History

Originally operating under the Area51 banner, LANTastic is the longest running LAN event in Adelaide and has been holding LAN party events since September 1992. Starting as computer user group operating out of the Aberfoyle Park High School (APHS) IT department, the event soon grew into a weekly event attracting around 20-25 members.

With the gracious support of APHS, weekly events were held in the computer labs utilising the existing internet and network infrastructure. Members only needed to bring their PC case and conveniently used the network/keyboard/mouse/monitors on site, resulting in a lot less to carry to and from the event.

1994 seen LANTastic as the first to offer true broadband internet access to attendees. Each attendee was allocated a public IP and could engage with local or internet based opponents anywhere on the globe. Competitions were regularly held and reputations forged within the realms of many great games such as;

  • Doom/Quake series
  • Descent
  • Painkeep
  • Interstate '76
  • FIFA
  • Unreal
  • Hidden and Dangerous
  • Starcraft
  • Die by the Sword
  • Jedi Knight
  • X-Wing
  • Grand Theft Auto
  • RAC Rally
  • Sin
  • Age of Empires
  • Carmageddon
  • Need for Speed
  • Duke Nukem 3D
  • F22
  • Half-life
  • Motor Racer
  • Monster Truck/ Cross Madness
  • Kingpin
  • TOCA
  • Grand Prix Legends
  • Return to Castle Wolfenstein

The event format proved extremely popular with the rise of internet gaming in the late 1990's, but it became a victim of it's own success. As attendee numbers swelled, issues with venue capacity and security caused significant problems for the event organisers and APHS. November 1999 saw the last LANTastic event held and after 7 years of weekly LAN parties it was decided to end our relationship with APHS and find an alternative venue.

From late 1999 to 2004 LANTastic organisers held parties at various venues across Adelaide. However the temporary locations of events made establishing reliable power and internet access on site difficult. The continued search for a permanent venue, was long and tedious. Despite hundreds of halls for hire, few had sufficient power capacity and seating. Others imposed strict curfews before midnight or were simply too expensive.

Late 2004, Area51 formalised arrangement with the Glenelg North Community Hall and kicked off the plans for the relocated event (LANTastic 01). Upon announcement, member and sponsor donations generated an impressive total $3800 worth of funds, equipment and power/data cabling for LANTastic.

April 23rd 2005 marked the first LANtastic LAN party at the Glenelg North Community Hall and despite some initial power hiccups, caused by a members private kettle, the event ran smoothly. The event attracted over 30 participants, plus many more visitors and was a big success.

In 2007 LANTastic joined forces with Clipsal's (FarOut) LAN party team, to host one of Adelaide's premier 18+ only LAN parties and regularly attracted 50-60 visitors/participants every 10 weeks.

2009 saw the introduction of a permanent unrestricted ADSL2+ service for members at Glenelg. The driving factors were the increasing numbers of games requiring active internet connections and the ability to offer individual to download drivers/game patches/updates.

2018 NBN arrived and the event now offers an unlimited 50/20Mbit NBN service, bring together attendees and online players.

Now into its 27th year of operation, LANTastic continues it's tradition of mature age LAN gaming and invites like minded individuals to come down and join in on the fun.