I'm fearless in my heart
They will always see that in my eyes
I am the Passion
I am the Warfare
I will never stop...
Always constant
accurate
intense...
Steve Vai "The audience is listening"
SOFTWARE REVIEW: LEMMINGS BY PSYGNOSIS
(Including ST passwords and some info about real Lemmings)
by Richard Karsmakers
For this story, dear reader, it is needed to venture way back in
history. As a matter of fact, reversely speaking, we will have to
leave history behind us and explore the times of 'pre-history',
when mankind barely existed - let alone write anything about the
weird and wonderful things that happened to him.
It is in this time that we meet a predecessor of modern man, who
we will, for the sake of easy reading, call 'Grønt'.
"Grønt."
Grønt looked up, awaking at suddenly hearing his name called
out, and startled when discovering it was his stomach that had
called.
He would have to make a mental note of this one day, as it
tended to happen every morning.
He looked around him and saw the sun rising in the west, deep in
the innards of a huge fjord - only, of course, he didn't know it
was a sun that rose there, let alone that it was a fjord above
which this phenomenon happened.
"Grømble."
He startled again as his stomach seemed to cry out the name of
someone he didn't recall ever having met before. He'd better get
some food into him soon, otherwise there was no telling to who
would all turn up here. Eating always used to shut his stomach up
- until the next morning, of course, when it would wake him up
calling him names again.
He walked towards the yellow orb in the sky, instinctively
sensing there was likely to be some food in that direction.
Before we continue with this tale, you should know one
thing: Prehistoric Man is not easily startled - instead, he is
only easily and very sincerely and completely flummoxed.
So Grønt was quite flummoxed when he looked at an enormous piece
of writing located on one of the fjord cliffs. He gazed at it for
the largest part of the morning, but couldn't make any sense of
it at all.
"Grømpledegrønt!"
His stomach was clearly trying to make a point there, and it
quickly reminded Grønt that he had more to do rather than stand
aimlessly around and gaze at the word "Slartibartfast" all
morning.
He was amazed by the fact that that strange thermonuclear fusion
reaction in the sky had moved so much during his ponderings - but
not half as amazed as he was by the furry little creatures that
started hurling themselves down a cliff's face, connecting
themselves in a lethal way to the ground not more than thirty
steps ahead of him.
For a moment he stood there, being silently, sincerely and
utterly flummoxed again. Then a bright light bulb appeared in a
small fluffy cloud above his head.
"Føød!" he cried joyfully.
At that precise instant, a contraption from outer space tried
to land exactly in front of him. It hovered a bit above the
ground much in a way a hesitant spaceship would do, and then
finally touched down.
A ramp extended itself, from which came a creature walking down.
The creature, so Grønt was kinda truly flummoxed to see, looked a
lot like him. It had his genitals covered, however. How
shockingly rude!
The creature stepped down towards Grønt, who stood rooted to the
ground in a rather extremely flummoxed way. To anyone familiar
with the words, the phrase 'insanely witty' could have sprung to
mind.
"Might you perhaps be Grønt Eggesbø Abrahamsen?" the creature
asked.
"Grønt?" Grønt replied, and started hopping up and down as if
immensely happy, rolling his eyes and flapping his ears.
The creature nodded, humming the middle segment of Yngwie
Malmsteen's "Trilogy Op:5", and ticked a box on a sheet of paper
he had taken with him from the spaceship.
Things were going smoothly for Wowbagger II, son of
Wowbagger. Unlike his father, the Infinitely Prolonged, who had
set out to insult the entire universe in alphabetical order,
Wowbagger II, the Even Less Finitely Prolonged, had decided to
insult all people of all times in the entire universe in
alphabetical order. Quite a formidable task, one might say, but
as he had immortality in his genes and had a CUNTT (Compact
Universal Nuclear Time Traveller) at his disposal, he reckoned
he was quite capable of doing it.
He had just started with a new name - Eggesbø Abrahamsen. He had
made a habit of starting with oldest representative of the family
name. This prehistoric man, Grønt Eggesbø Abrahamsen, was the
first in this case.
Grønt still hopped up and down as if insanely happy.
"Nøndeju!" the Prehistoric Man cried as if something
unbelievably exciting was happening right before his eyes,
"Nøndeju!"
