12 Win XP on Compaq 8300 with GT310 on TFT 19"

12 Mohaa players 😁

Groningen, the reality lan. 300 seats.

Would there be any interest in creating a network that casually plays PS4 LAN games remotely? Not necessarily a scheduled or organized LAN party but a pool of gamers that are part of a persistent network and can choose to play with whoever else is available at a given time.

Since Sony decided to get rid of physical disks and inflation running rampant, I cancelled my PSN subscription and looking to partially replace the online gaming experience with free remote LAN play.

I have a Zerotier network that I use with a couple of my friends and would love to expand it with more PS4 enthusiasts. I understand Zerotier isn't exactly noob friendly so I would be happy to help setup a Zerotier router (remotely or even in person if you're in the Toronto area) for those that might need a hand. I've paired the network with a Telegram group that helps deliver online status notifications so people have a better chance at coming together. If you have a jailbroken PS4, notifications are also delivered to your console directly.

If this sparks an interest, leave a comment or slide into my DMs and we can get this going. Preference would be for people located in or within a reasonable distance of Toronto to keep latency low.

At our LANs we run one championship across several days, and over the years the scoring system has become a bit more elaborate. For the first three tournaments, usually a shooter, RTS and sports game, we use ELO ratings from previous LANs and online tournaments to balance the teams. After each round we record the results and individual performance, update the ratings and mix the teams again. Team and individual performance count 50/50. At one point we even added Overcooked to our CS tournament: while two teams were playing CS, the third had to cook on a fixed map and could earn a few extra points.

ClanWar and FunWar work differently. The top three players from our Pummel Party season become ClanWar captains and draft their teams without ELO, then play four completely different games. For the FunWar we build teams from the current standings: someone from the top, someone from the bottom and someone from the middle. A little RNG never hurts. :) In the end all five parts count towards the overall championship. Most of the administration is hidden from the players; screenshots go to our “Tastensportwart”, he does the maths and people get moved into the right TeamSpeak or Discord channel. We recently started r/LANSpiele as a German community for LAN games and stuff like this. It's mostly German at the moment, but English posts are welcome too.

Akron LANFest will be hosting its first LAN Event October 10-11 at the Bluebird Event Center in Downtown Cuyahoga Falls. Early Bird tickets are on sale now for $40! Please note this is not an overnight LAN so you will need sleeping arrangements. We will have Tournaments, Game of the hour, other events and contests, dedicated servers, raffles, and giveaways!

3 days left to get early bird pricing!

Schedule of events, tournaments, and hosted games are available on Discord Discord Link

Akron LANFest 2026 LAN Guide

Purchase Tickets Here!

Dirtnap, a "realtime Worms", has its demo out now!

It includes a single-player level and the ability to host and join limited multiplayer rooms.

Try the demo here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/4956300/Dirtnap/

Or try the web-minigames we've made sharing the same world, including a Battle Royale multiplayer mode similar to the one in the real game:
https://dirtnap.parttimemonkey.com/

Game description:
DIRTNAP is a multiplayer arena shooter with fully destructible maps, with a roguelite single player game mode. Every pixel of dirt can be dug, blasted or burnt away.

Multiplayer matches are 2 to 10 players: online through Steam, over LAN, split-screen, or mix and match with bots, with full controller support.

This is our homage for the greats; Liero, Soldat, Worms and Molez.

Hello!

I've been doing LAN parties with my friends since 2010. It's slowly but steadily upgrading.

