| How to setup up your own LAN
party. |
After all the NIC's are installed and everybody has their appropriate cables hooked up you can go and configure Windows for the network. Start by adding IPX/SPX protocol by clicking Add in the Network Properties dialogue box.
Have your Win98 CD handy so that you can copy the files needed. Next add the TCP/IP protocol, the same way that you added IPX, by selecting it from the list of available Microsoft protocols. Now that TCP/IP has been added you can choose an IP pool and a subnet mask for your group.
I like to go simple by using 10.1.1.X for the IP pool (where X is each persons individual #) and 255.255.255.0 for the subnet mask. Reboot and it should all work. To test it try to fire up a game or use the MS-DOS prompt with the "ping 10.1.1.X" command.
 The
Games - I can only speak from my experiences when it comes to choosing games. For the most part all of my friends have decent computers so that we can get some hardcore Q3a or UT action going. Starcraft can be pretty damn entertaining as well. Even though Starcraft is not very fast paced the shear fun of playing with all your friends in the same room makes it a favorite. (I would at this time like to apologize to my buddy Andy for dropping 80 hydras into his base just after he was all but cleaned out by another one of my friends, but lets face it 6 nukes is gonna make a guy mad!) The big shocker for my LAN party was how much fun we had playing Soldier of Fortune. The blood and screams of pain filled my house for hours on end. Raven has done a great job with the multiplayer in SOF; the combination of destructive weapons and great levels is perfect. The Raven Software map was by far the most fun; it had a huge array of weapons available and plenty of places to have massive shootouts.
 
Ideally most game servers should be run in dedicated mode, but seeing as we all wanted a part of the action that was just not gonna happen. The best course of action is for the person with the fastest over-all computer to host the games (*cough* Me).
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