1001 Challenge

How do you truly celebrate a significant birthday of a UCHG member? By creating a LAN party of some of the best multiplayer games of all time, that’s how. And how to best run a LAN party in the summer? The answer is simple: you run it outside.

There’s a backstory to this. Between 2000-2007, we as a group of friends and like-minded gamers were in some kind of education system, and it was around this time that we discovered the joys of the LAN party. For the uninitiated, a LAN is essentially achieved by carting gaming machines into one location: resulting in a funnier, more personal version of online gaming. What began in internet cafés soon ventured into our own homes, but lack of space and rising heat from early Windows XP-era desktops (not to mention our teenage male selves) drove us to seek an alternative location.

Garden games

A trip to Maplin and discovery of a 25m network cable produced an idea. After all, for years family members had been saying – “why don’t you stop sitting around indoors and go play outside?” – and, well, now was an opportunity to do just that.

The addition of a marquee provided essential protection from that old enemy sunlight, and we were good to go for many, many summers.

PC gaming, circa 2000-2005

This year, summer is not only a milestone for our valued member Ross, but marks the 10th anniversary of our very first outdoor LAN. As August 2015 comes to an end, we will be celebrating with a LAN reunion – we’ve of course been gaming together ever since, but this one is different.

Much has changed since the noughties – clunky CRT monitors now firmly a thing of the past – but will we be playing the latest installment of Call of Battlefield Honor Strike 4? Of course not. Across two days we’ll be digging out the games from the times we remember fondest – and here’s a brief rundown of what’ll be going down.

Counter Strike 1.6 (2000)

What hasn’t been said about this beloved ruiner of friendships and keyboards? In our minds, yes CS: Source is great (and we’ll certainly be returning to that too) – but nothing speaks of hilarious LAN moments more than those earlier pre-Steam Counter Strike versions. Truly legendary level design means de_dust, de_prodigy, cs_assault, cs_militia will never be forgotten. Mods that added bots and hilarious skins make this a LAN party classic.

1001 No.97: Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001)

Who cares that it makes no sense? Seeing one of your friends fire a cannonball into a scorpion’s face, while another dressed as Santa Claus is thrown through the air by a bull, as a man with no head runs at you while going “aaaaahhhh” – there’s nothing else like it. Stupidly large numbers of enemies and a crazy sense of humour helped Serious Sam take the essence of Doom to another, and madder, level – and spawned many copycats that came after. 4 player coop through the whole campaign is a must.

Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (2002)

The movie Saving Private Ryan had a massive impact on us back when we were in school, and MOHAA basically let us play it. With Spielberg as one of the writers, and an actual D-Day level, it’s just as lasting in our minds as the movie. In the early 2000s we stumbled across a coop mod – and we were pleased to discover it is still very much alive and working well to this day. Hilarity will ensue.

1001 No.95: Garry’s Mod (2004)

Before Minecraft, there was Garry’s Mod: the ultimate in sandbox games. What started as a modification of Half Life 2 has effectively over time become a game in it’s own right. The ability to take the resources from various Valve related games (including Half Life and Counter Strike) means you can pretty much create what you like – as long as your imagination is large enough.

The UCHG did various silly things with it, including a deadly game of cricket with an electrified rolling mine for a ball (and a shotgun of justice for cheaters); and contests to make cars, boats, and flying machines. Brad even made some particularly deadly traps for zombies…

1001 No.96: Battlefield 2 (2005)

Despite all the variants of the franchise that followed, Battlefield 2 still holds a special place in our hearts. Some of the level design is pure genius, evidenced by the fact that all these years later people are still playing Strike at Karkand and Gulf of Oman.

And while Battlefield 3 and 4 may have improved the graphics by a good mile, there’s something about the purity of the gameplay that makes BF2 so good. No unlocks, no grinding through the experience points, no being held to ransom over the best kit – strip away all the layers that have since been added, and you’re left with something much simpler, but somehow stronger.

Once you’re down to a more basic level of gameplay, it becomes like a game of paintball – the only real winners will be those taking risks. If you’ve got the guts, hell yeah you can jump in a jeep and careen it through to a position deep in enemy territory. Take that point, and you might just turn the tide.

Here’s a taste of what we used to get up to, and what we’ll be getting back to.

Happy Birthday Ross; Happy Birthday LAN; and happy 10 years of playing outside with your mates. It’ll certainly be a LAN to remember. And this won’t be the last!

Back to the 1001!

And after about 2 years since actually buying this incredible (well, just incredibly weird) DS game, I’ve given it a go.

1001 No.94: Elite Beat Agents (2006)

Basically, people who are in trouble for whatever bizarre reason (including Leonardo da Vinci trying to please the woman from the Mona Lisa, go figure) call the Elite Beat Agents. They proceed to show up and Beat It, like really hard and fast. Seems to solve all life’s problems.

