Gaming Discussions

[BigAl01]

It's been over a year since we hosted a LAN party here at Big Al Computers, so it's time to have some fun again.  This Labor Day (05 September 2022, noon to 10 PM ET) we are hosting a Labor Day LAN Party and it's going to be a blast.  The event has been posted on Facebook and we even have some nice prizes courtesy of AMD!  On top of that, we are giving away one of the gaming machines as a grand prize.  

There was a time when we hosted three LAN parties a year - Memorial Day Weekend, Labor Day Weekend and one during the end of the year holidays.  COVID-19 put a stop to that but with fully vaccinated gamers we are willing to have a yearly event until things return to normal.  

We try to stick with 'free to play' games for the LAN parties because who wants to pay for each installation of a $50 game on 11 gaming computers?  Our typical games have been 'Team Fortress 2' and 'Call of Duty' and even 'Serious Sam', but we've added 'World of Tanks - Blitz' and 'League of Legends' too.  Now the issue of gaming with others on the AMD forum is a tough nut to crack, because if we host an internal 'Team Fortress 2' server, you won't be able to connect to it.  If we play 'World of Tanks - Blitz', it's only on their North America server and you don't get to choose which group of people you play with or against.  Even the issue of streaming some type of game to the outside world is a new thing to me and I don't know how to do that, so suggestions are welcome.  Maybe the best option will be to play 'Team Fortress 2' on an outside server and post that server name so others can find it.  

Anyway, however it turns out, we are sure to have a good time.  I typically cook chicken on the grill and serve dinner to the gamers that come over to our house.  I play a little bit but not much due to my wrist issues.  I take pictures of course and I try to be a good host to others that come over to watch the event.  We do serve some nice wines too.

Past event pictures here.  More can been seen from the embedded links up above.

Gaming in the basement.Gaming in the basement.Prize winner from a past LAN partyGaming in the basement.Gaming in the basement.Gaming in the basement.Gaming in the den.Gaming in the den.

[Key-J]

That looks like so much fun! I really miss when these were so much more common, there is something special about having everyone in the same room!

Let us know how it goes, and sweet prizes!

I'm hoping that @AFKG-Curtis and I will be able to host a gaming LAN party for his Birthday again this year.

[AFKG-Curtis]

Very cool I am hoping to do this my self in the near future. Once a year I invite my friends over for a lan party squish 5+ PCs into my basement and game the nights away for a weekend. Last year we all got New World and leveled together, this year we are a bit unsure of a good game maybe AOE4 or star citizen.

[BigAl01]

Does that mean that each gamer purchased New World before your LAN party last year?  Or did you purchase 5 copies of the game?  I'm trying to avoid shelling out a bunch of money for multiple installations of the same game.

[AFKG-Curtis]

We all discussed a few games and came to an agreement of purchasing that game. So each person purchased the game and since it is all account based they kept the game for them selves even if they used someone else's PC. We also used Steam Navigator ( https://www.steamnavigator.com/compare_games/ ) to compare our steam libraries and choose other games when we needed a break from New World. Also there are a few game that only require 1 person to own the game where you can than use remote play to join such as Over Cooked and  It Takes Two etc.

[BigAl01]

Thanks for the details.  Comparing Steam libraries is a good idea I had not thought about.

[Key-J]

We also set up a group chat where people dropped in a list of their Origin Library and Epic Library so we could compare what games matched. Unfortunately, there is no quick method like for Steam with that one.

[AFKG-Curtis]

Yea it works pretty good especially since I think there are many people out there like me that have a huge library of games and about 90% are still unplayed 😛

[Amber_AMD]

This looks like such a fun time and I love the vibes! Hoping for an awesome turn out this year 🙂 

[Wally_AMD]

Oh, man! This bring me back to the good ol' TF 2 days! One of the first games to really get me into PC Gaming (alongside CS: Source and WoW). A shame it's been changed so much over the years...

[cpurpe91]

I love the cat carrier PC. If that is what that is. The wall mounted rig is sweet too. This looks like so much fun. 

[Key-J]

Holy Crap,

I totally missed that Cat Carrier PC - that thing is sweet!

[BigAl01]

I call it Purrfection.  You see, I do cat rescue in my retirement.  I love cats so it seemed like the thing to do.

Cutting up an old computer chassis to hold the motherboard and optical drives.Looking good and running well with an AMD Ryzen 2700 CPU.

[Key-J]

You better enter this into Rig of the month!

[BigAl01]

That wall mounted computer was pulled down a few years ago and I put the guts (still mounted on a piece of plywood) into my workbench shelving unit, which meant pulling 'Scan-a-Tron' down.  I forgot to document that move.  Here is a picture of TOTB which is now above the workbench, near the middle:

Far left is Micro-Tron, then TOTB, then Mathmos Madness and finally Talk-2-The-Hand. Four computers around my workbench.

[red5]

Al, there is a way you could host a local LAN server for a game like the original CoD or FarCry, Quake III etc and have remote players connect, but it would depend if your home router has VPN functionality built-in.  My Netgear Nightwak does, but it would involve sending out a configuration file to each remote participant and they would of course have access to your internal network. I believe some of the old games will still let you host your own games and people can connect on the LAN or externally. I haven't tried this on Windows 10 yet, but it worked on Windows 7 for a few older FPS games.

