Author Topic: Questions: Converting etc.  (Read 6241 times)

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Offline geoo

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Questions: Converting etc.
« on: May 26, 2005, 05:29:41 PM »
Hello to everyone here!

I'm taking a short journey from Supaplex to Lemmings remembering this game too. ;)
I don't know how long I'll stay here; maybe you'll see levels made by me, maybe not...
...but I'll probably look up here regularly.

Anyway, I have a couple of questions/problems:

Is there a way to convert *.dat levels to a series of *.lvl levels except using LemEdit (I seems to be possible without mouse, but it's tough work I suppose)?
I read in one thread about it, a guest called "rt" said he knew something about a programme doing this.
Do you know about such a programme now?

Is it possible to convert *.lvl files to *.lev (Cheapo lemmings) files and vice versa (of course only the original and ONML graphic sets)? Do the graphic (tile) properties allow that (same size)?
Same with *.dat to *.set?

Where can I get the original musics from (midi or mp3, doesn't matter)? I play with WinLem, but those sounds aren't original. I read anywhere here that there were 21 different musics for the original ones.
The ONML musics I may get from guestlevels as far as it will work anytime again.

And last question:
I like small tricky levels, requiring thinking, skill is not so important; something like "There is madness in the method" or "Lemming tomato ketchup facility" (ok, that's a not so hard one).
What levels do you recommend? Cheapo, WinLemm, and if not anyway else possible, *.dat too; no matter.

Hope for you answer, nice forum here.

guest

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2005, 09:07:54 PM »
Welcome to the forums!

Regarding .dat -> .lvl, if you have an e-mail address I can e-mail you the program.  Or maybe I'll just upload it onto my site.

Conversion between LemEdit and Cheapo is very unlike to work.  Cheapo's minimum level height is 200 which is 40 pixels taller than the 160 in LemEdit.  plus, Cheapo has slight differences in the game mechanics from LemEdit, the most important being that the max safe-fall distance is higher in Cheapo than in LemEdit.  So even if you convert the graphics, you might still need to edit a bunch of other things to make the level work as intended.

That being said, one way to "convert" from LemEdit to Cheapo, though rather tedious:  play the level using DOSBox so you can capture screenshots of it.  Then copy the images to the clipboard, and do a "paste" in the Cheapo level editor.  This only takes care of the terrain graphics though, you'd still need to deal with the interactive objects, steel areas, skillsets, etc. yourself.

Going the other way around (Cheapo -> LemEdit) would be rather difficult, since Cheapo stores the terrain as one giant bitmap, instead of the separate terrain pieces as stored in LemEdit levels.

As for music, since you are complaining that the WinLem MIDIs are not "original enough", I surmise you're looking for exact recordings (ie. MP3s or the like) of the DOS music.  (The concept of "original" is a little misleading, given that each platform the game was ported to each has their own particular flavor of the same music, due to difference in audio technologies amongst the various systems.)  You can probably find them somewhere on Lemmings Universe (forgot the URL try Googling for it), or you can just download DOSBox and record the music from there yourself.  (Ctrl+F6 I believe for recording to .WAV)

As for "small tricky level", I don't play as much as other people here, I guess of the levels I've played within the past weeks or so, I can recommend "Behind Bars" from Ahribar (Michael Spencer)'s Notebook levels (for Cheapo).  probably the best thing to do is to just download a bunch of sets from people here and then decide for yourself which levels you like.  Oh, and feel free to try the few Cheapo levels I posted on my guestlevels website, but be warned that even thinking might not help you on some of those.  ;P

Offline geoo

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #2 on: May 27, 2005, 06:38:44 PM »
Thanks for your reply.
I already downloaded your levels, I'll try them out. :)

Uploading the conversion programme would be nice, but you can also send it to me per mail: geoo89[ad]gmail[dod]com
Can you also send me the ONML-5 soundtrack, downloading it from your page doesn't work anyway. :???:

About the Cheapo-LemEdit conversion, level would have to be recreated in LemEdit, with such slightly changes I suppose.

As for the music, I think the midis are ok, but anyway, in WinLem there seem to be some missing tracks, since anywhere it has been written:
Quote
It's just too bad that ONML has only 6 musics, unlike the original Lemmings, which has 21.

WinLem contains only 15 tracks, so there are 6 missing.
For Beast I & II and Menacing I found a midi file, but there are still 3 missing.
Do you know those, anyone can send them to me?

PS: You'll probably see some levels of me, I've got some ideas now ;)
Are there any more special tricks except those I read on the lemmings crazy page (was anywhere written in the category competition)?

guest

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2005, 09:23:20 PM »
Quote from: geoo89  link=1117128582/0#2 date=1117219124
WinLem contains only 15 tracks, so there are 6 missing.

6 eh?  Well let's see...there are the 4 from the "special graphics" levels that were omitted in the Windows version.  There is the "How Much is that Doggie in the Window" music that was most likely missing in the Windows version.

...That still leaves 1 unaccounted for.  It would help if you try to find out which level from the DOS version of Lemmings uses this missing music.

guest

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2005, 09:26:57 PM »
Quote from: geoo89  link=1117128582/0#2 date=1117219124
Are there any more special tricks except those I read on the lemmings crazy page (was anywhere written in the category competition)?

I'm sure you'll find tons if you start playing levels from other people here.  Insane Steve's levels tend to employ many tricks I believe.  Somewhere in this forum you should be able to find a URL to his website where you can download some LemEdit and Cheapo sets.

Offline geoo

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #5 on: May 28, 2005, 07:09:57 AM »
One missing music? I read something about a forestP sound, ore is it one of those special level sounds?
Anyway, will you send me the conversion programme?
Would be really nice :)
And the ONML track 5, doggie and awesome level sound, could you do that too?

I tried out your levels now.
Very interesting! ;) I suppose I know a way for "requires no skill", but once I tried out and nuked but only the first lemming exploded :???: (Unfortunately at the wrong position)

About new levels, so many ones to try out now!
Similar when I came to new Supaplex community: over 1500 new levels to play!

BTW: I saw that in Cheapo an exploding lemming (bomber) doesn't turn lemmings around likwe a blocker, in WinLem it does.
Seems that I have to make my level using that with LemEdit. :(

Offline Shvegait

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #6 on: May 28, 2005, 10:39:49 PM »
Quote
I suppose I know a way for "requires no skill", but once I tried out and nuked but only the first lemming exploded


This is a Cheapo Replay bug. Simply click on the screen to get the level out of replay, then use armageddon.

Offline geoo

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Re: Questions: Converting etc.
« Reply #7 on: May 29, 2005, 07:22:23 AM »
Ah, Thanks. I could not reproduce this bug because I clicked on replay immediately to get it away.
With this bug, level is easy. Without quite hard.

BTW: I've finished making my first non-test level. ;)