A Tribute To The Forsaken SuperLemming (1991-1991)

[WillLem]

A Tribute To The Forsaken SuperLemming (1991-1991)

by WillLem

First, there was Lemmings. A game released by DMA Design in 1991 as an "action puzzle", with ingenious levels that required both a good brain for puzzles and considerable manual dexterity to pull off the solutions.

A large part of the game in those days was just that: the ability to click the mouse at just the right time, not always knowing what the result was going to be. Building on this unique quirk, and whilst developing an expansion pack of levels for the original game titled Oh No! More Lemmings, the designers experimented with the idea of a lemming that moved at twice the speed of one of its regular counterparts: the SuperLemming!

I imagine that, at the time, the intention here was to infuse the game with even more of the intensity that Lemmings had become famous for, implementing it into a single level to begin with - probably as an experiment, but since the level in question was titled Introducing SUPERLEMMING (in capitals, no less), the door of possibility was at least created, even if never officially opened.

What's this? You may have been forgiven for thinking. Are we going to see more of these? Maybe even a whole gamepack of SuperLemming levels?

Alas, no such levels ever manifested, and the idea proved to be nothing more than an abandoned experiment.

Briefly resurrected some years later by the Lemmings community as an optional gimmick in Custlemm, then again later in Lemmix and NeoLemmix (up to and including V1.43), the SuperLemming enjoyed something of an unofficial return to glory, only to be further rejected, maligned and eventually removed from the game with no hope of ever returning.

And so, as one of its few fans, I would just like to pay tribute for a moment to the SuperLemming. I still think it's a fun idea, and I'm glad that DMA went ahead and gave it a try. Many ideas are "introduced" only to be quickly forgotten without so much as a second thought, so at the very least, the SuperLemming can proudly join the ranks of the rejected as an idea that had its moment.


Oh No! More Lemmings (1991) Wicked 2 - Introducing SUPERLEMMING - Look at him go...!

Here's a video of me playing the level, at its intended speed

And, here's another video of me performing the more difficult alternative solution (again, at SuperLemming speed) - thanks for the tip, Proxima!

[namida]

The Lemmings Plus II level "Desert Quest", back in the day, also used the SuperLemming gimmick (alongside the Frenzy gimmick, which prevented pausing) and was titled "SuperLemming II: Desert Quest". There was a 3rd one too, but I don't remember the title or which pack it was in (most likely either Lemmings Plus III Bonus Pack or Lemmings Plus Omega's now-removed "Playtime" rank) - I do remember it further also used the Rising Water gimmick, though.

[Proxima]

Somewhere in ONML -- I forget where, but I would think it was either the box art, the manual or the scrolling text at the bottom of the main menu screen -- it says "Watch out for SUPERLEMMING!" I remember being pretty sure there would indeed be several Superlemming levels, although it took years to progress through the game so I didn't consciously take note of the fact that this earlier prediction had been proven wrong. (Then again, I had a similar feeling about "We are now at LEMCON ONE" in the first game, and that was also wrong....)

Actually, I didn't encounter the Superlemming level at all for some time, because Wicked 1 (Lemming Tomato Ketchup Facility) is quite tricky, with its unique trick of digging down the one-way wall to destroy it with a bomber in the middle. I think I may have got my friends to help me with that one. But then they were stuck on Inroducing Superlemming (which also has a clever linchpin, using the cavity at the back of the level), and I was able to solve it first and help them

Incidentally, the level title is Inroducing Superlemming, with no "t". I never noticed that when I was a kid At one point namida asked whether the NL version of ONML should change this level's name now that we no longer have the Superlemming gimmick, and I proposed that "inroduce" should be a neologism meaning "to introduce a feature that is later abandoned".

Your (1991-1991) header is wrong, because there certainly have been at least some Superlemming custom levels made while the gimmick was available. I think I remember at least one (with more than one lemming, as well!) from the CustLemm or Lemmix days.

[EDIT: Post overlap. "Desert Quest" definitely isn't the level I was thinking of -- that one does have only the one lemming.]