Wowbagger II didn't heed the cries the Eggesbø Abrahamsen
progenitor uttered. Instead, he took out a kind of calculator
with had, for some strange reason, "DON'T PANIC" written on it in
large, friendly letters.
He typed in the coordinates of the place where he was at the
moment, followed by a text.
"Hmm," he muttered, "they speak Norwegian here."
As the prehistoric man looked unpredictable enough for
Wowbagger II to decide that trying to insert a Babel Fish in the
ancestor's ear might prove dangerous, he instead put it in his
own mouth.
"Grønt Eggesbø Abrahamsen," Wowbagger II said solemnly, "you're
a jerk."
The Babel Fish instantly translated the voice into Norwegian,
but this did not seem to affect the Prehistoric Man.
Grønt still hopped up and down in a rather insanely happy way
when Wowbagger II ticked another box on the sheet of paper,
turned on his heel, re-inserted the Babel Fish in his own ear and
made the calculator-like thing disappear in a pouch hanging at
his side.
Then The Even Less Finitely Prolonged suddenly saw them: Little
creatures that hurled themselves from the nearby cliff face,
behind his spaceship.
"Whattaf..." Wowbagger II uttered, and went closer to
investigate.
Even as he looked, more of the little creatures smashed to
ruthless deaths on top of their crushed and splattered little
buddies.
At that instant, a sense of Purpose coarsed through The Son's
veins with deafening speed. He instinctively felt that his
immortality now suddenly had a Reason, a Purpose beyond purpose.
It was not to insult the entire universe in alpha-chronological
order, but...
TO SAVE THE LEMMINGS!
It was as if some divine being had whispered the cause in his
ear. He shuddered. He shook. He trembled. He felt himself fill
with The Purpose. Nausea overtook him for the briefest of
instants, but he quickly regained control of himself.
He cleared his throat.
"STOP!" he yelled with a voice so full of Power that it made
Grønt stop hopping up and down in that peculiar, insanely happy
way.
The lemming that was just about to hurl itself down the cliff
stopped abruptly, causing the followers to bump into him and turn
around, back to their breeding place - where they would frolic
and f...er...multiply until the end of their days (that is, until
there were again too many so that they had to migrate into a
random direction again).
Wowbagger II The Even Less Finitely Prolonged looked around
himself in a decidedly smug way.
Then he disappeared back into the bowel of his spaceship. After
a bit of hovering above the ground like some kind of hesitant
spaceship, it took off to dazzling heights, disappearing.
Grønt didn't really know what to think of all this. On this
particular morning, he had been confronted by the sun, a fjord,
hunger, mysterious inscriptions on a wall, a spaceship, a space
creature, and free food that came hurtling itself at his feet.
He knew there had been something important between all of those
experiences. Something that...
Ah!
"Føød!" he growled with a strangely insane look settling on his
face.
He dove into the warm pile of lemming corpses, tore furs and dug
his teeth into the warm bellies filled with lemming entrails.
Grønt has been known to live happily everafter. Lucky for the
Eggesbø Abrahamsen family - and less luckily for humanity as a
whole - he found a female that liked his peculiar way of
sweettalking ("Grønt? Grønt! GRØNT!!") so that his name was not
to die out. Eventually, he was to have a descendant known as The
Minute One. This particular specimen still looks rather insanely
witty.
Grønt Eggesbø Abrahamsen died in 999.951 BC when he choked
himself on lemming entrails.
*****
Prelude
Everything started in the autumn of last year, when one of my
colleagues at Thalion Software showed me a demo on the Amiga of a
new game made by UK company Psygnosis. The game was called
"Lemmings", and he was particularly impressed by it.
He played a couple of demo levels as I looked, and it was then
that I instantly realised that this must be one of the cutest and
most original concepts to appear since years. And it turned out
to be pretty damn addictive as well.
Although of course I wanted to get my hands on this game, it
kinda got forgotten because Psygnosis took a bit of time to have
it released on the ST. That was a bit of letdown.
At the beginning of this year, the first previews of the game
appeared, unfortunately only on the Amiga. The first reviews
followed. The press was unanimous: "Lemmings" was a brilliant
game worth every penny spent on it. It was original, addictive...
