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Liero

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Liero
Original author(s)Joosa Riekkinen
Developer(s)Erik Lindroos and community
Initial releaseJanuary 1, 1998;26 years ago(1998-01-01)
Stable release
1.33 / 1 January 1999;25 years ago(1999-01-01)
Preview release
1.36 / 5 March 2016;8 years ago(2016-03-05)
PlatformCrossplatform(originallyMS-DOS)
TypeSingle-player/multiplayeraction game
LicenseWTFPL
Websitewww.liero.be
Screenshot ofLiero.The player is using the ninja rope to hang from a clump of dirt while shooting at the enemy with rockets.

Lierois avideo gameforMS-DOS,first released byFinnishprogrammer Joosa Riekkinen in 1998. The game has been described as areal-timeversion ofWorms(a turn-basedartillery game).[1]Liero(fromkasteliero) isFinnishfor 'earthworm' and is pronounced[ˈlie̯ro].Inspired itself by the earlier gameMoleZ,[2]Lieroprovided inspiration for the later gamesSoldatandNoita.[3][4]

Gameplay

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InLiero,two worms fight each other to death for score (orfrags) 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 inLierohave 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.Lierodepends all on timing and swift maneuverability.

The gameplay mode can bedeathmatch,Game of Tag orCapture the Flag.It can be played by two human players simultaneously insplit screenor in a single player mode against the game'sartificial intelligence,although the game's popularity is derived mostly from the fast-paced player-vs.-player action it provides.

Development history

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OriginalLieroby Joosa Riekkinen

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Joosa Riekkinen developedLieroas DOS game with the first version released in 1998.Lierowas inspired by the previousfreewaregame MoleZ, and took many weapons and sounds from its precursor.[2]The originalLiero's latest version was 1.33, which was released in 1999.[5][6]However, the author lost thePascalsource codein ahard diskcrash, and due to the lack of backup, no new "classic" versions have been released since.[5]

Community developments

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Despite this, and with the author's approval, theLierocommunity has distributed several altered (orhacked) versions of the game through the LieroCDC, and others.[7]

Merge

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In 2009, "classic"Lierowas officially merged[8]with the OpenLiero project upon the release ofLiero1.34 (not to be confused with thetotal conversionby that name). The new versions are released by Gliptic, although Joosa Riekkinen endorses them as official. The originalLierodata and binary files by Riekkinen were released available under theWTFPLlicense.[9]

Liero's last release was version 1.36, release September 3, 2013.[10]This version is compatible with almost any OS but lacks network gaming (unlike some of the remakes).

Clones, remakes and derivatives

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Liero Xtreme

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Liero Xtreme(often calledLieroX,Liero Extremeor justLX) is a2Dshooter game.It is an unofficial sequel toLiero,and is the most popular of all theLieroclones.[11][12][13][14][15]It featuresonline play,fully customizable weapons, levels and characters.Liero Xtremewas created inC++by Jason 'JasonB' Boettcher, an Australian programmer.[12]With its source release on April 10, 2006, a new project has become available on October 24, 2006, known asOpenLieroX,[12]while the development of the originalLieroXproject has stopped. At the time of writing (May 6, 2009),OpenLieroXhas tripled in code size[16]and has many new features.[11][17][18]

The game is based on adeathmatchsetting, where multiple players face off in a closedlevel.Each player is equipped with five weapons selected out of all the weapons allowed, and with aninja ropethat 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, thelast man standingis usually considered the winner.Liero Xtremealso allows team deathmatches, which has made it common for players to formclans.OpenLieroXruns on Windows, on MacOSX, on Linux and on FreeBSD.

The first release announcement ofLiero Extremewas made on October 14, 2002.[19]LieroXhas become very famous over the time. On February 14, 2006,Jason Boettcherstopped theLieroXdevelopment 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 thesource codeof the even older version 0.55b under thezlib license.[20][21]Development ofLieroXtremeis now in hands of Karel Petranek and Albert Zeyer, used the source code to createOpenLieroX,which is compatible with the popular 0.56b version, but has multiple new features and bugfixes.[22]Michał Futer took care of the new frontend. Currently the majority of players playOpenLieroX.

As a customizable game, it allows players and developers toscripttheir ownmods.Different mods have different sets of unique weapons, and may also differ in player gravity and movement. The default mod isLiero 1.0,also calledClassic,which is roughly equal to the basic setting in originalLiero.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 toLiero,the default level isDirt 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

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Screenshot ofNiL

NiL(recursive acronymforNiL Isn't Liero) is acloneofLiero,which runs onLinuxandWindowsand is released under the terms of theGNU General Public License.NiLis not limited to two players, like the originalLierois. It doesn't limit the number of players over aTCPnetwork. It was met with considerable enthusiasm in the Linux gaming community.[23]

The project was initiated by Flemming Frandsen in winter1999after he had stumbled acrossLiero,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.NiLwas dead until the beginning of2004when 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'ssource codebecame almost unmaintainable andNiLwas lacking developers. By mid-2005 Alexander Kahl joined development, convinced Christoph to start over and re-think the whole concept ofNiL,as the otherLierocloneGusanosalready existed at that time. Development seems to have stopped around mid-2006.[citation needed]