[Turrican]

One Superlemming level I remember is "Mission at max-fall 60" by Geoo in the geoopk0 pack.

link for the pack :  ( http://lemmings-db.camanis.net/levelpack/ag1zfmxlbW1pbmdzLWRichALEglMZXZlbFBhY2sY3BQM/ )

[WillLem]

Here's a video of me playing the level, at its intended speed.

And, here's another video of me performing the more difficult alternative solution (again, at SuperLemming speed) - thanks for the tip, Proxima!

[IchoTolot]

Well you can always kind of revive it:

Turn fast forward on in NL and don't turn it off for the level.

[WillLem]

Incidentally, the level title is Inroducing Superlemming, with no "t". I never noticed that when I was a kid At one point namida asked whether the NL version of ONML should change this level's name now that we no longer have the Superlemming gimmick, and I proposed that "inroduce" should be a neologism meaning "to introduce a feature that is later abandoned".

That's a really good idea: you're right, I forgot about the typo from the original level. "Inroducing" - that should definitely be community lingo for abandoned-but-tried ideas.

Your (1991-1991) header is wrong, because there certainly have been at least some Superlemming custom levels made while the gimmick was available.

The header refers to the official SuperLemming, which only ever appeared in Oh No! in 1991. In the OP, I do go on to say:

Briefly resurrected some years later by the Lemmings community as an optional gimmick in NeoLemmix 1.43, the SuperLemming enjoyed something of an unofficial return to glory

...so, I absolutely acknowledge its later use and subsequent re-rejection in community custom packs.

Well you can always kind of revive it:

Turn fast forward on in NL and don't turn it off for the level.

Yes, I did that for this video, it was actually really good fun to do!

[EricLang]

Nice to see NeoLemmix hi-res in action. With cheating preview bridges LOL. I didn't know about that. Too long time been away here :-)

[Turrican]

Briefly resurrected some years later by the Lemmings community as an optional gimmick in NeoLemmix 1.43, the SuperLemming enjoyed something of an unofficial return to glory, only to be further rejected, maligned and eventually removed from the game with no hope of ever returning.

Superlemming did not make it's first appearance in the custom level scene in Neolemmix 1.43 . It had appeared before on Custlemm and Lemmix , back when the custom levels scene , was just beginning ( and before Neolemmix existed ).

For example the level I mentioned in my post was a Custlemm level (and had been posted in the database in 2008)

But the fact is that in any program it had appeared , it was very underused. Very very few custom levels used it . It never gained traction in the custom levels scene.

[namida]

Your (1991-1991) header is wrong, because there certainly have been at least some Superlemming custom levels made while the gimmick was available. I think I remember at least one (with more than one lemming, as well!) from the CustLemm or Lemmix days.

[EDIT: Post overlap. "Desert Quest" definitely isn't the level I was thinking of -- that one does have only the one lemming.]

Now that I think about it - Lemmings Plus II, back when it was a Lemmix rather than NeoLemmix pack, had one level using this gimmick too. (Desert Quest was originally part of Lemmings Plus II Bonus Pack, not LPII itself. At no point did this level and Desert Quest exist in main LPII at the same time.)

For context - at this point in time, LPII had a once-per-rank level like all the other main-series LP packs do. LPII's level was "Floater Frenzy", which had four entrances, the Frenzy gimmick (which prevents pausing), and you'd just have to give as many lemmings as possible floaters.

The final iteration of this level had a much lower save requirement than any earlier one, and a nicer layout. Of course, there was a catch. The level preview suggested there was a trap that players would have to time their floaters to slip past - but there was no trap, the catch was in fact Superlemming mode.

[WillLem]

Nice to see NeoLemmix hi-res in action. With cheating preview bridges LOL. I didn't know about that. Too long time been away here :-)

Haha! I've suggested that an option be added to remove these: there are times it does just feel like it's making the game too easy. That said, for the more difficult levels on the forum requiring pixel precision, skill shadows can be a godsend!

Superlemming did not make it's first appearance in the custom level scene in Neolemmix 1.43 . It had appeared before on Custlemm and Lemmix , back when the custom levels scene , was just beginning ( and before Neolemmix existed ).

Thanks for letting me know this, I've updated the OP to reflect this info.

Now that I think about it - Lemmings Plus II, back when it was a Lemmix rather than NeoLemmix pack, had one level using this gimmick too.

