Lemmings (video game)

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This article is about the video game. For the Arctic rodent, see lemming.

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Lemmings {{#if:{{{image\|}}}\|<tr><td colspan="2" style="text-align: center;">{{{image\|}}}
Developer(s)	DMA Design {{#if:{{{publisher\|}}}\|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Publisher(s)<td>{{{publisher\|}}}
Release date(s)	February 14, 1991
Genre(s)	Puzzle
Mode(s)	Single player Multiplayer (on some systems) {{#if:{{{ratings\|}}}\|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Rating(s)<td>{{{ratings\|}}}
Platform(s)	Commodore Amiga, various {{#if:{{{media\|}}}\|<tr><th style="background-color: #ccccff;">Media<td>{{{media\|}}}

Lemmings, a Commodore Amiga computer game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis in 1991, was one of the most popular computer games of its time. Several games magazines of the time awarded the game maximum review scores.

Psygnosis, also known for the WipEout series, had its greatest success in Lemmings. Famously, the concept for Lemmings came from an animation created by Mike Dailly over a lunchtime, to prove a point about how small a character could be on screen.

The game was unique and based around concepts previously untried. There are 120 levels, and on each level, the player must guide a group of up to 100 lemmings home by giving individual lemmings various commands. The "lemmings" of the game are small, green-haired beings that mindlessly walk en masse into any danger in their path. They are not the same as real-life lemmings, although they were named after the popular myth that real lemmings behave in a similar suicidal fashion.

Of the numerous sequels the only one to achieve the success of the first was Lemmings 2: The Tribes, which added twelve specialist tribes of lemmings, each with their own type of level and specialist workers.

The game briefly gave rise to a new genre, described in magazines at the time as the "save 'em up", a joking reference to another popular genre, the beat 'em up.

1 Gameplay
2 Ports
- 2.1 Screenshots of different ports
3 PlayStation Portable Remake
4 Sequels
5 Allusions
6 Similar Games
- 6.1 Similar Games Screenshot Gallery
7 External links
- 7.1 Ports-related
  - 7.1.1 PSP

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Gameplay

The gameplay in Lemmings was radically new for its time. Rather than directly controlling the actions of the tribe of lemmings, the player must choose from a list of preset actions called "skills". Individual lemmings continue to do whatever they are doing until instructed otherwise. That is, a walker will continue to walk until he is assigned a skill (or dies).

The main difficulty in surmounting the puzzles of Lemmings is not only in solving the puzzles, but also in executing them in an efficient way. Some levels are easy to see and plan but when actually attempted become more formidable than first expected.

Each level starts off with the lemmings coming out one by one from one or more entrances. When not executing a skill, a lemming is a Walker that simply walks along the floor it is on. If it walks off a cliff, and the fall is not high enough to kill it, the lemming continues walking in the same direction after it lands. When it walks into a wall, it will turn around and walk the other way. Lemmings generally do not interact with each other (with the exception of Blockers as explained below); for example two lemmings walking towards each other will pass right through each other and keep walking.

There are 8 skills which can be given to lemmings:

Climber: For the remainder of the level, the lemming will climb up any walls it encounters, instead of turning around as it normally would. Any overhang encountered on the climb will cause it to fall down and walk back to where it came from or drop dead when he climbed too high.
Floater: For the remainder of the level, the lemming will gently parachute down falls, allowing them to survive falls from any height. (Non-Floaters die if they fall from too great a height.) A lemming can simutaneously possess both the Climber and Floater skills and is called an Athlete.
Bomber: A number 5 will appear above the lemming's head and count down while the lemming carries on doing whatever it was doing. After about five seconds the countdown finishes, the lemming exclaims, "Oh No!" and explodes, killing the lemming and carving out a small chunk from the surrounding terrain. The explosion does not affect nearby lemmings.
Blocker: The lemming will stop at its current position and cause each lemming approaching to turn around. The lemming will remain a Blocker for the rest of the level, unless the Bomber skill is issued on it or the ground underneath it is somehow removed. If made a Bomber it will still stay put and act as a Blocker until it blows up.
Builder: The lemming will build a ramp diagonally upwards by laying out small bricks forming a staircase. It will stop building if it reaches an obstacle or when a total of 12 bricks have been placed. On most versions the last three bricks make a "click" sound when laid down, giving the player a chance to prepare for re-assigning Builder on the lemming when it finishes building.
Basher: If the lemming is close to a wall, it will start bashing out a horizontal tunnel through it, until it reaches open air again.
Miner: The lemming will mine diagonally down through the floor it is on, using a pickaxe, until it reaches open air.
Digger: The lemming will dig vertically down through the floor it is on until it reaches open air, and will then fall down to the floor underneath and start walking again or drops dead.

