hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2404.txt

Episode: 2404
Title: HPR2404: Open Source Gaming #1: Meridian59
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2404/hpr2404.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-19 02:23:05

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This is HPR Episode 2,404 entitled Open Source Gaming Hash 1, Merylion 59, it is hosted
by the dude and in about 15 minutes long, and carries an explicit flag.
The summary is a showcase of open source games, starting with the Revive MMO RPG Merylion 59.
This episode of HBR is brought to you by an honesthost.com, get 15% discount on all shared
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Okay, this is the dude here talking about the world of open source video games.
I'm going to talk about Merylion 59 because not only is it an open source RPG, but it is an
open source MMO RPG. So for those who are broke and need something that's free and don't want to
deal with microtransactions, this MMO is for you. Now it was released, I believe in 95,
could be 96, one of the two. I'm just kind of improvising this thing here, that's normal.
It was originally published by the 3DO company, I believe, and then it went to like a couple
different other companies after 3DO, like went defunct, and it was given to the original developers
and the original developers decided to make it open source. And that's where it is today. Now
the classic versions of the game, you can get off of servers 101 and 102, which are on the
Merylion 59 website. Then there's server 103, which you can get from the open Merylion site. That's
a private server with some newer in-game content. Then there's server 105, which I play on. And it
has a choice between a classic client, a client that's called the ogre client, which improves the
graphics of it. Graphics are similar to Doom, and with the ogre client it makes it a little bit
ahead of Doom. It's around kind of quake-ish with the exception of the enemies and characters
NPCs are still the animated cutouts. Then there's also the server. That's the German server,
I'm not sure what number it is, but that's the most popular one. And it also has the ogre
client and all content that server 105 has. The German server does because they run about
by the same people. Now, explaining about open source, that means you can pretty much do what
you want with the game. You can develop new stuff for the game. That's why it's still alive,
is because it went open source, so you can make your own content. You can probably make your own
ports as well, because currently it only works on windows, although on the classic client for
server 105, apparently works on wine, but the community hasn't really tested it a whole bunch.
So, we could use someone to check that. Also, maybe develop a Linux client, so that way you
have like a MMORPG that is open source and free for Linux or BSD or whatever operating system
that can be made. Now, for the gameplay, it's first person, unless you have the ogre client,
then you can change it to third person. As you can tell, I play on server 105. That's because I
really, really like the ogre client. At the time, it was the most populous, now the most
populous is the German server, and there isn't really a heck of a lot of people on server 105,
hopefully that will change after this podcast to get people interested in the game again. But anyway,
it's first person, you know, hack and slash. Goal of the game is basically, you know, kind of like
while you do quests, you attack monsters. The game has dungeons for players to
do raids on. You also have guilds, and you can have rival guilds by each other. There's at
least three arenas in a rating 59 that I've at least came across. There's the arena and toss.
Actually, there's two arenas and toss. There's the crannin arena, which is like the big Roman
Colosseum one, and below that, there's the arena of death, which looks kind of like an underground
fighting ring and stuff, and then there's the Brax Arena. That's in a place that's called
Ancient Place of Unknown Origin, the Brax Arena is in that. And you can have PVP battles there,
you can also have PVP battles pretty much everywhere except for inside shops and taverns and ends.
But you can have, there's also different factions that you can pick that give you bonuses to
different skill sets that you have. There are no classes per se. There are different schools
and magic and different schools like skill sets. But other than that, there really isn't
exact class. There also isn't really levels. I mean, there are experience points, but instead of
increasing level, you just increased your health with the experience points. So, technically,
your health would be your level. And you also have a mana bar as well that you can
increase by finding different mana nodes that are spread throughout the world of Meridian 59.
As for the backstory, there is a huge, huge, in-depth backstory of the world that you can
find in different books that are throughout the land of Meridian. There's also different
online forums that can explain it better. I know in Server 105, the University of Cornoth,
also has a museum for each different version of the games. It's just this big, huge museum that
explains what all was added, what all hasn't been added. They also have different portals that take
you to old time periods of the game, such as back when in Toss. It is the Duke's nephew that is
now the current Duke since the Duke had been murdered in one of the previous expansions.
And there's also ones that you could possibly might be able to play.
Previous expansions for Castle Victoria, but don't quote me on that, I could be wrong on that,
but if I am, that could be something that could be added for the sheer fact that there used to be
a necromancer scenario that is no longer there. So there are no more necromancers for the game,
with the exception of people that played on the original servers back in when that scenario
was implemented. But for quest, the questing is kind of weird and different. You use the
chat to talk to the NPCs. There's different commands that you in different statements that you
have to type into the chat to activate a quest. Sometimes you have to be part of a guild or part
of a faction or have certain other hit points. Other quests you just have to just say hello or the
right statement to activate that quest. And some of them are just activated as soon as you walk in,
but they use that type of system because of how old the game is, it was considered a graphical
mud and it takes a lot of influences from the old muds of the 1980s. But there isn't really much
else to say besides that the game really has a lot of potential to be played by a lot of newer
people and a lot of potential to really really grow, especially since with it being open source,
someone could literally program it to be able to be ported to every single operating system.
Somebody that wants to start their own server can do their own expansions. Server 105 has different
area expansions such as adding the pharaoh woods and the tutorial village of Raza into the main map,
originally Raza was just a tutorial area that you would go through portal when you couldn't go
back. They added a new area to link it from the main map of Meridian 59 to Raza Slatway. You can
leave and actually come back which really helps because the crypt there eats two people to complete,
so instead of sitting around and hoping someone comes in as a new player to finish the
crypt dungeon, you can actually go about the world and try to run into someone and say hey,
can you help me finish this quest that I have to complete this dungeon? And also there's more
expansions to be made. There was a bunch of people in the community that are trying to make new
areas and increase the size of the game and that seems to be about it. I'd recommend you
all try it out and as many other open source games as well, so I'm the dude signing out.
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