Lemmings is a 1991 puzzle and strategy video game developed by DMA Design and published by Psygnosis for the Amiga. It was later ported to numerous other platforms. The game was programmed by Russell Kay, Mike Dailly and David Jones, and was inspired by a simple animation that Dailly created while experimenting with Deluxe Paint.
The objective of the game is to guide a group of anthropomorphised lemmings through a number of obstacles to a designated exit. In any given level, the player must save a specified number or percentage of the lemmings in order to advance. To this end, the player must decide how to assign limited quantities of eight different skills to individual lemmings, allowing them to alter the landscape and/or their own behaviour so that enough of the lemmings can reach the exit safely.
Lemmings was one of the best-received video games of the early 1990s. It was the second-highest-rated game in the history of Amstrad Action, and was considered the eighth-greatest game of all time by Next Generation in 1996. Lemmings is also one of the most widely ported video games, and is estimated to have sold around 20 million copies between its various ports. The popularity of the game also led to the creation of several other Lemmings games, remakes and spin-offs, and has also inspired similar games. However, Lemmings lost considerable popularity by the late 1990s, which was attributed in part to its slow pace of gameplay compared to games of later generations.
Gameplay
thumb|left|Lemmings cross a bridge and tunnel through a rock formation in the Amiga version.|alt=Lemmings building a bridge over a chasm and excavating a tunnel through a rock formation.
Lemmings is divided into a number of levels, grouped into four difficulty categories. Unless assigned a special task, a lemming will walk in one direction ignoring any other lemming in its way (except Blockers), falling off any edges and turning around if it hits an obstacle it cannot pass. A lemming can die in a number of ways: falling from too great a height, drowning or falling into lava, falling off the bottom edge of the screen, being caught in a trap or fire, or being assigned the Bomber skill for five seconds. Every level has a time limit; if the timer expires, all the lemmings explode (even non-Bombers), the level ends, and the player is evaluated on the number of lemmings rescued.
To successfully complete the level, the player must assign specific skills to certain lemmings. Which skills and how many uses of each are available to the player varies from level to level, and the player must assign the skills carefully to successfully guide the lemmings. Climbers climb vertically though fall down if they hit an overhang. Floaters use a parachute to fall safely from heights. Bombers explode after a five-second timer, destroying themselves and any destructible landscape in close proximity, though not damaging other lemmings or traps. Blockers stand still and prevent other lemmings from passing; lemmings that hit a Blocker simply reverse direction. Builders build a stairway of 12 steps, but will stop building when either it hits its head, runs out of bricks, or when the stairway hits a solid object. Bashers, Miners and Diggers tunnel horizontally, diagonally downwards or directly downwards respectively, but cannot break through steel barriers. David Jones, founder of DMA Design, has also commented on the development and success of Lemmings.
left|thumb|Gary Timmons changed Mike Dailly's lemming walking animation (left) to make it appear less stiff.
The inspiration for gameplay came as a result of a simple animated character sprite in an 8×8 pixel box created by Dailly using Deluxe Paint Within a year of its release, the game had been ported to the Atari ST, ZX Spectrum, IBM PC compatibles, and Super NES.
The license to the Lemmings intellectual property had remained with Psygnosis, which became part of Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993 but ultimately folded in 2012, leaving Lemmings as a Sony property. Sony has used that to craft more modern remakes. In early 2006, Sony released a remake of Lemmings for the PlayStation Portable, 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 user-level 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. User levels can be constructed from pre-rendered objects and distributed by uploading them to a PlayStation-specific Lemmings online community. The soundtrack also marks the final video game score created by longtime composer Tim Follin after he announced his retirement from the industry in mid-2005. In October 2006 the game was ported by developer Rusty Nutz for the PlayStation 2 with use of the EyeToy. The basic change in the concept is that the player must stretch and use their limbs in the recorded picture to aid the lemmings.
{| class="wikitable sortable"
!Platform
!Released
!Developer
!Publisher
!Note
|-
|Atari ST
|1991
|DMA Design
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|MS-DOS
|1991
|DMA Design
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|ZX Spectrum
|1991
|DMA Design
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|PC-98
|1991
|BANDIT Inc.
|Imagineer
|
|-
|Classic Mac OS
|1991
|Presage Software
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|Super NES
|1991
|Sunsoft
|Sunsoft
|
|-
|Archimedes
|1991
|Krisalis Software
|Krisalis Software
|
|-
|Commodore 64
|1992
|E&E Software
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|CDTV
|1992
|DMA Design
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|FM Towns
|1992
|4000Do Inc.
|Imagineer
|
|-
|X68000
|1992
|BANDIT Inc.