OpenLieroX

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OpenLieroXgameplay

OpenLieroXis a remake of classicLiero,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

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Classic-likeLieroclone in web browser with multiplayer capability.[24]

Modification

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Lierois 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 andsound effectsfrom 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

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In 2006Lieroreceived a TopDog award fromHome of the Underdogs.[1] OpenLieroXhas been positively reviewed by multiple gaming news sites.[11][12][15][25][26]In 2013Derek Yu's webpageTIGSourcereviewedLierov1.36 favorably.[10]

TheLierovariantsNiL,Gusanos,andOpenLieroXwere downloaded multiple hundred thousand times fromSourceForgealone between 2001 and 2016.[27][28][29]

CallingLieroa "masterpiece",Lierowas selected for a collection of 100 classic Finnish games, which were presented on the opening of theFinnish Museum of GamesinTamperein 2017.[30]

References

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  1. ^abLieroonHOTU(2006)
  2. ^abLiero Wiki: MoleZArchivedMarch 24, 2007, at theWayback Machine
  3. ^"Noita Early Access Launch Date Trailer".Game Developer.August 29, 2019. Archived fromthe originalon August 31, 2019.RetrievedNovember 30,2019.
  4. ^Marcinkowski, Michael (May 26, 2020)."Soldat source code released and a story of how it all started".Game Developer.UBM Technology Group.Archivedfrom the original on June 15, 2020.RetrievedJune 26,2020.'Strike of the Dragon' had platformer tile-based maps and when I conceived Soldat in my mind I knew I wanted to make something like Liero.
  5. ^abofficial Liero wikiArchivedJanuary 21, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  6. ^official Liero wiki about Liero 1.33ArchivedMarch 26, 2007, at theWayback Machine
  7. ^official Liero wiki about modabilityArchivedJanuary 21, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  8. ^See the changes.txt file in Liero 1.34 or newer.
  9. ^license.txtArchived2016-03-05 at theWayback Machineon www.liero.be"The original Liero data and binary files are copyright 1998 Joosa Riekkinen They are, unless otherwise stated, available under the WTFPL license:"WTFPL — do What the Fuck You Want to Public License".Archivedfrom the original on March 13, 2012.RetrievedMay 25,2008.The LIERO.EXE binary contains the SMIX sound library:"SMIX Digital Sound Effects Library".Archivedfrom the original on May 2, 2016.RetrievedJuly 16,2016.The author of SMIX has stated that it is available under a BSD-3-Clause license, with a request for donations for use in commercial products. LIERO.SND contains sounds from Molez:"FRACTiLE Games - Error 404".Archivedfrom the original on August 10, 2011.RetrievedApril 2,2011.Molez is freeware and freely distributable. "
  10. ^abliero-1-36Archived2016-07-20 at theWayback Machineon TIGsource.com (2014-02-14)
  11. ^abcJames Murff."Freeware Friday: OpenLieroX".Big Download.Game Daily.Archivedfrom the original on January 30, 2015.
  12. ^abcd"OpenLieroX review".LANThrax.Archivedfrom the original on January 5, 2016.
  13. ^Liero review with side note about OpenLieroXArchived2010-02-02 at theWayback Machine
  14. ^Liero Xtreme entry in official Liero wikiArchivedJanuary 21, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  15. ^abeGamer about OpenLieroXArchived2012-11-12 at theWayback Machine
  16. ^Ohloh statistics of OpenLieroX[permanent dead link]
  17. ^Czech review of OpenLieroXArchived2016-03-03 at theWayback Machine
  18. ^Change log of all OpenLieroX releases[permanent dead link]
  19. ^Webarchiv of Liero Extreme original release post of Jason Boettcher
  20. ^Original post by Jason Boettcher
  21. ^Notes of original source release
  22. ^Official OpenLieroX homepageArchived2009-10-03 at theWayback Machine
  23. ^Open-source, networkable shooter has Linux gamers buzzingArchived2017-12-22 at theWayback Machineby Lee Anderson, April 12, 2000,CNN
  24. ^Carbajal, Mario."WebLiero".www.webliero.com.RetrievedApril 12,2021.
  25. ^Liero review with side note about OpenLieroXArchived2010-02-02 at theWayback Machineon tigsource.com
  26. ^Liero Xtreme entry in official Liero wikiArchivedJanuary 21, 2009, at theWayback Machine
  27. ^Gusanos - statsArchived2016-10-04 at theWayback Machineon Sourceforge.net
  28. ^OpenLieroX - statsArchived2016-10-04 at theWayback Machineon Sourceforge.net
  29. ^NiL Isn't Liero - statsArchived2016-10-05 at theWayback MachineonSourceForge.net
  30. ^Muistatko vielä nämä suomalaiset klassikkopelit? Nämä 100 pääsevät Tampereen pelimuseoonArchived2017-10-17 at theWayback Machineonaamulehti(15.12.2016,English translation[permanent dead link])
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