Each level has a quota (a fixed limit) for the number of times each of the 8 skills can be issued. Some skills may be unavailable (i.e. a quota of 0) for some levels. For example, on an early, easy level, you may be given a quota of 20 for each of the eight skills, but only 1 or 2 are actually needed to complete the level. On a later, harder level, the quota of available skills may be set such that you need to use them all up to complete the level.

There is also a special command, "nuke", which allows the player to rapidly turn all lemmings into Bombers. This is used to restart the level if the player realizes failure is imminent, or to bring the level quickly to a close if enough lemmings have already been saved.

Each level starts off with a minimum release rate, which determines how quickly the lemmings are released from the entrances. On most versions of the game (including the original Amiga version), the player can raise or lower the release rate at will throughout the game, but can never lower it below the minimum for that level.

Lemmings are pretty delicate creatures and will die under any of the following conditions. They will die if they:

Fall down from too great a height.
Fall off the map.
Walk into water, lava, or slime.
Step into a trap, such as a spring-loaded trap, compressor, etc.
Are ordered to explode.

A lemming is "saved" when it reaches the exit of the level. Each level has a required percentage of lemmings that must be saved. If the player can save at least the required number of lemmings within the time limit of the level, he wins and moves on to the next level. The game lets you retry a level as many times as you need to win it.

Image:SNES Lemmings2Player.png The original Amiga Lemmings also had 20 two-player levels. This took advantage of the Amiga's ability to handle two mice simultaneously. Each player would be presented with their own view of the map (vertical split screen), could only control his own lemmings (green or blue), and had their own base. The goal was to save more lemmings (colour irrelevant) than the other player. Gameplay would cycle through the 20 levels until neither player got any lemmings home.

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Ports

The popularity of the game on the Amiga led to its rapid porting to many other platforms, and is considered to be one of the most widely-ported video games of all time, together with Pac-man and Tetris.

Known ports include: 3DO, Acorn Archimedes, Amstrad CPC, Apple IIGS, Arcade (prototype only), Atari Lynx, Atari ST, Commodore 64, Commodore Amiga CD32, Commodore CDTV, DHTML, DOS, Hewlett-Packard HP-48 series, Macintosh, Mobile phone, Nintendo Famicom (NES), Nintendo Game Boy, Nintendo Game Boy Color, Nintendo Super Famicom (SNES), OS/2 (demo only), Palm, Philips CD-I, SAM Coupé, Sega Game Gear, Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive (Genesis), Sinclair Spectrum, Sony PlayStation, Sony PSP, TI-83 plus, UIQ, and Windows.

While all ports share the same basic characteristics of the game, there are a number of significant differences. For the NES and Game Boy versions, a lemming will only perform actions given to him at specific spots. This results in a delay of the action being carried out, as opposed to an immediate response that occurs in the original game.

In the Sega Genesis/Megadrive version of Lemmings, an additional 60 levels are available, some of which are conversions of Oh No! More Lemmings levels. Some other ports also include additional levels, unique to their respective systems (for example, the Super NES port includes a new difficulty of five levels known as Sunsoft, which is also the name of the company that ported and published that particular version).

Other differences include:

Mouse option - Obviously lacking for some systems, usually making the game harder to play
Two-player levels - Ported only to the Super NES, the Sega Genesis and the Atari ST
Fewer levels - Some ports only have 100 levels
Smaller levels - The maximum level width is shorter on some ports, altering certain levels
Maximum number of lemmings in a level - This varies from 14 to 100
Intro movie and ending credits - Missing or different in different ports
Availability of map thumbnail or release rate buttons
Availability of fast forward button or action replay mode - Options not included in the original Amiga version, although featured in some Lemmings sequels

The Arcade game prototype, made by Data East, had the 666 level removed, and had a conversation of a Data East employee and a Psygnosis programmer about the 666 level, allusions to hell and heaven, and the MENACING!! level (see allusions below).

