This 167-page photo book is a love letter to LAN parties

[Shawn Knight]

Remember when: It wasn't uncommon to leave a LAN party feeling exhausted, slightly nauseated or outright sick. It sounds inconvenient and miserable on paper, but those that got to experience a genuine LAN party during the golden era remember how magical they truly were.

PC gamers old enough to remember life before the Internet made local multiplayer obsolete likely have fond memories of LAN parties.

Before broadband, competing against your friends meant hauling your computer and monitor to a central location and physically linking everything together over a local area network (LAN). After ironing out all the network issues and getting everyone on the same page software-wise (a process that could take a full day or more), what often ensued was a junk food and caffeine-fueled marathon of gaming where trash talking reigned supreme, screen peeking was frowned upon and the concept of sleep was ridiculed.

(Requisite junk food and soda)

Author Merritt K is hoping to bottle some of that magic in a new book titled LAN Party. At face value, it is a photographic celebration of gaming sessions from yesteryear. Really, it's a typhoon of nostalgia that not only encompasses late 90s and early 2000s technology, but culture, fashion and even home décor.

The story of one of the most infamous LAN party pictures on the Internet

LAN parties still exist, even on a large scale, but trying to recreate the past is often a lost cause. There was hope early on that virtual reality could revive the spirit of LAN parties but that never really panned out.

LAN Party is seeking funding on Volume, and is already more than halfway home with north of $30,000 in pledges and 35 days to go. Those interested in backing the 167-page hardcover book will need to plunk down a minimum of $40 to secure a copy. Should everything go according to plan, LAN Party will ship in autumn 2022. If the campaign isn't fully funded by December 15, all pledges will be refunded in full.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/96622-167-page-photo-book-love-letter-lan-parties.html

 

[emmzo]

Oh, man, those were the magical days! Mainly because it was still a physical connection to the people you were playing with. You could hassle, get hassled or get really mad, then have a drink and you were best friends, because face to face, human connection cannot be replicated. Now it's just unmitigated anger and bullying.

 

[cldmstrsn]

I can't tell you how much I miss this. Back in the day we would play Counter Strike/warcraft/starcraft/halo you name it, till 5 in the morning then go to a diner for breakfast and then crash for 12 hours and just repeat. This was between 1999 to about 2005/6. After that we all grew up and moved away but I'll never forget those good times

 

[MakeMSGreatAgain]

I still attend and host LAN parties with my buddies from high school and work, and we've been doing that since 2002. Things have slowed down a bit since most of us have families to raise now, but we went from an average of four 3-4 day LAN parties a year to two 2-3 day LAN parties a year - still not bad at all. I always look forward to just hanging out with my buddies and BSing, drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol, and shouting at one another during various games. Staples for us were of course QUAKE 1 2 and 3, Unreal tournament, Need for Speed Underground 2, STALKER (all three of them), FarCry 1 and 2, FEAR, Battlefield 1942, 2, and BF3, Flat Out 2, Worms World Party, Call of Duty 2, 4 MW, and now hacked versions of CoD BO2, HALO, Goldeneye. I'm sure I'm missing a few but yeah, there was loads of good times to be had. We never got into the RPG's, though some guys liked them - they just took so much time to actually enjoy them and with scattered interest and attendance, it just wasn't worth it. But my damn, we STILL play all these old games to this day.

LAN parties are a truely great invention of the times, and really contributed to a lot of lasting friendships and, possibly... loss of girlfriends, lol.

 

[Theinsanegamer]

I miss LAN parties, today few if any games still support local multiplayer. These days my friends typically stick to switch games for multiplayer, since there are tons of party games there. Our big thing was RTS. Sins of a solar empire, supreme commander, empire at war, warcraft III, and axis and allies 2006 were common sights.

Oh, and cant forget battlefront 1 and 2.

That being said, we still have a get together every year for HALO, MCC still supports local coop on PC.

I still attend and host LAN parties with my buddies from high school and work, and we've been doing that since 2002. Things have slowed down a bit since most of us have families to raise now, but we went from an average of four 3-4 day LAN parties a year to two 2-3 day LAN parties a year - still not bad at all. I always look forward to just hanging out with my buddies and BSing, drinking dangerous amounts of alcohol, and shouting at one another during various games. Staples for us were of course QUAKE 1 2 and 3, Unreal tournament, Need for Speed Underground 2, STALKER (all three of them), FarCry 1 and 2, FEAR, Battlefield 1942, 2, and BF3, Flat Out 2, Worms World Party, Call of Duty 2, 4 MW, and now hacked versions of CoD BO2, HALO, Goldeneye. I'm sure I'm missing a few but yeah, there was loads of good times to be had. We never got into the RPG's, though some guys liked them - they just took so much time to actually enjoy them and with scattered interest and attendance, it just wasn't worth it. But my damn, we STILL play all these old games to this day.

LAN parties are a truely great invention of the times, and really contributed to a lot of lasting friendships and, possibly... loss of girlfriends, lol.

