300 gamers attend Insomnia '99 in Bicester

The UK's biggest LAN (Local Area Network) party was held in Bicester over the Easter Weekend.

The town's Garrison Theatre played host to over 300 gamers of all ages, many of whom had travelled the length and breadth of the country, and the event lasted a marathon 55 hours between Friday 26 March through until the Sunday evening.

Multiplay UK set up the LAN servers and the participants provided Ethernet cards and their favourite games which included Quake and Half-Life and Carmageddon. Prizes included Voodoo3 3000 boards from 3dfx, and the event was covered by BBC television and radio.

"We had a fantastic response from the gaming community and everyone pitched in to make the party a great success," said Wireplay's marketing manager Oscar Clark. "There were dozens of different games played over the weekend and the standard of the games players was awesome. We'd definitely like to hold another Insomnia event later this year - perhaps making a record-breaking event with over a thousand gamers present."