Where is everyone?" Trevor asks.

He's eating the last of the Enteman's donuts he had brought. A recurring problem at Shoot Club is that there's no organization in terms of what people bring. Sometimes we end up with four cases of cheap beer, but no chips. Sometimes we have seven different flavors of Doritos and nothing to drink. Since Trevor is the only one here, we just have the box of donuts, now empty.

"Are you sure you don't have anything to drink but water?" he asks, shaking powdered sugar off his fingers.

"I haven't been to the store in a while. I have tomato soup."

"And the only water you have is tap water?"

"Yeah."

"Dude, no one drinks tap water. That stuff isn't good for you. Where is everyone?"

"It is the holidays." I give a 'what-can-you-do?' shrug...."

Comment's on Tom's latest column?

So how come they never play any flight sims or driving games at shoot club? What's up with that? If I had a setup here at the house like the one at shoot club, I'm sure I would play flight or driving sims.

Speaking of sims, I just picked up a copy of I76 @ Half Price book store for ~$6. It's a buggy POS, but I'm having one hell of a lot of fun with it. I won't even talk about all the mess I had to go through to get it to install, just so I could patch it. Even after all that, I still have to launch the exe a dozen or so times to get it to run. I click on the shortcut, it displays a GPF message, I click OK and repeat. heh, it reminds me of trying to start my lawn mower. In a weird way it seems to somehow add to the funky 70s atmosphere. ;)

Man, I don't know how you do it, Tom.

I used to frequent a friend's pay-for-play PC gaming site with 10 stations. Keeping 4 PCs in gaming shape is no joke. Of course, a pay-for-play PC site is now almost a laughably quaint concept...

So to answer your question, I doubt Tom has steering wheels for everyone!

But It would be fun to play a 4 player Cops n' Robbers game in Midtown Madness 2, or better yet, moto-tag in Motocross Madness 2. Moto-tag is HILARIOUS. We used to spend hours playing that at LAN parties, and I could barely stop laughing.

Carmageddon's "sumo" arena also rocked. Too bad Carma was the high point of the series. Sigh.

And yes, I'76 was remarkably fun in multiplayer too. One of my top 10 all time games. Of course thinking of I'76 makes me recall how much I'82 sucked. Grr. Activision, damn you to hell for making the sequel to such a fantastic game suck beyond all human comprehension!

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

"Man, I don't know how you do it, Tom."

Tom's on vacation and away from a PC for the next few days, so how he does it will have to go unanswered. At least for now. :)

"So how come they never play any flight sims or driving games at shoot club? What's up with that? If I had a setup here at the house like the one at shoot club, I'm sure I would play flight or driving sims."

Tom's not here, so he can't answer right now. I'd guess that flight sims are out because the guys he has over are casual gamers, and sims are tricky. The same probably goes for driving games.

I think a Shoot Club where Tom forces them to play a flight sim could probably be amusing. :)

Funny line about trying to start I-76 and a lawnmower. Heh.

Two player LAN games don't totally suck...

So far, I only have 2 PCs at my house -- one mine, one my wife's -- and when my wife's not home I have one of my buddies over, and we have a pretty good time with Warcraft 2 and Red Alert. (We're just getting to into AOE2, but so far it doesn't seem like it will ever take WAR2's place in my book...)

I hope to have more PCs soon, and start my own little branch of Shoot Club...And, by the way, Tom - I love your Shoot Club articles. It's one of the highlights of my week. (Yes, I know how sad that is...) But it always makes me laugh. I think that's why I like this web site so much. It talks about things I'm interested in, and still makes me laugh...Thanks, Tom and Mark.

Well this gets even more interesting. Tom doesn't have access to a computer because he's away for the holidays, yet he's able to write a Shoot Club about everyone else being away for the holidays.

Perhaps Trevor wrote this Shoot Club. Perhaps Tom is flying around the country setting up other Shoot Clubs in whatever basement dives he can find. Perhaps someday Tom will realize the truth about Trevor. (Here's a hint: Tom, tape yourself in a one on one deathmatch with Trevor. See who you're _really_ shooting.)

Hmmmm...

Dean

"Perhaps Trevor wrote this Shoot Club. Perhaps Tom is flying around the country setting up other Shoot Clubs in whatever basement dives he can find. Perhaps someday Tom will realize the truth about Trevor. (Here's a hint: Tom, tape yourself in a one on one deathmatch with Trevor. See who you're _really_ shooting.)"

Heh heh -- it's even more interesting than that. After I put the column up, I forgot to change the link in the sidebar and the bar of soap graphic on the columns page, so I got a couple of emails from Tom from god knows where he is -- New Mexico or something -- but they were from accounts held by a Robert M****** and a Nicole P*****. Tom has his tentacles everywhere!

"Nicole P*****. Tom has his tentacles everywhere"

You know, I almost misread the word 'tentacles' the first time I read that...

"You know, I almost misread the word 'tentacles' the first time I read that..."

Heh -- well, just between you and me, I think he has *those* everywhere too. :) He's an LA bachelor, for god's sake!

That article was funny as hell! I liked the part about 'Beaches'. ;) hehe.. You have some goofy friends. Sounds too much like our weekly LAN gatherings at my house, too.