Most magazines lost themselves in the concoction of new words
and phrases to describe how good this game was.
Not long after that, the rumour was spread that the ST version
would be really crap. It would be done by DMA design, who were
supposed not to know how to port it from Amiga to ST properly. I
was somewhat surprised there, as DMA design had previously done
"Menace" and "Blood Money" - especially the latter was craftfully
converted and immensely playable as far as I was concerned (I
still play "Blood Money" regularly as I have not yet quite
managed to complete the fourth world).
Anyway, the graphics were supposed to be of miserable quality,
and so was the music. Even the playability, the strongest feature
of the game, would have decreased significantly. The nice intro,
the rumour would have, was supposed to have been omitted
entirely.
Let's have a quick glimpse
So when I finally got my hands on the ST version of the game,
one nice Friday afternoon, I went to sit behind my computer with
some reservations.
"Let's have a quick glimpse at what it looks like," I thought,
"then I can have a bite to eat afterwards and watch my favourite
TV show."
It was past midnight when I went to bed. I hadn't eaten nor had
I seen a second of my favourite TV show. When I closed my eyes,
all I could see were little creatures building bridges, digging
holes and dropping down on the insides of my eyelids.
I slept terribly.
The entire weekend following was spent playing "Lemmings". I
lost quite a bit of weight, and also had a 'difference of
opinion' with my girlfriend because of the solution to a
particularly difficult level.
Lemmings
The principle of "Lemmings" is actually very simple, but just
difficult enough to make sure it's almost impossible to explain
to someone who hasn't seen it yet.
The game consists of 4 clusters of 30 levels in one player mode,
plus an additional 20 levels for two-player mode. Every level is
a contraption of variedly shaped platforms that vary from very
easy at the beginning to positively intricate in the later ones.
Every level can be five to six screens in width!
Somewhere on each level is a hatch from which you will find
little creatures dropping, one by one. The speed with which they
fall can vary between a set minimum speed and a maximum speed of
100 of these creatures per time unit. These creatures are the
infamous lemmings around which the entire game is built up.
Just like real lemmings (little creatures that look a bit like
hamsters - more about these (the lemmings, that is) later on),
their computerised counterparts are as daft as a brush. They will
all just walk in the same direction until they bump into
something, which will cause them to turn around until they hit
something else again.
On the other side of a level is, usually, a gate. This is the
exit, and the target of the game is to get the lemmings through
that exit. At the beginning, only a minor percentage of all the
creatures have to be saved, but on higher levels you will find
that it often occurs that 100% has to be saved, i.e. none are
allowed to perish. On many other levels only a couple are allowed
to die - so should they have to die they'd better die for a good
cause!
To assist the lemmings in getting safely to the exit, it is
possible to give a certain number of lemmings certain
instructions. This can be done by selecting from several icons in
a panel at the bottom of the screen with the mouse cursor, and
then clicking on the lemming you would like to perform that
particular action. Most instructions can only be selected a
certain number of times, and some not at all - this depends on
each level, where these parameters are individually determined.
In the beginning, only one type of action can be selected, which
serves to teach you exactly what you can do. In the last levels,
you will have only a precise amount of certain actions at your
disposal - so there can be no wasting there!
The instructions
CLIMB
Once given this instruction, a lemming can climb objects that
would normally cause it to bump and turn around.
FALL
Lemmings are allowed to fall quite a distance, but once this
gets too big they drop dead. By giving them an umbrella icon,
they can drop endless. If you give them an umbrella as well as
the climb icon, the lemming becomes an athlete.
STOP
The lemming that is given this instruction will immediately
stand still and stop all its buddies (who will bump into it and
turn around). This is the way to prevent them all from falling
into a chasm, for example. The disadvantage of a stop instruction
is that the lemming will have to be exploded to get rid of it
(which causes it to die, of course).
EXPLODE
The blowing up is done with this. Apart from getting rid of
stoppers, you can also use it to have lemmings explode themselves
through things like floors or walls, which is needed on the
higher levels where you might have no diggers as your disposal.
