I am kaywhyn. I just turned 31 earlier this month, and I hail from the USA in sunny California, where I have lived my entire life, to Vietnamese parents who are originally from Vietnam. This would be the very first forum I have ever joined. According to my profile, I apparently registered for this forum back in June 2017 but have not posted anywhere on this site... until now! Instead, I've been in the background and simply been reading posts made by various forum members in the various topics for the past 3 years. This seems like a great, friendly community for a wonderful game that I have known since childhood, and I'm glad to see a forum dedicated to this game discussing all its ins and outs!
I have a really interesting history with Lemmings. I was first introduced to this game when I was around 6 or 7 years old. I grew up with the Dos version of the game. I remember at some social occasion my family went to, my dad happened to have a floppy disk (be honest here, how many of you are old enough to remember floppy disks?) on him, and there was a computer that happened to have Lemmings installed on it. I guessed my dad copied the files onto it and thus began my journey into the world of Lemmings once we got home. I remember watching my older brother first play the game. At some point, I think either my brother gave up in frustration or just wasn't interested in the game anymore, so I took over and tried solving all the levels myself. I think even without watching my brother play I would had been able to solve the levels, with a lot of struggling of course, although watching him certainly helped. I should also mention that I beat the game with the CD Dos version, which has the higher splat height, which made the We All Fall Down levels trivial because you don't have to assign a single skill. However, I didn't know that at the time and probably just stumbled upon it by accident by simply doing nothing on that level and was surprised that the lemmings survive. This also made the entrance fall from Steel Works non-fatal, and again I didn't realize that until I happened to simply not assign a floater and seeing what would happen. Even then, it's still really easy to save them from splatting as it's only fatal by a single pixel.
Interestingly enough, I oddly remember Postcard From Lemmingsland wasn't a major roadblock for me. It only took me a few minutes to come up with digging then building to turn the lemming around to mine the others out. I think I had to adjust the position of mining a few times before it finally worked. From the Boundary Line gave me a lot of problems, although as a child I turned the first several into athletes, waited for them to climb, and then bashed. Nowadays, I don't turn any into athletes and just let the lemmings bash right from the start and it apparently works. For I have a Cunning Plan, I first used a blocker and had a lemming turn around and mine to free him, and then I kept building until he hit the thin wall on the left to turn around and walk to the exit. While this is much fiddlier and harder to execute due to no directional select, it was what I used as a child. I don't think I used a pass through blocker either. Nowadays, I simply delay a few lemmings with builders while having the lead lemming bash.
The rest of the game didn't give me any huge problems except for Upside Down World, King of the Castle, and POOR WEE CREATURES from Taxing and Poles Apart, the Just a Minute levels, and, of course, Save Me from Mayhem. UDW, ugh, there's that really huge steel area around the bear trap and so I often got frustrated whenever the worker lemming stopped bashing at that area. There was also the mining into right one-way arrows glitch where the lemming takes one stroke and then just stops and turns around that made the level very frustrating. For the last one in Taxing, I built from the bottom up as a child. For the first in Mayhem, I made the execution more difficult than it needed to be. I kept having a lemming coming back from the right dig and then build to contain the lemmings. Then there were two elements of luck. The first was building the lemmings out to the right in a crowd and second was a super precise assignment of digging the last pole so that the worker lemming can get over the last gap with just one builder because that's all I had left. This resulted in so many restarts for the level. Now, I make it a lot easier by having a lemming coming from the left dig instead so that only one builder needs to be used to get out of the pit and instead a pole is left intact to contain the lemmings so that once done I can simply bash it, as well as having a spare builder. For the first Just a Minute, I never dug down and used the pit at the bottom and simply started bashing straight away. I did have problems getting the solution right so that I would finish on time. Finally, I think I stopped for a while after reaching Save Me and didn't come back to the game for the next few years. I did finally beat the level and the final level of the game and thus the entire game when I was 10 or 11. I believe it was the summer of 2000 when I finally beat the whole game.
