Before highspeed internet connections and online servers playing a multiplayer PC game meant hauling your bulky monitors and towers to a friends place convention centre or church basement for a LAN local area network party These sweaty junkfoodenriched glory days represented the origins of real community spirit in computer gamings early days br brMany LAN party attendees were early adopters of new tech so digital cameras abounded at these events The photos produced by these devices were often lowresolution blurry and badly lit In their imperfections and limitations they represent the messy adhoc approach to computing typical of the LAN party network cables snaking across recreation centre floors a monitor perched on a kitchen counter burned CD copies of games labelled in marker pen br brIn addition to documenting the nostalgic era of LAN parties the photographs in this book are unique artefacts of a peculiar cultural and technological moment when gaming was tipping over from niche hobby to mainstream obsession The images have been improved by the use of AIenhancement software an emerging technology that allows the upscaling of lowresolution images with spectacular results to make the first fullsize photobook on this beloved subculture one that existed before the internet took shape and we started carrying it around with us in our pockets
