How to play Lemmings (1991) on a modern PC

[namida]

See also:
How to play and create custom levels
List of Lemmings engines (2013)

Running original Lemmings from 1991 on a modern PC isn't as simple as grabbing a copy of the game and double-clicking the EXE file. It was for DOS and Amiga, but modern Windows has no support for these. Even the Windows version of the game doesn't run without problems.

There are several ways to play it on a modern system, the most common are:

NeoLemmix + conversion of DOS Lemmings 1

This runs well on Windows, or on Linux via Wine.

Download the NeoLemmix installer, then
Download the 'Lemmings' levelpack for NeoLemmix

Physics are different than true DOS Physics. Several glitches are fixed and many non-glitch physics are changed: Builders cancel when their bellies hit terrain, steel stays intact even when ground removers move halfway inside, ground removers have different cancelling conditions, etc.

DOSBox

For the most authentic Lemmings 1 experience -- or if you want to play Lemmings 2: The Tribes, Lemmings 3: The Chronicles, or 3D Lemmings -- DOSBox is your best option. DOSBox is a DOS emulator for Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and several other platforms. You need an actual copy of the DOS versions of the games.

For Lemmings 1, set DOSBox CPU cycles to 7,000 or fewer, otherwise music will not load. You can increase cycles after you are in Lemmings 1's main menu. L2, L3, or 3D Lemmings behave best at higher cycle counts.

You can get DOSBox here:
DOSBox Website

See also threads in the Help section on how to run Lemmings 2 or Lemmings 3 in DOSBox.

Lemmix

Lemmix is a fan-made clone originally developed by EricLang, with later improvements by ccexplore and myself. There is a "Lemmix player" for each official game based on the original mechanics, as well as one containing extra official levels from various sources. This means Lemmix is an option for Original Lemmings, Oh No! More Lemmings, Xmas Lemmings 91/92, Holiday Lemmings 94 (this includes 93), Covox Lemmings Demo, Prima Publishing Lemmings Demo, as well as virtually every official level from other (non-DOS) platform versions of these which share the same or very similar mechanics (and even some that don't, such as Sega Master System).

Lemmix emulates the original games' mechanics perfectly. For convenience, it offers savestates, fast-forward, framestepping, and saving solution replays -- although with unremappable, obscure hotkeys that you must locate by experiment.

Lemmix Player downloads from the NeoLemmix website

Lemmini or SuperLemmini

Lemmini is a fanmade clone originally developed by Volker Oth. Lemmini is Java-based, and as such, can work on virtually any operating system, rather than being limited to just Windows. Unlike Lemmix, a copy of the Lemmings data files is not included; you must provide a copy of Lemmings for Windows 95 from which it can extract the graphics files and levels.

Physics are different from DOS Lemmings 1.

The advantage is that Lemmini is much more compatible with recent systems than Lemmings for Windows 95 is, as well as being perfectly playable on other operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS.

The disadvantage is that by default it only has the levels from Original Lemmings and Oh No! More Lemmings!. However, it is possible to find and add the levels from other games to it.

Lemmini website

Similarly to how NeoLemmix exists as a "modernised" fork of Lemmix, there is also a "modernised" fork of Lemmini, which is known as SuperLemmini and developed by Tsyu. Aside from improved mechanics, it contains far more levels - it is on par with Lemmix and NeoLemmix for how many official levels are either included by default or available as an officially-supported addon. SuperLemmini still requires a copy of Lemmings for Windows 95, though.

SuperLemmini topic on these boards

[Simon]

I estimate that some people want to stay close to DOS physics. In case DOS physics is what we want, and ease-of-use is less important, this is the ranking:

1. Dosbox + Lemmings: Has DOS physics by definition.

2. Lemmix: Physics are identical to DOS L1 in newer Lemmix versions: Some abstruse glitches are fixed Any differences to DOS L1 are considered bugs, even if the behavior in DOS L1 is strange in many places. Offers many hotkeys (documented where? Because invisible inside the game) to easen play, like savestates, framestepping, and replays. Does not offer extra functionality that could generate input impossible in DOS L1, thus no directional select.

3. Neolemmix: Forked off Lemmix, has the various hotkeys (but this time visible: buttons on screen and config menu), but has different physics. Steel behaves cleaner than in DOS L1. Builder stops on hitting terrain inside belly, ground removers have different ending conditions, etc. Has directional select, because it doesn't try to replicate DOS physics anymore.

