In 1992, Bones and Quantum (then 'Tachyon') began playing Falcon on their 386 'speed daemon' PCs. With all 2 megs of RAM and 100 megabytes of drive space, Bones and Quantum connected their machines with a serial cable and viola! They flew against one another in combat missions and played co-op.

In the latter part of 1992, Alchemist watched in wonder while these two crazed virtual pilots blew each other up and flew like mad men. Within this small group, everyone eventually upgraded their machines to 486SX33s and DX66s.  Bones found a couple of network cards and between Quantum, Bones, and Alchemist a small network eventually began. A lot of struggling with drivers and late nights followed. Finally Falcon and Doom came to life across the network. There was no comparing the experience of network play to just playing the game as a single user. Many nights these three packed up their computers from home and made the trek to one anothers home to meet and network.  The experience was awesome.

Network gaming was difficult then because of compatibility issues and unreliable equipment - among a thousand other things. Having to drag computers between homes was a pain - Bones and Alchemist actually timed how fast they could tear down a computer and move it from one house to the next. Just under 5 minutes was the record, I believe.

After realizing that the kitchen table wasn't big enough for more than 4 people, and networking 8 people was a major task with all the cables running through the hallway and power strips plugged into power strips.  Something had to be done.

It was decided to create a special place for these large network parties that had developed out of the original small 3-way games. A garage was converted with the help of Coyote, Bones, and Alchemist.  It was fitted with 4 large tables with outlets and enough space to seat 8 people or more comfortably - of course, we must pay tribute to the wives resposible for the Fraggers Hall sign.

Doesn't look like much, but it had an erie glow when the lights were dimmed and 8 computers were all playing Descent or ROTD or we had a couple of groups playing Doom.  Most network parties started at 12:00pm on Saturday and lasted until 12:00pm on Sunday.  Guys would drop like flies at 4:00am, but Quantum, Alchemist and Scott Staley (anybody remember his handle?) played until the sun came up and we all fell asleep holding our mice.

Fraggers Hall was finally closed in 1995 when the garage was converted back before selling the house that it resided in.  The name still lives on and the spirit of Fraggers Hall has been carried on by group members hosting network parties from their homes. Bones still hangs the sign in his basement where there are often large network parties - many times even larger than what Fraggers Hall could hold.  The popularity of the Internet has helped us out greatly with scheduling and even gaming via the Internet.  More members have joined our clan in the last couple of years and network gaming seems kind of old hat for some, but I hope with the help of this site and the Fraggers Hall core members that we can keep the spirit of Fraggers Hall alive and well.