$35 LAN Party...

Molly Tournquist mollytournquist-ifvz4xmYPRU at public.gmane.org
Thu Feb 7 03:30:36 UTC 2013


> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Colin McGregor
> Sent: 02/04/13 01:58 PM
> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 12:23 PM, Kevin Cozens <kevin-4dS5u2o1hCn3fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > On 13-02-02 07:46 PM, Molly Tournquist wrote:
> >>
> >> But, to be very blunt, the core hassles are lugging in a monitor and
> >> keyboard for each player, but more importantly the monitors are also
> >> the majority of the component cost and also the most fragile.
> >
> > Lugging around a monitor and keyboard is the same hassle one would have with
> > any LAN party. The main difference being is that a Pi is a much easier to
> > deal with than lugging around a computer in a tower case.
> 
> Yes. Also, it largely gets us away from people saying things like "The
> only reason she won is because she had a $2,000 video card in her
> computer!" type comments (okay, I see Canada Computers is offering
> $149.99 gaming mouse (seriously :
> http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=21_273_275&item_id=032880)).
> But by keeping the compute platform the same we can LARGELY (not
> completely) level the playing field. Obviously there would be some
> small advantages to be gained via special peripherals (gaming mice,
> etc), and some small advantages via OS tweaks, but largely we would be
> looking at win/loose based on tactics (camping in one area vs. say
> keeping mobile) and reflexes.

I'm skeptical that that will work in quite the anticipated manner. The flipside of that is if some people get sore that they're completely unused to dealing with such minimal hardware, perhaps something to look out for, that is, if they come at all. How hard is it to have adequate harmware to run quake3 without issue anyway?

So, it seems a degree of reduction of drama there would be based on excluding difficult people, which kind of competes with easily making this kind of thing fly.

Compare that to teamplay focused games, where there isn't as much of an intense drive to get sore about outcomes because the goals are more diffused.



> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Anthony de Boer
> Sent: 02/04/13 08:47 PM
> Kevin Cozens wrote:
> > Lugging around a monitor and keyboard is the same hassle one would have 
> > with any LAN party. The main difference being is that a Pi is a much 
> > easier to deal with than lugging around a computer in a tower case.
> > 
> > Using a monitor from a car backup camera system, and a mini wireless 
> > keyboard with built-in mouse pad means an entire computer system can fit 
> > in a small back or backpack. I have seen these monitors avaialable in 
> > 3.5", 4.3", and 7". The caveat is that the resolution is very low. About 
> > 480x234 on all of them (even on the 7"). You wouldn't want to be reading 
> > a lot of text on a screen that small but it would be ok for some 
> > graphics based programs.
> 
> Just get yourself any reasonable netbook and you've got all that in a
> package you can flip open with far less hassle than plugging together
> a bunch of components. Juggling a Pi with all that just isn't viable.

Admitedly, netbooks as well as notebooks. for intense gaming perhaps have a downside - tapping away on the whole machine, shaking it, particularly with the hard drive. However much of an issue that is, it could be dealt with by using a thing like here (compatibility permitting)
http://www.thelab.gr/1063176380-post5.html
or maybe even something like a numeric keypad instead of the built in keyboard.
Though as I've sort of mentioned, these could also be used with Pis though(though I hadn't pointed to any examples of them, so there it is now).



> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Kevin Cozens
> Sent: 02/04/13 01:30 PM
> On 13-02-04 12:42 PM, Scott Elcomb wrote:
> > That said, I'm hoping to grab one of these
> > <https://www.adafruit.com/products/1033> as a dedicated Pi display.
> 
> That is a much better resolution for a 7" display than the resolution in 
> the car backup system monitors. The only downside is the price. You 
> could buy a 23" LCD monitor from Best Buy for the same amount of money.

But what about the issue of how the durability of the two types compares? If the whole setup was more compact, it's easily conceivable that people would be doing it more often / more casually. Netbooks at least fold up shielding the monitor automatically, sort of.

Of course, if you find it too conveniant to use that netbook for other things, you could end up leaving personal stuff around wherever your LAN gear ends up. Not really the same with a Pi. THAT is one unexpected, inviting advantage of a Pi for gaming, it could be casually packed up more whimsically, not neccessarily just for LAN get togethers but wherever, particularly if the screen(s) is/are already there, especially if it was set up to work with just a gamepad.
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