MattRocks wrote on Today, 12:40:

aries-mu wrote on Today, 09:52:

NeoG_ wrote on 2026-02-01, 12:54:

Completely untrue, the issue with lower bandwidths was serialization delay causing a significant increase in RTT, couple that with games of the time not having delay compensation means higher bandwidth connections had a hugely positive impact on gameplay quality.

😳 don't know what you're talking about but sounds interesting!

I believe NeoG_ is referring to the round-trip or how long it takes packets to go from client to server, then from server to client. It's what ping tests on the command line, and what we see when browsing for servers inside games. For me that used to look something like:

Server JP >500
Server USA ~250
Server EU <100

If I saw <50 that would be great. But, I think where NeoG_ and I diverged is in our personal experiences of RTT. When I played on 56K dial-up, the servers were almost always hosted by ISPs close to the backbone, often installed by the employees of ISPs who also played those games. Those connections would be very different to the connections through Steam subscriptions. My regional UK ISP 56K dial-up was basically unusable on Steam so I have no good memories of the service.

Gotcha, thanks for your explanation!

I live in a quiet part of the UK and although I had a lot of PC Gamer friends around me growing up in the 90s/00s, we virtually never got around to setting up any sort of LAN party, nor were there any hosted around us. As a kid the closest I'd gotten was playing Tib Sun 1v1's at a friends house who had 2 computers in his house. I eventually hosted one in the early 10s to play some CS:GO and enjoyed it a lot, but we were all considering if the logistics of getting everything set up was worth it afterwards.

I did finally manage to travel to Texas last year for Quakecon to scratch that off my bucket list and had an amazing time with a group of 20~ friends; if it wasn't for the price of international fights and hotel rooms I'd absolutely go every year (below is a pic of the setup i squeezed into my hand luggage!). It's a shame that their popularity has fallen off somewhat, but I get why with rising costs of virtually everything these days.

Sustainability. The universe is probably looking at us right now and thinking we're dumber than the dinosaurs were.

Pre-COVID there was a lot of speculation that people didn't need to go to the office, and that working from home could address pollution and cost issues - it seemed like science fiction fantasy despite the technology being real. Then COVID came and working from home proved a miracle for the environment (photos of animals in cities, etc.) and that was a surreal but valuable technology demonstrator - as though the universe was trying to give us a hint. Then, after COVID, there has been the relentless push to get everyone back in the office and push travel costs and pollution levels back up!

So, in a few years time maybe LAN parties will be back, or the Stone Age... 😒

^home office existed in the 1970s/1980s already.
Albeit in more experimental form. Employees with disabilities worked from home, for example.
Sample video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaXbHuOF_wc

dionb wrote on 2026-01-28, 19:52:

Mandrew wrote on 2026-01-27, 12:28:

Cars weren't a thing in my big city neighborhood so transporting huge chunky computers wasn't an option.

Beg to differ. Here I (ab)used an old ladder frame rucksack to transport my system by public transport. The system case went on the bottom, on top of that the CRT monitor with the screen facing my back. Duct tape the lot of it to the rucksack frame, put keyboard, mouse, headset and extension cords into the side pockets and some spare clothes and bedding on top. Oh, and a shopping bag with food & drink supplies.

Just a pain when more rural people organized the LAN party a long way away from the nearest station/bus stop.

I'd always have to ask friends that attended if their parents would take me and my stuff as well. Before that I had a bicycle cart that I would attach to my bicycle that could hold some stuff, and big saddle bags for my bicycle to hold the rest.
Your construction seems very inventive, though I imagine that was quite heavy. I'm glad I didn't have to use public transport back then, that seems quite a chore.

I did organize a couple myself, but I remember it being quite troublesome to actually fill the seats. Either people didn't want to take their computers, or they'd say they would come and then didn't.

Sadly, these days I lose touch with those friends and there's not much LAN-parties being organized locally anymore. Only the bigger ones, which tend to fall outside of my budget. I do have enough computers to host LAN-parties myself but I can't play all the computers by myself.