26
votes
Suggestions for a LAN party
Hello fellow tildeans,
I’m looking for suggestions for 7 player lan games that will run on a combination of steam decks and Mac books. I was thinking of retro games because I feel like there’s more compatibility for macOS but would like to field suggestions from fellow nerds on Tildes.
Thanks!
Preferences are probably shooting games but are open to other kinds~
Some great FPS games we enjoyed back in the day at our LANs:
Left4Dead2
Fistful of Frags
Serious Sam 3
Guns of Icarus Online
Some survival/crafting games are also fun on LAN if you have the time for them:
7 Days to Die
Valheim
Necesse
Can't vouch for Mac compatibility, but some of our oldschool staples for 7+:
StarCraft Broodwar: 4v4 BGH, FFA, and SST.
Unreal Tournament 99/2004.
Dungeon Seige 1 had 8 player co-op. It's buggy as hell and horribly dated, but it was a masterpiece of its day. Steam version needs a reg hack to enable LAN play again.
Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes. Especially if a VR headset and printed manuals are sourced.
Freelancer
Atemis Spachip Simulator if trekkies.
Some newer(ish) stuff:
Jackbox party pack: 1 tv-scale screen, everyone else on phones. A riot.
Void Crew can do up to 6 player co-op
Would you mind sharing the Dungeon Siege 1 hack to enable LAN multiplayer? The game was awesome and I'd love to give it a spin once again!
PC Gaming Wiki, one of the best resources for PC gaming fixes and workarounds.
Proton DB for some additional troubleshooting.
Oh and if you want the expansion content, you might need a touch of piracy.
The hard part being that Dungeon Siege was never stable, so it's hard to say if your crash is due to bad compatibility layers, or overly accurate compatibility layers.
I have yet to try it. I know the game actually started amd played quite well some time ago, but Indidn't know multiplayer is achievable. Thabk you for sources, I will try it.
More the multiplayer server aspect. We've lost many a 4hr+ runs due to a random crash.
I see lots of good recommendations on here, but I'm going to throw out one most people probably have never played or realized existed. The PC port of Twisted Metal 2.
As far as I am aware, it is considered "abandonware" as it isn't for sale anywhere, but that game was unreasonable fun in LAN settings. Far more fun than the much more well known PS1 game because it wasn't forced to be split screen and it looked and ran much better. I haven't played it in years and I don't know how well it would run on Proton, but it might be worth looking at if you want something that isn't an FPS.
Twisted Metal 2 is the best Twisted Metal game, but you're right I had no idea a PC port ever existed. I still have 1-4 and Small Brawl on disc for ps1.
I'm shocked that nobody has mentioned this LAN party classic:
Age of Empires II
(yes, technically the modern versions require internet connections for private hosted lobbies, but the original supports true LAN. There are apparently third party / community tools for true LAN with modern versions)
Supports up to 8 people (teams or free-for-all)
Full platform support across Windows/Steam Deck/Mac
Retro - original release in 1999
Strategic and endlessly repayable
This was me and my friends go-to in college (in early 2010s, so it was already dated by then). Playing a pirated version with the expansion mods (whose developers got picked up to make the official remasters), 6-8 player FFA on giant maps. Did our one friend who was actually good at RTS's always win? Yeah. Did I consistently make 200 mamalukes and just annoy everyone? Also yes. Fantastic time, and the games are short enough you can jam several
Screencheat is my go-to game for these scenarios.
Liero via WebLiero works on anything with a modern browser. It's based on an old game which is best described as real-time Worms. We used to huddle in front of a single keyboard to play the original, but this version has online multiplayer as well as controls that can be mapped to gamepad buttons.
Also can't go wrong with Worms itself, which I will now describe as turn-based Liero. Worms Armageddon or Worms: W.M.D. are great. They both support a maximum of six players, but could be great for a 1v1 tournament. More clients can join in and spectate without playing. It also works hot seat, so you could play from just one computer. Worms Armageddon won't run natively on Mac, but I think there are tools to run Windows games in Mac.
For Doom and Doom 2, you can check out Odamex for playing Doom and Doom 2! That said, there is an officia port of both games which is probably a bit easier to set up. I recommend Greenwar and Greenwar 2 if you want to play deathmatch.
I don't have a Steam deck, but assuming that you can run whatever Linux/Windows software you want on them, Quake 3 via ioquake3 and Unreal Tournament '99 are great PVP games that support MacOS as well as Linux and Windows. I think anyone playing either of these games with a Steam Deck without also using a mouse and keyboard will be doing so with a significant disadvantage, though.
I like Overload but haven't tried multiplayer myself. It's a relatively modern clone of the old game Descent, which is a sort of space ship FPS where you can move along and turn around any axis. I don't know how that works out for their new architecture but presumably there's some compatibility layer for older software?
Always considered UT2004 the best of the series.
Amen brother. I still daydream about UT2K4, and then I remember what Epic has become and a part of me dies inside.
I can confirm that UT99 was a staple of our old LAN parties for good reason. Rocket Arena 3 for Q3A as well.
Hedgewars is also a great free cross-platform worms-like!
Wow I can't believe someone else also knows Liero. Only in Tildes. I just wrote a game review for a friend's game briefly mentioning it. Have not seen it mentioned in years on different gaming forums.
I too have sunk many hours into liero back in the day (and sometime in last few years shared a web version with a friend).
Dude you should make Liero 2. Whether a web version or not. Could be interesting. Although now that I think of it, there's not much to add other than adding better graphics so its not really an intellectually stimulating exercise to build and develop.
Here's my current list of go to options for a larger, possibly asymmetric, group that can run on dated hardware. It's a decent mix of possible RNG games with some loose skill added in.
Super Battle Golf
Pummel Party
Duck Game
Meccha Chameleon
Goofy Gorillas
Midnight Ghost Hunt
Left 4 Dead 2
Perfect Heist 2
CounterStrike Source
Halo
Alien vs Predator Classic 2000
Rocket League
If something is not on sale, you can always check Is There Any Deal
I used to love playing Marathon. I worked in an all-Apple computer store (long before Apple's stores), and after hours we'd each get on a demo machine and play Marathon.
I don't know if it runs on steam, though.
I'm assuming you mean the old FPS (there is a new one also called Marathon), in which case there is! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2398450/Classic_Marathon/
Oh! Looks like the 2026 version is also by Bungie. Interesting. I was referring to their original 1994 version.
Minecraft bb
OpenRA is a modern reimplementation of command and conquer/red alert games. Will run on mac/PC/Linux if you want to play some classic RTS
not really LAN, but Scorched Earth 2000 is fun.