Quamby LAN 11 and Gold Class LAN in review

Friday 26^th March 2004 1:00 pm - Well things just keep getting bigger and bigger. Quamby LAN 11 was quite a smash hit, with 14 participants, a host of newer games and some basking in the glow of a new computer (namely my own). Having built my machine only a few days before i obviously spent ages installing everything that we intended to play. but that didn't stop me from participating in some rousing games of Battlefield 1942, Desert Combat, Warcraft 3 and yes, even Counter strike. We also saw the addition of a Gamecube and an X-Box to the list of participating hardware. Also the advent of the future was heralded by the arrival of our first PC with LCD monitor, a rarity among gamers who prefer 21", heavy as all hell, large and in charge CRT monitors. Greater use of DC++ filesharing meant that times spent installing games and waiting for patches were greatly reduced. Overall a good LAN, that ran out of steam at about 8:30 in the morning sunday.

Next item of news is the luck invite of myself and a few other Quamby gamers to the GoldClass LAN. Held on the RAAF base at Laverton the LAN was the first chance ive had to get my PC out and about. I took Stumpy (my server box) along for the ride and it performed very well as a DC hub and Roger Wilco server. It was a different experience to get some LAN game on with some other folks, and see how they do LAN. The atmosphere was fantastic, with weapon schematics across the walls and camo netting on the roof, and even a mess waiter coming around to serve drinks (beer, bourbon, coke you name it). The greatest difference was in the games we played. We never even TOUCHED half-life, (except to inpect a new Mod called "Sven Co-op" where the bots are stronger than you) and spent a Lot of time in Halo, and surprisingly Medal of Honour - Allied Assault. This game proved to be a winner in both scale and multiplayer enjoyment. The levels were never too big and its deathmatch style was tempered by its rock/paper/scissors style weapons. As in indication of how much we liked it, we spent over 5 hours playing before we decided to change. Variey was maintained with Warcraft 3, Battlefield and Desert combat. Overall a great LAN experience and we can learn from it to make Quamby even better.