Comment by ericbarrett | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ericbarrett | Hacker News Reader

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When I was young I ran a Team Fortress Classic server from my living room. It was hooked up to 768k SDSL (symmetric). It was 2fort-only—still a common thing in TF2—and popular enough that it was full 24/7, with a 20 player limit. Had lots of regulars, some of whom stayed in touch for years afterward. Some of the things that caused downtime:

The house's floor slab had a crack that wicked up groundwater when it rained too much, so my carpet would get mushy. Electronics off!

The anti-cheat software I ran (PunkBusters) went crazy after an update and banned anybody who connected. I noticed when my MRTG graphs flatlined.

Girlfriend once yanked out the Ethernet cable when we were having adult time. I didn't bother explaining that one to the players.

Heavy web browsing would cause lag, so I ended up learning how to do QoS via iptables (or its precursor, whose name I forgot).

At the time, the server used an astonishing 25 gigabytes of bandwidth a month. Always raised an eyebrow with the ISP tech when I called in, but they never complained.

I miss TFC. I remember learning how to conc-jump with the medic and figuring out the detonation points for pyro, and ultimately getting to the point where my presence was materially beneficial to my team. I never managed to get there in TF2; they had (at least at first glance - I presume the meta simply changed) blunted the ability of a single player to significantly move objectives forward. I had already been burnt by the changes between Day of Defeat, and DoD: Source, and the TF2 changes seemed to confirm that I was simply not a member of the target audience for the Source remakes.

You might enjoy playing Junkrat in Overwatch 2 if you like pyro. I skipped TF2 (the playful paintbrush texture were a turn-off at the time) but now 10 years later some of the OverWatch characters give me the same joy to play I had in original TFC (sniper=Widowmaker, medic=Mercy, soldier=Pharah, spy=Sombra)

I was just thinking that Junkrat's bomb reminded me of stuff I used to do in TFC.

Dude I was a double conc jumping master. Then they destroyed conc jumping and other fun stuff :(

TFC! I ran a TFC concing server from my college dorm back in 2004/2005. Been dreaming of setting up my old PC to play again.

ipchains

>When I was young I ran a Team Fortress Classic server

Thanks for reminding me I'm getting too old. :V

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