Some of you may remember me from the old forums; I'm back after a long hiatus (see the welcome thread for more details).
Anyway, since it has become a hot topic of discussion as of late, I figured I'd address the lose 2 solution to Mayhem 29. I solved it on the PC-DOS version a couple of years ago and mentioned it on the old forums. That is where the record on this site came from.
Below is a summary of how I did it. It is extremely pixel-precise in several places, and it doesn't work in numerous versions (including the SNES version) because of the water, which does not exist in the PC-DOS version.
The first lemming blocks a short distance to the right of the entrance. The next guy builds a bridge starting at the far left of the steel platform and digs after a couple of bricks. He should be able to dig away the far left edge of the steel. When he runs out of material to dig, make him build. Meanwhile, block off the rest of the crowd; also place a third blocker to the left of the entrance, with one walker to his left.
The builder going left should "stretch" his bridges as much as possible to avoid hitting his head on the steel above (I think the solution still works if he hits his head just once, though). Once he reaches the broken wood pillar thingy, he turns around and walks down the bridge. Build at the right spot (about the third or fourth brick from the bottom) and bash. He should take out some steel and free the leftmost blocker due to a glitch involving blockers messing up the game's steel detection algorithm. As soon as the blocker is released, the basher stops.
Three lemmings are now walking up the bridge toward the pillar. For simplicity, I will name them #1, #2, and #3. The last one (#3) digs at the right spot almost immediately after turning back to the right. He should take out the right edge of the pillar. One of the other two (#1) bashes on the one-pixel "step" left by the first basher. He should be high enough to keep going, releasing all of the blockers. Use bridges to turn both him and the last blocker around, back to the left. At the same time, watch the digger on the left; he must build when he runs out of material to dig through. He will build to the right until hitting his head on the bridge made earlier. Due to the location of the bridge and the design of the pillar, he should walk off the left side of his bridge and land on the bottom part of the pillar below.
If everything worked out right, lemmings #2 and #3 from the previous paragraph should be a few seconds ahead of the crowd walking toward the exit. They each build (not very far) and block as normal to guide the path to the exit. They should be the only ones lost in this solution. Often times, there is not enough separation between them, and the solution loses a few more or fails completely. It takes a considerable amount of luck to get it to work right.
I believe ccexplore from the old forums discovered a way of saving all but 3 in all versions of the level, including those with the water at the bottom. I don't know how to do it, though.
