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BorderLAN

2026

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Players gather around BorderLAN's candlelit red table, with their heads replaced by pixel-art Diablo II character portraits.

A LAN party in an earth cellar. Four seats, a shared table and a return to 2002.

An illuminated BorderLAN sign above the cellar entrance reads 'stay a while and listen', surrounded by foliage and small lights.

BorderLAN brought people together around Counter-Strike 1.6, Quake II, Unreal Tournament, Heroes of Might and Magic III, Diablo and Diablo II, with Action Quake 2 and OpenArena also on the shelf. Players chose what to play together, with music, food and drinks accompanying each sitting.

Four players sit around BorderLAN's red gaming table beneath a vaulted stone ceiling, with classic Counter-Strike character heads superimposed over all four heads.
The empty cellar glows orange around a handmade red gaming table, with four seats, back-to-back screens, candles and a projection on the stone wall.
A red wooden seat extends from the gaming table beneath the vaulted cellar ceiling, with a projector tucked below the tabletop.

Four Raspberry Pi 5 stations ran the games over a local network. A custom launcher and a central controller connected the computers to the room's sound, lights and projections, allowing the players' activity to reach beyond their screens.

Candles and stems of grass sit between the wooden monitor supports on the red tabletop.
Heroes of Might and Magic III fills two screens above white keyboards, headphones, candles and leafy branches.
The custom BorderLAN launcher shows all eight game covers, with Counter-Strike 1.6 selected.

The launcher borrowed the atmosphere of the games themselves, moving between their worlds as players browsed the shelf. This reel brings together its gameplay previews for Counter-Strike 1.6, Action Quake 2 and OpenArena.

An overhead view of a player's hands at the keyboard and mouse, with Heroes of Might and Magic III on the screen and candles between the stations.
A hand rests on a white mouse beside candles and plants, with a game screen and the projected cellar doorway in the background.

Music and familiar game sounds filled the room around the players. These mixes bring together tracks from the playlist with voices, spells, weapons, announcements and interface sounds from all nine of the room's game soundbanks, arranged to follow the beat.

A gaming station seen from directly above: white keyboard and mouse, headphones, candlelight and the red wooden seat beside the table.
The BorderLAN website presents a glowing cellar door between ornate panels for the event introduction and booking a seat.

I hosted BorderLAN with Rose Hallgren. The website extended the room with a glowing cellar door, a shelf of games and a place to book a seat.