What is it?
Lemmings are cute, but not offensively cute little creatures
that drop from a trapdoor at the top of the screen. As soon as they
hit the floor, they start walking. They have no sense for the surreal
beauty of their surroundings, nor for the dangers that lurk beneath
it. They just keep on walking till they meet an obstacle, which will
simply make them revert their direction, or till they fall off some
cliff.
Left to their own device, they will, as mentioned, fall off a cliff, be smashed under a press, dissolved in an acid pool, or fall prey to even more sadistic contraptions. Or they just might find themselves in a pit, wandering aimlessly, endlessly, to and fro.
To prevent these dire fates, you can assign roles to individual lemmings. Blockers just stand there and function as obstacles. Diggers can dig downwards through soft, miners through hard surfaces. Bashers do the same horizontally. Climbers can climb up vertical surfaces, floaters will open a striped umbrella and can safely float down from any height. Builders will build a ramp till they run out of material. Last not least you can assign a lemming the role of a suicide bomber, usually after having him positioned as a blocker somewhere.
Your goal, of course, is to lead as many lemmings as possible (you have to reach a quota, but will soon find that ambition incites you to surpass it) through the exit in the assigned time and move on to the next level. You will be given a codeword so you can continue playing where you left off, there are no savegames. (That goes for the DOS and Amiga versions, in the Windows version there are, and most certainly in the Mac version too). You can choose four difficulty levels (fun, tricky, taxing, mayhem) which are actually four different games.
The graphics of Lemmings are a gem of classical pixel-pushing game art. The lemmings are only eight pixels tall, yet their green hair flies, and the blocker's foot taps. Backgrounds are eerily beautiful, they show what can be done with 32 colors. The music adds some irony to the game.
Lemmings are maybe the greatest gift the Amiga ever gave to the gaming world in general (though Pipe Mania comes to mind, too). The game was ported to most platforms of the time, and sequels were created to the end of the century.
Psygnosis, the developer and original publisher, was bought up in 1993 by Sony, who thus now hold the rights for Lemmings.
Besides the original Amiga, there were versions of Lemmings for at least the following platforms:
Data East developed a Lemmings arcade machine in 1991, but it did not get past prototype stage.
A Macintosh version containing the levels of the first two Lemmings games (Lemmings and Oh no, More Lemmings) was released in 1993. I do not know the exact system requirements but doubt they will be very high. Any color Mac should do. A patch that enables sound on a PowerPC is available.
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NES | SNES | PSX | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lemmings | 90 | 91 | 91 | 91 | 94 | 93 | 94 | 92 | 91 | 95 |
| Oh no! More Lemmings | 91 | 92 | 91 | 95 | 93 | 95 | ||||
| Lemmings 2: The Tribes | 93 | 93 | 93 | 95 | ||||||
| All New World of Lemmings | 95 | 94 | ||||||||
| 3D Lemmings | 95 | 95 |
Not included in the list are the freeware Holiday Lemmings from 1991, 1992, 1993, and 1994, and some spin-offs that departed too far from the basic gameplay concept.
Though sold as a stand-alone game, this was more like an add-on: same gameplay, same engine, but new levels with new graphics, and five levels of difficulty. The graphics are a bit too cheerful for my taste, they missed the eerie quality of the original game.
Lemmings 2 increased the number of tasks you could assign to a Lemming to 45 (or 52, or even over 60, reviewers cannot agree), though each level offers only a few of them. The Lemmings were divided into 12 tribes, which basically meant 12 sets of ten levels sharing the same theme and tileset. Some of the levels now scrolled vertically, too.
Sold as The Lemmings Chronicles in the US, this game brought further changes. It kept the concept of tribes, but included only three of them. Sprites were far larger, so that Lemmings from different tribes could now be dressed differently. The number of tasks was reduced to three, but more variability was added: builders could build in eight directions, blockers could be relieved of their task and start walking again.
3D Lemmings, released on the Playstation first, seems to have been influenced a bit by Doom and the likes. If you type RASPUTIN while playing, the cursor will turn into a crosshair and you can kill Lemmings by clicking on them. These Lemmings are then counted as saved. Apart from this strange cheat the basic gameplay concept was still the same.