"That article was funny as hell!"

Yeah, Shoot Club is always a treat. Read his prior columns too.

Thanks for stopping by!

I concur. Another excellent shoot club, Tom!

One suggestion, though-- you really, really should have tried Motocross Madness 2 in mototag mode. It's been a smash hit at every LAN party I've ever seen. There's just something exhilirating about tearing ass across giant hills trying to tag the guy who is "it". And the first time you manage to tag someone in mid-air, you'll be whooping like a madman and ready to declare this the best game of all time.

Also, the driving model is more forgiving of digital input devices (eg, the good old keyboard).

Finally, if you're willing to deal with the potential installation hassles of older games, I'76 is a great multiplayer game, too. Kinda like MechWarrior on speed, if you've ever played multiplayer mw.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

I hope to one day have friends like Trevor. Or friends, period.

"And the first time you manage to tag someone in mid-air, you'll be whooping like a madman and ready to declare this the best game of all time."

Actually MM2 went over very well and I wouldn't be surprised if it becomes something of a fixture here. We'll see. I think I'm the only one who minds the lack of physics. Must be the flight simmer in me.

"Also, the driving model is more forgiving of digital input devices (eg, the good old keyboard)."

Yeah, everyone eventually ended up using the keyboard in favor of anything analog. Again, the flight simmer in me finds this really weird.

That's actually something that I really like about Shoot Club: after more than ten years, it's nice to be able to see games through the eyes of casual players.

-Tom

Man, what's going to happen if the Dreamcast breaks? The members of Shoot Club will have to find something new to do between games...maybe watch a snail crawl along the edge of a straight razor? Oh the horror... the horror... to be without Virtua Tennis...

Midtown 2 is a decent multiplayer game for sure. Too bad there really aren't enough games like it for the PC. I get tired of the RTS/RPG/FPS genres being overworked in multiplayer. I'd like to put Papyrus' NASCAR racing game netcode with a game along the lines of Twisted Metal (the original). Now that would be something fun and a change of pace... Come to think of it... Interstate 76 was close to that and pretty damn fun online.

Great stuff as always Mr. Chick. It's a treat to read Shoot Club every week. I really hope you guys can maintain the site after this GC Alliance crap winds up.

--Dave

Tom, are we talking about the same game here? I was talking about MOTOCROSS Madness, not MIDTOWN madness. While I'm at it, stop the madness.

I didn't see any reference in the article to motocross. Did you guys play the motorcycle game and try moto-tag? I didn't get the impression that you did, but I've been wrong before. Frequently in fact.

wumpus http://www.gamebasement.com

"Tom, are we talking about the same game here? I was talking about MOTOCROSS Madness, not MIDTOWN madness. While I'm at it, stop the madness."

One madness is like any other.

We tried MOTOCROSS Madness when it first came out, but I had one of those really strange things where it absolutely wouldn't work on one of the computers: a vanilla rig with a Voodoo 3 card, updated drivers, yadda, yadda, yadda. We haven't gone back to it, but considering how well MIDTOWN Madness went, I'll have to check for a patch and give it another shot.

-Tom

Thanks for the compliments, Dave.

"Interstate 76 was close to that and pretty damn fun online."

I was never a big fan of the single player game and didn't try the MP game. That'll be another one we might consider, but I'm worried that throwing guns into the mix might make it less accessible.

And, please, don't joke about the Dreamcast going on the blink. That's just not funny.

-Tom

Tom,

Good work as usual!

If you guys enjoyed the Madness games, I'd like to recommend one for you to try. It's a little sleeper called Motocross Mania, a title from one of the Take 2 divisions. It's surprisingly good. The actual driving physics seem more realistic and less forgiving than the Madness title though, and I don't know how well that would go over with a casual audience that wants to keep the accelerator pushed the whole time :)

Another great shoot club!! I absolutely love this column. But I've already said that...

Since everyone is making suggestions...have you guys ever tried Warcraft II multiplayer? It doesn't matter how many -- or few -- people you have, it's one of those classics (at least, classic in my opinion) that shouldn't be overlooked. Oh, well, just my two cents.

How is the Bnet edition of War2? I've thought of getting it. It's been years since I played that game online. I still fondly remember war2kali.exe. :)

I keep trying to get my next-door neighbor to buy a LAN card, then we could string a cat-5 cable between the townhouses and go at it with multiplayer games. He just gives me worried looks when I suggest it. Wuss.

BNET is definitely worth the -- what is it, ten bucks now? Yes, if you can find it, buy it. Even if you ignore the BNET aspect of the game, it has enhanced features and the expansion pack, Through the Dark Portal, included. And Battle.net is a truly unique experience. Nothing like playing against several guys who do nothing else. Ever. (Pretty sad, really. Anyone who can forsake everything else to play WAR2 online for six, eight, twelve hours a day...Every day. I love the game, but really!) But the BNET edition is definitely worth it.

"Nothing like playing against several guys who do nothing else. Ever."

That's one of the curses of RTS games. Too many players get optimal build patterns down, and too often the game is won by the player who can build more quickly. It's kind of discouraging.