Liero

''Liero'' is a video game for MS-DOS, first released by Finnish programmer Joosa Riekkinen in 1998. The game has been described as a real-time version of ''Worms'' (a turn-based artillery game). ''Liero'' is Finnish for 'earthworm' and is pronounced . Inspired itself by the earlier game ''MoleZ'', ''Liero'' provided inspiration for the later games '' Soldat'' and '' Noita''.

Gameplay

In ''Liero'', two worms fight each other to death for score (or frags) using a choice of five weapons from a total of 40 in a two-dimensional map. Most of the terrain, except for indestructible rocks, may be dug or destroyed by explosions. In addition to the weaponry, each player has a ninja rope which can be used to move faster through the map. This grappling hook-like device substitutes for jetpacks and can even latch onto the enemy worm to drag them closer to their foe.

While playing, there are health power-ups to heal the player's worm. It is also possible to replace one of the five weapons by picking up bonuses. Before playing, certain weapons can be selected to be available only in bonuses, in the entire game, or completely disabled.

Unlike most side-scrolling deathmatch games, the weapons in ''Liero'' have infinite ammo. Key factors of weapons include their reload rate and how fast they shoot, whereas in most other games of this type, key factors of weapons include how much ammo they sport and how frequently more ammo for that weapon can be found. ''Liero'' depends all on timing and swift maneuverability.

The gameplay mode can be deathmatch, Game of Tag or Capture the Flag. It can be played by two human players simultaneously in split screen or in a single player mode against the game's artificial intelligence, although the game's popularity is derived mostly from the fast-paced player-vs.-player action it provides.

Development history

Original ''Liero'' by Joosa Riekkinen

Joosa Riekkinen developed ''Liero'' as DOS game with the first version released in 1998. ''Liero'' was inspired by the previous freeware game MoleZ, and took many weapons and sounds from its precursor.Liero Wiki: MoleZ
The original ''Liero''s latest version was 1.33, which was released in 1999.official Liero wiki
However, the author lost the Pascal source code in a hard disk crash, and due to the lack of backup, no new "classic" versions have been released since.

Community developments

Despite this, and with the author's approval, the ''Liero'' community has distributed several altered (or hacked) versions of the game through the LieroCDC, and others.

Merge

In 2009, "classic" ''Liero'' was officially merged with the OpenLiero project upon the release of ''Liero'' 1.34 (not to be confused with the total conversion by that name). The new versions are released by Gliptic, although Joosa Riekkinen endorses them as official. The original ''Liero'' data and binary files by Riekkinen were released available under the WTFPL license.

''Liero''s last release was version 1.36, release September 3, 2013. This version is compatible with almost any OS but lacks network gaming (unlike some of the remakes).

Clones, remakes and derivatives

''Liero Xtreme''

''Liero Xtreme'' (often called ''LieroX'', ''Liero Extreme'' or just ''LX'') is a 2D shooter game. It is an unofficial sequel to ''Liero'', and is the most popular of all the ''Liero'' clones.eGamer about OpenLieroX
It features online play, fully customizable weapons, levels and characters. ''Liero Xtreme'' was created in C++ by Jason 'JasonB' Boettcher, an Australian programmer. With its source release on April 10, 2006, a new project has become available on October 24, 2006, known as ''OpenLieroX'', while the development of the original ''LieroX'' project has stopped. At the time of writing (May 6, 2009), ''OpenLieroX'' has tripled in code size and has many new features.

The game is based on a deathmatch setting, where multiple players face off in a closed level. Each player is equipped with five weapons selected out of all the weapons allowed, and with a ''ninja rope'' that allows the player to move in any direction. Players begin with a set amount of lives, and whilst the game records the number of kills, the last man standing is usually considered the winner. ''Liero Xtreme'' also allows team deathmatches, which has made it common for players to form clans. ''OpenLieroX'' runs on Windows, on MacOSX, on Linux and on FreeBSD.

The first release announcement of ''Liero Extreme'' was made on October 14, 2002. ''LieroX'' has become very famous over the time. On February 14, 2006, ''Jason Boettcher'' stopped the ''LieroX'' development for good. The last version he released was 0.62b, which had many new features, but suffered from crashes and various errors, and did not catch on within the community which continues to play the 0.56b version. Before leaving the community, he released the source code of the even older version 0.55b under the zlib license. Development of ''LieroXtreme'' is now in hands of Karel Petranek and Albert Zeyer, used the source code to create ''OpenLieroX'', which is compatible with the popular 0.56b version, but has multiple new features and bugfixes. Michał Futer took care of the new frontend. Currently the majority of players play ''OpenLieroX''.