BUILD STAIRS
As lemmings will die when dropping into water, lava or boiling
acid, they have to build stairs to bridge gaps. Deep chasms can
also be conquered this way. When given this option, the lemming
will start building diagonal stairs. After a while it will stop
(when it runs out of bricks, builds into a wall or bumps its
head) and shrug. You can then quickly let him continue to build
by giving him the same instruction again. A nice use for building
stairs: When you want a lemming to stop digging before it has
reached clear air, you can have it build stairs - it will
promptly hit something, causing it to stop building. And by then
it has already stopped digging!
DIG HORIZONTALLY (BASHER)
When a wall blocks your way (one that is not made of steel
through which you cannot dig!) you can have a lemming dig its way
through this using the 'dig horizontally' command. There are also
walls that you can only dig through in one direction (which is
usually not the one that you're heading for...).
DIG DIAGONALLY DOWN
The lemming will start digging a way diagonally down using a
pickaxe - until it runs into clear air.
DIG STRAIGHT DOWN
The lemming will start digging straight down until it runs into
clear air. Watch out: It may not dig too deep, as other lemmings
falling in it will then fall to death!
An example
On one of the earlier levels there is a horizontal wall on which
the lemmings fall at the left side. The exit is on the right side
and all lemmings start walking towards it.
Unfortunately there's a hole in the middle, over which stairs
have to be built to avoid them from falling through.
You will notice, when one lemming starts building stairs, that
the others will continue walking. They will also walk over the
stairs even when they're not yet finished, causing them to drop
down and die. This can be solved by letting the first lemming
after the stairs-builder become a stopper. The rest will bump
into that one and turn around.
Crikey!
There is nothing on the left side of the horizontal wall against
which they can bump and turn around, which means they will drop
down there and die anyway! So another stopper has to be activated
at that spot (any spot left of the entrance hatch and to the
right of the edge).
The lemmings will now peacefully stroll to and fro between both
stoppers until the stairs have been finished.
You now have to blow up the right stopper so that they will all
walk over the stairs, safely towards the exit gate. When no
lemmings are walking to the left anymore, you can blow up the
left stopper.
That's all folx.
Nuke 'em
The above was only a simple example. The final levels are far
more complicated, where you'll have to build and dig with
specific lemmings simultaneously, and keep an eye that they do it
properly. The time limits also have a tendency of getting very
strict.
For the purpose of getting rid of situations out of which you'll
never get with the proper amount of lemmings saved, Psygnosis
have included another icon in the instruction panel.
It contains the picture of a small nuclear explosion.
Double-clicking on this will cause every single lemming on the
screen to get an explosion countdown, which causes them to
explode quite spectacularly as if in a huge chain reaction,
blowing up their surroundings and everything. Nice to see.
Hooked
As I already said - the levels start off real easy. You have
plenty of time, and you only have to save a couple of lemmings
even if you could easily save 'em all. The various instructions
are individually taught, and are then gently combined so that you
get to know what you can do with specific instructions, and
combinations of those instructions. The learning curve is very
flat at the beginning, but it will soon reach for the skies
drastically. By then, the game will already have an iron hold on
you. Level after level will get conquered and you simply don't
want to give up.
Lucky enough, each level ends with the specification of a
password that will let you enter the next one without having to
go through all the previous ones again. This means that you never
have to play a completed level twice, and that you don't have to
play the whole damn game in one session (which would mean you'd
be playing for about a week or more without sleep or food).
Later in the game, some of the levels will seem similar.
"Hey, I know that level...you just have to put a stopper there
and then..."
Oops. No stoppers can be selected! Another method has to be
sought!
...
"Surprise, surprise!"
Apart from the excessively exquisite, excitingly excellent
playability, "Lemmings" has even more to enthral the player. The
graphics are greatly varying, and as the levels proceed you will
also see various different traps in them. Cables that hang, and
fling lemmings up to die. Sixteen-ton weights that hang
menacingly above the shortest and easiest way to the exit gate.
Little traps that, when touched, incinerate a lemming. Heavy
thumpers that try to make lemming marmalade. And there's even a
level that has no visible exit gate.
There are also some levels where one suddenly finds himself in
another game. For example, with 100 lemmings one suddenly finds
oneself in a level of "Beast" (with matching music) or the shoot-
'em-ups "Menace" or "Awesome". There's even a level made up
solely of arcs that's called "Rainbow Island".