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Screenshots of different ports

Sinclair Spectrum (1991)	Atari ST (1991)	SNES (1991)	DOS (1991)
Acorn Archimedes (1991?)	Arcade prototype (1991?)	NES (1992)	Atari Lynx (1992)
Master System (1992)	SAM Coupé (1992)	Mega Drive (1992)	Amstrad CPC (1992)
Commodore 64 (1993)	Game Gear (1994)	Game Boy (1994)	3DO (1994)
Windows (1995)	Macintosh (1995)	OS/2 (1995)	Apple IIGS (1997)
Sony PlayStation (1998)	TI-86 (1999)	Game Boy Color (2000)	Palm Pilot (2001)
Mobile phone (2005)	Sony PSP (2006)

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PlayStation Portable Remake

In March 2006, Sony released a remake of Lemmings for the PlayStation Portable handheld console, developed by Team17. It features all 120 levels from the original game, 36 brand new levels as well as DataPack support (similar to the Extra Track system featured in Wipeout Pure), and a "UserLevel" Editor. Every level in the game is a pre-rendered 3D landscape, although their gameplay is still 2D and remains faithful to the original game. UserLevels can be constructed from pre-rendered objects, in a similar manner to unofficial level editors such as LemEdit for DOS Lemmings and LemmEd for Amiga Lemmings 2: The Tribes. UserLevels can be distributed by uploading them to an exclusive Lemmings online community.

The game was released for Japan on 2006-03-09, for Europe on 2006-03-10, and a US/Canada release is slated for May 23, 2006.

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Sequels

Xmas Lemmings, also known as Holiday Lemmings (1991 - 1994) is a series of two small demos of Oh No! More Lemmings, and two full games with their own demos, with Christmas music and snow levels.
Oh No! More Lemmings (1991) - expansion with 100 more levels.
Covox Lemmings - a promotional variant released with Covox sound cards, the game is identical to Lemmings but contains a "Covox" level and seven more levels not found in the original game.
Lemmings 2: The Tribes (1993)
All New World of Lemmings (1994) - The Lemmings Chronicles in North America, also refered to as Lemmings 3
3D Lemmings (1995)
Lemmings Revolution (2000)

Two other Lemmings games were released, although these had entirely different gameplay. These are:

Lemmings Paintball (1996) - A puzzle/action game
The Adventures of Lomax (1996) - A platform game

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Allusions

In the original Lemmings title, each level difficulty rating (Fun, Tricky, Taxing, and Mayhem) had one level with its own unique graphics and music. Each of these levels borrowed the graphics and music from another Psygnosis title. The levels are:

Fun: "A Beast of a Level" used the graphics from Shadow of the Beast.
Tricky: "MENACING!!!" used the graphics from Menace.
Taxing: "What an AWESOME Level" was based on Awesome.
Mayhem: "A BeastII of a Level" was taken from Shadow of the Beast II.

The unique levels were removed from later versions (Lemmings for Windows, Lemmings for Game Boy Color, and the Lemmings which came with Lemmings Paintball). They have been restored for Lemmings PSP, albeit with the landscape style changed to match that of the other levels, and the unique music removed.

There are also two levels, which share the same layout, where the word "heaven" is painted near the top of the screen with an arrow pointing to the exit. The player must build a large, staircase-like bridge to make it to the exit, possibly a subtle allusion to the Led Zeppelin song Stairway to Heaven. It has also been suggested that this is a possible Meat Loaf reference to the song Heaven Can Wait, as the second occurrence of this layout is given the title, "Heaven can wait... we hope!!"

It is of note that the word "Heaven" has been removed from the PSP remake of the game, replaced instead by two hanging cages.

Many of the level themes are arrangements of classical themes and other public domain music, such as the Can-can, London Bridge is Falling Down, and She'll Be Coming 'Round the Mountain.

In the expansion/sequel Oh No! More Lemmings, many of the level titles were allusions to pop culture.

See also: References in Lemmings level names

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Similar Games

CLONES is a multiplayer PC game written by Tomkorp inspired by Lemmings.
Pingus is a free software game inspired by Lemmings.
Mormels is a freeware game inspired by Lemmings.
Shoujo Attack is a freeware game inspired by Lemmings.
Pikmin is a Nintendo game some people claim to be similar to Lemmings.
Lamers is a PC game written by hackers and circulated around the BBS scene in 1992. The objective is to kill the "lamers" who look and behave like lemmings.