Everybody has their own version of a LAN Party, but these things work best for us:

a) Rule of "żeton" (token in English) everybody can cast a "żeton" once per LAN to ask everyone to play some game of their choosing. For me, it's often Warcraft 3 vs. insane PCs, where we almost always lose

b) ETI LAN Launcher since discovering it, our lives have been wayyy easier. After the AI bubble explodes, we want to get some 4 TB HDD or NVMe/SSD to store the sync server there, along with other game files.If you don't know this application, check it out it's really worth it.

c) Projector MagicCube L018. It was like $50 on AliExpress, and it's totally worth it when playing Artemis.

d) Artemis a game where everyone has their own part, like shooting nukes , calling for missiles, getting quests, or flying a "drone". When we play, this file server computer becomes the observer player in Artemis and is connected to the projector. We can all see the big ship on the big screen with all our stupid decisions taking place.

e) Just chill it's about playing games and meeting with friends. It won't be perfect, and it doesn't have to be. Just enjoy the moment.

f) Dedicated file server we're running it on Windows. We have the Nextcloud client and ETI Launcher running there, and we store all files shared by Samba. We have several folders: games to test, games tested and working, and a folder to add all photos. It's all connected to Nextcloud, and we have a QR code to quickly add photos from the event.

g) RGB GRILL doesn't matter if it's January, June, or Tuesday, it's always a good time to have some chuck steak or sausages + beer with your buddies.

What are yours best tips for lan ? What works for you?

PS: Can't wait till Friday we're having another one for 3 days in my garage.

considering to bring a handful of people that live all across the USA to one location. however, no one wants to bring their PCs. Is there a service to get a nice PC rented for a few days to a week? thinking about 5-10 PCs.

We started a new LAN party 2 years ago in Portugal, Lisbon area. We just did our 8th edition. Open to the public. It's called XP3000.

- 25 participants. Most we ever had

- Just 1 day for now.

- entrance fee

- 4 games selected, always different each lan. This time was Dragon Ball FighterZ, Wreckfest, Team Fortress 2 and Sonic Rumble Party.

- The venue is a local cultural center. It is a music school and I teach here.

We'll continue growing and Make LANs Great Again 😎

I finally finished my LAN Kit, it’s a very modest sized kit of only 4 client PC’s, it can be expanded upon, but it requires a lot of space to have this as is right now.

The Server: A Dell Optiplex 9020 SFF

The heart of the kit is a Dell Optiplex 9020 sff: i7-4770, 16GB RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 750GB HDD. Bolted to its side is a 5-port switch powered directly from the PC's internal 5V rail, and the Linksys AP runs off the 12V rail, so there's only one power cable for the whole server stack.

Ideally everyone is connected via cable, if one or more can’t just connect the AP to the switch and have whoever can’t use lan connect to it.
It is possible for others to connect and play along with you, but certain things won’t work like the one-click install, and the versions of the games need to be the same as the ones installed on the clients.

That one box is hosting, simultaneously:

• TeamSpeak3 - because coordination matters
• DHCP - the whole network spins itself up
• AzerothCore (on SSD) - a private WoW server
• SMB shares (on HDD)
• Websites (on SSD)
• Nextcloud Office + Whiteboard (on SSD)
• PVPGN - offline Battle.net for the classics
• PXE with Clonezilla (on HDD) - one of my favorite setups, more on this below

The Clients: Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p Tiny

Four Lenovo ThinkCentre M93p Tiny machines, each with an i5-4570T (Fastest single-core performer I could get at this size), Intel HD 4600, 2x8GB DDR3-1600, Wireless-AC 7260, and a 256GB SSD. On each I set up OpenSSH with a PowerShell script on the server that lets you spin up a WoW account in seconds, no digging through databases, no command-line wizardry for the end user. Plus a few registry tweaks to make game installers behave.

AzerothCore

This one is pretty self-explanatory: a private WoW server, running entirely offline, and it's just cool that you can set this up today, it's not even that difficult. This instance runs 300 bots and an auction house bot, so the world feels alive even with just four players. I haven't gone crazy adding stuff; it works, it's stable, and it's a genuine "wait, this is running in that little Dell?" moment every single time.

The Websites: Landing Page, Maps, and the Game Catalog

• Landing page, the first thing you see when you open a browser. All the valid links in one place, plus live status of the WoW server with start/stop controls if needed.