This really makes the game quite appealing, as one regularly
finds out something new about the game. Yes, I suppose the
designers of "Lemmings" know how to keep long-term interest in a
game.
Technically speaking
In spite of the system with passwords, that makes sure that
you're not going to play finished levels again and that makes
sure you'll never play the game again once you've completed it,
the game doesn't lose any long-term interest. The higher levels
take very long to complete, even though the hours spent puzzling
fly by as if they merely were minutes.
Technically the game is also OK, in spite of rumours to the
contrary. The sound is less than that of the Amiga of course, but
the quality is perfectly matching. The lack of 32 colours is also
not noticable, although one does miss a couple of shades in the
intro. The intro, by the way, is also very nice and extensive. It
surely makes one wonder how they slam all those levels, the
program code and the intro on one double-sided disk.
Even when about 100 lemmings are strolling leisurely across the
screen, many of them doing particular jobs, the game doesn't slow
down too much. DMA design has done an OK job here. The actual
design is OK as well, with minimum loading times.
Two player mode
As briefly mentioned before, "Lemmings" also contains a two-
player mode. We're talking split-screen simultaneous two-player
mode here, so no dumb stuff with two people that are supposed to
play after each other.
Both players play in the same level, and the target is to get as
much lemmings as possible through your own exit gate (each player
has his own exit gate). Of course, you should try to get more
than half of those that actually exit, so you can beat your
opponent.
Unfortunately, the ST does not support two mice and that is the
only drawback of the ST version as opposed to the Amiga one:
Player number two has to play the game with the joystick,
which needs quite a lot of getting used to. This takes quite some
getting used to, and succeeds in decreasing the two-player mode's
appeal quite a bit.
There is also one other major thing that I consider to be
strange: Each player has a gate with a flag above it (one is blue
and the other is green). But the player can only control the ones
with the other color than the flag?! This tends to be awfully
confusing, actually.
Since the two-player mode is split-screen, each player has a
smaller screen area at his disposal, which often means that he
starts to scroll when coming too near to the edges when this is
not wanted. The fact that there is no possibility to speed up the
arrival of the lemmings is also somewhat tedious: When you have
finished making your path is can take a long time of waiting for
all your lemmings to finally arrive.
If you really compete in the two-player mode, the game is
downright frustrating. All you need to do is put a stopper on the
way of your opponent, or blow his stairs to bits. Really
aggravating, and you have to have a good bond of friendship with
the second player not to smack him in the face regularly.
Concluding
I know software reviewers very often test a game, concluding to
find it "the best yet" or "best I've seen in years". You know
what I mean. Another thing I know is that ST NEWS is virtually
the last magazine worldwide to review "Lemmings" (this was
because Volume 6 Issue 1 was a special one, and since we don't
appear as often as we should).
So there are scant ways to tell you exactly what I think of
"Lemmings". All the usual words of praise have been used before -
even for games far inferior to this product. I also don't believe
in seriously awarding more than a score of 10 to a game, even
though "Lemmings" deserves them more than any game title I have
come across during my six years of heavy computing (I am trying
not to brag here, but just make a point).
All I can say is that I know "Lemmings" has cuter graphics than
"Bubble Bobble", more challenging puzzles than "Rick Dangerous
II" and a more original concept than "Populous". Above all that,
its addictiveness is even beyond that of "Arkanoid" and its
playability is better than "Chip's Challenge" (Lynx version). I
have never experienced anything quite like it - nor have I played
a single game quite that long.
The most fascinating about "Lemmings", however, is the fact that
literally everybody who plays it finds it instantly appealing,
exciting and incredible: Platform-and shoot-'em-up freaks,
simulation-and RPG-geeks, males, females, young and old. Even
people that normally hate games grudgingly put aside their
principles to play "Lemmings".
Hours. Days. Weeks.
Finally, since far too long a time, Psygnosis have broken a
barrier again. They have kept the competition grasping for air,
struggling for the honour to have a longing look at what they can
never achieve.
"Lemmings" is a breathtaking game one should simply not be
without. I think it is justified that it won the European
Computer Leisure Awards as 'best game'. Very much so.
