Preserved Topic: LAN Party

I'm having my first LAN party in the beginning of august. Any suggestions of games/food/music/other junk? I'm gonna have about 8 computers, two tv's with about every console imaginable hooked up to them. Including all the consoles my friends, and I are bringing it will be: Xbox, PS2, Gamecube, Dreamcast, N64, think that's all. And then on the computers I was thinking CS, AOE2, UT, Maybe Starcraft if I can figure out how to make a server. Any suggestions for anything about the LAN Party?

Maninacan Cell #471
behmer

Went to a 16 machine LAN party once. Ran into power problems, so make sure you've got that covered. We also had it catered by a good friend of ours - no lack of munchies. Extra cables and misc stuff is good.

Yes, lots of cables, power strips, and tables. All the normal munchies usually will work. I find that you must balance any junk with plenty of water as this keeps your reaction time snappy. Oh, and if you're not careful you may spend way too much time setting up and getting everyone's computer installed with compatible games/versions. It helps to have a server with all the games available for download so people can get up to date quickly. Also, I hope you have one or two people who are good at setting up networks and troubleshooting glitches because there always seem to be things that pop up. Keep thinking that your number one priority is to *maximize* game time! The party will be over before you know it so don't waste time if you can help it.

. . : slicePuzzle

I would go with first person shooters for all on the LAN. RTS get tedious if you want to maintain a 'party' atmosphere. If you feel the need for a RTS I would get a copy of Warcraft III, probably not to play but its always nice to mess around with a new game at a LAN party. Since you cant have UT II yet I would go with a classic like UT or Q3 with a kickin modpack, maps and some solid team deathmatch.

Make sure that any power boards you use are surge protected as well, becuase if you think a surge hitting one ocmputer is bad, wait till it hits eight, other than that, just aobut everything is covered.

Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

thanks for the advice, about networking problems, it's not gonna be complicated, we're only using one hub, so all we need to do is change a network setting in one place on each computer, it shouldn't be too bad.

Maninacan Cell #471
behmer

Here's a little something that occurred to me ? write your name on all your stuff. You'll want to leave with all the CDs, cables, power strips, etc. you came with.

I use backup copies of all my CD's and keep the origional put away. Not that I don't trust anyone I invite over but it is much safer this way.

KEEP THEM AWAY FROM THE EVERQUEST!

EQ has ruined many many LANs I have been to. Also, when everyone brings their machine in it will take a little bit of time to get everyone up and running on the same software. As well, keep network access to your computer passworded. File sharing is a great part of the LAN but you want to make sure that people are doing it at the right time and not shooting your ping up or throwing off your frame rate.

Pizza and assorted soda, chips too and make sure you have a garbage near the computers so people dont just stack things next to their boxes. You might want to put a couple sleeping bags out, some people like to power nap or come to the LANs a little innebraited(me, and did I spell that right?) and want to sleep. Dont expect girls, although its cool to have one if they will show.

BUT I CANT STRESS ENOUGH, NO EVERQUEST! OR ANY OTHER MMORPG!!!

rofl your forgetting the most essential things at a LAN, alcohol and Dope.

He who dares, Wins.

euro: hmmm...or not.

Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

Perhaps you do things differntly in America, although it sounds rather tedious if you dont get drunk then PLAY.

A couple of my friends and I first started having LAN partys about 5 years ago, now we have a party once a month with as many as 17 people. Here are some things we have learned:

We used to start our parties around 6-7 on friday nights and play till 11am or so, by the time we were finished everyone was feeling sick from all the junk they had been eating plus the last couple of hours of gaming always sucked since we were so tired and on top of that everyone had to drive home without having slept in 40+ hours. Now we start our parties at 8am on saturdays. People start showing up about 8 and getting computers set up, putting drinks in the fridge and making sure everyones games are on the same version. We aloow 2 hours for people to get there and get setup and start the gaming at 10. We play till 11 or 12 and at the end we are still in good shape and ready to head home.

I ended up setting up a website which has been a HUGE help with getting things organized, having people RSVP, deciding on who is bringing snacks and who is bringing drinks so you don't end up with 20 bags of oreos and a 6 pack of mt dew etc. I highly highly suggest you throw together a site and setup a simple rsvp system (or use evite) and setup a BBS like phpBB or an ez-board so that you and your guest can talk about what game versions you'll be running, what time to get there, directions etc.

The 2 hour setup time I talked about earlier is a must, I know you think its just a matter of plug in, change workgroup, set and ip and play but some always has problems it never fails so give yourself time to get things going and make sure everyone is working before you get started.