If that's the case, surely you'd want to restore the SuperLemming gimmick so that your pack works as intended...? I suppose you could just put a pre-screen suggesting that the player use FF whilst playing the level.

[namida]

If that's the case, surely you'd want to restore the SuperLemming gimmick so that your pack works as intended...? I suppose you could just put a pre-screen suggesting that the player use FF whilst playing the level.

It works as it's intended to now.

Back when it was made, I hadn't fully realised that these elements were more annoying than interesting. I'm quite happy that the pack no longer has those levels.

[ccexplore]

First, there was Lemmings. A game released by DMA Design in 1991 as an "action puzzle", with ingenious levels that required both a good brain for puzzles and considerable manual dexterity to pull off the solutions.

A large part of the game in those days was just that: the ability to click the mouse at just the right time, not always knowing what the result was going to be.

Sorry, this to me feels like such revisionist history IMO.  Your regular Mario games feature far more "manual dexterity" than Lemmings.  Heck, even Tetris calls for more manual dexterity.  The Mayhem "We All Fall Down" might be close but it's more about spam-clicking than anything else.

And there is absolutely no randomized elements in the game, so as far as "not always knowing what the result was going to be", the most common case of it is probably when you have a crowd of lemmings and you'd like to assign a skill to someone amongst the crowd facing one specific direction, but the game doesn't have the means to do so making it somewhat a matter of "luck".  Even for someone who loves action games, I doubt it'll be too fun after a while if your controls constantly randomly flips itself every now and then so that left becomes right and right becomes left.

The more you compare Lemmings to other games, the more it just shows how inadequate Lemmings actually is on the action end of things.  I think what people found fresh about Lemmings at the time was precisely the ways it differed from your so many other games, that it gets you to think about how to save lemmings instead of killing enemies like your dozens of other games out there, and that it leans much more heavily on solution planning and a lot less on execution.  The game could certainly have ended with levels that require much pixel precision and an unforgiving time limit, and yet those aren't the levels you end up with at the end of Mayhem.  At the very least, the time-limit levels like "Just a Minute" actually forces you to find a better solution that works within the time given, rather than just take the most obvious solution and execute it perfectly.

Even the SuperLemming level in ONML, with its double speed, ultimately doesn't hold a candle to something like World 8-1 in Super Mario Bros for example.  The gaps you need to build over are pretty forgiving precision-wise, there are even many places where you can let the lemming walk back and forth a few times before making your next move.  The double-speed certainly makes things more intense--but only because regular speed is so un-intense to start with.

SuperLemmings seems more like a one-off joke to me, a very archetypical example of a gimmick, than anything ever planned for long-term.  Even by the time of Lemmings 2 the SuperLemming was already replaced with something else that is arguably more interesting even on the action side of things.

I will say though, as a joke/gimmick, I think the ONML SuperLemming is at least more refreshing than repeating "We All Fall Down" 4 times like in Lemmings.  I don't hate its one appearance in ONML but one is probably enough.

[ccexplore]

If anything, Lemmings 2 is probably a better example than Lemmings 1 on the action side of things, given its various wind-driven skills, and other skills that require you to aim for example.  Heck, you can actually make the lemming jump and run and even pole-vault!  The lemmings in Lemmings 2 is much more athletic.  And in some ways it's kind of fun.

And yet it doesn't seem to be what most players want even at the time, as later games in the series have moved away from those more action-oriented elements.

[WillLem]

@ccexplore:

Being a huge Mario fan, I'd have to agree that, of course, a game like Super Mario Bros. is way more action-oriented than Lemmings.

I'm not wrong about precise clicking being a big part of the original game, though: try solving levels like Save Me, Mind The Step, No Added Colours or Lemmings, the non-backroute solution of Stepping Stones, Pea Soup, Livin' On The Edge and The Ascending Pillar Scenario without the aid of Assign-Whilst-Paused, Framestepping and Skill Shadows: it's still a huge challenge long after you've figured out the puzzle's solution!

Regarding the latter of these examples, the Prima Publishing Lemmings: The Official Companion (from which the 16 Prima levels originated) states:

"This level may take you a couple of tries to complete successfully, as the positioning of the bridge-builder is critical."