Game Rating:
Title: Lemmings
Company: Psygnosis
Graphics: 8
Sound: 8
Playability: 10
Hookability: 10
Value for money: 10
Overall rating: 10
Price: £24.99
Hardware: Colour monitor
Remark: Too good to be true. Amazing.
The passwords
I am utterly proud to be able to present to you the passwords of
most of the levels of "Lemmings". Thanks to Miranda for helping
me in the conquering of many levels!
Many magazines (including some ST-specific ones) have already
published the passwords to this game, but they have all ended up
with the Amiga passwords (har har). So ST NEWS has a bit of an
exclusive here - the ST passwords to the game!
Of course, you're a weakling if you use them, but some of the
levels are very frustrating and I wouldn't want to lose an ST
NEWS reader to some Asylum for the Mentally Extremely Corrupted.
I would also like to mention that the June issue of "ZERO" had
some pretty brill tricks for the game, complete with pictures and
diagrams of how to conquer specifically different levels (the
passwords there were all Amiga, though).
Well, here they are. The passwords. Don't use 'em after really
trying a level, 'cause the game's a load more fun if you actually
complete all levels yourself!
If you use 'em without much thought anyway, you're a thoughtless
clot!
Maybe I should mention that there seem to be different sets of
passwords for this game - also on various ST copies! So these may
not work...
FUN LEVEL
01 - DIPSTICK!!
02 - IJJLDNCCCN
03 - DHNDJBADCW
04 - HNLJCIOECY
05 - LDNCAJNFCM
06 - DNCIJNLGCV
07 - NCANLLDHCQ
08 - CINNNLJICR
09 - CEKHMDNJCQ
10 - MJHMDNCKCY
11 - NJOLNBALCM
12 - HMDNCINMCK
13 - MDNCEJLNCX
14 - DNCIJNMOCO
15 - NCANNMDPCL
16 - CINLMDLQCQ
17 - CEJHLFNBDJ
18 - IKHNFJCCDN
19 - NJNNJCADDT
20 - JNNJCIOEDN
21 - LFNCAJLFDN
22 - NJCIKNNGDP
23 - NCAOLLFHDU
24 - CINLNNJIDS
25 - CAKJMNJJDV
26 - MJHMFNCKDL
27 - NJMFNCALDW
28 - HONJCIOMDU
29 - ONJCEJNNDS
30 - NJCIJNMODV
TRICKY LEVEL
01 - JCENNONPDY
02 - CMOLMFNQDK
03 - CAJJLDOBEX
04 - IJHNLKCCEV
05 - OHLDKCEDEM
06 - HLDOCMNEEY
07 - LLKCAJLFER
08 - DOCMJLLGEK
09 - OCEOLLDHEY
10 - CMNLLDOIEQ
11 - CAJHMDOJEO
12 - IJHMDOCKEX
13 - OHOLKCALEL
14 - JODKCINMEN
15 - MDOCAJLNEW
16 - LOBIJNOOEK
17 - KCANLMLPEQ
18 - CINLMDOQEV
19 - CAKHNNKBFP
20 - IJJLFOCCFT
21 - NHLFOCEDFS
22 - HLFOCINEFX
23 - NNKCAKLFFX
24 - KKCIJNLGFX
25 - OCENLLFHFK
26 - BIOLNFKIFN
27 - CAJJMFOJFT
28 - IKJONKCKFT
29 - OHMFOCELFM
30 - HMFOCMOMFV
TAXING LEVEL
01 - MFOCEKLNFO
02 - FOCMKLMOFX
03 - KCAONONPFY
04 - CINNMFOQFK
05 - GEJJNDJBGO
06 - MJJNLJGCGP
07 - NHNLJGCDGY
08 - HLDNGMOEGO
09 - LDNGAJNFGU
10 - DNGIJNLGGN
11 - NGANNLDHGK
12 - GINNLDNIGT
13 - GAJHMLJJGX
14 - MKHMDNGKGR
15 - OHMDNGALGK
16 - HMDNGMOMGX
17 - MDNGEJLNGP
18 - LJGMKNOOGR
19 - NGENLMDPGV
20 - GINNOLJQGS
21 - GAKHLFNBHO
22 - IJJLFNGCHY
23 - NJLFNGADHV
24 - HLFNGINEHM
25 - LFNGAJNFHX
26 - FNGIJNLGHQ
27 - NGEOLLFHHQ
28 - GINNLFJIHS
29 - GAKHMNJJHL
30 - IKHMFNGKHQ
MAYHEM LEVEL
01 - NJMFNGALHO
02 - JONJGIOMHO
03 - ONJGEJNNHK
04 - FNGIJNMOHJ
05 - NGANNMFPHW
TWO PLAYER MODE
01 - DIPSTICK!!
