Descent, obviously! Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Warcraft II spring to mind. You didn't mention DOOM but no LAN Party can be complete without some Doom or Doom II deathmatch..

WarCraft II is a great option. Gives you time to down a slice of pizza while the wood's chopping.

Anything Blizzard is a good choice though. I know this is into Windows territory, but I spent hours and hours with a friend going through Diablo [1] during a sleepover back in the day. What I would've given for an LCD panel back then...

LCD panels of the time would have been so spectacularly terrible at Diablo (terrible contrast and black levels compared to CRTs, terrible refresh rates etc.) that you may consider yourself saved 😀

Duke Nukem 3D is probably the best of all these, that is, if you like laughing and laughing and laughing for hours. It's ridiculously fun with the expacks and the laser trip mines.

Doom or Doom II is also a classic and is still fun multiplayer.

appiah4 wrote:

LCD panels of the time would have been so spectacularly terrible at Diablo (terrible contrast and black levels compared to CRTs, terrible refresh rates etc.) that you may consider yourself saved 😀

Oh I know. I remember laptops of that time. I even got to use a Pentium laptop for a while - one of those super thin Mitsubishi notebooks that STILL look kind of modern. The screen was ... eh... which at the time was pretty good! But, if I could have had my MBP's Retina screen back then... woo,OOOH!

I digress.

I do remember having some fun with a Risk-like game that could be played over serial and modem. I can't remember the name of it, but I recall that you built something called a "burb". Similar to Lords of Conquest, but VGA.

HIGHLY recommend the original GTA, cars + rocket launchers = laughs.
Tyrian
Wacky Wheels (although that's null modem only)
I'm not much of a 3d shooter fan but you have the other games based off the Doom engine (Heretic/Hexen)
or the Duke3d build engine (Shadow Warrior/Blood)
and of course the original Quake

Great suggestions everyone! Thank you. I will let you know how the LAN party goes...

Hotseat Scorched Earth on a big screen?

One of the Gaming cafes I frequented in 1996/1997 was exclusively Quake 1 😀 I think they started with 6? computers, and got bumped to >10 with 3dfx cards as soon as glquake came out.
Other one in 1997/1998 was 3/4 Quake 1, 1/4 GTA. Every computer had Voodoo 1, and was quickly upgraded to Voodoo2. It was build on the back of computer parts/software shop and clients could request any game "for testing", yet everyone played almost exclusively Q1 even after Quake 2 release.

QuakeWorld was the better multiplayer game by far.

I would suggest Heroes of Might and Magic, I and II, if you don't mind other players waiting while everyone makes their turn. You could also use hot seat, but then everyone's moves are exposed to everyone else.

Probably Shadow Warrior but with certain large custom maps. It's how that game's best played anyway.

Carmageddon (original and splat pack addon). It's pure dos.

So when are we getting photos of this event?

netwars multiplayer game that shipped with drdos!

appiah4 wrote:

So when are we getting photos of this event?

reminded me I had few stashed away in my YT favorites
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXgEpSFeSTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ghyo0lsbHM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs1CMrkiXFs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjne0gJ9XT8

Something I haven't seen mentioned yet, are the many awesome MODS for the multiplayer of Quake1.

Team-Fortress and Rocket Arena are two definitive must-haves for a Lan-party! = )