Recent posts

#41
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: LemFan's various packs
Last post by JawaJuice - November 14, 2025, 09:59:02 AM
OK, as I suspected, Chaos 3 (Statue of OilDrums) can be completed if you substitute the 2 platformers for 2 builders - replay attached. Makes me wonder if the level simply included platformers rather than builders by mistake. Also attached is the solution for Brutal 18 (A Higher Platform) with additional bomber - I'm sure it's the same as yours, @Guigui.
#42
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: LemFan's various packs
Last post by JawaJuice - November 14, 2025, 08:23:18 AM
Quote from: Guigui on November 13, 2025, 07:23:20 PM
Quote from: JawaJuice on November 08, 2025, 04:53:17 PMYeah, for sure, I've enjoyed them for the most part. I guess you have played those two specific levels I mentioned then? Any hints, or do you still have your replays saved maybe? They're the only two levels that have completely stumped me so far! Just can't see how they're possible.

I launched those 2 levels Brutal 18 and Chaos 3. Please note that I am not the best solver out there but I can not see a solution either, at all.
In both of them the lack of building skills combined to the fact that you have to climb blocks me.

EDIT : as you said I can clear A Higher Platform with an extra bomber. So I'm wondering : could it be a case of "I set the skillset wrong when creating the level too quickly, and did not take time to playtest it afterwards" ? Considering the history of this topic, this could be possible.
So new game for LemFan's fans : try to find solutions with the least possible joker skills in Brutal 18 and Chaos 3 !

Thanks so much for taking the time to look at this, Guigui! My impression from your other forum posts is that you're a very competent solver, so that gives me some hope that it's not just me missing something! I had the same thought re: potential lack of playtesting. As we've said, I think you only need one 'joker' skill (the bomber) to complete Brtual 18; I'll see what I can do with Chaos 3.

Gonna attach my replays for the rest of the pack, just in case anyone's interested :)
#43
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: LemFan's various packs
Last post by Guigui - November 13, 2025, 07:23:20 PM
Quote from: JawaJuice on November 08, 2025, 04:53:17 PMYeah, for sure, I've enjoyed them for the most part. I guess you have played those two specific levels I mentioned then? Any hints, or do you still have your replays saved maybe? They're the only two levels that have completely stumped me so far! Just can't see how they're possible.

I launched those 2 levels Brutal 18 and Chaos 3. Please note that I am not the best solver out there but I can not see a solution either, at all.
In both of them the lack of building skills combined to the fact that you have to climb blocks me.

EDIT : as you said I can clear A Higher Platform with an extra bomber. So I'm wondering : could it be a case of "I set the skillset wrong when creating the level too quickly, and did not take time to playtest it afterwards" ? Considering the history of this topic, this could be possible.
So new game for LemFan's fans : try to find solutions with the least possible joker skills in Brutal 18 and Chaos 3 !
#44
Contests / Re: Level Design Contest #33
Last post by IchoTolot - November 12, 2025, 07:11:03 PM
Be sure to get your entries in as I plan to create the pack this weekend.  :)
#45
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Save One : do you have wha...
Last post by Turrican - November 12, 2025, 05:28:14 PM
Thank you for your comments!  :thumbsup:

About the backroute fixing : I would like
to try also the third rank , but because of various reasons, I have very limited time in general, so I am not sure when I will be able to try the third rank.

So in that case, do the backroute fixes , whenever you want .
#46
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Scotty's Lemmings Pack (30...
Last post by Guigui - November 12, 2025, 01:19:15 AM
I have cleared ScottyLems pack too. The difficulty is not that high, so perfect for me and many other players I guess.

Puzzles are always clever and levels looks good. I'd say most used techniques are : "escape the crowd with a climber" and "turn around in a miner/basher/digger tunnel"

I enjoyed the whole pack a lot and played it with a smile on my face from beginning to end. It captures the essence and fun of the original Lemmings game, so well that it would fit those games in their last ranks Taxing or Mayhem perfectly.

I'm joining another batch of replays, and give some comments on a few levels as kaywhyn did. More often than not some skills are left after the solve, or more Lemmings are saved than required. So there may be more backroutes in here.

A big thanks goes to Scotty for creating the pack, you're definitely an Original Lemmings games fan.

Spoiler
9 The Acid Test : first roadblock to me. There are so many was to free the right crowd that I did not know what to do at first. Finally I gathered both crowd together to make things easier for the builders. Timing on thoser builders was the hardest part, but it allows to save much needed time.

11 The Boardwalk : solution differs from Kaywhyn's. No containment needed, just some well placed diggers.

13 Cream Of the Crop : probably a important backroute. 5 destructive skills left and 9 Lemmings in more than requirement. Also the right part of the level is not used at all. Look at this poor Lem I sent over there, only to let it fall to its death when I realized he was not needed.
I'd say one is not supposed to be able to get throught the One Way pillar with 2 bombers only.

