Since the average age around here is at least 30+ I can confidently say that you’ve been to at least one, if not scores of LANs in your day. I am one of the few diehard traditionalists who carry on the sacred practice of the LAN along with a group of friends I’ve known since primary school. A couple of times a year, mostly when there is a public holiday we drag our PC’s to my one friend’s offices and set up a good old LAN. Despite the fact that most games have gone online only, there’s actually been a decent resurgence in games over the local network that are a ton of fun to play with your buds in the same room.
Serious Sam 3/4, Earth Defence Force series, Supreme Commander, Satisfactory, Factorio.
So let’s kick it back and reminisce, and tell us those favourite LAN stories…
When I was a teacher, I hijacked the school computer room once or 2x a year, removed all the networking (was UTP cables back then) and moved the PCs out of the way.
I then invited my computer club to bring their PCs for the weekend. I then gave them cables, plugs and crimping tools and spare network cards and showed them a router and said: get yourself connected or you aren’t playing.
Keep in mind, this was just as networking became a thing, they had to figure out drivers, compatibility issues and connect up to play D2, Hexen, Doom etc. They could not use their phones… well because no one had any that could connect to the internet, wifi and cell data was not a thing yet.
It was the late 20th century. Quake 2 was all the rage. We booked out a double conference room in a hotel and kept tripping the breakers at first while 64+ people set up their PCs.
Oh man the days of a good LAN was such blissful days. I remember playing DOTA when it was still a mod for Warcraft 3 at many LAN parties we held just after uni. We also played a crap ton of Age of Empires 2, World in Conflict and my most treasured memory, Company of Heroes.
We got 6 guys to setup their machines at our commune, and intended to binge a whole weekend of DOTA and CS:Source. We ended up playing a few rounds of DOTA before a guy mentioned Company of Heroes. I had played the game but never really clicked with it. That was until we started the LAN. 3v3 matches was intense 30 to 40 minute screening matches, barking orders between each other as we tried to out flank and out maneuver each other. We ended up jamming CoH for a full day straight. Man what a weekend!!
A mate of mine used to run the UKZN labs, and we got together about a few Saturdays and Sundays to LAN it out. We had to only bring our own headsets, but I started bringing my own mouse as the varsity mice were rubbish.
It all starts with a Netware login specifically created for the LAN, and then a command that runs a copy process to get the game on the local machine. That took about 30 minutes to copy everything we needed. Call of Duty was the go-to game.
The PC’s were not great, and the game ran at a brisk 30fps. But a few adjustments on the gfx settings and we got it up to 40-50
Eventually we had pretty well balanced teams of up to 10 v 10. The slagging and commentary were brutal, but fun. This is also where the “Champions of Victory” clan started. We proclaimed ourselves champions. A mate asked “Champions of what, exactly?” My response: “Of VICTORY!!!” It became a thing and our side of the lab even had COV banners.
LANs were great. I wish I could have done more of them when I was younger, but without a car, moving those CRTs and cases around was hard!
Whenever we did have them, they were special. I loved playing UT, Red Alert, Quake 3 and MoHAA, or whatever else. One memorable LAN was when we played a mod called Carball for UT2004.
This was basically Rocket League. We couldn’t keep quiet! It was so thrilling that we made too much noise, and kept waking up the host’s parents.
Diablo II LANs were also a big thing. Many of us had slow PCs that couldn’t even play modern games, but Diablo II ran on anything. It was fantastic to binge that game MP!
Around that time some internet cafes started popping up around school, and they were basically just used for Lanning. You would pay by the hour and just have fun. They got so busy that you had to book in advance.
The bigger LANs weren’t really my thing. I know people enjoyed Mayhem, and I went to rAge for a few years but they tended to just be leechfests. Some good things did happen though, like a full, lag-free BF1942 server. Otaku Magazine ran some LANs as well, but they were just for sharing anime.
I’m feeling so nostalgic now. Definitely the best of times
Ah man BF 1942 was one of the best games for lanning. Even the demo, I think Wake Island was the one map in it, gave us many hours of joy. Then there was the Desert Combat mod for the game which resulted in hundreds of hours more in the game.
