LEWISTON – For Matt Cyr, the computer games are a Red Bull-soaked, all-night thrill.

But it’s not the virtual world so much as the real world of wires, network interface cards, routers, servers and software. “I didn’t get into the games, at first,” said Cyr, a Lewiston High School junior. “I didn’t think I had enough time to game.”

If Cyr gets his wish, he’ll be way too busy to game – for a few weeks at least. He and friends Sean Sabine and Ray Blais have formed Cyber-Velocity, with the goal of creating the largest ever one-time Local Area Network devoted to gaming in Maine.

They’ll provide the space, a meeting room in the Chalet Motel, at least one dedicated server, a fast computer network and a connection to the Internet off the motel’s T-1 line. They’ve got the food, a handful of sponsors – including energy drink maker Red Bull – and some prizes for tournament play.

They’re hoping to bring together as many as 90 gamers, ages 13 to 30, overnight on Jan. 15 for a gaming extravaganza.

Gamers need to bring their gear and $15 to get in the door.

“Others’ LANs, they charge a lot more,” Cyr said. “We’re looking at it like gamers ourselves. We’re more into the gamer aspect of just having fun, you know. And maybe establishing a reputation.”

There will be food if the gamers want to eat, televisions showing movies if they need a break from the games, and a few quiet corners if they want to catch a minute or two of sleep.

It’s oddly social and anti-social at the same time, they said. Everyone will sit at tables arranged in a horseshoe around the room and stare at computer screens, playing games, talking with friends and listening to music all at once.

They could be trading on-screen machine-gun fire with someone sitting right next to them or someone on the other side of the room. They might take a pizza break with the same guy they were hunting on-screen a few minutes earlier.

Any Xbox or personal computer will do, as long as it has current copies of the games and a network interface card.

“As long as it can run the games, you should be fine,” Sabine said. “Keep in mind, if it’s really old and really slow you could end up dogging-down and it won’t be much fun.”

Born in a barn

Cyber-Velocity was born in a barn behind Blais’ house this summer. The three would gather regularly to hook up their computers and get their game on.

For Sabine, a member of a professional cyber athlete team, the game of choice is “Day of Defeat,” a modification, or mod, of the venerable shooting game “Half-Life.”

Both games simulate first-person shooters, putting players behind the eyes of characters battling enemies with any weapon they can find, from an M4 assault rifle to a handy crowbar.

“The thing about it was the physics,” Sabine said. “There’s gravity and things bounce and work the way they do in the real world.”

“Day of Defeat” puts players in World War II, siding with either the Axis or the Allies. “Counterstrike” pits teams of terrorists and counterterrorists against each other. Teams win by reaching their objective or eliminating the other team.

Soon, the impromptu LANs were bringing as many as 15 local gamers together.

“But then it started to get cold, and we thought we’d find someplace warm to meet,” Blais said.

That brought them to the Chalet Motel. A classmate’s father owns the motel and he agreed to let them use a room. They’ve strung together several LANs over the summer. They’re mostly informal, inexpensive affairs attracting 20 to 30 gamers.

“We’ve been using the smaller LANs to build up to the bigger one,” Cyr said. They’ve gotten donations for tournament prizes, including a $900 Silverstone Tech computer case, another computer case from NZXT, T-shirts and posters.

Great expectations

“People are going to be expecting a lot at the big event,” Cyr said. “They’re paying $15, and they’re going to want to get their money’s worth.”

For Cyr, that means plenty of planning. In addition to lining up sponsors, getting food and drinks for everyone and gathering the computer equipment, they are renting five television sets from Rent-A-Center. Those will be for Xbox players and for watching movies and DVDs during gaming lulls.

It also means troubleshooting and watching for computer viruses and worms. A worm derailed game play at a smaller LAN in November, Cyr said. It also means keeping a keen eye out for hacks and cheats, scripts and programs some players use to get an edge.

“There are X-ray vision hacks that let people see through walls and see opponents coming,” Sabine said. Others make it easier for players to aim their weapons or extend their character’s life.

Anyone caught cheating or hacking will be disqualified from play at least, and possibly kicked off the LAN or out of the room.

The teens worry that they will be too busy running the LAN to play much. That makes Sabine uneasy.

“I’ll try not to (play) and do more of the controlling stuff, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to stay away from the tournament,” he said.

What: Cyber-velocity gaming LAN

When: Jan. 15, 2005

Where: Chalet Motel, 1243 Lisbon St., Lewiston

Cost: $15 per person, payable in advance via PayPal or at the door.

More information: To register or obtain more information, people may go to www.cyber-velocity.com. Organizer Matt Cyr’s e-mail address is [email protected].