Lemmings is 20 years old today

http://scottishgames.net/2011/02/11/it-was-20-years-ago-today/

by sambeau • 15 years ago

161 32 15 years ago

scottishgames.net

benwerd• 15 years ago

I miss Lemmings. Is there a version that'll run on today's PCs? Without using Dosbox, that is.

tomafro• 15 years ago

There a browser version: http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/

cstuder• 15 years ago

You should probably mention, that this Javascript-based DHTML-version is from 2004.

I remember being completely amazed seeing that. Javascript was so much harder back then.

sambeau3• 15 years ago

It's owned by Sony these days so it's most likely to find it's most likely to find its way onto PSP if at all.

Leynos• 15 years ago

It was released on the PSP (with updated graphics and extra levels) back in 2006.

slug• 15 years ago

You can give Pingus a try. http://pingus.seul.org/welcome.html

SageRaven• 15 years ago

As a Lemmings fan, I really like Pingus. Very much like the original Lemmings in play and in spirit.

localhost3000• 15 years ago

One of the most memorable games of my childhood. I don't know what a PS3 version would look like, but I'd love to play one.

sambeau3• 15 years ago

I had the privilege of working with Mike Dailly and Russell Kay (and Dave Jones) last year.

Mike and I (and Bill who did the physics for GTA) made a 3D lemmings-like prototype with 100,000 blue & green zombies in a city-like environment. And a cute tank :)

It started (as Lemmings did) with Mike just fooling about trying to see how many sprites he could get animating on screen at once. He managed 1,000,000 of the original lemmings sprites walking around on modern hardware.

Sigh. Happy days.

moe• 15 years ago

There actually was an official "Lemmings 3D" in which you could even switch to the first person view of individual lemmings.

Unfortunately apart from the novelty factor the game-play was pretty bad, nowhere near the 2d lemmings.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAeFxDbNTsA

drblast• 15 years ago

There is a PS3 version, it was a downloadable launch title. I'm sure it's still available, and for 5 or 10 bucks.

Really, really fun; they added some great challenges like a mode where everything is dark except for some candlelit areas.

Splines• 15 years ago

I've played a PSP version, and it had a really neat fast-forward static effect (and seemed pretty true to the original).

A modern version with more mechanics (time travel?) would be much appreciated.

Maakuth• 15 years ago

Someone has taken time to rip some of the music tracks from the game and make them avaiable. http://www.mirsoft.info/gmb/music_info.php?id_ele=NjMz

whatrocks• 15 years ago

I have been crushing these Lemmings tunes on YouTube all morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FM7wBdPYric

I just want to start digging like a maniac. Or blocking traffic. Or laying bricks. Or parachuting with an umbrella.

homecoded• 15 years ago

I loved Lemmings. Is used to write the level codes on little post-it notes and stuck them all around me. After a few days my room looked like Mr. Nash's garage in 'A Beautiful Mind'.

ctdonath• 15 years ago

iPad version please!!!

sambeau3• 15 years ago

It's owned by Sony so that very unlikely I'm afraid

fbailey• 15 years ago

shows how clever it is to be a content producer and hardware manufacturer at the same time..

m_eiman• 15 years ago

Maybe http://www.elizium.nu/scripts/lemmings/ works?

pixelbeat• 15 years ago

There were lots of good games from around then, which I've recently enjoyed playing on dosbox.

You can see screenshots and videos of lemmings et. al. here: http://www.pixelbeat.org/misc/dosbox/

JacobAldridge• 15 years ago

In contrast to the oft-proclaimed response to these sort of things, this news actually makes me feel young. I mean, Lemmings has been around forever, and when forever turns out to only be twenty years I feel much, much younger.

Also, I totally sucked at Lemmings. It wasn't until Worms arrived that I found my cute little animal with a death wish.

Also also - Lemming suicide is basically a fiction created by Disney's Wild Kingdom in 1958. http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/lemmings.asp

hammock• 15 years ago

Same- Lemmings seems like one of those games that's as old as computers

ezy• 15 years ago

Maybe this is different for people who remember a world without Lemmings? I remember buying a copy of Lemmings for the Amiga... so that 20 yrs makes me feel super old. :-)

SwellJoe• 15 years ago

Agreed. I remember when Lemmings was the best game of the year. It was one of few I forked out money for on the Amiga. I wasn't much of a gamer by the time I had moved to Amiga, as I'd found other things to occupy my interest (programming, music, and networks, mostly). Knowing it is 20 years old is a reminder of my mortality, and not a "I'm so young!" moment.

I still find myself playing it for a while whenever anyone posts a link to the online version. And, it's still a compelling gaming experience. Like Tetris, it never really gets old.

isani• 15 years ago

The lemming suicide myth wasn't created by Disney, but it was certainly popularized by them. Various stories about the behavior of lemmings date to the 1500's.

seanc• 15 years ago

If you're looking to recreate the lemmings experience on modern hardware, don't forget Pingus:

http://pingus.seul.org/

My kids and I have hours of fun with this game. My only complaint is that the penguins can't swim.

m_myers2• 15 years ago

Yeah, that always bothered me when I played Frogger too.

akavlie• 15 years ago

"...followed by a cease-and-desist letter from Sony."

I thought that was just a random reference to Sony's recent legal trigger happiness. Didn't realize they actually owned Lemmings until reading comments here.

That was one of the most ported games in history. Imagine all the platforms it could appear on now, if Sony didn't own it.

Qz• 15 years ago

This came up on another thread a while back, but Psygnosis still officially has the awesomest logo of all time.

matthewn• 15 years ago

Lemmini (http://lemmini.de/) is a fantastic way to play Lemmings on modern hardware. (The data files you'll need are easily torrentable.)

Lemmings is 20 years old today

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