My First LAN - Parralel cable and LapLink

[Tiny]

My first PC was a doozy... a 386DX-40Mhz, with 8MB of RAM... which was a lot in those days. I also had a 256MB hard drive.

My buddy bought a parralel cable and we both had a piece of software called LapLink... This allowed us to copy files between our computers over this parralel cable.

The problem was, I only had enough space for two or three games.

The list of LapLink (serial) enabled games were:
Doom 1
Doom 2
Descent

So we would jam Doom 1 or 2 for two to three hours... then delete. Then spend the next 30 minutes copying Descent over to my PC with the LapLink cable... play that for two to three hours... then delete... you get my point.

Multiplayer gaming has come very far since those days. (I was 13 at the stage). I'm turning 31 this year, and I still prefer multiplayer gaming over single player gaming. I organised quite a few Lan's at my parents' place and I think the record attendance for our small garage was 12 people. This back in the days when all of us had 17" CRT monitors that took up half the tables anyway. We would spend the entire weekend (or long weekend if we did some forward planning), playing Diablo 2, Command and Conquer and Warcraft 3 while my poor dad was commandeered to braai wors (sorry Dad!) and my mom had to keep bringing the coffee (sorry Mom!).

But the first LAN experience was really something else. 2AM, sitting in a cramped study, with two giant monitors, and a glorified printer cable, chasing my buddy around in E1M1... I don't think anything will ever come close to that experience again.

[MalicE]

we used to MP Diablo 2 like that ^_^

[Tiny]

That's awesome! I can't even remember Diablo 2 having a serial option for multiplayer :P

[MalicE]

yeah, back then we actually managed to play quite a few games with a printer cable ^_^

[Tiny]

Who remembers actually installing the IPX protocol on Windows 98, so that you can play older multiplayer games that only worked over IPX, ala StarCraft 1 without the latest patches?

[MalicE]

yup, but don't ask me to do it again today, can't remember that far back :P

[to0kenZA]

Yoh! A parallel cable? That's high-tech!

Used to LAN with a serial cable and set up a "LAN" through Hyper Terminal (also about the same time that I used a wheelbarrow to cart my PC to my mate's house across the block ) Aah, those were the days.

[Tiny]

Yoh! A parallel cable? That's high-tech!

Used to LAN with a serial cable and set up a "LAN" through Hyper Terminal (also about the same time that I used a wheelbarrow to cart my PC to my mate's house across the block ) Aah, those were the days.

Agreed, the parralel cable was high-tech. 113kbps vs the 28800 I got on the serial... dude, that's fast!

[to0kenZA]

Agreed, the parralel cable was high-tech. 113kbps vs the 28800 I got on the serial... dude, that's fast!

Haha, even that is high tech. We used to only be able to use the 9600 rate hahahaha. So low budget.