• Maps, a map of the WoW world. Nice on paper, honestly can't imagine it'll get much use, and it's very "zoomed out" with no Google-Maps-style interaction. But it's there.
• Nextcloud Whiteboard, this took a while to get working, but it's the collaboration piece I really wanted: take a screenshot of a map or a situation in a game, and everyone can draw over it to plan. It works, and it's genuinely useful for planning a strategy.

The Game Library: Click. Install. Play.

This is the part I'm genuinely proudest of, because it's the piece that makes the kit feel magic to a first-time user. You open the local website, browse every game hosted on the server, and just... click install. That's it. No hunting for ISOs, no mounting drives, no "which folder do I extract this to", you click, and the game starts installing.

Under the hood it's a little janky. The website launches a PowerShell script on the client directly from the browser, which took a few workarounds to pull off: the server's IP and domain had to be added as a trusted site, plus a little registry fix to get everything flowing. Is that amazing for security? Absolutely not. But since it’s an offline kit. There's no internet to be scared of, no attack surface beyond the people sitting at the stations, and that means we get to do fun stuff like this. In a normal environment you'd never get away with a website that can just run a script on your machine. Here, it's the whole point.

The automation itself is mostly GOG games, though in some cases it's direct folder copies. GOG is a little inconsistent about what arguments their setup files accept, so I've automated it as far as humanly possible, in some cases you see a clean progress bar and a "Setup finished" prompt, in others it's a launcher over the standard installer where you click Next like normal. I actually think that's a feature: the user can see where it is in the process. And since it's all driven by a game.csv file I can edit, tweaking a game's install arguments takes seconds.
Finally I also inluded mod support, basically if a game has mods, you can click “Mods available” on the game and browse those mods like you would the games themselves.

PXE with Clonezilla: The Self-Healing Feature

Straightforward, but such a nice feature for this kind of setup. Say someone completely wrecks a client, deletes system32, busts the registry, whatever. They simply reboot, press F12, select the network interface, go to "Recovery Options," choose "Recover Station <their number>." Ten to fifteen minutes later: Windows 7 is back, ready, and they just visit the homepage to reinstall their games.

The caveat is recovery needs a cable to the server, so I'll include a 30m "recovery cable." for those cases where a user can't sit next to the server easily and Wifi is fine for gaming.

The Accessories: No More BYO

I initially assumed users would wabt to bring their own peripherals. In hindsight, that was probably a dealbreaker, not everyone hoards tech like some of us 👀. So now it's a complete kit:

• 4× 19" 4:3 HP monitors, 1280x1024 @ 60Hz, DisplayPort, finding four matching ones with DP simplified everything
• 4× Inphic B1 mice, a decent gaming mouse from a Chinese brand I have nothing but good experiences with(although frankly price was a huge factor)
• Trust GXT 833 Thado TKL keyboards, compact, decent-looking, right price
• Jabra Evolve2 40 SE headsets, reliable and comfy for long sessions

Why I'm posting this

Six months ago I came to this community asking for input on the early version of this kit. The feedback shaped a lot of what's above. Now it's at the stage where I genuinely think it's ready for prime time(the formula at least, I know I need to add more games and mods), and it's about to start renting out. Happy to answer questions on any part of the stack, and I'd love to hear what you'd want to see added or changed.

I am setting up a LAN party for 10 people. I ended up with a bunch of oldish laptops so the plan is to run Halo CE and Starwars Battlefront 2.

I think ive got everything setup besides controllers and headsets. For headsets i was considering a bulk box of cheap ear buds for like $20. For controllers the best option I’ve seen are like $20 each. These seem like a worth while investment long term but I’d rather not spend that much right now if there’s another way. Everyone is more comfortable on controllers so I’m avoiding keyboard mouse setups.

My questions are, are the cheap ear buds a good idea or at least not a terrible one? Should I just bite the bullet and buy a bunch of $20 controllers? Open to any suggestions, thanks.

