LAN Party

There comes a time in every man's life when he asks himself "when is the next LAN party?" We've been kicking the idea around for a while. Does anyone know any property/business owners in the area who might be interested in renting out a small space for a day? We need less than 1000sqft, with electricity. Doesn't need to be pretty.

local area network? wtf?!

I'm confused too. BG what is a LAN party?

I believe it's originally from the lyrics of a James Reyne song: "A livin' and a workin' on the LAN'"

LOL! Depending on when this happens, I might be interested in participating, even though I've never played any of the games that would likely be chosen. Perhaps many of you harbor dreams of shooting me to smithereens--here's your big chance.

Anyway, couldn't we do it at someone's apartment, if the apartment were big enough?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LAN_party

http://www.lanpartycoalition.com/
I love the slogan for this one: "If it moves shoot it. If it doesn't pick it up."

http://www.lanparty.com/

I'm totes down, but I only have a Mac laptop, so it'll have to be Mac friendly. I pretty much suck at first person shooters but hey - I can look up endless life codes online.

To give you guys an idea, I've been playing Battlefield 2 and 2142 in terms of first-person shooters. At the last party I went to though we played mostly Company of Heroes which is a WWII real-time strategy game. Love that one. Of course there are lots of other games out there too.

look, the last LAN party I attended was like 10 years ago at MIT and we were playing DOOM. I had to look up god codes first, though, because me playing DOOM without them = my char dying in the first 15 seconds.

btw, I'm great in head-to-head HALO. why? I use grenades like a pro.

Do Gamers still lug around desktops or is tricked out laptops the fashion of the day?

Idlewild wrote: Do Gamers still lug around desktops or is tricked out laptops the fashion of the day?

I think the hardcore will always go for the desktop because of the speed advantage.

Carnivore wrote: [quote=Idlewild]Do Gamers still lug around desktops or is tricked out laptops the fashion of the day?

I think the hardcore will always go for the desktop because of the speed advantage.
There are some gaming laptops out there, but yeah, desktop form factor will always have advantages over laptops - better cooling, more easily upgradable, etc...

Except for HD speed (on config sites at least and in favor of desktop) some of these gaming laptops are pretty impressive. I'm thinking of getting a Falcon Northwest laptop. How about videocard speed, rendering, etc? Aren't desktops and laptops even now or days?

No doubt - they are impressive, but what you can do with a desktop is even more so. I don't have any first-hand experience with laptops, but I'd imagine that most would be dead by now, if they were put through the relative torture that my desktop is subject to - a bare minimum of a 25% overclock and at 100% CPU usage for months on end. I can't see how a laptop would be able to cope with the heat. Plus, it's cheaper to build your own and you don't have to deal with the annoying bloatware... :x

Idlewild wrote: Except for HD speed (on config sites at least and in favor of desktop) some of these gaming laptops are pretty impressive. I'm thinking of getting a Falcon Northwest laptop. How about videocard speed, rendering, etc? Aren't desktops and laptops even now or days?

If you really want to impress with a gaming laptop, you have to get a Voodoo envy. Those are the only computers that ever make me think about trading in my mac for a pc.

Nada. I'm not a fan of Voodoo. I have a 2003 Voodoo F-5 that has been giving me problems from Day-1.

lan parties are cool man, where guys come to show off their builds. hehe i haven't gone to one in years.

Yes, and also to show off one's uber skillz.

It's all about the size of your machine, not your skill.

So, about the games being played - do we all have to load up the software on our rigs before hand, or, uh.. how does that work?

yeah everyone should have a set of say games . so this way everyone could play those games.

if I were a hardcore gamer who wanted a laptop, I'd go for alienware

http://www.alienware.com/

when our trial techs have to do crazy rendering presentations or show 200mb flash models, that's what gets busted out.

Obviously, you have to have the game installed to play. Most games now require a CD to be in the drive while playing too, so everyone needs one. And they are smart enough to check for duplicate licenses etc. Of course, you can find cracks for some of the games, allowing you to play without an actual CD, but not for all of them. Surest way to avoid issues: bring a licensed or cracked version with you.

And of course every LAN party starts with the inevitable process of getting everyone to the same patch levels for the various games, sorting out hardware & software issues, etc. That can be hours. But hey, it's part of the fun.