Insomnia8

[fever 9,884]

Insomnia 52 is this August so I figured I'd dig out my photos from what I thought was Insomnia 8, but it was actually the very first Insomnia held in conjunction with gaming service provider Wireplay in 1999 (the next event the following year was i2, being "i" and not "Insomnia" as the organisors split from Wireplay), where I met up with mates from my first clan (KAT clan from the Quake 2 Wireplay league).  Insomnia was held at RAF Bicester near Oxford in the UK.  We arrived on Friday and the substation immediately went tits up and 400 of the 600 people there couldn't turn on their PC's until around 11pm Friday evening as the local on base electrical substation couldn't cope with the demand.  Not a stellar start but it was an awesome weekend.

 

I seem to remember tournaments for Quake 2, Half Life and Tribes and possibly Doom -  with prizes of a few hundred pounds for each.  There was a big screen, but we were literally in a massive barn of a place with little lighting and a small bar in the corner which was little more than a counter with some taps on and a fridge.

 

It's hard to make people sat playing computer games interesting, especially with a disposable camera lol, but I said I would find them and upload them so here goes.  We were set up next to our main Wireplay league rivals and good mates [COG] so we were very happy with that, plenty of banter!

 

I apologise for the quality of the photos...I had a disposable and was rubbish at taking photos back then..plus it was so dark lol.

 

The "barn", it was massive but packed with 650 of us by the end of the weekend and about another 500 spectators.  This was from our spot about 50 metres from the main stage.

 

 

Phat[KAT] (big guy in blue shirt) and [KAT]Litter (nearest) - I got a lift down with Litter in his Nissan Skyline GTR...the journey literally flew by lol

 

 

[COG]Mist (furthest away) - The only person who I've met with his aim is probably Aeons...I thought I'd seen some good players and then this guy just kicks everybody's arse easily...scary how good his aim was

[COG]Aphrodite (the cute one) - I taught her to duel...she eventually got a lot better than me lol, much disappoint xD

 

 

[KAT]Food (team leader, nearest), KIT[KAT] (white t-shirt).  Guy in blue t-shirt was tech support, they had a busy weekend lol.  [COG] clan in background.

 

 

Computer games, SRS BSNS

 

 

[COG] clan...(from left) Mist (grey t-shirt), Ares, Aphrodite (being shy at the front), Guardian and Pendragon

 

 

This was one of the quarter finals of the Quake 2 tournament....not even on the big screen bizarrely (big screen being like a 8 foot by 6 foot projection lol)...in these days if you wanted to see the big game you looked over the players shoulder

 

 

Edit: OMG look at the size of the monitors PMSL LOOOOL XD

Edited June 26, 2014 by Fever

[AIex 1,292]

fucking crts 4 life, but on a serious note i would only be a wee little boy not knowing what a computer is when these pictures were being taken. :3

[fever 9,884]

All that tells me Alex is that I had a 15 year head start on you and you're still better than me...FML lol

[AIex 1,292]

just means i'm a bigger nerd

[- Mike - 2,728]

Oh man, those CRTs. Did they get on a speaker system and do a count down to full room degauss?

[BloodRedWidow 3,508]

Lol! I could make a house out of those monitors

Fever, I am in awe of you

[Suspicious Turtle 887]

I probably wasn't even a sperm cell at this point.

[fever 9,884]

I probably wasn't even a sperm cell at this point.

 

An itch in your Dads pants

[Suspicious Turtle 887]

An itch in your Dads pants

 

Unfortunately, yes.

[Emma 1,798]

I probably wasn't even a sperm cell at this point.

Yeep.

[Se7en 10,762]

15 back then. Gaming wasn't really an interest, but me and my friends would organise our own LAN either by going to an Internet cafe renting it out for the night and play 1.5 till our eyes bled or get together at whoever was alone for the weekend and play a world cup / champions league on the original Playstation.

Edited June 26, 2014 by adic7o

[+JB. 4,800]

Nice pictures. Did you have notes or remember all the names. :]

I'll post some pictures in some months. Then we can compare what changed.

[fever 9,884]

i remembered the games with tournaments/prizes as I had a very strong dislike for Half Life and Tribes as people were leaving Quake 2 to play them...so when I got to Insomnia and they were part of what I would have rather been a Quake 2 only gig I was obviously a bit "those games are BS, what a waste of time having prizes for those" xD

 

I don't remember anything about specific games other than the picture I took during the later stages of the Quake 2 tournament.  I took the photo as there was quite a few watching the game and I went and asked what was going on...trying to capture some "action" lol

Things have clearly moved on a lot since then though.  I'm sure you'll love it.  Remember to hook up with Jayserp, he's organising a team.

[D-Bee 3,448]

I think at this point in time I was living in Seattle playing MarioKart 64 and drinking 40's of Rainier. I was still into consoles back then, and I didn't think much of FPS until Morrowind came out. I think NIN did the music for Quake? The Fragile had just come out about that time (awesome album). I didn't really get into PC games until years later; I was too busy drinking and having sex with strangers.

[fever 9,884]

Yeah NIN did the music...the intro to Quake 2 was a favourite for a while.

[D-Bee 3,448]

 Do you remember King's Quest or Return to Zork?

[fever 9,884]

I never played Zork or Kings Quest but they were always kind of on my radar to play them...in that "Oh damn, thats that game I keep meaning to buy....I'll buy it next time" kind of way...DOH!

I did play Leisure Suit Larry though haha

...can't remember which one...8?

Edited June 28, 2014 by Fever

[D-Bee 3,448]

Return to Zork was really good in a very annoying kind of way. This was when you couldn't seek answers online if you got stuck, so you'd just be stuck on one part for like....forever. I remember being stuck with this old man, and he'd offer you a drink ("Want some rye? 'Course you do!") and it was obvious that you were supposed to out drink him. Well, you can't! I'd always pass out! Turns out, you had to pour your drink into a nearby plant and keep asking for more. Ah, good ole adventure games!

[fever 9,884]

lol..text adventure games...the intro always said "you can type anything you like, you will always get a reply and your commands carried out"....hmm...I beg to differ...I loved text based adventures but it always ended up with the following type of situation occuring some days/weeks/months later when I figured it out or cheated...

 

"I tried 'pull handle', 'turn handle', 'twist handle', 'push handle', 'hold handle', 'lift handle', 'sieze handle', 'open handle' (getting desperate), 'turn the fucking handle', 'kick handle', 'motherfucker'....I should have said 'grasp handle'...grasp handle?....  GRASP HANDLE!  GET F&%@ED HANDLE"

Edited June 28, 2014 by Fever

[D-Bee 3,448]

http://www.homestarrunner.com/dungeonman.html

 

 

Enjoy that!

[fever 9,884]

I like HSR....a Canadian friend introduced me to it...

 

http://www.homestarrunner.com/dungeonman.html

 

 

Enjoy that!

 

Exactly that....imagine playing TF2 via a text based adventure...

[D-Bee 3,448]

I love those guys.