Interesting "cheat" snippets from old Amiga magazines

[Prob Lem]

I was browsing some of the Lemmings-related pages available at the vast resource that is the Amiga Magazine Rack, and happened across a couple of great little pieces from the cheats pages of some old magazines. I've snipped out the relevant segments, and have transcribed them and tried to preserve the original formatting somewhat, as well.

One of them looks like a hoax that simply wasn't fact-checked by the publishers (I will admit to not having tried it out myself, yet, either!), and if it's really not one I'd honestly be amazed. The other is a really thorough and clever piece about some apparently unintended behaviour in Lemmings 2: The Tribes, which of course could also be a hoax, but it seems more plausible.

First off, we have a claim of hidden levels in the first game, from Amiga Computing issue 54;

Very spooky indeed...

Very, very spooky actually. James Crompton of Oxon claims to have found some extra levels on Lemmings. It all sounds a bit strange to us, but give it a go. What have you got to lose? Here's what you do...
Type in "LEMNGFINAL" as the password, then enter "IAMNOTGOOD". Now you can skip levels with the spacebar. Skip the last level, and the 30 identical levels that follow it. They're rated "blue" apparently.
Then skip the ten "playerh"-rated levels and you should find 20 completely new levels. James says that they're fairly easy, but it must be worth having a look.
Oooooeeeeeoooooo.

And secondly, here's a really cool-looking set of instructions for getting the lemmings to walk and perform other tasks underwater in Lemmings 2, from Amiga Format issue 61;

LEMMINGS 2
Reviewed AF46 94%
-Psygnosis 051-709 5755
If you're bored with the excellent Lemmings 2 try the impossible - yes, you can make them walk, roll and shoot underwater!
To do this select practice and the following lemms: twisters, swimmers, super-lems,magnobooter, rollers, ropers and two others of your choice. Now go to Egyptian practice and do the following: Make all the lemms swimmers and twist down into the water. Once they've come out make them magnobooters. Once they come to the water in a splash, they're under! Now twist them down into the metal and... lemmings walking under water!
You can now: roll underwater, they splash about; shoot underwater, hurt landlubbers; rope underwater, the lemms swim at halfweight.
There are many other underwater activities, so have fun.
   Neil Davidson Kelly, Glasgow

[NaOH]

Type in "LEMNGFINAL" as the password, then enter "IAMNOTGOOD". Now you can skip levels with the spacebar. Skip the last level, and the 30 identical levels that follow it. They're rated "blue" apparently.
Then skip the ten "playerh"-rated levels and you should find 20 completely new levels. James says that they're fairly easy, but it must be worth having a look.

This sounds more like a glitch than intended behaviour. This actually seems fairly plausible to me; they're likely levels that were scrapped early on but were included on the disk by mistake anyway. Not sure what "rated 'blue'" would mean, though.

[ccexplore]

Very spooky indeed...

Very, very spooky actually. James Crompton of Oxon claims to have found some extra levels on Lemmings. It all sounds a bit strange to us, but give it a go. What have you got to lose? Here's what you do...
Type in "LEMNGFINAL" as the password, then enter "IAMNOTGOOD". Now you can skip levels with the spacebar. Skip the last level, and the 30 identical levels that follow it. They're rated "blue" apparently.
Then skip the ten "playerh"-rated levels and you should find 20 completely new levels. James says that they're fairly easy, but it must be worth having a look.
Oooooeeeeeoooooo.

Sounds like the 2-player levels to me actually.  I could've sworn someone else had mentioned something similar here, maybe for a different port of Lemmings.  But I can't seem to find the posts yet via forum search.  As I vaguely recall they were just the 2-player levels, being accessed by the game as if they are 1-player levels through passwords/techniques that attempt to access levels beyond Mayhem 30, and there was even an explanation for "Blue" being the rating, coming from some text normally used for 2-player levels (which use blue and green as team colors).  Anyway, with that in mind the cheat actually sounds plausible.

When I have time I'll have to try the Lemmings 2 underwater cheat and see if it works or not.  It sounds more like a glitch than a cheat, and we've seen and confirmed plenty of weirder glitches in Lemmings 2.

[LemSteven]

I tested the underwater glitch in L2.  I couldn't use the exact combination of skills given in the description because of "Insufficient Memory", however the actual glitch does work!

