How to Host a LAN Party on an Extreme Budget

So, you have friends who love to play video games together, but you don't have the money for the cable, monitors or equipment needed to get a LAN party off the ground. Here are some tips you can use to game together if you and your friends are totally broke.

Things You'll Need

• A group of friends who are always out of cash
• Ingenuity
• Some gaming consoles and/or PCs

Instructions

1. The most expensive part of any LAN party, especially with console games, are the monitors and TVs. There's no good way of solving this problem, but what you can do is plan ahead and have everyone bring there own TV or monitor. If that isn't possible, case out the neighborhood trash. People throw out TVs that work perfectly fine, or need very little repair, all the time. This is usually because they have upgraded and can't find anyone to take the old one off their hands. Just be careful cleaning them out, as rodents and insects may have gotten into the insides of the TV if it's been out too long.

2. Skip on the sodas and snacks. Soda is expensive no matter how you cut it, and the same goes with any pre-made snack food. If you need food to fuel your game time, have someone bake or cook something from scratch that you may easily have access to, such as homemade nachos and dip. You can just always make sandwiches or homemade pizza in a pinch.

3. Make sure everyone owns their own controller and necessary game accessories. If you don't have enough controllers to go around, rotate the controllers around so everyone gets a turn.

4. Ethernet cable may be an issue when networking PCs. See if you can borrow some for individual home networks that can stand to see someone's computer without internet access for a night. If you have to buy networking cable, crimping spindles of CAT 5 cable is much cheaper than buying pre-made Ethernet cable.

Tips & Warnings

• Experts with electronics and networking are great tools for getting things off the ground in a pinch. Fixing broken TVs, used routers, and using spare video cards will cut the price tag down drastically rather than paying for any of this outright.

• When working on TVs and monitors, take care not to electrocute yourself when working with CRT technology. Also, if a TV or monitor has been left out in a wet environment it may crackle and spark if not dry when powered on.

• It's great to borrow equipment, but don't steal anything. It'll ruin relationships and lead to some nasty legal trouble.