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The Promised LAN

tpl.house

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Re: The Promised LAN

#141

Post by giantg2 »

ruszki wrote: post #121
giantg2 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never tried to join, so I don't know how exclusive it is. There are private clubs and groups that you just need to ask and they'll let you join. Others do a lot of vetting. If it's the former, it's not all that private.

You should read the article and the linked manifesto, because they are very clear that it’s none of that.

I already did read the article and I did not get that impression. If it's really that small and private, why mamke a website about it for friends and prospective members? Why architecture the network in a way that favors scaling, including mulitple backbone nodes running diverse software with the option to add more? Clearly these indicate thats it's not that small or exclusive. I would bet that if you were to bump into someone at DEF CON and they were a member, all you'd have to do to join is say "that's so cool, how can I join".

Re: The Promised LAN

#142

Post by BiteCode_dev »

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…

* offer comes with some money-binding requirements

Re: The Promised LAN

#143

Post by intothemild »

hypercube33 wrote: post #140
KTibow wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then we all stand around and help debug it

Re: The Promised LAN

#144

Post by som »

kentonv wrote: post #79
ajcp wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big fan of both your LAN houses! One thing I noticed is that you don't seem to have any art/pictures/decorations on any of your walls. Is that an intentional choice?

At the time the pictures were taken, we hadn't gotten around to populating the walls much. Now we've hung up a lot of our kids' art, nicely framed. Amusingly a lot of it looks sort of like abstract modern art, like Jackson Pollock or Rothko, enough so to confuse guests. :)

I actually had a similar question / comment but about plants! We have (at least) one in every room in our house and they do wonders for the space.

Not suggesting you go out and buy plants for the gaming rooms (maybe you already have) but wondering if it was a conscious decision not to have any?

Re: The Promised LAN

#145

Post by b3lvedere »

brudgers wrote: post #64
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…

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.

I fondly remember playing Atomic Bomberman over IPX/SPX with a bunch of people. One of the best LAN party games ever (to me).

Re: The Promised LAN

#147

Post by b3lvedere »

sleepybrett wrote: post #52
jimmcslim wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And a real risk of a shattered CRT screen! I remember carting my bougie 17” Viewsonic around in the back of my Hyundai Excel and wondering if it would pick up a crack along the voyage…

Back in the hayday of lan parties in like 1995-1997 my only monitor was a absolute boulder of a 21" viewsonic (this is pre flatscreen or rather pre decent flatscreens, you could get like 15-17s but they were expensive and absolute trash). One night coming home from the bars, half drunk, in an alley my friend and I found an abandoned (maybe..) horizontal-able handtruck. Made the lan party load unload so much better.

In the previous century i visited many lan parties with my absolute beast of a pc case (an old Siemens 4U 19" metal monster where i stuffed an Amd Athlon setup in with a bunch of harddrives) that i got for free from somewhere. Then carried the huge CRT screen and placed it on top of it. It was insane, i was young (and insane), but i got it all dirt cheap. Most people loved it. And even back then repurposing discarded or super cheap hardware for as long as possible for as many functions as possible gave me much joy and saved me a great bunch of money.

If i had to do a "lan party" these days i'd just connect my Steam Deck to some hdmi beamer and play Jackbox games with a bunch of people.

Re: The Promised LAN

#148

Post by LoganDark »

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…

Wow, that place must have cost millions to build.

Re: The Promised LAN

#149

Post by dmboyd »

nl wrote: post #114
sleepybrett wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Back in the hayday of lan parties in like 1995-1997 my only monitor was a absolute boulder of a 21" viewsonic (this is pre flatscreen or rather pre decent flatscreens, you could get like 15-17s but they were expensive and absolute trash). One night coming home from the bars, half drunk, in an alley my friend and I found an abandoned (maybe..) horizontal-able handtruck. Made the lan party load unload so much better.

Also 10-base-2 [1] Ethernet where you always had to debug a dodgy terminator. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10BASE2

Token-ring marathon

Re: The Promised LAN

#150

Post by LooseMarmoset »

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…

In 1999 or so, there was a exclusive demo of Unreal Tournament you could download and play if you had a 3dFX video card. However, someone found out if you created a text file called "glide2.dll" in the game binary directory, you could run the demo in a software rendered mode.

At the time, I worked for a company with a large training room full of computers. The room had locking doors, and a small, narrow window in only one door. We made a cardboard cutout that fit into that window perfectly, and painted it flat black. If you put it in the inside of the window, it appeared as if the room was empty and dark. We called it the "beat-down screen".

We loaded up the UT demo on every machine in that room, and used to get a bunch of like-minded gamers to come down at the end of the work day and we'd play the three demo maps for hours. We eventually added Half-Life deathmatch (I loved the snark pit map) and Counterstrike. None of those machines had discrete video cards, so we had to run in software rendering mode on all games, at something ridiculous like 320x200, but it was glorious.

Good times.

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