For me I'm on the fence, I think 2009 is a solid contender. Things were relatively normal, economy was shit, but hey we had LAN parties and quake right?

my friends and i did little zoomer LAN parties in 2018, i used to bring my VR setup and we would all take turns playing beat saber
one of the friends dad owned a computer repair store downtown, we would use that place
his mom used to bring wingstop

>and i

Seems like a vibe actually. The last time I had a "LAN" party was around 2011. IIRC MW3 had released and despite the game having functional online play, me and my friends would play at my dads workshop after football practice and we'd absolutely down mountain de w game fuels (I believe they were called "citrus cherry") like they were nothing and we'd have a grill that we'd barbeque on after playing for a while.

>>22841065
oh that's cool
i like the indoor/outdoor aspect

>>22841070
Yeah it was really fun, I lived in a small town in rural Kentucky so we'd have our neighbors over. I vividly remember breaking into our locker room and playing quake 3 for a while. Eventually one of my buddies got caught being a jackass and doing jackass things and got cut from the team. We still joke about it today lol.

>>22841044 (OP)
is anyone able to date that picture?
the CRTs place it somewhat.
VGA connectors, PS/2 peripherals attached, and the video is VGA. mainboard looks like it might have a USB port.
the (stacks of) optical discs bound it to the past
the left screen looks like some linux. program is probably a web browser, but the styling doesn't look 90s anymore.
right screen is giving me windows vibes. taskbar looks themed a little. I can't identify these two windows. might be some instant messager.

>>22841861
you could maybe go by the mountain dew and gatorade label designs, as well