Nah, the best were the LAN parties where the girlfriend was involved, often to the jealousy of everybody else

 

[Porkous]

It was similar to going to a movie / watching a movie with someone but being actually involved in the action / narative the entire time.
Experiences and success have their special role.
VR might create this feeling in the future in some co op games, because it tries to involve all the presence and awareness that creates the action ur part of

 

[Athlonite]

Oh Yeah NFS 3 and Half Life 1 and Red Alert 2 10 of us would get together in a mates shed spend an hour getting everyone to see each other then game till lunchtime when we'd take a break have a bbq and a drink then get back to it for some serious file swapping and a few more races good times oh how I miss them.

 

[Avro Arrow]

And what are LAN Parties a love-letter to?

The days and nights friends would get together and play N64's Goldeneye 007 4-player mode nonstop!

 

[psycros]

Honestly, almost everything was better before the Internet was rammed into every aspect of our lives. Sure, some activities took a good bit more time to accomplish but everything felt more meaningful and you weren't being spied on 24/7.

 

[nnguy2]

Where are the cans of Jolt and Bawls?

 

[BigRedPDX]

My friend's family owned a local ISP and we used to gather at his place to attach ourselves to one of their T1 lines. Battlefield 1942 for hours on end. We even broke out Starcraft, Tribes, Savage, and Counter Strike. Good times back then. Lots of funyons and cheese too lol

 

[sorten]

I still get together with friends for "LAN" parties several times per year, but it's funny to think that your data is bouncing from your computer up to some cloud server and then back to your friends' computers which might be sitting inches away from your rig.

 

[RudyBob]

Yea That looks " magical" Ha Ha Ha.

 

[yRaz]

I remember my first LAN party. There was about a 3 year period in my life that every weekend, me and my friends would haul our computers into my friends garage and just game ALL WEEKEND. Keep in mind this started when I was about 16 and lasted into my early 20s. There were atleast 3 of us every weekend but there would be up to 6 or 7. People would either stay for the weekend or come for a few hours and leave.

We'd sleep on the floor, go through cases of mountain dew and order pizzas. Our parents hated it at first but atleast they knew where we were.

Tell you what, I've spent 15 years of my life doing all manners of partying and those LAN parties were the most fun of my life

 

[nismo91]

Good ol days... long before we see group of teens sitting down on the metro stations all looking at their phones.

 

[lripplinger]

Did LAN parties in the college campus apartments. I remember quite well lugging my Windows 98 rig and 17" CRT to a couple apartments over. We would play the hell out of Starcraft. All if it was done through a Netgear Ethernet hub (yes a hub, not a switch!), and long cables to reach it. That was a lot of fun! Getting everyone's rigs to talk to each other was a pain, but we made it work. Great times!

 

[Joey Rakas]

Clearly such a great and memorable topic for many of us. Notice nobody has anything negative to say, nor arguments to be had. LAN's back in the early teen years without any cares in the world.............Oi. The book is really kinda a really cool idea, and honestly well worth $40 as a keep sake. The 90's & 2000's really changed humanity on a grand scale. The early years were like a Vanilla game, and Technology was far more of a gift back then.

 

[McMurdeR]

Look at the pcs man. None of that LED "gaming" cr*p for showing off on Youtube, just proper machines made to do stuff.

 

[Lozzy]

Oh God yes. The sheer hilarity of 4-way Quake or Starcraft in a 10x10ft room stuffed with PC towers and huge (for the day) trinitron CRT monitors and an IPX network. Not to mention the cost and effort of buying 4 decent PCs and keeping them upgraded.

Happy days indeed, then some prick invented gaming over the Internet

 

[Lozzy]

Honestly, almost everything was better before the Internet was rammed into every aspect of our lives. Sure, some activities took a good bit more time to accomplish but everything felt more meaningful and you weren't being spied on 24/7.

Posting win

 

[bviktor]

Meet the author

Merritt K is a writer, editor and podcaster living in New York. She is the creator of Forgotten Worlds, a video series exploring Y2K-era internet culture, as well as several works of interactive fiction. Regrettably, she never owned anything resembling a gaming PC during the heyday of the LAN party.

Then maybe, just maybe, she's not the best fit to write such a book? Why would I crowdfund a book that is essentially a collection of a couple hundred pics and maybe a couple interview pieces collected from others, most likely for free, without zero personal retrospective or added value?

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Actual Physical presence. Trumps anything of today. Real people.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Hey, you can make an Avatar and play with Zuckerburg in his Metaverse. PASS. that's the gayest thing I've ever seen. (Gay as in dumb)

 

[yannus]

Honestly, almost everything was better before the Internet was rammed into every aspect of our lives. Sure, some activities took a good bit more time to accomplish but everything felt more meaningful and you weren't being spied on 24/7.

Internet has even become a threat to knowledge. Books have almost entirely disappeared from our lives and censorship makes only "approved contents" available.

 

[WhoCaresAnymore]

Internet has even become a threat to knowledge. Books have almost entirely disappeared from our lives and censorship makes only "approved contents" available.

And erasing our mistakes of the past. The American Woke movement of removing everything they find offensive is probably the single worst thing that could happen, as if we don't have reminders, the past repeats itself.