Press START to play
There’s a hum in the room.
Not from the lights. From the tower.
You know the one—beige, scuffed, stickers half-peeled, but it still powers on. Every time.
The desk is a bit too cluttered. A CRT monitor leans back like it’s been through some things. There's a 3.5" floppy in the drawer labelled only “maps – use these.” You don’t remember writing that. You don’t remember forgetting it either.
Outside, the world scrolls past—news feeds, synthetic voices, flashing thumbnails asking you to click just one more.
But here, inside, is a game from 2002 that just launched in 0.3 seconds.
No updates. No accounts.
Just you, and a rocket launcher.
And 15 bots with IQs of soggy toast.
You catch yourself grinning.
Welcome back.
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| A floppy disk containing well-loved game maps |
This is Pixelated Dirt and Glory
A small corner of the web built for creativity, curiosity, and a bit of good old-fashioned fun.
No subscriptions. No pop-ups. No clickbait. Just the kind of nerdy thoughts, tech rambles, and gaming nostalgia that used to fill the internet before it got crowded.
I post about forgotten (and sometimes not-so-forgotten) hardware, games, and other rabbit trails that spark a sense of “hey, I remember that!”
Bookmark the site, drop by once in a while, and follow along as this little project grows — one pixel at a time.
~~~~~
You're still here? Impressive.
To reward your patience, curiosity and/or boredom, I will explain the main inspiration of Pixelated Dirt and Glory: Liero
Liero was released in 1998 — a DOS-era gem built by Finnish developer Joosa Riekkinen. It was simple on the surface: two little worms in a dirt arena, blasting each other to bits with pixel guns and grappling hooks. But beneath that simplicity was chaos incarnate — fast, fluid, and endlessly replayable. It felt like Worms after chugging three slurpees.
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| Liero on the main menu in Windows XP, in 2025! |
It’s the perfect metaphor for what this site’s about: creative chaos, retro grit, and a kind of digital playground where old ideas still feel alive and ready to dig.
Want to go on a nostalgic adventure?
Even now, almost three decades later, you can still play Liero!
Grab the game --> Here
And grab DOSBox, a program to help you run it on modern systems --> Here
If you really want to go old-school, setup WASD and the left side of the keyboard for one player, and the arrow keys/right side of the keyboard for the other! Two players on the same keyboard?! Yup. No online play, no accounts or servers, just good old-fashioned mayhem!
Liero gets even better.
The original Liero, inspired by Worms (including some of the same weapon styles and names), is limited to two players and same-system play, but in 2003 came Liero Xtreme. Developed by Vincent Lahaye, this version is a complete Windows-friendly remake and expansion of Liero. It includes:
- Custom weapons and levels
- Online and LAN play
- Smoother graphics and higher resolutions
- Mod support
Naturally, the modding community exploded! (pun intended, because Liero) The game got endless mods inspired by popular games and IPs.
Development on Liero Xtreme slowed around 2006, but then, thanks to a strong fan base, came OpenLieroX.
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| Screenshot courtesy of openlierox.net |
OpenLieroX directly forked from Liero Xtreme source, which had been partially opened by the dev community and it brought with it:
- Linux and macOS ports
- Network code overhaul
- New modding/scripting capabilities
-Better performance, stability and modern resolution support.
To this day, OpenLieroX is still maintained sporadically by open-source contributors. It remains the "modern" Liero.
And much like Liero, you can absolutely download OpenLieroX and play it!
--> Here
What does the future of Liero look like?
There's a very simple answer to that question: Whatever we want it to look like! We can still pass the classic Liero 1.33 from PC to PC via floppies (though USB is probably easier), or fire up a little server and engage in some pixelated dirt and glory!
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