The group is a bit smaller these days, just one buddy. We're doing some XP gaming. I got Battlefield 1942 running here, with the Battlegroup 42 mod. My Dimension E510 can really handle up to BG42 version 1.35b, but apparently they aren't hosting that on ModDB anymore. I had to find it on some shady ancient Russian file hosting site. But I got there in the end.
This is the first time out for my Precision 690, I've been working on it for about a month. I rescued it from a rage room, it was going to get beat to scrap. I asked, and they gave it to me! I swapped the single Xeon 5160 for Xeon 5355's. 2gb of ram for 32gb. The crappy display adapter for a GTX 980TI. It is an XP era powerhouse. I have not gotten XP x64 running on it yet, but it's running Mint 22.1 like a champ. I put an XP theme on it until I can dual boot the real thing. I am super stoked this thing is running. Mint might be the better option for it, actually! Good 32bit compatibility with Wine and Lutris, and full use of the 32gb of ram and 8 cores.
My last lan party was a depressing bust. Only two out of I think 9 ended up coming. We tried to make the best of it, but it just wasn't the same. I hope you and your crew have a blast!
Thanks! That really sucks yours didn't pan out.. I've never really had a group of more than 4, I bet 9 would have been a great time.
The expectation v reality was the gutpunch that cut in to the weekend. We still had a blast with the smaller group. We just had to adjust our game plans.
All you really need is just 1 person to have a good time.
We transitioned to boardgame parties. Works much better as you can't do those online.
We tried Tabletop Simulator; it works, but it's not nearly as good as in-person boardgames.
A different group of friends and I did that for years, then I decided to move to the other side of the country. I just haven't had time to establish a local group here to do the same