Liero 1.36

By: Derek Yu

On: February 14th, 2014

What better way to spend Valentine’s Day with your sweetheart(s) than playing one of the oldest and best freeware local multiplayer deathmatch games, Liero? Released in 1998 by Finnish programmer Joosa Riekkinen, Liero quickly became a cult classic for its slick controls, destructible terrain, and numerous diverse weapons. Although the original source code was lost, fans have released a number of successful clones and remakes, such as NiL and Gusanos.

Last year, however, a new, “official” version of Liero was released, 1.36. Although not developed by Joosa Riekkinen, Liero 1.36 is more or less an exact simulation of the original and has received the creator’s blessing to use the name. This update runs “on almost any OS”, fixes the few bugs that were present in Liero 1.33, and also adds a host of welcome features, such as post-game stats and an enjoyable new mode, called “Hold a Zone”, where players must claim and protect small sections of the map for a specified period of time.

The AI is also significantly improved, making single-player Liero a viable way to play for the first time. So even if you’re your own Valentine today there’s no reason why you can’t also enjoy the sweet sounds of bleeding worms violently grunting amidst hails of Zimms, Mini-Nukes, Banana Bombs, and other classic weapons.

Multiplayer on One Keyboard 6: Lier…. um, yeah

By: Jordan Magnuson

On: May 14th, 2008

I know, I know, we’re all mature independent gamers here, and we know The Indie Canon like the back of our collective hand; and yes, Open Liero was mentioned here a scare half year ago. Well I’m sorry, but here’s the thing: is there any one here who is really going to stand up and say that Liero doesn’t deserved to be mentioned at least every few months on any self-respecting indie site? If there is one person out there who reads this post, and has not yet played Liero, and plays Liero as a consequence, then this post was not in vain.

So many clones, but there’s only one original; and here’s dos box, for sound.

If I had a million dollars for every time I had fun playing this game, well, I would be richer than Bill Gates—and that’s a lot of millions.

Edit: despite my [snobbish?] loyalty towards the original, it’s true that OpenLieroX is perhaps the definitive version of this game. Download it here.

Open Liero (Beta)

By: Derek Yu

On: September 12th, 2007

Liero was created by Joosa Riekkinen in 1999 for DOS. Since then, there have been plenty of conversions and similar games made, but the original has never made the transition to Windows… UNTIL NOW. (I’ve always wanted to say that.)

Open Liero is technically not a real port of the original game, since the source code was lost many years ago. Rather, it’s a hack that allows you to play Liero in Windows (or Linux), in a window, with the sound support the original was missing. In order to run Open Liero, you must have the original Liero files in the same directory.

Open Liero is still in development, so it’s not fully featured, although it is fully playable. Most but not all of the existing total conversions are supported already.

Good news for Liero fans! (Thanks, basara!)