Bunker Project Log

04 Jun

My First Lan… ~1994

Thinking back, I still don’t know how I could afford it. In fact, it probably stayed on my credit card until 2001. Somehow though, I managed to buy parts for 4 486-DX2-66’s. You young whippersnappers probably don’t know that “modding” options for pc cases were limited to switching the Mhz display on the front from 33 to 66. My clever thing was to have the LED’s spell MW when viewed sideways.

Anyway, those were the days of Doom, followed by Doom II, then Descent and Rise of the Triad. As I’m typing this, I’m remembering so much dead tech… DOS, Pharlap, QEMM. Loading network drivers from boot disks. Playing Descent on Kali (My Kali ID is less than 1000, but I can’t find it!)

Life was very different before Windows 95.

I still have fond memories of that OS. It really was an amazing time. Launch day was ridiculous, and although MS has tried, nothing really has topped it for me.

So, back to the Lan… I was in a weird rental house in the frozen north. All of the machines sat side by side on a hollow-core luaun door that was held up by 2 short Target file cabinets. They were token ringed together, which was the dominant networking topology for cheapskates like me who couldn’t afford a hub. Token ring was basically a daisy-chained string of coaxial cable with T’s at each machine, and terminators at the ends. And… just like Christmas lights, if one piece goes out, every part of the chain thereafter is hosed.

As you all should know, Doom was it. It was the thing that revolutionized the graphics card industry, the cpu industry, and the networking industry. I wholeheartedly believe that if it were not for Doom, the PC, and even console world would like very different than it does now.

Featured Games:
Doom
Doom II
Rise of the Triad
Descent
Magic Carpet
Hi-Octane
Diablo Demo
Command and Conquer

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