Oh No, More Lemmings has something similar in that I watched my brother play some of it and then he maybe either gave up in frustration or wasn't interested after some point and so I took it up to beat the game. I think I was introduced to this game when my dad bought a CD that contained both the original and Oh No together. This is the Dos version and I think I was either 7 or 8. I also remember playing this at one of my uncle's house at times. There was definitely way more troublesome levels for me here than the original Lemmings when I was a child. Rocky VI from Crazy would had been the first had it not been for the fact that on the CD Dos version you're able to bash OWWs the wrong way (same thing in Snow Joke from Wild), although I'm not sure if it was true for all levels except for the two levels I mentioned. Then again, I think it was only possible for ONML, I think in the original game the OWWS worked. I was able to do And Now, the End is Near from watching my brother beat it. Same thing with Dolly Dimple, although our solution was to dig until there's a thin layer of brick left, build a few steps, then dig so that the crowd can survive. Across the Gap I say would be the first one from Crazy to even give me problems. The hardest part for me was containing the lemmings and then being able to build out later.
For Wild, Lemming Rhythms would be the first, followed by Meeting Adjourned. For the former, I think I set two blockers and had a lot of trouble mining out in the right direction at the end. For the latter, I did some really weird stuff to contain the lemmings after digging down at the start. I built so that only one lemming went ahead below while the rest were contained above. I then had trouble releasing the crowd at the end due to trying to select a lemming going in the right direction. The biggest roadblock for me was ONWARD AND UPWARD. For some reason, it never occurred to me to mine the crowd out. I think I didn't come back to the game as a result for a few years. I think once I came back to the game a few years later and I did figure that out, the next biggest problem I had was I kept running out of time.
For Wicked, This Corrosion would be the first major roadblock, followed by A TOWERING PROBLEM. For the former, the first solution I found was by building into the chain on the left side and then dig the steel so that the lemmings can't get past it. I think this took several tries to get right. This would had easily been a level I would be stuck on for years had that solution not worked. For the latter, I made the level harder by having the lemmings climb over the top and then having to time the lemmings so that they would explode in the right place while falling and not taking out any of the thin floor. This took me so many tries, especially since you have to repeat it several times. Nowadays, I assign the bomber as the lemmings are coming up to the poles and thus finishing the level in less than a minute. Temple of Love was another roadblock. I think in Dos the lemmings are able to drop down from the starting platform without splatting, but because I used a builder to seal up the gap that left me with one builder that I had to place precisely to get to the exit. That took several tries to get right.
For Havoc, Madness in the Method was the first level to give me problems. It was easy to figure out the solution, just getting it correct took me several tries. I've had cases where the climber wouldn't turn around in the basher tunnel and often too many times I would mine in the wrong place so that the crowd can't be released. For Race Against the Cliches, I only took the bottom route. I think I dug down on the second pillar and the second to last one to make the falls survivable for the two lemmings that are non-floaters. However, as I later found out many years later, the non-floaters are supposed to go over the top, but at the same time, I tried the backroute of digging under all the pillars and bashing and find that it works, although it comes down to the wire for time. However, I consider Creature Discomforts my very first major roadblock of the difficulty rating. This was the level that stumped my brother and which he never was able to beat. He asked me to step in to beat it. I did something really weird by assigning a builder to the left entrance after bashing the first pillar to take the top route. I then delayed some lemmings by making them climbers after using another builder so that they could climb up the pillar at the end. Then, when I built to the exit, I would either be short one lemming or get the save requirement of 75% exactly. Obviously this is a very fiddly and strange solution, but since it solved the level that was good enough for me. Lemmings About Town was another problem. I think I kept trying to get over the gap at the top with just one builder, and even when I succeeded, building the crowd out in the right direction was the major problem I had. Once I got to Flow Control, I got stuck for at least a day. I remember the solution came to me one morning while I was lying awake in bed. I had an Aha moment where it occurred to me that the release rate needs to be adjusted in order to get past all the traps with a lemming. When I tried it and it worked perfectly, I felt really smart. At the time I beat this level, I think I was around 10.
After that, Have an Ice Day and the remaining levels after that were all huge problems for me. For the first one, I built to land past the steam blower trap and I also used a lemming to block at the end of a builder bridge to get up to the area where the exit is. I bashed to the left so that the crowd couldn't walk into the water. Scaling the Heights was a problem too. I used the bottom area to build back up. I also mined but stopped before he could break through by building so that there was still some wall to the left. Then I mined to the right and used a few builders to get up to the miner tunnel. Where Lemmings Dare was another problem. Avoiding the second lizard was really difficult for me. I took the bottom route through all the vine traps. I remember being very frustrated by so many of the well hidden vine traps leading up to the exit. For Lemmings in a Situation, instead of building up to the chain, I dug the brick wall on the ground and then build for both climber lemmings. The hard part was building at the right place with just one builder so that when I bashed the lemming would be able to do it without also bashing out the grey floor. I think the only way this could be achieved was building so that the lemming shrugs as the wall is reached with the very last brick. Looks a Bit Nippy Out There was a major roadblock. I built at the top, bashed to the left, then built to contain the crowd. I did something really weird by building up and then having a worker lemming at the top try and free the crowd after having one build to turn him around. Builders was the major problem here as a result of how I did my solution. I eventually got it to work but it's very fiddly. I remember first beating this level the summer of 1999. I gave up on the final level for about two years before finally beating it and the entire game the summer of 2001, which means this was a year after I beat the original game.
