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1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

issung.com

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Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#21

Post by layoric »

issung wrote: post #2

Hi everyone. Today I finished my latest project which was archving 1584 photos (+2 videos) of LAN parties in Tasmania ranging from 1996 to 2010. Previously these photos were lost to time until I got in contact with the right people. Looking through the photos is a great blast of nostalgia, I hope you get some enjoyment from looking through them too! https://issung.com/posts/lanphotosarchive/

Nice work! I ran some LANs ("LANded NT") and went to lots more up in Darwin, Northern Territory between 1999-2002, largest being ~150 people but sadly I think all related media has been lost. Previous had website, and was forum chatter with some photos about the events, but these days can't find anything. Photos you've got hear reminded me of these events, good times!

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#22

Post by ThatPlayer »

xandrius wrote: post #6

I wonder what could be today's alternative to the environments of LAN parties of early 00s (I never attended to previous ones). Even if one were to recreate the events, I feel lots of the activities of these meetings (meeting the selected few gamers face-to-face, sharing media, and only finally gaming) are somewhat obsolete or not needed anymore. Part of me wishes we still had these but that would mean removing lots…

I think with how much more social gaming is nowadays, and the prevalence of team games, I'm not really interested in attending a LAN party alone. I want to play with my squad. And with the internet, that squad is pretty spread out so a get together at a LAN party is going to be difficult to coordinate.

Though on the opposite end, locals are still common for 1v1 fighting games. Shared screen games that doesn't require everyone to bring their own setup, just their controller, for a lower barrier of entry.

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#23

Post by swozey »

I was a kid in Virginia in the 80-90s and never got to do any of this stuff, but I was on irc and I saw people all over california and in college doing lan parties. Made me so jealous. My friends didn't have the internet until the 2000s and they used it for research and AIM.

It's crazy how regionally the internet spread across the USA absolutely massed from California.

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#24

Post by IAmGraydon »

I'm so glad I got to live through the late 90s in my teens. It was truly a magical time with the advent of the modern internet. Looking at these pictures brings back some of that feeling and really reminds me of what a different place the internet and technology was back then. I still remember pulling up my first website with Netscape Navigator and a 14.4K dialup modem, the images rolling in bit by bit at what would be considered a truly glacial pace today. The realization that this digital canvas was mostly untouched and any of us could claim our own territory and make it into whatever we wanted. Just thinking of it makes me want to fire up the IDE and build something.

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#25

Post by IAmGraydon »

swozey wrote: post #23

I was a kid in Virginia in the 80-90s and never got to do any of this stuff, but I was on irc and I saw people all over california and in college doing lan parties. Made me so jealous. My friends didn't have the internet until the 2000s and they used it for research and AIM. It's crazy how regionally the internet spread across the USA absolutely massed from California.

I also grew up in VA (southeast) in that time period and there were lots of LAN parties! What part of Virginia were you in?

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#26

Post by swozey »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #25
swozey wrote: post #23

I was a kid in Virginia in the 80-90s and never got to do any of this stuff, but I was on irc and I saw people all over california and in college doing lan parties. Made me so jealous. My friends didn't have the internet until the 2000s and they used it for research and AIM. It's crazy how regionally the internet spread across the USA absolutely massed from California.

I also grew up in VA (southeast) in that time period and there were lots of LAN parties! What part of Virginia were you in?

I was 6-teens in hampton /vabeach (84), i didn't have friends IRL doing anything with computers ever as a kid. Computer stuff was considered super nerdy. Dad was army so he'd be gone for 2-4 years at a time and all I had to do was hockey and computer stuff (linux/games). IO had tons of car friends because of the bases.

They might have a family PC in the living room for research and papers but everyone used consoles.

In 2024 some of my genz friends have grown up doing their research/papers on their iphones. I could never. I get mad typing on mine, I need a keyboard and an ultrawide.

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#27

Post by swozey »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #7
Faaak wrote: post #4

I miss LAN parties... I miss the custom cases, the fancy drawings, the spilled sugary drinks that stuck to the table, and the open shares where you would copy the whole `Movies` folder on a 100Mbits connection.. I modded my case of course, and it was crappy. I'd integrated a glass window on the side, so people could (would!) look at my custom water cooling setup. And of course, the glass (held by hot glue), would fal…

I never understood the appeal of all the gaudy gamer PC aesthetics, just as a piece of furniture you keep at home it looks ridiculous. But thinking of it in the context of lugging your PC to a LAN party, now I'm picturing a fork of Fast and Furious but instead of all the tricked out cars revving their engines with their hoods popped, its a row of gamer PCs running DirectX benchmarks, and the length people go to make…

I feel bad that I feel this way but I really dislike them, but I can't believe those gamer chairs became the mainstream chair to see over the last few years. A few years ago they would get clowned, then it was less, and less, but it is cool that we're being more inclusive about chair themes.

I know it was twitch and them giving free chairs away to get more people to buy them. Great marketing.

Writing this from my aeron tower.

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#28

Post by nkrisc »

It’s a shame LAN parties aren’t much of a thing anymore, given how powerful of a gaming computer you can pack in a mini-ITX case these days and the complete ubiquity of flat panel displays. You wouldn’t even necessarily need a wired network (though still desirable).

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#29

Post by sevensor »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #24

I'm so glad I got to live through the late 90s in my teens. It was truly a magical time with the advent of the modern internet. Looking at these pictures brings back some of that feeling and really reminds me of what a different place the internet and technology was back then. I still remember pulling up my first website with Netscape Navigator and a 14.4K dialup modem, the images rolling in bit by bit at what would…

You can just smell the sweat, ozone, phenolic resin, and pizza grease on those photos, even after all these years.

Re: 1584 LAN party photos from 1996 – 2010 from Australia's island state archived

#30

Post by bongodongobob »

nkrisc wrote: post #28

It’s a shame LAN parties aren’t much of a thing anymore, given how powerful of a gaming computer you can pack in a mini-ITX case these days and the complete ubiquity of flat panel displays. You wouldn’t even necessarily need a wired network (though still desirable).

If everyone there had a beefy rig, you'd seriously need to consider power draw and running another circuit or two or extension cords all over the house depending on how many people you have.
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