|Imagineer
|
|-
|NES
|1992
|Ocean Software
|Ocean Software<sup>EUR</sup><br />Sunsoft<sup>NA</sup>
|
|-
|Game Gear
|1992
|Probe Software
|Sega
|
|-
|Master System
|1992
|Probe Software
|Sega
|
|-
|Amstrad CPC
|1992
|Walking Circles
|Psygnosis
|
|-
|Mega Drive
|1992
|Sunsoft
|Sunsoft<sup>NA/JP</sup><br />Sega<sup>EUR</sup>
|
|-
|PC Engine Super CD-ROM²
|1992
|Sunsoft
|Sunsoft
|
|-
|3DO
|1993
|DMA Design
|Psygnosis<sup>NA</sup><br />Electronic Arts Victor<sup>JP</sup>
|
|-
|Lynx
|1993
|DMA Design
|Atari Corporation
|
|-
|CD-i
|1993
|DMA Design
|Philips
|
|-
|SAM Coupé
|1993
|Chris White
|Fred Publishing
|
|-
|Game Boy
|1993
|Ocean Software
|Ocean Software<sup>EUR/NA</sup><br />Imagineer<sup>JP</sup>
|
|-
|CD32
|1994
|DMA Design
|Psygnosis
|Same as CDTV, as CDTV-version is CD32 compatible. Reissue only adds CD32 as format; disc content is the same.
|-
|Windows 95
|1995
|Visual Sciences
|Activision<sup>NA</sup><br />Dice Multi Media<sup>EUR</sup><br />Imagineer<sup>JP</sup>
|rowspan="3"|Bundled with Oh No! More Lemmings
|-
|PlayStation
|1998
|Distinctive Developments
|Psygnosis
|-
|Game Boy Color
|2000
|J-Wing
|J-Wing<sup>JP</sup><br />Take-Two<sup>NA</sup>
|-
|J2ME
|2005
|iFone
|iFone
|
|}
thumb|left|200px|A [[floppy disk containing Christmas Lemmings (1991) for the Amiga]]
Expansions
Lemmings received some expansion packs following its launch. Oh No! More Lemmings, originally released for the Amiga in 1991 both as a data disk or standalone game, added five varying difficulties – 'Tame', 'Crazy', 'Wild', 'Wicked' and 'Havoc' – each with 20 new levels.
| AAction = Amstrad: 97%
| CVG = Master System: 92%
| EGM = Lynx: 6.8/10
<br/>SNES: 7/10, 8/10, 6/10, 8/10
| Fam = Super Famicom: 9/10, 9/10, 8/10, 9/10
| IGN = Lynx: 9/10
| MM = SNES: 92%
| YSinclair = Spectrum: 91%
| Z64=97%
| rev1 = MegaTech
| rev1Score = Mega Drive: 92%
| rev2 = Mega
| rev2Score = Mega Drive: 90%
| rev3 = Commodore Force
| rev3Score = C64: 97%
| rev4 = Mikrobitti
| rev4Score = Amiga: 84%
| award1Pub = Amstrad Action
| award1 = 2nd-best rated game in the history of the magazine
| award2Pub = Amiga Power
| award2 = 2nd-best Amiga game of all time (1991)
| award3Pub = Mega
| award3 = 23rd-best game of all time (1994)
| award4Pub = CGW
| award4 = 12th-best game of all time (1996)
| award5Pub = Edge
| award5 = 82nd-top game of all time (2007)
| award6Pub = Your Sinclair
| award6 = 20th-top ZX Spectrum game of all time (1993, by readers)
| award7Pub = Wirtualna Polska
| award7 = The best Amiga game of all time (2011)
| award8Pub = Next Generation
| award8 = 8th-top game of all time (1996)
| Allgame = 2.5/5 (NES)<br />4/5 (GG)<br />4.5/5 (SNES)
The original sales for Lemmings on the Amiga topped 55,000 copies on the first day of sales; in comparison, Menace sold 20,000 copies and Blood Money sold 40,000 copies cumulatively. With all ports included, Mike Dailly estimated that 15 million copies of Lemmings were sold between 1991 and 2006. In 2011, Luke Plunkett from Kotaku placed the figure at over 20 million, a figure which has been quoted as far back as 1997.
At the time of its first release, Lemmings received several high scores from gaming magazines, with only the level of graphics and sound receiving some small amount of criticism. David Sears of Compute!, in his review of Lemmings for the PC, stated that "perhaps Psygnosis has tapped into the human instinct for survival in formulating this perfect blend of puzzle, strategy, and action." Amiga Computing stated that "Lemmings is absolutely brilliant. Psygnosis have managed to produce a game that is not only totally original, but also features the kind of addictive gameplay that will keep you coming back for more time and time again." A review from the Australian Commodore and Amiga Review (ACAR) stated that "above all, the concept is simple, and the game is a lot of fun." Computer Gaming World stated that "Not since Tetris has this reviewer been so addicted to, or completely fascinated with, a series of challenging puzzles ... follow the crowd and get Lemmings". In 1992 the magazine named it its Action Game of the Year. The game was reviewed in 1991 in Dragon by Hartley, Patricia, and Kirk Lesser in "The Role of Computers" column. The reviewers gave the game 5 out of 5 stars. The Lessers reviewed the Macintosh version of the game in 1993 in Dragon, also giving that version 5 stars.
In the Finnish magazine Mikrobitti, Jukka Tapanimäki gave the Amiga and DOS versions of Lemmings 84 points of 100. He praised the game's originality but expressed criticism for it being repetitive.