And for Tricky 16 Luvly Jubly, which requires precise timing of the bombers:

"Since they fall a tiny bit further each time one explodes, you'll want to time the bomber slightly later... Make sure you move the pointer to the right slightly each time!"

Heck - even some of the Fun levels like Smile If You Love Lemmings, We are Now At LEMCON ONE and even something as innocuous as Origins and Lemmings all become a lot harder when played as originally designed, simply because you have to get the clicks just right, or you're nuking the level and starting again.

It's easy to forget this aspect of the game. Granted, when it comes to action, Lemmings is no Mario; I'd hesitate to ever make such a comparison even with the recent inclusion of wall-jumping. But, it did originally have some element of action even before the infamous Lemmings 2 and all of its various acrobatic skills, and my point here is that the SuperLemming idea was a way of exploring the possibility of making that action element all the more frantic.

The bottom line under all of this is that, of course Lemmings is improved vastly by the ability to assign skills whilst the game is paused, use direction-select to make sure you're clicking on the right (or left!) lemming, and the various conveniences afforded to the game by NeoLemmix are nothing short of miraculous! These allow the player to concentrate on the puzzle, and - as you've pointed out - that's the main thing players enjoy about the game as time goes on.

But this post is really about celebrating that other part of the game, which I believe the SuperLemming level epitomises: click at the right moment or fail the level! I may be wrong about this, of course. I may have missed the point. But... probably not!

[WillLem]

To reply more directly to this particular comment:

And there is absolutely no randomized elements in the game, so as far as "not always knowing what the result was going to be", the most common case of it is probably when you have a crowd of lemmings and you'd like to assign a skill to someone amongst the crowd facing one specific direction, but the game doesn't have the means to do so making it somewhat a matter of "luck".

At no point did I mention anything about randomized elements. Perhaps I should have been more clear: when referring to "not always knowing the result" of a particular skill assignment or click of the mouse, I was referring to examples such as the following:

- In a crowd of lemmings, not knowing whether you'd select a right or left-facing lemming (as per your example)
- Not knowing whether you'd placed a builder such that the end of the build would reach over a gap, or the top of a wall, or a similar target, until the builder had finished building
- Those truly annoying moments when you assign a basher a frame or two too late, and they turn around before actually starting to bash
- Assigning bombers too early or too late (this was probably one of the game's biggest trial-and-error elements)
- Mining towards a narrow area that includes steel blocks which you may or may not miss
- When attempting to free a blocker with a miner, having to make sure that you assign the miner at the right point so the blocker doesn't turn him around
- In a level like Down, Along, Up... In That Order, positioning the blockers and the builders exactly so that the builder reaches the next platform

I could go on.

The point is that, whilst these aren't all necessarily action-oriented, they require a certain amount of manual precision: and that, without the aid of assign-whilst-paused, direction-select, skill shadows, etc. This, I believe, is where DMA coined the term "action puzzle" - sure, Lemmings a puzzle to be solved, but you've also got to play it just right as well!

[ccexplore]

I'm not wrong about precise clicking being a big part of the original game, though: try solving levels like Save Me, Mind The Step, No Added Colours or Lemmings, the non-backroute solution of Stepping Stones, Pea Soup, Livin' On The Edge and The Ascending Pillar Scenario without the aid of Assign-Whilst-Paused, Framestepping and Skill Shadows: it's still a huge challenge long after you've figured out the puzzle's solution!

Everyone here who has finished the original games had in fact played through all those levels above without those new features in NeoLemmix.  The execution is obviously not trivial, but I'll leave it to others to say how much they felt challenged by the execution at the time they played.  Granted, it's possible many people don't remember clearly that aspect of it compared to the time spent figuring out the solution in the first place.

If you're focusing specifically on precision clicking, I think the timed bomber levels like Luvly Jubly may be better examples for most people.  My impression is that most people tend to take more effort to pass such levels.

And as far as pausing goes, do you count the very common technique of pausing, then move your mouse cursor to the lemming, then unpause and quickly click to assign the skill?  This is possible in almost all ports of Lemmings AFAIK, unless if pausing cannot be triggered except only through the button on the skills toolbar (which is quite rare--computers often can pause via keyboard, and consoles often have a dedicated pause button on the controller).  It is in many ways basically like an actual assign-whilst-paused.