18 Kessel Mineshaft : I particularly loved this one ! Compression is easy to achieve with the many blockers given. Mining the big wall at the end is satisfying, though I may have it done not the intended way because I'm left with some miners.

20 Deux Ex Lemina : Great level for which one trick is used : the trap is actually inactive ! Is that on purpose ? In any case it helped me use the single builder elsewhere, and not the overcome the gap at the end. I save one more than required. Completely different solution than kaywhyn's

21 High Rise Lemmings : this one made me smile too. Solution is quite visible from the beginning, but I did not understand the use of the rightmost exit at first sight. Only when the blockers were freed that I thanked Scotty for putting it here  8-)

23 Separation Anxiety : very good one ! Clean separation achieved thanks to the 3 blockers provided. Just count correctly how you split the Lemmings between the 2 groupes, or you wont save enough.

25 Down To The Wire : headache inducing level. I struggled a lot to find a correct order to dig down those wires, and to manage timing so that the gap can be covered properly. Good level for sure!
Also another example of Scotty's touch : inactive trap ! Though this one has not use in this solution anyway.

27 Open Season : hardest of the pack for me. I finally released and blocked all entrances with a single basher, all the while liberating a single worker to do the first part of the job (this release was possible with a single pixel of terrain missing, luck !?)
But then later you have to release another one for building over the bear trap. At this time I had a very dense crowd from which it took me a while to figure out how to extract a single worker again. But finally a well placed miner did the trick.
I think this level is very open ended, and ingenious. Great work !

30 Upside Down World II : nightmarish web, glad I could finally get through it. Spider responsible for it can go burn in hell.

#47
Community Edition / [✓][BUG][PL] Gracefully handle...
Last post by namida - November 11, 2025, 09:00:50 PM
Split from this topic: Can CE and NL 12.14 run from the same directory?



Quote from: WillLem on November 11, 2025, 01:19:41 AM
Quote from: Guigui on November 10, 2025, 11:41:44 AMBut the Play menu gives a single "Invalid pointer operation" error. Then the program closes by itself.

This is most likely due to the Sleeper sprite, which is present in CE but not in NL.

The easiest fix is to copy the default style from CE\styles to NL\styles. All other sprites are identical, only the Sleeper has been added. When prompted, choose Merge or Replace.

That should do the trick. Let me know if it doesn't.

NOTE: Simon's suggestion of making symlinks is usually done using a .bat file or similar. It's a decent idea for keeping the directories clean, and may come in handy later. We could also add an instruction to automatically copy the default style across as well.

@namida: If the above fix works, would you be happy to include the Sleeper sprite in the default NL style download? It shouldn't affect NL users at all, and would prevent CE users from running into this problem in the future. Please note that there are no plans to add any more sprites (and there are unlikely to ever be), so this should be the only update necessary.

My initial thought was yes, but then I realised: This would just move the issue from the default style, to any style with custom ones. I would also note that NL:CE should really remain compatible with any data files that work with 12.14; if the absence of a Sleeper sprite breaks compatibility, it isn't really meeting this standard.

I think the solution here needs to come from NL:CE's side. Some possible options:
1. NLCE gracefully handles the absence of a sleeper sprite. Perhaps another, non-custom sprite (or a non-sprite visual effect like recoloration or flickering) could be used as a fallback, or alternatively, the default sleeper sprite could be embedded in the EXE and used as a fallback in such a case.
2. Provide a "patch" download intended to convert (or "dual-boot") an existing NL install into an NL:CE install, that includes things like the Sleeper sprite.
#48
Community Edition / Re: [✓][CE] Can CE and NL 12.1...
Last post by Guigui - November 11, 2025, 07:14:10 PM
Quote from: WillLem on November 11, 2025, 01:19:41 AM
Quote from: Guigui on November 10, 2025, 11:41:44 AMBut the Play menu gives a single "Invalid pointer operation" error. Then the program closes by itself.

This is most likely due to the Sleeper sprite, which is present in CE but not in NL.

The easiest fix is to copy the default style from CE\styles to NL\styles. All other sprites are identical, only the Sleeper has been added. When prompted, choose Merge or Replace.

That should do the trick. Let me know if it doesn't.


It works fine now, thank you !
#49
NeoLemmix Levels / Re: Save One : do you have wha...
Last post by Guigui - November 11, 2025, 05:08:02 PM
Thank you for the replays Turrican ! Good job on clearing EON and NEO ranks  :thumbsup:

You have some clever solutions here, some of them I consider backroutes :

* EON 2 Trust Your Lucky Star : the pioneer goes in by himself, no crowd needed again  :forehead: Good job destroying this vertical structure just enough to get through. I think this backroute is not hard to cancel.

* NEO 2 So Many Spikes : you save 9 in a Save One level, you clever evil!! What else could I wait from the Lemmings community ? I will work on this too.

