You are absolutely correct, it is a blast. We have done that for 2
seasons, this will be our third. However, interest is waning here in
St. Louis, MO. Running NASCAR 3 now (btw, 99 was incredibly bad on a
LAN)
We setup a schedule of 4 40% races in one day, every seven weeks.
A "daily" winner was awarded a cheesy trophy I (ahem) 'created', based
on total points for the day.
A "World Champion" was crowned based on total points for their top 18
races (out of 24 total) aka rookie of the year style in NASCAR.
This worked out great, if someone made it to just one event, they
could still take home a victory, if someone missed just one event,
they could still be world champ (our very small world).
I would be VERY interested in drumming up interest in the St. Louis
area for NASCAR 3 racers (I gave up on finding GPL fans a long time
ago, and my performance suffers mightily there).
I did remember seeing a site or two where people could post lan party
info, but it seemed to be geared toward first person shooters more
than anything else. (not that there's anything wrong with that!).
When we started this (8 years ago for Doom) we required that everyone
buy a 10 base 2 or combo card, a length of BNC terminated coax, and a
T connector and terminator. That way any 2 people had a LAN without
Fred bringing his really expensive hub (back then they were REAL
expensive). Funny though, even 8 years ago you could set yourself up
with this equipment for $30 or so.
Of course now I run 100 megabit with a switch at home, but I still
have a small combo hub so I can fit in with the old coax guys.
We never charged for these events, we are just a bunch of friends who
love this stuff. Our wives think we are wacked, but at least we aren't
at bars. I think the LAN squadron flight sim guys that do an entire
weekend once a month have the right idea (though once a month may be
more than my wife would understand). Packing up this stuff is a pain,
and I have it down to a science now. The longer you get to play with a
LAN, the more willing you are to do the teardown/setup/teardown/setup
thing.
But, like I said, interest is waning here, I hope internet play gets
better because my racing friends are less and less willing to go
through this. I am very willing, if you live around here and want the
competition, email me!