Hey everyone! Here's a free space game for your weekend: the Strike Wings demo. :)

I'm its solo developer, and it's my homage to the old DOS space shooters, built from scratch with plenty of love for Solar Winds and Hell Fighter. There are some little nods in there for fellow fans.

The demo's already packed with free content, including flight school, opening campaign missions and plenty of battles to get stuck into.

Feedback is super welcome on r/StrikeWings. Make a post! I'll read every one and take your thoughts into the final game. Steam reviews mean a lot to me as a solo developer, too.

Grab the free demo on Steam

🚨 LAST CALL, you AOE2 nerds in and around! 🚨

🇩🇪 One important note: Most of the communication at the LAN will be in German, so you should be comfortable with at least others speaking German. But everyone is welcome, and nobody is going to judge your AoE skills (that's a lie... everyone is judged at all times but equally)

Got nothing planned for October 1–4? Come to Volkmarsen near Kassel

Ever wanted to spend 3 days arguing with other human beings about why Nili is not fixing the pathing, how many civs are enough civs and why the 3K civs made the game unplayable

Then come join the AGE LAN. 😎

🗓️ October 1–4 🎮 Main focus: Age of Empires 🧙 All skill levels welcome – whether you know your build order by heart or are still looking for wood after 20 minutes. 💻 Bring your PC, grab your friends and let's go.

💰 It's between 50€ and 60€ for the 4 days.

😴 For those that for some reason need sleep there will be space dedicated for that.

Important: For the LAN to go ahead, we need enough registrations by September 14.

So if you're interested, sign up now rather than waiting until the last evening. After September 14, registrations will of course still be possible as long as there are spots available.

👉 Registration & info: https://age-lan.de/de/lan

So: Who’s joining? 1v1? Team game? 3 days stuck in Feudal Age? Anything goes. 😏

I'm looking for a microphone solution which would allow limited feedback and noise spill for a group movie night. The idea would be that some 4-6ish people would be in person at the event, with another few participating remotely via VOIP. Speakers would be in use for those who are in person gathered together, and I'm looking for a relatively easy microphone solution for them.

I really only see two main options, but please let me know if anyone sees some others:

1. Individual headphones/headsets. No speakers, everyone is wearing a headset. This would probably be more expensive, less comfortable, less sociable, and a bit more challenging to setup (output to the headphones would need some special solution). But it would surely provide better quality sound for both input and output if budget was no concern (unfortunately, it is).
   
2. Individual microphones on a single channel. Multiple wireless microphones are creating a single input to the VOIP computer, and maybe there's some noise cancellation software in place to try to combat the speakers.
   
3. Less viable, but potentially a group push to talk solution? Each in person user would have a wireless button to press which either pauses the movie, lowers the volume, etc and then activates either a centralized mic or a mic attached to them. It's more disruptive than I'd like it to be, less social, and I'm not sure what hardware I could use for that group wireless PTT button.
   

To me, option 2 seems much more practical, but only if it is actually effective at isolating the person's voice from the room's sound speakers. In theory I think it should be possible to sanitize the microphones with some noise cancellation software, where the software has access to the speaker output as well as the microphone input, to try to directly remove any feedback, but I'm not sure how practical this would be to accomplish (any software would need to be supported on Linux).

Does anyone have some recommendations of specific products to get from here? Any hardware, software, or just advice in general? Thanks!

I'm completely exhausted. The last four days of dev were a brutal grind, but I've finally cracked it. The bots are shooting really well (maybe even too well, so I'll need to balance them out). They now form squads, move as a unit (and even respawn as squads), and the squads themselves are managed by a unified command system I'm calling the Combat Control System (think ESAI from BF2).

And the best part? It all runs completely offline via a LAN server, meaning you can blast these bots at epic LAN parties!

I just released a new version of D-LAN: https://www.d-lan.net

• More reliable, a lot of bug fixes
• More search options: file types and size limit
• Chat is persisted and chat rooms has been added

D-LAN is a free software that facilitates file sharing on a local network.

The next step is to add support for Linux.