 100mhz laptop played quake, carmageddon and nfs with at least 15fps in the 90's~

I did bring my dell craptop with that I scrounged parts from 3 nonworking used business ones together...it had the ATi Mobility 1 (Rage 128?) and could do half life 1 if you really tweaked things or Quake 3.

That aside, it sucked performance wise even with a Pentium 3. My main PC and 19in monitors were what we drug around to LANs all over.

There used to be an old movie theater in North Branch MN that was converted to basically a permanent LAN Party where people would just come and go.

Movies and bands would play on the stage on weekends or something, too. Best time of my life.

Re: The Promised LAN

#140

Post by hypercube33 »

KTibow wrote: post #84
hkon wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think your definition/setup is the wrongest as it does not capture the spirit. You have a cyber café.

There's a slightly relevant response under "Dragging over your own computers is part of the fun of LAN parties. Why build them in?".

Ah yes, spending an hour getting setup then at least two peoples computers don't boot or the GPU doesn't work...then no one has or installed any of the games you're hosting. Good memories
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