Linking Leroy

Linking Leroy
Screenshot of gameplay from Legoland 2
Developer(s)	FairLight
Programmer(s)	Bacchus Harlekin
Artist(s)	Ogami
Platform(s)	Commodore 64
Release	19 April 1992 (demo)
Genre(s)	Platformer
Mode(s)	Single-player

Linking Leroy is a cancelled platform game developed by Swedish warez and demoscene group FairLight for Commodore 64. A short playable demo was included as part of FairLight's demoscene release Legoland 2 in 1992. The game features a LEGO astronaut platforming through environments based on classic LEGO themes.

Linking Leroy is one of the earliest unofficial LEGO video games. FairLight members Bacchus and Harlekin developed the Legoland 2 demo hoping that LEGO would approve of the game, but the pitch was not successful. A non-LEGO version of the game was in development in 1996, but was never completed. The game began receiving wider attention online in the 2010s, and FairLight created a new demo featuring Leroy in 2015.

Gameplay

Linking Leroy is a side-scrolling platform game. The player controls Leroy, a red LEGO astronaut from the Legoland Space product line. Leroy can move left or right to scroll the level, and can jump and crawl to traverse obstacles. Touching enemies drains Leroy's energy meter, causing him to lose a life if it runs out; in the Legoland 2 demo, running out of lives causes the game to end and move on to the next demo in the collection. There is also a points counter, but it is not functional.

Two demo levels were created for the game, both of which are short and looping with no objectives. The first level, featured in Legoland 2, is set in a colourful LEGO environment with LEGO houses and trees and a mountainous backdrop. Collectable red bricks are scattered through the level, as are amorphous bouncing enemies. The second level, released separately with the title of Linking Leroy Visits Legoland (credited to "Divine"), takes place on an alien planet and features many Legoland Space sets in the background. This level contains more enemies and no collectables, but includes objects Leroy can bounce off of. Pressing Ctrl+⇧ Shift+⇧ Shift in either demo opens a level editor, where the player can alter the layout and collision.

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  The level editor

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  The space level

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  Linking Leroy Visits Legoland title screen

History

FairLight was formed on 17 April 1987 in Malmö by Strider (Tony Krvaric) and Black Shadow. The two had previously been members of West Coast Crackers (referring to the west coast of Sweden) until that group had disbanded earlier that year. FairLight became known for their fast cracks of games, and went on to release hundreds of cracks for Commodore 64, Amiga, Super Nintendo, and PC. The illegal nature of the cracking scene made it risky, however, and the group began increasing focus on "legal" software development in 1991.

Legoland title screen (1991)

At an internal meeting on 7 October 1991, FairLight released Legoland, the group's first major demo in some time. It was programmed by FairLight members Bacchus (Pontus Berg), Harlekin (Magnus Nyman), Rowdy, and Tron. The release consisted of a number of smaller demos linked together; the developers thus referred to themselves as the "Lego Linkers". The Legoland name was chosen because Bacchus had a connection with a marketing manager at the LEGO Company, who sent the group promotional and giveaway LEGO items such as sweatshirts and bands.

Following the release of Legoland, Bacchus and Harlekin wanted to create their own video game, which they decided to make LEGO-themed. Bacchus came up with the concept and developed the game's controls, scrolling, level editor, and environment detection; Bacchus also named the character of Leroy. Further development was done by Harlekin, including the addition of LEGO graphics created by the group's graphic artist Ogami. The demo featured music by Rob Hubbard, originally composed in 1985 for a cancelled Gremlins game. A preview of the new game, Linking Leroy, was included as one of the demos in the team's sequel to Legoland. On 19 April 1992, Legoland 2 was entered at the Light + Phenomena Easter Party in Alingsås. FairLight members at the party wore LEGOLAND sweaters to advertise their demo. Legoland 2 ranked fifth place out of seventeen entries in the C64 Demo competition.

Level development for the unreleased non-LEGO version of Linking Leroy

Bacchus and Harlekin hoped that the LEGO Company would officially endorse Linking Leroy, but they were unable to get LEGO's approval, and their connection to the company later broke. As other companies would not publish an unlicensed LEGO game, the developers planned to redesign the game to remove LEGO elements from it. However, Ogami did not want to work on the project at the time, so it was temporarily shelved. (Bacchus seemingly still hoped to release the LEGO version, posting on alt.toys.lego on 21 March 1996 asking if a LEGO representative would be interested in it.) Harlekin resumed work on the new version of the game a few years later, once his skills in designing graphics had increased sufficiently. Musician Red Devil (Emil Helldin) was going to supply new music for the project. Titled Linking Leroy visits SpaceLand, the game was to be set in a future where people had colonised other planets in the Solar System to escape overpopulation on Earth. An antagonist named Styggos has planted nuclear bombs on all the planets to destroy them, and Leroy would have to find all the keys to disarm the bombs before they go off. Harlekin announced the game in July 1996, with plans for a downloadable demo level to be available soon. No demo is known to have been released, and the project was apparently abandoned after this.

Leroy, drinking

Despite Linking Leroy failing to attract the LEGO Group's attention, FairLight continued using LEGO in some demos. Legoland 3 released on 29 December 1993 at a demo party in Denmark, winning first place in graphics and music and fourth place overall. In 1996 Rowdy and Tron were developing the demo Legolize It – A Decade of Glory to celebrate FairLight's tenth anniversary, but the project missed its deadline and was cancelled. In a 2010 interview, FairLight member Vodka (who by then had become the group's leader) made a joking remark about The Revenge of Linking Leroy or Legoland 4 being some of the group's possible future projects.

Don't drink and fly

On 5 July 2015, FairLight premiered Drinking Leroy at the Edison 2015 demoscene party, held at the Eggeby gård in Stockholm. The demo consists of a short animation coded by moh, with original music by Zabutom and new graphics by Vodka. In the demo, Leroy lands his ship on an unknown planet and starts collecting alcoholic beverages, eventually entering a bar. Leroy later takes off in his ship and ultimately crashes into another planet; the demo ends with the message "don't drink and fly, drink and die!" Drinking Leroy won second place in the Mixed Demo competition. The FAQ in the demo's end credits notes that there were both historic and future reasons for its LEGO content.