After two spin-offs (Lomax and Lemmings Paintball) Psygnosis returned to the original gameplay for this 2000 for Windows only game. Levels, however, are on 3D-cylinders.
The level codes for the original Lemmings game. Should be platform independent.
FUN LEVEL: TRICKY LEVEL: TAXING LEVEL: MAYHEM LEVEL: 1: 1: HBANLMFPDV 1: MFIBAJLNFS 1: NHMFHFALHV 2: IJJLDNCCCN 2: BINCMFHQDO 2: FIBIJLMOFL 2: HMFHFINMHO 3: OHNLHCADCN 3: BAJHLDIBEO 3: IBANLMFPFY 3: MFHFAJLNHX 4: HNLHCIOECW 4: IJHLDIBCEX 4: BINLMFIQFR 4: FHFIJLMOHQ 5: LDLCAJNFCK 5: NHLDIBADEU 5: FAJHLDHBGT 5: HFANLMFPHN 6: DLCIJNLGCT 6: HLDIBINEEN 6: IJHLDHFCGM 6: FINLMFHQHW 7: HCANNNLHCW 7: LDIBAJLFEW 7: NHLDHFADGJ 7: FAJHLDIBIW 8: CINNLDLICJ 8: DIBIJLLGEP 8: HLDHFINEGS 8: IJHLDIFCIP 9: CEKHMDLJCO 9: IBANLLDHEM 9: LDHFAJLFGL 9: NHLDIFADIM 10:MKHMDLCKCX 10:BINLLDIIEV 10:DHFIJLLGGV 10:HLDIFINEIV 11:NHMLHCALCT 11:BAJHMDIJEX 11:HFANLLDHGR 11:LDIFAJLFIO 12:HMDLCIOMCJ 12:IJHMDIBKEQ 12:FINLLDHIGK 12:DIFIJLLGIX 13:MDLCAKLNCS 13:NHMDIBALEN 13:FAJHMDHJGM 13:IFANLLDHIM 14:LHCIKLOOCR 14:HMDIBINMEW 14:IJHMDHFKGV 14:FINLLDIIIN 15:HCEONOLPCU 15:MDIBAJLNEP 15:NHMDHFALGS 15:FAJHMDIJIP 16:CMOLMDLQCV 16:DIBIJLMOEY 16:HMDHFINMGL 16:IJHMDIFKIY 17:CAJHLFLBOT 17:IBANLMDPEV 17:MDHFAJLNGV 17:NHMDIFALIV 18:IJHLNHBCOP 18:BINLMDIQEO 18:DHFIJLMOGN 18:HMDIFINMIO 19:OHLFHBADDV 19:BAJHLFIBFR 19:HFANLMDPGK 19:MDIFAJLNIX 20:JLNACIOEDJ 20:IJHLFIBCFK 20:FINLMDHQGT 20:DIFIJLMOIQ 21:NNHCAKLFDS 21:NHLFIBADFX 21:FAJHLFHBHW 21:IFANLMDPIN 22:NHCMJLNGDO 22:HLFIBINEFQ 22:IJHLFHFCHP 22:FINLMDIQIW 23:HCAOLLNHDW 23:LFIBAJLFFJ 23:NHLFHFADHM 23:FAJHLFIBJJ 24:BINLLFHIDV 24:FIBIJLLGFS 24:HLFHFINEHV 24:IJHLFIFCJS 25:BAJHMFHJDX 25:IBANLLFHFP 25:LFHFAJLFHO 25:NHLFIFADJP 26:IJHMFLCKDV 26:BINLLFIIFY 26:FHFIJLLGHX 26:HLFIFINEJY 27:NHMFHBALON 27:BAJHMFIJFK 27:HFANLLFHHV 27:LFIFAJLFJR 28:HMNHCINMDP 28:IJHMFIBKFT 28:FINLLFHIHN 28:FIFIJLLGJK 29:MFHBAJLNDP 29:NHMFIBALFQ 29:FAJHMFHJHP 29:IFANLLFHJX 30:FHBIJLMODY 30:HMFIBINMFJ 30:IJHMFHFKHY 30:FINLLFIIJQ |
