Topic: where is lan?

[vroenis]

once upon a time i was a pc gammer.  eventually after all the drama of hardware support, os issues and having to patch every goddamned thing just to get it running, i turned to consoles.  pc still has one thing over consoles.
lan.
sure, they're unreliable, the upkeep sucks because if you want to stay competetive, you can't afford to run older hardware (specifically gpu) than your peers, and setting up a lan is a pain in the ass - but it's still fun.
as i understand it, lan has been a real possibilitiy pretty much since the cube was released.
so where is it?
double-dash, air-ride and (i think) starfox will be lanable, but to what degree, and will support only be for two machines with a crossover cable?  is this more of nintendo's notorious half-measures in implementing things?  the broadband adapter is available to most of us (if we really want one australians can import from play-asia at a fair enough price) but why should we buy one?  phantasy star?  sure, it's fun, but it's not exactly the pinacle of online gaming.
is it nintendo and their focus on online gaming?  they're adamant that it's not something they want to look at for the moment, and for the most part, i agree with their views - so why not head straight for lan?
in australia, you can get a cube for $150, import a BB adapter for about $90, also from play-asia a vga adapter $90, and hey, if you've got enough cash, $600 odd for a 15" tft, half that for a 17" crt for those of us with cars.  the tft would cost the most, but seeing as some of us have pcs already, we'd probably just be happy using crts, or there would be at least one in the house where we'd lan.
assuming a tft is used, the entire package will fit into a standard silver briefcase used by techs and roadies.
throw in a hub/router, even say licenced by nintendo, who cares what the price is - you'd get at least two people if not four splitting the cost - and there you have it - a lan that can be set-up and running in minutes.
perhaps the only two issues are cost and market...
how important is lan to you and are you willing to pay for it?

[Shadow Link]

When some LAN games are out in Australia I might get a Broadband adapter. I want more than 8 player LAN and I want 16 players. 8 Players is good but its not enough for me

More games need the feature.. I wish F-Zero GX had lan with 16 players that would be a dream come true for me. I dont like the Idea of needed a $100 broadband adapter when it would only cost like $20 just for the LAN feature. I dont have Broadband available here so I cant use it for online gaming.

[Molobert]

Super Monkey Ball 3 will also have LAN support.

[vroenis]

i just think it's getting a little late in the game - next gen consoles are less than two years away.
nintendo don't like the idea of online users being so far away from eachother - they like bringing people together - what better way than with lan?
there should be a flood of lan games all at once of varying genres - fps, racing, rpg - hell, even something along the lines of mario-party, and make sure hardware support is 100% - edge's equip on gamecube reported that the headphone adapter for the sp wasn't available in the u.k, aparently it's a big deal and damnit it is - i'm growing a little tired of nintendo taking its own time.

[KDR_11k]

Maybe they're testing waters now and are planning to give the N5 LAN by default?

[BlkPaladin]

More than likely since they "should" include as broad/phone adapter such as PS2 has for it's modem.

[Uglydot]

LAN play had me all excited a few months ago, till I saw how long it was going to take to implement something that may not even be well supported.  Looks like weekly pc lans will have to suffice.

[Hostile Creation]

Kirby's Air Ride is going to have lan, so I'll have it within a month or two.  Yay for me.

[vroenis]

yeah it's just too late for gc i think - the next gen will have to pull it off - but all the same, there should be a flood of games that support it.
suffice to say that the first console to fully implement lan properly will likely become the household name for it and the others will struggle to gain market-share.  at the moment i'd have to say that x-box comes the closest.
i still don't understand why something that has been around for so long in the pc realm is having such a hard journey into consoles.

[Berny]

What are the requirements for LAN play. Do I need 2 broadband adapters to hook up a couple of cubes? I may need to know this for when Mario Kart comes out.

[vroenis]

yep, you'll need a BB adapter for each cube, a copy of the game for each cube, a display device for each of them (handy if your mate's got two tvs... bummer if they don't) and a cat5 crossover cable.
i've only ever heard double dash talked about in respects to linking two cubes, not fully LAN supportable, but someone here might be able to tell you otherwise.  if it does support full LAN then someone will need a hub/router.
but that's a lot of expenditure if you don't already have it, especially the nintendo BB adapter - and just for one game?  is it worth it?

[WesDawg]

MKD had 8 Cube's LANned togeter at E3. Of couse, FF:CC ran with GC controllers at E3 too.

[BlkPaladin]

You must also consider that MK: DD is also further along.

[Berny]

Mmm.. Yes that does sound expensive. Oh well. Guess I'll pass on 8 player Mario Kart. It will still ROCK.