I'm beginning to understand the distinctions between NeoLemmix and other Lemmings platforms: it's far more about custom content than playing the original game. This is perhaps NeoLemmix's best feature.
Along
with custom content comes various potential issues such as not knowing what's steel and what's terrain, unusual-looking exits and teleporters, vastly unfamiliar level designs and layouts, and of course the author's style and flavour which often dictates the way that a level is played.
NeoLemmix aims to address this by assisting the player as much as possible, with these various tools:
Framestepping - not just forwards and backwards 1 frame, but you can customise Hotkeys to step forwards and backwards as much as you like, including to last skill assignment and next shrugger - this last one is a godsend for builder-heavy levels.
Direction Select - perhaps a fairly standard feature for Lemmings platforms nowadays as it seems to exist on all of them, this is also a very useful tool and saves a
lot of time.
Skill Shadows - Allows very precise movement through the level, and the ability to know exactly what's going to happen when you make the skill assigment.
Clear Physics Mode - Reveals everything about a level: what's steel, where the exits are, where
any trigger areas are for that matter. Whilst I don't use this very often, I can't deny that it's an important tool to have, particularly when playing a custom style that's visually very busy.
Untimed Bombers - As Namida said, this allows for bomber explosions within the first 5 seconds of spawning, and it allows precise placement of bombers as well.
I'd say the biggest irony of the NeoLemmix philosophy is that, via its player-assist tools, it makes things like precise skill placement and hidden objects a complete non-issue, and yet it still vehemently rejects these things as being an occasionally valid part of the game.
Unrelated to OP's 3 but sparks discussion, therefore moved to separate topic: Hidden objects in NL, part 2 -- SimonUltimately, though, I'm learning to love NeoLemmix for what it is and what it offers: fantastic custom content, an array of features and skills, and an active community surrounding it. Perhaps the cost of its many benefits is the need to adhere to, or at least accept, very strong views on design and gameplay philosophy. I'm learning to accept them.
I do agree with you, erciderkovits, that NeoLemmix does take something away from the experience of playing the original game, and that's why I'm campaigning for SuperLemmini to establish itself further as a platform for those who appreciate the more execution-focused style of gameplay offered by Amiga, WinLemm, and DOS. Emulators are great and everything, but it's better to have an actively maintained platform that at least
offers modern player-assist tools whilst keeping them optional - SuperLemmini has the potential to be just that.
So, I'd urge you to focus on helping to make SuperLemmini better: make suggestions and join the discussion on the
feature requests topic, encourage other users to give it a try, and ultimately learn to appreciate the luxury of choice that we have as fans of Lemmings. That's what I'm doing, anyway.