If you plan to try ONE rank, maybe I'll wait for your solutions to see if some things have to be changed there too.
Then again, thank you for trying the pack and the kind words.
#50
Levels for other engines / Re: Akseli's first custom leve...
Last post by Akseli - November 11, 2025, 03:30:54 PM
Hello kaywhyn, thanks for playing my levels!  :thumbsup:  The most updated version of my pack is this v5 after patching namida's backroute to Winter Solstice in the beginning of July 2014. :D The up-to-date pack should be on the Lemmings Level Database, and it seems first 3 versions are attached to the starter post of this topic, containing backroutes. :P

Like I mentioned in our Discord conversations, Lemmings custom level gaming steered towards NeoLemmix in the 2010s and this pack of mine with levels relying on original game mechanics wasn't played that much perhaps after this last update in 2014. Checking from my forum personal messages I see that 2015 IchoTolot, Simon and geoo collaborately (I guess) solved all 10 levels from my pack. Turrican revealed on Discord solving my pack (though I haven't seen all of their solutions) and now you did it and you're the first person to post the solutions on YouTube, and it's somehow a bit weird but fun to see them finally on public like that! :D

I remember being quite eager keeping the intended solutions in secret in the beginning, but now it's over 10 years since my pack has been released. :P Spoilery comments of my levels:

Spoiler
Looking at my levels nowadays, lots of them require maybe excessive release rate tweaking, that might create unnecessary-ish artificial difficulty. When creating these levels, I thought I wanted to hide the solutions pretty well with those RR tweaks, so that no solution would be encountered by accident. But as said, release rate regulation makes the levels harder in lots of these cases, maybe harder than needed in the end.

Sparkle & Glitter I saw in a dream when I was a child and it's surprising to see how well it kind of works as a level, having few little tricks in a very minimalistic landscape. Early backroutes happened due to time limit being too lenient for unwanted approaches.

The Glade of Disbelief is built around that trick, about which Simon/IchoTolot even drew a concept art of how the builder check works. :P

For Mr. Dodochacalo and Mr. Pieuw is the only level I didn't try to hide the solution at all and alongside Crysilis and Zygoptera these levels that are still the only ones that aren't backrouted in any version of the pack. After all, it is a tribute level. :P

I didn't know that Winter Solstice is in Revenge of the Lemmings or even has a NeoLemmix version. :P Obviously, the miner shouldn't work on the left hatch area what it does in the NeoLemmix version now when watching kaywhyn's solution from YouTube. :D Also, this level has a visual quirk: the water pool on the right was designed to have 4 layers of ice on the surface, but it seems than only played in Lemmix those appear as intended (the lowest object is on the front and the highest on the background). In these other versions there's those mud layers instead of ice surfaces, it doesn't look as nice as I mentioned it to be. :P I guess it's possible to be fixed, though.

Feel the Pressure is the first level I ever released, it was in a Lemming level contest with a rule to design an 1-of-everything level. It revolved around the idea of merging Lemmings from two hatches in a digger pit with a RR of 87. Again, I don't think I have taken much part of the Lix/Lemmini/NeoLemmix versions of this level, but the save 47 solutions I've seen are ok for me. :)

Why do you all look the same? had earlier title "Why do you all look so similar?" if someone wonders if there's replays going around with that name, for example. The main trick is the main thing here, but as said, release rate fiddling makes things a bit hard.

In the Core is the only level with a clear glitch but as mentioned in my starter post of the topic it can be quite obvious to find out in the end. My solution actually involves releasing both crowds from below, I didn't even remember this before looking at my old replay. :D IchoTolot's solution is similar to kaywhyn's.

IchoTolot found a ridiculous backroute solution for Pedantic Lemmings in 2015 and I haven't bothered to fix it... :D others have found that intended solution of re-using the climber. I made the pack with all of 9 original tilesets from the games (excluding Xmas), and I chose my favourite tileset, Brick, to be the one used in two levels.

Crysilis was made in a level designing jam with a rule of making a builderless level. The title refers to the Crysilis planet level in Jazz Jackrabbit game. This is the most open-ended level in my pack and is pretty much any solution is fine type level. Yes, the right hatch area is pretty much filling compared to the two hatches area. :P

I can't remember exactly if Zygoptera was first a visual idea before deciding the main solution there, most probably it was. A fun fact: I wanted to use the cooler sounding name Zygoptera (damselflies) instead of Anisoptera (true dragonflies), even though the visual appearance of the level is maybe closer to Anisoptera. :P Also as I studied biology in the university it was nice to have something related to that in my level pack. In the solution my bomber and digger assignments are vice versa to kaywhyn's in their YouTube video and it's completely fine. :P Crysilis and Zygoptera are the two levels I initially meant in my original post saying "I'm a bit worried if two certain levels resemble each other too much." referring to the usage of basher mechanics.