It’s a rhythm-based music game of course, not a jacking-off simulator. But I filmed myself doing it anyway. The video is of course awful, because of trying to film a DS while tapping it like a mad bastard, but it’s there for the archive. And because you wouldn’t believe the content if I just told you.

It features two women trapped on a deserted island, who for some reason are so hot they can attract planes and all kinds of animals to do their bidding. It makes less sense than Nigel Farage’s next job as a judge on Poland’s Got Talent.

This below is a much better representation of how the game should be played, by someone much better. It’s the last boss level, which was one of the most frustrating experiences in gaming that I’ve EVER HAD.

So remember – if you’re having problems in your life, shout loud enough and three people in suits will show up and start beating it right in front of you. SORTED.

The incredible thing about Tetris is

not just that it turns 30 today, but that despite its age you don’t have to describe it to ANYONE in the room for them to know what you’re talking about.

And most likely they all can even sing the theme tune back to you.

1001 No.93: Tetris (1984)

Available for nearly every game console and operating system in the history of time, it has sold hundreds of millions of copies across the globe, and is one of the top selling games ever created – and believe it or not, it was created on this very day 30 years ago.

A pretty positive outcome for something out of Moscow during the Cold War. Though of course, perhaps it was all just a plot to bring the capitalist world to a standstill through falling block addiction…

Want to know more? To celebrate the occasion, Time Magazine interviewed the game’s creator, Alexey Pajitnov – read it here >

Or of course, just play it

It’s been many years since Operation Flashpoint, nearly 15 years in fact.

On this very blog we’ve talked about the later title in the series named Dragon Rising but it’s time we gave the original the credit it deserves.

1001 No.92: Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (2001)

Incredibly difficult; dodgy graphics; controls that were very hard to master; but an experience like no other. It’s not often you can call a game genre-defining – but you’d never have seen the likes of this before. It’s not a game – it’s a simulator.

The first that struck me back in 2001, as I charged down a hill with my comrades onto a Russian-held town, was the biggest sense of vulnerability you’ll ever feel in a game. I mean ever.

Forget Call of Duty – crouching behind a barrel to magically heal yourself – this is war. Shot in the leg? Well unless there’s a medic around you’ll be crawling to the next objective. Shot the head? Game over, hope you used your ONE AND ONLY SAVE POINT in a good place. Forget checkpoints too. Shot in the arm? Forget aiming at anything.

Not that you can hit anything most of the time anyway – realism is the name of the game, either that or you’ve been struck down by the infamous FADE copyright protection system. Enemies are specks in the distance most of the time, and you’ll be all too aware of your silhouette against the horizon unless you grab some cover asap.

Though you soon learn the hard way that crawling down a hill headfirst means… your head is the first place to take a hit.

And the vehicles! Tanks, planes, choppers, jeeps, all dangerously vulnerable and extremely tough to pilot. But when it works… my god, it’s fun – and has led to some of the most memorable moments in multiplayer gaming I’ve ever experienced.

It’s unbelievable as a game, really. And hard to imagine it could exist today. But of course, it does – while Codemasters split from the original team to make ever more increasingly disappointing Operation Flashpoint games, the original team got on with doing what they always did best – creating the most inaccessible but mind blowing games you’ve ever seen, in the series otherwise known as ARMA: Armed Assault.

The original is now renamed ARMA: Cold War Assault. But in our hearts (and minds) it’ll always be Op Flash.

If you never played it, better late than never – it’s free to grab it on steam right now, so do it

There are only a handful of titles in history that have gone against the “norm”. Titles of such greatness they went from console to arcade and still kicked ass! One of these titles is none other that the almighty CHOPLIFTER!

1001 No.91: ‘CHOPLIFTER!’ (1982)

CHOPLIFTER! is so good it comes with its own explanation mark – that’s right the game is actually called CHOPLIFTER! It is a game title that suggests it should be shouted into the faces of those who dare question what greatness you are playing.

First released in 1982 on the Apple II machine it was later ported to a few other systems before making its historical jump to the arcades in 1985. I have been playing the 1987 ATARI 7800 version and despite a few graphical tweeks its gameplay is exactly the same as the original. It also sounds immense on the ATARI!

As with most retro games of this age (and on an ATARTI) it is the simplicity that makes the game. The premise of CHOPLIFTER! is as simply as it is great – bust guys out of PoW camps and return them to base. Standing in your way is a deadly army of tanks, jets and strange purple round things that resemble the enemy space ships from Defender. It all sounds easy enough but, unlike those girls from Essex, easy it aint! Time and time again your fully laden choppa of freedom will be shot down as it takes off.  Wiped from the skies by collisions with the Defender space ships or, just as you are about to land back at base, blown up by a sneaky jet! It is even possible to squash the prisoners while coming in to land! How very American!

CHOPLIFTER! is a game that will have you hooked for hours at a time. It will have you embroiled in the never ending battle to save more people then are killed (by you or the enemy) and you will love it!