02 - JAJHLDKBMQ
03 - NHLDKJADMW
04 - HLDKJINEMP
05 - LDKJAJLFMY
06 - DKJIJLLGMR
07 - KJANLLDHMO
08 - JINLLDKIMX
09 - JAJHMDKJMJ
10 - IJHMDKJKMS
11 - NHMDKJALMP
12 - HMDKJINMMY
13 - MDKJAJLNMR
14 - DKJIJLMOMK
15 - KJANLMDPMX
16 - JINLMDKQMQ
17 - JAJHLFKBNT
18 - IJHLFKJCNM
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Another bit about software ethics
Maybe you have read my article about "The ST's Death" in ST NEWS
Volume 6 Issue 1. Maybe you haven't. The article was about piracy
and its serious threat for software on the ST.
I would like to appeal to all you crackers out there not to
crack a game as good as "Lemmings". The authors deserve their
money for this one, and I personally think you should be pinned
to a wall hanging by your gonads if you crack it anyway. You do
not deserve to breathe the same air as the people behind
"Lemmings"!
In case you are just someone who is spreading a cracked version
of the game, I would like to tell you that I think you deserve to
have your foreskin removed by an exceedingly blunt knife.
Enough said.
Lemmings II
The game "Lemmings" is actually based on a supposed natural
instinct of a real animal that's actually alive on the planet
earth. Remarkably, this animal is called 'lemming'.
Unlike what most people think they know about these little
animals, they are not very suicidal. More about that later.
Lemmings are about 10-15 cm long, with a tail of 2.5 cm or less.
They have a thick-set figure, a thick fur, a blunt snout, little
eyes and small ears that are hidden within the fur. They look
really cute and could be mistaken for someone's pet.
They are solitary little creatures that only get sociable when
they migrate to somewhere which only happens if too many live on
too small a spot. If their surroundings get too crowded they move
somewhere in no particular direction - which may very well be in
a sea or a river in down a ravine. They do not do this to commit
suicide, but because they assume that wherever they're heading
there's bound to be enough space to live. They haven't got the
foggiest idea of the harshness of a ravine bottom, nor the
immenseness of a sea.
They can swim very well, but with high waves they drown by the
hundreds, of course.
Turbo lemming
It is actually a miracle why rabbits have the name of being
able to er...breed very fast, because lemmings seem to beat them
hands down. Several times a year, a female can give birth to 3-9
young that are carried for about three weeks only.
Lemmings live at heights of 750-1000 metres above sea level,
where they walk around contently trying to evade being snatched
by the odd predator.
But in the winter things get even better. Their thick fur
protects them from the snow, and they build intricate tunnel
systems under the snow - where the predators can't get. They can
even er...breed there, and raise their young. As they live off
moss, which grows even under the snow, eating is no problem at
that time either.
Lemming classification (for the science boffins)
Class : Mammalia (mammals)
Order : Rodentia (rodents)
Family : Cricetidae
Species : Lemmus lemmis (mountain lemming)
Dicrostonyx hudsonius (collar lemming)
And others
History : Pleistocene to recent (i.e. the last million years)
Occurence : Scandinavia, North Asia, North America
Disclaimer
The text of the articles is identical to the originals like they appeared
in old ST NEWS issues. Please take into consideration that the author(s)
was (were) a lot younger and less responsible back then. So bad jokes,
bad English, youthful arrogance, insults, bravura, over-crediting and
tastelessness should be taken with at least a grain of salt. Any contact
and/or payment information, as well as deadlines/release dates of any
kind should be regarded as outdated. Due to the fact that these pages are
not actually contained in an Atari executable here, references to scroll
texts, featured demo screens and hidden articles may also be irrelevant.