Need LAN Party Ideas

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OmegaAvenger

2[H]4U
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Sep 25, 2007
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Alirght, my friend's mother is determined to have a lan party on sept 12th. at their church (WTH, I know...) We've tried to explain to her why this is bad idea (most people will have shitty computers being the primary one), anyway, on the off chance people actually sign up and its a go, I need a small amount of help.

I need some ideas for some games that are either cheap and/or free and don't have high system requirements.

I'd prefer games I can set up a dedicated server for since I have a dual p3 1u server doing absolutely nothing that would perfect for such a task. This way, it wouldn't have to run on a specific person's computer. However this is not an absolute requirement.
It is running Windows Server 2003 Standard.
 
If "mild" games are to be allowed, possibly Savage. You can run the game off your server just by "creating" a server in the game client, almost no config is needed.
 
they dont really care waht kind of games. They were considering Battlefield Vietnam, so FPS or anything goes. I'd say postal 2 STP is out of the question though :p
 
A dual Pentium 3 server? Any C2D would be many times as fast.

No idea on games. You might want to check out Steam.
 
Staples said:
A dual Pentium 3 server? Any C2D would be many times as fast.

No idea on games. You might want to check out Steam.
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As I said, they dont have to be have a dedicatd server, but since this is doing nothing and the games cant be super high end, i figured for a dedicated LAN server it would be fine. I ran a CS server on an old p3 once just fine.
 
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory or America's Army if you want free. The Battlefield 1942 collection can be picked up cheaply and is old enough that it will play on almost anything.
 
Staples said:
A dual Pentium 3 server? Any C2D would be many times as fast.

No idea on games. You might want to check out Steam.
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nice contribution.

tremulous is great for lan and free, if you want some more original team game besides standard fps. aliens vs. humans with rts/fps on the q3 engine, you will have tons of fun I guarantee it. server could support dozens of players on p3 no problem, dual p3 even better. very easy to set up too, there are server packages for both windows and linux, clients have all win/lin/mac.

urban terror, another free mp total conversion mod for q3 arena, if you want something more like cs.

world of padman, yet another open source mp shooter based on q3. this one is cartoony and smurf like, but with plenty of badass weapons and gametypes perfect for lan.

check out gameboom for lots more, this blog specialises on freeware / open source games, you can find many other easy to set up for cheap lan play. the 3 above I have personal experience with install and setup, they are all well developed and highly regarded in places like moddb, with plenty of server support so you can't go wrong with any of those.
 
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i vote for bf 1942 also and get the desert combat mod. fun fun fun. or just play 1942 its a fun game.
 
Pick up "Unreal Anthology" it has the first Unreal Tournament and 2004. Its like 5 bucks. It also doesn't require a cd to play, and the servers are setup easily.

Age of Empires 2, Age of Mythology, Age of Empires 3, Stronghold Crusaders <-- All RTS's
 
Remember, no LAN is complete without Starcraft and Quake3. Maybe add some Call of Duty 1 in, or even MOHAA (Depending on how crappy of computers)... I love me some MOHAA.

And as King said, Orig. UT and UT2004 are fun LAN times.
 
I don't know how many people you're looking at, but I know it's tough to find a common game just for 4 people to play. Myself and 3 friends....

Starcraft is good fall back one for us. But first and foremost, tell people to install it before they show up because it is nothing but troubleshooting problems all night long if they don't have the games prior to showing up. Plus it's no fun being the guy who just installed the game and is getting wooped up on all night...or having to sit next to this guy and explain stuff.

I think I'd come down with the flu on the 12th.
 
L4D and the Death Toll campaign. Where they will be playing is the perfect setting for that map!

For a free FPS, try CombatArms.
 
Free: BMW M3 Challenge
http://www.bmw.com/com/en/newvehicles/mseries/m3coupe/2007/experience/game/content.html



Free: Volvo The Game
http://www.simbin.se/games/volvogame.htm


But the best moments I've had at lans is when your group of friends and most of the lan are playing in the same server. And that means Battlefield serires, COD4 & Trackmania Nations.
Though the real trick is to be able to get people to into the servers. One lan gave extra raffle tickets to people playing in the game and prizes to different achievements done in the server.
 
The question begs to be asked " Will the church "approve" of most of these games?" Since most of the suggestions involve the killing of people in the most brutal and grusome way possible :D. Is the church going to have an issue with the content. Not to put a wrench in your night of mayhem but you better check with the pastor/priest. You don't want to wind up as the subject of next Sunday's sermon.
 
Well considering its all be handled by my friends mother and she doesn't care (she knows what kind of game BF vietnam is), I guess they don't.

I just got the 24 port switch were borrowing from another friend. I'm gonna try to see if its still a go tommorrow. If It is, I'll load up all the required files on the server so I won't need to use DVDs, etc.
 
Zero82z said:
Serious Sam.
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I was thinking the same, but I'm trying to remember if the language would conflict with the church. I don't recall any cussing.
One of the games my friends and I fall back to is Diablo II. Unsure how well that would go over with all the pentagrams and etc in a church.

veterator said:
I don't know how many people you're looking at, but I know it's tough to find a common game just for 4 people to play. Myself and 3 friends....

Starcraft is good fall back one for us. But first and foremost, tell people to install it before they show up because it is nothing but troubleshooting problems all night long if they don't have the games prior to showing up. Plus it's no fun being the guy who just installed the game and is getting wooped up on all night...or having to sit next to this guy and explain stuff.

I think I'd come down with the flu on the 12th.
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^^Truth. That would be an excellent idea to have a list of games that will be played and expectations for each set (ie patches required and download locations). Also places to purchase the software, along with prices, so people can plan accordingly.

Most of the time can be burned with installations, patching, and troubleshooting and it becomes especially frustrating when you have to rinse and repeat this cycle when someone wants to switch games. Not to mention the legality factor when people show up with no installed games or media. I would say the other time consuming process, at least the groups I once attended, was the eventual demise of network gaming to file swapping which would consumed the entire network. Nothing like a group of people using the cloud of "network gaming" to feel entitled to everything you own on your hard drive or cds you brought with you;)

Also make sure that any supplies you provide are properly labeled. Network and Power cables are often "forgotten" during transportation, but odly enough they are also the most "accidently" taken when you leave.
 
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If you like RTS you could try Rise of Nations. Should play on just about any modern machine and can be had at Target for $10.
 
So how have you let gamers in your area know about this lan?
How many people?
Is there enough power?
Is there enough space/tables/chairs?
Is there enough network ports?
Is there gonna be food/drink provided or easily purchased?
 
BladeVenom said:
Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory
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This! A Pentium 4 with GF4 and 512MB of ram will run it quite well. Meaning 4 year old laptops with discrete graphics. Isn't that what most non gamers bring to lans?

All is forgiven if everyone plays this.
 
kuyaglen said:
So how have you let gamers in your area know about this lan?
How many people?
Is there enough power?
Is there enough space/tables/chairs?
Is there enough network ports?
Is there gonna be food/drink provided or easily purchased?
Click to expand...

I'm not running it. I'm just setting up a server and possibly making sure the games run smoothly for a while after I get off work at 11pm on friday.
 
For a good fun lan party. Do not play common games. Play games that people don't know and never played that way it will be more fun.
 
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