For younger kids run a minecraft server. They love that game.

As for your media collection. You could run a plex server and have a client in each guest room. The server would have to be quite beefy for the evenings when everybody is using it concurrently but it has a great interface for video on demand.

Now we are getting somewhere. Thanks

Online gaming is basically not worth it. PS3 and Wii are the way to go.

An inhouse computer LAN would obviously work for computer games. How big would the server need to be and how simple can the individual PC be? How many would be a good number to network together? Would 4 be enough?

Can people just plug in their laptop to a network cable and plug in a joystick and monitor and join in the fun on the server?

LaudJohn wrote:Now we are getting somewhere. Thanks

Online gaming is basically not worth it. PS3 and Wii are the way to go.

Agreed.

An inhouse computer LAN would obviously work for computer games. How big would the server need to be and how simple can the individual PC be? How many would be a good number to network together? Would 4 be enough?

First of all you need to work out what role(s) the server(s) will need to do. Then you can look at the hardware/software requirements.

If you were looking at a minecraft server you don't need much power for the server or the clients. If you wanted a fps the server demand would increase a bit and the client demand by a lot.

If, like I suggested before, a plex media server connecting to all the tv's in the rooms you'd be looking at a dual Xeon with heaps of RAM and the media on at least raid 5. The upside of having a powerful server is by virtualization you can have a number of servers hosted.

Can people just plug in their laptop to a network cable and plug in a joystick and monitor and join in the fun on the server?

Pretty much although I believe the joystick is beyond legacy

Seriously LJ give me a call when you have some time, we'll discuss options and I'll draw something up for you.

With computers/a server, another factor will need to be network security. Without getting overly technical essentially you'll want your whole network to pretend the game server is really on the outside of it and just on a "private internet". This will prevent viruses/hack attempts from the game system (game applications have some pretty common weaknesses in them) from being able to "get-in" to anything.

With PS3/Wii there would be no need of a central server... the systems just talk to one another. An added benefit of no online play for those systems is you can get the cracked ones and have games preloaded on the drives for $5 each. I'd advise against the in-room concept and stick with the 'game center' one. Both for protecting your equipment and because parents may be more keen on leaving their kids in a room that has a 'watcher' than leaving them alone in a guesthouse room. Especially tourists who don't have the comfort level here the rest of us do.

^ That. I'd consider not connecting the room to the Internet at all unless you are going with a DRM service like Steam, which is a very bad idea for your scenario.

One idea for in-room is to buy and bring a proper HotelTV system, with game system included, from the west and install. Not sure if you could find one here.

That adds other benefits as well... a guide system for choosing programming, control over what media is available, on-demand pay-per-view movies (that you load into the server), advertising sales on the guide screen and specialty sections like "travel tips"/"nearby restaurants"/"things to see"/"hotel services"/etc.

http://www.hospitalityiptv.com/

It would be out of your budget as a game system, but given the added value and the fact that it covers your TV system as well it may be worth considering.

StroppyChops wrote:^ That. I'd consider not connecting the room to the Internet at all unless you are going with a DRM service like Steam, which is a very bad idea for your scenario.

Most people, yourself probably included, wouldn't stay at a hotel that didn't have in room internet. I know I wouldn't.

OrangeDragon wrote:One idea for in-room is to buy and bring a proper HotelTV system, with game system included, from the west and install. Not sure if you could find one here.

That adds other benefits as well... a guide system for choosing programming, control over what media is available, on-demand pay-per-view movies (that you load into the server), advertising sales on the guide screen and specialty sections like "travel tips"/"nearby restaurants"/"things to see"/"hotel services"/etc.

http://www.hospitalityiptv.com/

It would be out of your budget as a game system, but given the added value and the fact that it covers your TV system as well it may be worth considering.

Plex media server is free. 2012 and newer Samsung tv's have a native client app. Otherwise can use any android tv dongle or raspberry pi as a cheap client.

As for network security, you would definitely have the gaming servers on their own network/vlan. But most games, provided they are updated regularly don't have any particular and significant vulnerabilities.

Digg3r wrote:

StroppyChops wrote:^ That. I'd consider not connecting the room to the Internet at all unless you are going with a DRM service like Steam, which is a very bad idea for your scenario.

Most people, yourself probably included, wouldn't stay at a hotel that didn't have in room internet. I know I wouldn't.

OrangeDragon wrote:One idea for in-room is to buy and bring a proper HotelTV system, with game system included, from the west and install. Not sure if you could find one here.

That adds other benefits as well... a guide system for choosing programming, control over what media is available, on-demand pay-per-view movies (that you load into the server), advertising sales on the guide screen and specialty sections like "travel tips"/"nearby restaurants"/"things to see"/"hotel services"/etc.

http://www.hospitalityiptv.com/

It would be out of your budget as a game system, but given the added value and the fact that it covers your TV system as well it may be worth considering.

Plex media server is free. 2012 and newer Samsung tv's have a native client app. Otherwise can use any android tv dongle or raspberry pi as a cheap client.

As for network security, you would definitely have the gaming servers on their own network/vlan. But most games, provided they are updated regularly don't have any particular and significant vulnerabilities.

Sure, but I meant the dedicated gaming room.

Sorry, my bad. Didn't read it correctly.

Digg3r wrote: Plex media server is free. 2012 and newer Samsung tv's have a native client app. Otherwise can use any android tv dongle or raspberry pi as a cheap client.

As for network security, you would definitely have the gaming servers on their own network/vlan. But most games, provided they are updated regularly don't have any particular and significant vulnerabilities.

Yeah, that plex system is great for in your house... not that great for making a nice user interface to guests who come from 1st world countries and expect a simple guide+remote system in their hotel rooms.

Just got confirmation that EZcomm is going to be bringing in some IPTV offerings soon, a system that could latch into that and offer HotelTV with a guide would be choice. You then pre-install the games on the "box" with some controllers hooked up and let the guide system be what launches them.

To give an idea, I have an LG Smart Tv that connects to Plex as well, and a Plex server. I never use them. It's actually less hassle to walk over to my PC, copy the file to a usb stick, and walk to the TV and plug it in. The Plex system and the smart TV clients are not very user friendly at all.