Basically if a lemming is both a swimmer and a magno booter, he will splash into the water and continue to behave like a regular magno booter.  When he walking along the bottom of the water, you can give him another skill and the skill will work normally, since he's technically on the steel underneath the water.  If you raise his position even one pixel, though (e.g. using a builder), he will immediately start swimming.

If you try this trick with a lemming who is not a swimmer, he will simply drown when he hits the water.

I've also determined another way to get lemmings walking along the bottom of the water, and that is by crawling up there from below.  This doesn't even require swimmers to work, but be warned that once in the water, non-swimmers are pretty much stuck there.   Trying to jump, build, or fling them out will result in drowning.

[ccexplore]

So if I understand correctly, we're basically talking about the magno-booter leading the lemming down the side walls of a pool of water, and thus eventually to the bottom of that pool.  What happens if the lemming doesn't have swimmer in that case?  Does it start drowning as it reaches water level while walking down the side wall of the pool?

[LemSteven]

What happens if the lemming doesn't have swimmer in that case?  Does it start drowning as it reaches water level while walking down the side wall of the pool?

Exactly.

[Lomax]

Very spooky indeed...

Very, very spooky actually. James Crompton of Oxon claims to have found some extra levels on Lemmings. It all sounds a bit strange to us, but give it a go. What have you got to lose? Here's what you do...
Type in "LEMNGFINAL" as the password, then enter "IAMNOTGOOD". Now you can skip levels with the spacebar. Skip the last level, and the 30 identical levels that follow it. They're rated "blue" apparently.
Then skip the ten "playerh"-rated levels and you should find 20 completely new levels. James says that they're fairly easy, but it must be worth having a look.
Oooooeeeeeoooooo.

Sounds like the 2-player levels to me actually.  I could've sworn someone else had mentioned something similar here, maybe for a different port of Lemmings.  But I can't seem to find the posts yet via forum search.  As I vaguely recall they were just the 2-player levels, being accessed by the game as if they are 1-player levels through passwords/techniques that attempt to access levels beyond Mayhem 30, and there was even an explanation for "Blue" being the rating, coming from some text normally used for 2-player levels (which use blue and green as team colors).  Anyway, with that in mind the cheat actually sounds plausible

That's correct!

[chaos_defrost]

... Now go to Egyptian practice...

Yes, go to Egyptian practice, NO YOU IDIOT NOT THE PHOTO INCLUDED WITH THE ARTICLE PRESENTED BY SOMEONE WHO IS TRYING TO BLOW YOUR MIND SHEESH THAT IS MEDIEVAL PRACTICE WOW HOW DO YOU NOT NOTICE THAT LET ME GUESS YOU'RE GOING TO SEND A RUBBISH LETTER THROUGH THE POST TELLING US WHY YOU CAN'T REPLICATE THIS GOSH YOU ARE A CANCER HOLY CRAP

[namida]

... Now go to Egyptian practice...

Yes, go to Egyptian practice, NO YOU IDIOT NOT THE PHOTO INCLUDED WITH THE ARTICLE PRESENTED BY SOMEONE WHO IS TRYING TO BLOW YOUR MIND SHEESH THAT IS MEDIEVAL PRACTICE WOW HOW DO YOU NOT NOTICE THAT LET ME GUESS YOU'RE GOING TO SEND A RUBBISH LETTER THROUGH THE POST TELLING US WHY YOU CAN'T REPLICATE THIS GOSH YOU ARE A CANCER HOLY CRAP

Methinks you need more C₂₁H₃₀O₂ and less C₂H₆O...

[Prob Lem]

That's correct!

Oh neat, you got it to work! Thanks for the pictures.

Yes, go to Egyptian practice, NO YOU IDIOT NOT THE PHOTO INCLUDED WITH THE ARTICLE PRESENTED BY SOMEONE WHO IS TRYING TO BLOW YOUR MIND SHEESH THAT IS MEDIEVAL PRACTICE WOW HOW DO YOU NOT NOTICE THAT LET ME GUESS YOU'RE GOING TO SEND A RUBBISH LETTER THROUGH THE POST TELLING US WHY YOU CAN'T REPLICATE THIS GOSH YOU ARE A CANCER HOLY CRAP

Hahaha... I didn't even notice that! I'm going to guess that the magazine staff just threw in a shot from a press pack, there.