Also worth pointing out that it's also common to move the cursor ahead of your lemming, then spam-click a bit while waiting for the lemming to finally move into range of cursor and receive the skill assignment.  So rather than dealing with clicking at the right time per se, it's often more about finding the right position to do the clicking at and wait there.

Heck - even some of the Fun levels like Smile If You Love Lemmings, We are Now At LEMCON ONE and even something as innocuous as Origins and Lemmings all become a lot harder when played as originally designed, simply because you have to get the clicks just right, or you're nuking the level and starting again.

Those levels don't seem to be good examples since being in rating Fun, their save requirements and skills available are generous enough that even if you screw up, you can probably afford to release and send another lemming to try again, without restarting the level altogether.  Also, I don't remember anyone ever complaining about those levels being hard to execute when played in the original game, they are in rating Fun after all.  It's making me a little curious now what it looks like when you played those levels in the original games for the first times.

But this post is really about celebrating that other part of the game, which I believe the SuperLemming level epitomises: click at the right moment or fail the level!

I know what you're saying, but ultimately the level we ended up with in ONML is no "Living' on the Edge" or "Stepping Stone" when it comes to building, there is no timed bomber, and there isn't even, say, a crowd to create the issue of "would you end up assigning to a left or right lemming".  The digging is actually fairly forgiving since in many places you can even let the lemming walk back and forth a few times before assigning if you want.  The "move the cursor into place then wait" technique seems pretty useful in that level.

The double-speed adds a little to the execution difficulty, sure, but overall even with the double-speed I'm not sure I'd rank the execution difficulty higher than many of the other levels you're brought up actually.  The double-speed could've made a very execution-focused level, but the one and only level we ultimately ended up with featuring the gimmick seems middling when it comes to execution.

[WillLem]

And as far as pausing goes, do you count the very common technique of pausing, then move your mouse cursor to the lemming, then unpause and quickly click to assign the skill?  This is possible in almost all ports of Lemmings AFAIK, unless if pausing cannot be triggered except only through the button on the skills toolbar (which is quite rare--computers often can pause via keyboard, and consoles often have a dedicated pause button on the controller).  It is in many ways basically like an actual assign-whilst-paused.

I suppose this technique is similar to assign-whilst-paused, and it certainly does allow a bit of thinking time, but it's not quite the same in terms of how much precision it allows: it's still down to the player rather than the engine.

Also worth pointing out that it's also common to move the cursor ahead of your lemming, then spam-click a bit while waiting for the lemming to finally move into range of cursor and receive the skill assignment.  So rather than dealing with clicking at the right time per se, it's often more about finding the right position to do the clicking at and wait there.

It's not quite as satisfying as getting it right with a single click though!

Those levels don't seem to be good examples since being in rating Fun, their save requirements and skills available are generous enough... It's making me a little curious now what it looks like when you played those levels in the original games for the first times.

Haha! I always used to go for saving as many lemmings as possible, and still do. I would often keep playing a level until I got the 100%. So, I guess my experience of playing the Fun levels may have been a bit more challenging than the average player who's happy just to pass with the save requirement. (EDIT: And, of course, my ability to get builder and bomber placement just right improved as a result of my efforts, as did my ability to select lemmings facing in the correct direction; there's a trick to this, at least in the Amiga version!)

That said, my point still stands either way: it's possible to mess up and have to send in another worker but still make the pass, sure; it's also possible to mess up and have to start again completely even if you're not bothered about an all-save. It depends on a player's ability and experience playing the game, both of which are likely to be relatively low if the player is making their way through the Fun levels for the first time. Or, they could be being played by an experienced player with pixel-precise abilities and excellent puzzle-solving skills. In any given scenario, the levels still require a certain amount of precision that needs to be learned and applied.

The double-speed could've made a very execution-focused level, but the one and only level we ultimately ended up with featuring the gimmick seems middling when it comes to execution.

I agree totally: this is exactly why I think people who enjoyed the challenge of the gimmick were a bit disappointed that we only got this one relatively easy level. It's possible that, had the idea been developed upon in Oh No! or maybe a later official Lemmings game, elements such as timed bombers, increasingly precise building and mining, etc, could have been implemented to greater effect.