Don't daisy chain surge strips. Nothing sucks more than someone leaving early and you find out half the people on his team are all plugged into his surge strip. I suggest buying a few cheap strips and plugging them into your outlets and letting everyone else pul into those strips.

Keep the console and LAN party's seperate. We tried mixing them for a while but it was so frustrating when most people were ready to start playing games again and a few people just can't stop playing tekken tag.

Keep the RTS to a minimum unless you know everyone really want to play them. We normally play some warcraft 3 or another RTS once per LAN while a couple of guys who don't like RTS games go pick up the pizza. People don't like sitting around for an hour and a half while you finish up your warcraft game.

As far as games go we play a ton of Tribes 2 and counterstrike. We play some other half-life mods like Day of Defeat sometimes. If you plan to play Tribes make sure everyone owns a cd cause you have to have it to play. We even burn a few backup copies cause someone almost always forgets their cd at home.

Agree on map rotations and teams before the party, another great use for your message board.

Have plenty of extra patch cables, chairs, tables, power cords, mouse pads etc cause those are commonly forgotten and some people can't fit a chair in the back of their car.

I might think of some more things but I have to go I'm about to be late to work

Have fun at your LAN!!

PS Don't be afraid to ask for donations or sell some red bull for a profit. LAN's get expensive when you start drawing a large crowd. Someone has to pay for the bigger hubs and the extra tables make sure the host doesn't get stuck paying for all of it.



[This message has been edited by dmstiner (edited 07-16-2002).]

If you are having trouble getting one or two computers on the network don't let everyone else start playing games . Leave at least one other working computer free so that you can check settings on it. It is hard to tell some one to just quit playing UT mid game to check their TCP/IP settings. If possible try setting up a mini network before everyone gets there if this is your first time doing this.


Good luck and have fun!!!

__________________________
This is a sig virus. Please copy it to your sig so it can spread.

Whats a LAN party?

A LAN Party is pretty much a bunch of friends getting together and playing computer games for long periods of time. You get your friends together, have them bring their computers, network them, and play multi-player computer games with them. Most LAN Parties are just computer games, not usually console games as well like I'm doing.

Maninacan Cell #471
behmer

maninacan, *if* you're any good at playing these games and you care about *enhancing* your skills and getting high scores do *not* take Europium's advice. Getting drunk or stoned in order to play a game of skill would be like wearing dark sunglasses to your favorite movie or wearing ear plugs when listening to your favorite music. But then again, maybe these things are done differently in Europe

. . : slicePuzzle

Why the fuck would anyone wanna go through the trouble of bringing their Comps' from one house to another and network them to play in one home when you can just go online and play the multiplayer games from your own home with your friends while they're at their home?


_____________________
I'd sell, my soul, my self
esteem, a dollar at a time.

It adds a social aspect. I don't even play FPS games on my own just at LAN's... the smack talk makes the games 100x more fun.

the problem with online play is usually the server.

InSiDeR,

The day you hear the guy in the next room curse your name at the top of his lungs because he had just received the umpteenth head shot from your sniper rifle is the day you'll understand.

Trust me, it's very satisfying

. . : slicePuzzle

Yes insider, as people have already said the reasons I'm doing it are:

Socialization, it's not only a lot funner to play games with people right there, but you also meet new friends and become better friends with your current ones.

The Server, it's hard to find a server were neither you nor any of your friends have any noticable lag whatsoever, and that is the beauty of LAN.



Maninacan Cell #471
behmer

Yeah, I couldn't agree more. Almost zero lag, and the ability to smack your neighbour in the head after slaughtering point blank with a flak cannon is pure bliss.

Not to mention kicking back afterwards and relating your accomplishments. Just can't beat it.

[homer voice]mmmmm...flak cannon *drools*[/homer voice]

Koan 63, written on the wall of cell number 250:
Those who Believe
Can
Those who Try
Do
Those who Love
Live

well LAN Party finished saturday morning. It was very fun, although I slept all Saturday. We mostly played CS, some Dungeon Siege (which most of us hadn't played before, and I didn't like too much). We also played a little bit of Quake 3, some weird game I don't know the name of, and 1 short 2 person game of Warcraft 3 which ended about halfway through. Then the console games where DDR, Virtua Fighter 4, 1 game of Halo, GTA3, uhhhh, some more stuff that I can't remember. It was lots of fun, although now I have to clean up, which is a pain.

Maninacan Cell #471
behmer

Europium: Yup!


Bugimus: Thats true, it wont enhance your playing skills(especially drink, but you might think your playing better ) but I would have though that 'party' in LAN-party would involve as much fun as possible. And you just make sure everyone else has had a little more than you. Games are all about tactics he he.
But if its not your bag , Im not trying to promote.