techbunker: I wish small computer clubs existed

When I was a kid, I used to hang out at a cybercafe near my aunt's place. Places like this were later dubbed "internet cafes", but back then the internet wasn't really a thing. The machines were connected to each other and people played Quake II, Red Alert II, and typical LAN games like that. Lacking pocket money, I mostly just watched other people playing. It was quite fun. Such local play has a completely different vibe than online gaming. Later I hung out at my high school's computer room. This was much better because I didn't need to pay to use the machines there. But the machines were older and not connected to a network. We mostly played local multiplayer games. Eventually we got more powerful, networked machines and then we could play shooters too. We had a blast! These experiences died down during my university years even though the university had a much bigger computer lab. I don't fully remember why. We probably started having our own laptops, so we could play anywhere we…