Worms (1995 video game) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Worms |
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| Developer(s) | Team17 |
| Publisher(s) |
Ocean Software
GT Interactive
(Macintosh) Tectoy (Saturn) I'Max (PlayStation) Telegames (Jaguar) Sold-Out Software (MS-DOS) |
| Producer(s) | Martyn Brown |
| Designer(s) | Andy Davidson Cris Blyth |
| Artist(s) | Rico Holmes |
| Composer(s) | Bjørn Lynne |
| Series | Worms |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release date(s) |
1995
Amiga
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| Genre(s) | Artillery, strategy |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Worms is a fun 2D video game that came out in 1995. It was made by a company called Team17. This game is the very first one in the popular Worms game series.
In Worms, you control a team of cute but tough worms. You play against other teams, which can be controlled by a computer or your friends. Your main goal is to use lots of different weapons to defeat the other worms. The last team with worms still standing wins the game!
How to Play Worms
Worms is a turn-based game. This means players take turns to make their moves. It's a bit like other old games where you shoot things, such as Scorched Earth.
Each player has a team of several worms. When it's your turn, you pick one of your worms to control. Then, you use the weapons and tools you have to attack the other teams' worms. The goal is to make sure your worms are the last ones left alive.
Moving Your Worms
Your worms can move around the game map in different ways. They can walk and jump to get to new spots. There are also special tools like the "Bungee" and "Ninja Rope." These tools help your worms reach places that are hard to get to otherwise.
Each turn has a time limit. This makes sure the game keeps moving and no one takes too long. You can change this time limit in some Worms games.
Weapons and Tools
There are over 50 different weapons and tools you can use in the game. Before a game starts, you can choose which weapons and tools will be available. You can save these choices as a "scheme" to use again later.
Other settings in a scheme let you change things like "reinforcement crates." These crates drop onto the map and give you more weapons. There's also "sudden death," which speeds up the game if it goes on for too long. You can also add things like land mines and explosive barrels to the map.
What Happens When You Attack
When most weapons explode, they change the ground. They create big, round holes in the terrain. If a worm gets hit by a weapon, they lose health. If a worm loses all its health, it explodes and leaves a gravestone behind.
Worms can also die if they fall off the edge of the map. Or, they might fall into the water at the bottom of the map.
How Worms Was Made
The idea for Worms came from a person named Andy Davidson. At the time, he worked in a computer shop. He loved Amiga computers.
Andy started working on the game in 1990. He first called it Artillery. He got the idea from older tank games. He even experimented with it on a Casio graphing calculator just for fun!
In 1993, Andy moved his game development to the Amiga computer. This allowed him to add more ideas and make the game look special. He wanted the game to have the same funny animations as games like Lemmings. This led him to choose worms as the characters for his game. He tried out different characters using a program called Deluxe Paint.
From Artillery to Worms
After adding worms as characters, Andy changed the game's name to Total Wormage. He was inspired by a programming contest. The game had a huge number of levels, 55,000! People who saw it compared it to Lemmings and Cannon Fodder.
Andy's game didn't win the contest. He then tried to show his game to many different game companies. But no one wanted to publish it.
Finally, in September 1994, he showed his game at a big computer show. There, he met Martyn Brown, who helped start Team17. Martyn liked the game so much that he offered to develop and publish it right away!
Creating Game Levels
The levels in Worms are created randomly. This means every time you play, the map can be different. The game uses a special code to make the levels unique. The game has different themes for its landscapes. These include forests, Martian (Mars-like) lands, beaches, and even hell.
When Worms Was Released
Worms first came out in Europe for the Amiga computer on November 17, 1995. After that, it was released on many other game systems. These included the Amiga CD32, Atari Jaguar, Game Boy, Macintosh, MS-DOS, PlayStation, Sega Mega Drive, Sega Saturn, and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.
The PlayStation version was a bit tricky to release in North America. This was because Sony, the company that made PlayStation, usually didn't want 2D games on their console. The Saturn version was very similar to the PlayStation one.
The Jaguar version came out much later, on May 15, 1998. It was one of the last games ever released for the Atari Jaguar.
Games That Were Planned But Not Released
In 1995, Team17 started working on a version of Worms for Nintendo's Virtual Boy. But Nintendo stopped making the Virtual Boy console. So, the Worms game for it was canceled after only a few weeks. A version for the 32X was also planned but never released.
Expansion Pack: More Worms Fun!
Worms Reinforcements came out in 1996. This was an expansion pack for the original game. It added new things like a single-player story mode. It also let players add their own levels and sounds. Later, this expansion was combined with the first game to make Worms and Reinforcements United. This version was only for computers.
Special Edition: Director's Cut
Worms: The Director's Cut was released in 1997. This was a special version of Worms made only for the Amiga computer. It improved the original game with better graphics and new features. Andy Davidson, the game's creator, made this special edition. Only 5,000 copies were sold. It was also the last Worms game made for the Amiga.
A New Look: The Remake
A new version of the game, also called Worms, was released in 2007. This remake came out for the Xbox 360. Later, it was also released for the PlayStation 3 in 2009. It even came out for the iPhone in July 2009.
The Worms Series
Worms is the very first game in the popular Worms game series. Many other Worms games have been made since then!
See also
In Spanish: Worms (videojuego de 1995) para niños