As a customizable game, it allows players and developers to script their own mods. Different mods have different sets of unique weapons, and may also differ in player gravity and movement. The default mod is ''Liero 1.0'', also called ''Classic'', which is roughly equal to the basic setting in original ''Liero''. On top of this, several player-created mods are included in the standard game packs, some of which are more popular than the default setting. Similarly to ''Liero'', the default level is ''Dirt Level'', consisting of diggable terrain with some indestructible rock. The default level is comparatively rarely played compared to more complex player-created levels.

The game interface allow players to modify factors of the game such as which weapons in a mod are allowed, and how fast they reload and many other parameters which have huge impact on the game play.

''NiL''

''NiL'' (recursive acronym for ''NiL Isn't Liero'') is a clone of ''Liero'', which runs on Linux and Windows and is released under the terms of the GNU General Public License. ''NiL'' is not limited to two players, like the original ''Liero'' is. It has support for an infinite number of players over a TCP network. It was met with considerable enthusiasm in the Linux gaming community.Open-source, networkable shooter has Linux gamers buzzing
by Lee Anderson, April 12, 2000, CNN

The project was initiated by Flemming Frandsen in winter 1999 after he had stumbled across ''Liero'', which he liked so much that he decided to reimplement it under Linux. He abandoned the project five months later, due to being too busy for it. ''NiL'' was dead until the beginning of 2004 when Christoph Brill, found out about the project and took over as maintainer. Thereafter Daniel Schneidereit joined the project as well, but soon left. Other contributors included Nils Thuerey, Harri Liusvaara, David Hewitt and Phil Howlett.

Development proceeded slowly as the project's source code became almost unmaintainable and ''NiL'' was lacking developers. By mid-2005 Alexander Kahl joined development, convinced Christoph to start over and re-think the whole concept of ''NiL'', as the other ''Liero'' clone ''Gusanos'' already existed at that time. Development seems to have stopped around mid-2006.

''OpenLieroX''

''OpenLieroX'' is a remake of classic ''Liero'', built from scratch in a new engine. It adds many features to the game, such as modding support, custom sprites, maps, and weapons, and online and lan play. The game also supports more than two players at once.

''WebLiero''

Classic-like ''Liero'' clone in web browser with multiplayer capability.

Modification

''Liero'' is a versatile game in terms of modification. All of its 40 weapons can be completely replaced with new ones that can be given different images and sound effects from the original set. The images of the worms themselves can be transformed into completely different characters, although their movement animations are less flexible regarding modification. The maps can be given permanent terrain other than rocks alone. Destroyable terrain can also be colored more than simply plain dirt. The AI can be modified to be harder or easier. Nearly the whole game can be converted into something entirely different, except for the main aspect having to do with slaughtering another player/AI.

Reception and usage

In 2006 ''Liero'' received a TopDog award from Home of the Underdogs.Liero
on HOTU (2006)
''OpenLieroX'' has been positively reviewed by multiple gaming news sites. In 2013 Derek Yu reviewed ''Liero'' v1.36 favorably.liero-1-36
on TIGsource.com (2014-02-14)

The ''Liero'' variants ''NiL'', ''Gusanos'', and ''OpenLieroX'' were downloaded multiple hundred thousand times from SourceForge alone between 2001 and 2016.

Calling ''Liero'' a "masterpiece", ''Liero'' was selected for a collection of 100 classical Finnish games, which were presented on the opening of the Finnish Museum of Games in Tampere in 2017.Muistatko vielä nämä suomalaiset klassikkopelit? Nämä 100 pääsevät Tampereen pelimuseoon
on aamulehti (15.12.2016
English translation

References

External links

* - Created by fans, endorsed by Joosa Riekkinen

''OpenLiero'' official site
(obsoleted by ''Liero'' 1.34)

''OpenLieroX'' official site

''NiL'' official site

Official ''Liero Xtreme'' website
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090220153614/http://lxalliance.net/LXRS/ , date=2009-02-20

''MoleZ'' Official Site
(spiritual precursor to ''Liero'')

1998 video games
DOS games
Linux games
Artillery video games
Video games developed in Australia
Video games developed in Finland
Freeware games
Multiplayer hotseat games
Free software
Public-domain software with source code
Windows games
Software using the WTFPL license