[BigAl01]

Thanks for the suggestions @red5; I tried to install Quake III from my old CD and it would not install.  I know that some games have been upgraded on Steam to play with the current Windows environments, but I don't want to pay the money if I can avoid it.  I used to love playing Quake III and Unreal Tournament.  I even tried the old Unreal Tournament CD and it seemed to work at first (using two computers to test), but then it just failed for some reason and I could no longer start a server.  

[mengelag]

This is awesome man, glad it all worked out. looked like a blast!

[BigAl01]

Those were previous LAN parties.  The upcoming one is on Labor Day 2022.  That would be 05 September 2022 for those who still look at calendars.  I will be posting pictures from this new LAN party shortly after the event.  If there is a way to stream anything that someone can figure out, then I will try that too.

Back in 2016, our daughter (transgender) proposed to her spouse (studying to be a doctor), during the LAN party.  She accepted and the ladies were subsequently married at the National Cathedral in Washington DC.  Belle (our daughter-in-law) is now a full up doctor and our daughter and Belle are living in Philadelphia.  Interesting things can happen at LAN parties.

Valerie proposes to Belle in 2016 during a LAN party.

[GreatnessRD]

That's real cool, homie! Can't wait to see the pictures of the labor day event. 

[Key-J]

That is such an amazing memory, congratulations! ❤️

[rdenmon]

Looks like fun. That room looks like it should be hot from all the PCs running!

[BigAl01]

You know what?  It used to be warmer when I had older machines that were overclocked a bit here and there.  I even managed to trip a circuit breaker a few times.  I've since learned my lessons and reduced the electrical loading, like going with LED overhead lamps in place of spot lights.  It's a bit dimmer too, which works better when gaming anyway.

[BigAl01]

This event is coming up in a few days.  I've just installed Halo Infinite on six gaming computers.  I've never played it but a friend recommended we try it, as it's a 'free-to-play' game in Steam.

[Key-J]

You can try:

• Xonotic - It is a F2P clone of Unreal Tournament.
• Team Fortress 2
• Alien Swarm
• Deceit
• WORMS - If you want to pay a little money - It is always worth it
• SMITE

Regardless of what you end up playing, it sounds like you guys are going to have an amazing time!

[BigAl01]

Thanks Key-J - We already have played Team Fortress 2 many times, but on one computer I just downloaded Xonotic and Alien Swarm (in Steam).  

[BigAl01]

I just tried both Alien Swarm and Xonotic.  I think Alien Swarm is kind of confusing to me, but I'm not much of a gamer anymore.  Since I used to enjoy Quake III though, I find Xonotic a bit more fun to play.  Both are great for free games.

[BigAl01]

The LAN party has started!  We have six gamers here so far.  Various games are being played right now and we are looking a game to stream.

 

 

 

 

[BigAl01]

A few more pictures.  I’ll be grilling chicken soon.

 

 

 

 

[Key-J]

Looks like a ton of fun!!

[BigAl01]

The LAN party is over and we didn't end up streaming a game, but we had fun playing several games including World of Tanks - Blitz and League of Legends, among others.

Gamers Tom (red shirt) won the AMD motherboard and John (green shirt) won the CPU / Cooler; John made some type of agreement with Tom to get the motherboard so he could build a system with the components.  Greg won the gaming system as a grand prize, but I didn't get a picture of him in front of it before he booked.  I think his wife was calling him home or something.  Anyway, a total of 8 gamers were playing on the computers tonight.  Good times.

Greg is on the right - he won the gaming computer I was giving away.Tom won the motherboardJohn won the CPU / CoolerJohn's girlfriend shows off one of the AMD T-Shirts that were handed out.This is the gaming computer that was given away.

[BigAl01]

We played the following games (and maybe a few more that I am unaware of: Space Beast Terror Fright, Vampire Survivor, World of Tanks - Blitz, Halo Infinite MP, and some type of Masters of Orion game.

[Key-J]

Congratulations!

Looking forward to 2023 already and seeing this get bigger and better 🙂

[Sam_AMD]

I'm sure y'all had a blast @BigAl01 and I'm happy to see that the Red hats, t-shirts, and prizes have found a home. The pictures are awesome, and I can "virtually" smell the grilled chicken! Yummy! 

Thank you for sharing your LAN with us! 😎

[BigAl01]

Halo Infinite MP played well on the 'Through the Looking Glass' computer.Thank you for sending the prize package.  I think Tom traded the motherboard to John for some type of compensation and that John plans to build a computer with it this fall.

The grilled chicken is always a big hit at my LAN parties.

[BigAl01]

I've uploaded the complete set of pictures to my site, if you want to see a few more.

[johnnyenglish]

I miss LAN parties, I used to go frequently and PC was heavier back then LOL

Picture this (because I don't have images) 3 Kids, 14 years old kids carrying 14inch CRT's across town. EPIC!

Keep those going!