4. Lix, or Superlemmini. Engines not based on anything DOS related. Don't have the DOS physics glitches. Vanilla Lemmini comes with its own physics glitches instead.

-- Simon

[namida]

Some abstruse glitches are fixed (percent saved affected by nuke, pause for time before hatch opens).

The lack of these has been fixed (or unfixed, depending on what angle you want to look at it from) in the more recent updates.

[ccexplore]

It is probably obvious, but worth mentioning for the "console/handheld emulator" option, keep in mind that with the exception of basically Amiga, most other options under that category means you won't have the ability to play the game with a mouse.  It may not necessarily be a deal-breaker but it's certainly one more thing that will deviate your experience from the "real thing".

Also, I never had to set DOSBox CPU cycle for L1-based games.  It seems to work well for me even when left at the admittedly lower-than-reality default of 3500 or so.  In fact, bumping it up too high may cause you to lose sound (or perhaps they may have fixed that in later DOSBox versions, it's been a while since I touched DOSBox), though 7000 I think is still low enough to keep that from happening.

LemEdit is the one program that I distinctly remember having to bump up the CPU cycle a lot (like 20000+ IIRC) to be usable.

I want to say even for DOS L2 you could get away not bumping up the CPU cycle in DOSBox, although I think it may have been slightly better to use a higher one than default for that game.  L3 I think you really do have to.  Or maybe not, it's been a while since I last tried those too.   Anyway, it doesn't hurt to try I guess, if the default settings aren't working out.

More important may be where you get those games from.  In some cases the original versions may actually not work properly on modern machines even with DOSBox.  They may not crash outright, but you may experience weird things like load/save not working on L2, or other weirdness when you get to certain parts of/places in the game.  abandonia.com can be your friend to find slightly cracked versions of the games that work much better in DOSBox.

[lemfan101]

Which solution would you recommend to a noob who'd like to play all sorts of lemming games?

[Simon]

Hi lemfam101,

welcome to the forums!

If you're interested in DMA's old games: Get the Lemmix Players or NeoLemmix Players (links in first post here) to play the 1991 Lemmings and Oh no more Lemmings. Install DOSBox to play Lemmings 2, to play Lemmings 3 (a.k.a. All New World of Lemmings, a.k.a. Lemmings Chronicles), or to play 3D Lemmings. Read How to play Lemmings 2 in DOSBox.

If you're interested in custom levels: Read How to play and create custom levels.

-- Simon

[Hypotenuse]

My personal vote goes for Lemmini. In the days before I discovered this great community of Lemmings players, I used DOSBox with my old discs, and that was somethin fierce in terms of setup. Modern Windows operating systems sadly do not play well with these things.

[Simon]

The OP is due for a rewrite anyway. Vanilla Lemmix is awkward and Dosbox offers even less convenience during play. We clearly don't answer the noob question in the OP: I'm new, what single one thing should I download first?

If DOS physics aren't important, then NL is probably best. Do the NL players offer level select nowadays?

The vanilla Lemmix players have this hackish level select by password 'cheatcodes' and then password '0123' to play rank 1 level 23. Very nasty undocumented hack and you have to know the exact position of a level. Vanilla Lemmix also has abysmal performance in framestepping because they don't cache physics -- but it has framestepping at least.

Lemmini and Superlemmini have no framestepping. But framestepping is the number-one convenience feature; this alone is enough to not suggest Lemmini to the newcomer. Also Lemmini doesn't offer all levels at the start, instead demand passwords or linear playthrough, and sometimes even eats datafiles and demands a re-extraction.

D Lix doesn't read Lemmings files anymore and shouldn't be listed at all in my reply #1.

-- Simon

[IchoTolot]

If DOS physics aren't important, then NL is probably best. Do the NL players offer level select nowadays?

The stable version has a pack for the original levels and they can be accessed in a selection list with F2, if browsing through ranks and levels with the preview screen is too slow.

The new formats version has an improved SuperLemmini like selection menu that also checks for progress and if resolving on updated levels is needed + the option with preview screen when a pack is selected is still there.

In all cases all levels are unlocked of course.

[Simon]

Okay, cool! I should rewrite the OP accordingly and link to NL, link to the pack with DMA's levels, and give a short explanation on how to install.

Vanilla Lemmix remains important to mention, but it shouldn't come first anymore.

-- Simon

[WillLem]

Here's a comparison topic of the main platforms, going into further detail about the pros and cons of each.