It soon began spreading on the internet, particularly interesting the owners of low-end computers. It quickly became a popular pastime in Finland and even won some “game of the week” awards. The game was first published in 1998, in the Finnish 'mbit' computer game magazine by Joosa Riekkinen. Liero - originally envisioned to be a top-down-view game - eventually came out as a clone of MoleZ, a similar subterranean shooter game featuring moles instead of worms.