In 1994, Electronic Gaming Monthly complimented the Lynx version's large number of options and password feature, and remarked, "Lemmings has always been a good strategy game, and the Lynx version continues the tradition." The following year they reviewed the CD-i version, criticising that it has nothing but the obligatory full-motion video intro to set it apart from the numerous ports of the game that had already been released over the past four years. GamePro made the same criticisms, commenting that "this former 16-bit puzzler isn't going anywhere new on the CD-i."
Next Generations review of the 3DO version assessed that "If you've played any version, you've played this one, too, but if you haven't tried it, this is one of the better ones, and it's still one game that's addictive as hell." and that same year, Next Generation declared it the 8th-greatest game of all time, and "second only to Tetris" in the puzzle genre. In 1991, PC Format named Lemmings one of the 50 best computer games ever. The editors wrote, "Yes, we know it sounds stupid, but you will like it – everyone else has." In 1994, PC Gamer US named Lemmings the 30th-best computer game ever. The editors called it "one of the biggest puzzlers ever released for PC" and "cleaner and less complicated" than its sequel. That same year, PC Gamer UK named it the 25th-best computer game of all time, calling it "a seminal title."
In 1998, PC Gamer declared it the 21st-best computer game ever released, and the editors called it "as fresh and addictive today as it was when it was first released". In 2018, Complex listed the game 70th on its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". In 1995, Total! ranked the game 81st on their Top 100 SNES Games summarizing: "The game that spawned a dozen imitators is still one of the best platform puzzlers available."
Legacy
thumb|left|Three bronze lemming statues by Alyson Conway were installed at Seabraes, near DMA Design's original [[Dundee offices, in July 2013.]]
Lemmings inspired several further games in the franchise, including the Christmas Lemmings short games that were released between 1991 and 1994, and the 1991 expansion Oh No! More Lemmings. Stand-alone sequels were Lemmings 2: The Tribes (1993), All New World of Lemmings (1994), Two spin-off games were also made, both in 1996; Lemmings Paintball and The Adventures of Lomax.
The intellectual property (IP) of Lemmings stayed with the initial publisher Psygnosis, who were acquired by Sony Computer Entertainment in 1993. Sony gained the IP for Lemmings from this acquisition; in 2006 a new game also titled Lemmings was released for PlayStation consoles. The next game in the franchise, Lemmings Touch, was developed by D3T and released in 2014 for PlayStation Vita. Sony eventually licensed the rights to Exient Entertainment, who published a mobile game Lemmings: The Puzzle Adventure in 2018. Exient produced a 30th anniversary documentary of the history of Lemmings, released in February 2022.
Numerous clones of Lemmings were made, including The Humans (1992) and Pingus (1998). Other similar games include Clones (2009), which was described by the developed as "a multiplayer version of Lemmings".
Yannick LeJacq of Kotaku, commenting on the 2014 game MouseCraft which incorporates elements of Lemmings and Tetris, speculated that games like Lemmings would not be very successful in the current gaming market, as the pace of the game is far too slow to satisfy most players.
In 2004, Graham Cormode proved that deciding whether it is possible to complete a level of Lemmings is NP-hard. Later, Giovanni Viglietta showed that the task is PSPACE-complete, even for levels where there is only one lemming to save.
In 2010, it was announced that Lemmings would be ported to the iOS operating system by developer Mobile 1UP, though Sony Computer Entertainment Europe later presented them with a cease-and-desist letter, forcing them to halt development of the port. Mobile 1UP reworked the game to replace the Lemmings with humans in a prehistoric setting, and instead released the game under the name Caveman in 2011. Brutal Deluxe, the developer who did the porting of the Apple IIGS version of Lemmings, has released the port's source code.
Lemmings has also been called a predecessor of the modern real-time strategy (RTS) video game genre. A 1991 Amiga Power article claimed that Lemmings "was the first major game to introduce the 'indirect-control' concept," an element that is now common in many RTS games. Blizzard Entertainment developer Bob Fitch said that part of the inspiration for the first Warcraft game, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, was based on developing a competitive multiplayer RTS that combined elements of The Lost Vikings (which he had worked on) and Lemmings; Fitch said "We just went, 'Oh it's so cool when you see lots of Lemmings all over the place. Why don't we have lots of Vikings all over instead, and then the Vikings can fight each other'." Lemmings introduction of RTS elements has been noted by fantasy author Terry Pratchett; in his novel Interesting Times, an army of golems is controlled in a fashion reminiscent of the Lemmings user interface. When readers asked if this was deliberate, Pratchett responded: "Merely because the red army can fight, dig, march and climb and is controlled by little icons? Can't imagine how anyone thought that... Not only did I wipe Lemmings from my hard disk, I overwrote it so I couldn't get it back."
Lemmings was one of six games featured in a stamp series issued by the Royal Mail in 2020 to pay tribute to the United Kingdom's early video game industry.
References
External links
- Lemmings: Can You Dig It? documentary by Exient
- They made a soundtrack of copyright-free music, a YouTube video documentary regarding the soundtrack of Lemmings