When I was maybe a junior or senior in high school, I started having nostalgia when I remembered playing Lemmings as a kid. This was where I got into playing custom lemmings levels and level packs. I started with custlemm. I remember starting off with levelpacks I downloaded from the Garjen website. I haven't played all of them, but I have beaten several or possibly all of Ben Conway's, Garjen's, and ISteve's packs. I then stopped for the next several years before I came back to the lemmings scene. I think it was a few years after I finished college when I revisited Lemmings. One day on YouTube, I think I typed in something like "lemmings custom levels" and in the search results was a video of Dovelems by rtw (round the wheel). I remember watching the introduction video where he mentioned the features of Lemmini. Intrigued, I downloaded and set up Lemmini, followed by downloading the pack from I think Dodochacalo's channel. According to replay files I have, I apparently played and beat this pack back in 2014, as well as his two smaller packs Dodo and Cacha. I also did Franlems, but I remember I gave up on the pack when I got to the level Sur Pilotis. I eventually came back and finished the pack a few years later around the time when I started Pimolems (see below).
The next pack I played was Pimolems. This was where I discovered this forum, so my history with this forum goes back a few years earlier than when I registered. I was doing really well until I got to The Warehouse in the hurricane ranking. That's where I gave up and stopped playing for a few years. I don't remember if I skipped Let Them Eat Cake or if I was able to solve it before I started the Hurricane ranking. Once I did come back, probably either 2016 or 2017, I was able to finally solve The Warehouse. It's definitely a difficult rank, but eventually I was able to complete it and the entire pack.
The next pack I played was Lemmings Reunion by Icho. I believe I started the pack around March or April 2017 and completed the whole pack June 2017. This was due to how I worked a job which therefore limited the amount of time I had to play the pack each day. If you recall, this was around the time I registered for the forum. The major stumping point for me was the level Another Brick in the Wall in the Nightmare ranking. It took me a few weeks before I finally did beat the level. I almost was tempted to look at Namida's playthrough for the level, but because I'm a person who likes to beat levels before watching other people's replays, I resisted. And yes, I completed Lemmings Reunion without consulting any playthrough. Lemtris X Version and the final level of the rank took me some time as well, although each one took me nowhere near as long as Another Brick in the Wall. However, my solution to the final level is definitely not intended, as I used the stuck climber glitch to get a lemming up to the top of the pyramid.
Shortly after beating Lemmings Reunion, I discovered Superlemmini and I set that up. As of now, I believe I have beaten all levelpacks made for this platform, including Arty's Sublems and Reverse Lemmings. The only one I haven't is the level The Snow Palace in the Blizzlem levelpack, but that's because I believe the level is impossible in its current state. I'm currently awaiting confirmation from someone in the Superlemmini topic.
In December 2017, I messaged Flopsy to let him know that the links to download Revenge of the Lemmings for Lemmini were broken and to ask if he had a copy of the pack anywhere. He also posted in the topic. There was no response until around Christmas time. As of now, I still have not beaten the pack on Lemmini, because I'm currently stuck on Mystery Machine in the Bonus rank. So, this level has apparently stumped me for at least 2 years and I'm still stumped. I honestly have no idea how it's possible for lemmings to climb into the pit coming from the right but then they're not able to scale and get out of it from the other side (is that the mystery referenced in the level title?). Also, since it's in the bonus rank, it uses a Lemmini glitch, but I have no idea which one. The only one I can see in that level is the stuck climber glitch, where a lemming repeatedly climbs inside terrain, but that's no good because then I don't have enough skills to save the other lemming. It's easy to save 1 lemming, but to save both I have no clue. I also don't know any other glitch to use. Again, I know there's a replay video of the level on YouTube, but I dare not watch it until I solve the level myself. With this, NO HINTS YET, PLEASE!
The latest pack I'm currently playing through is Icho's Lemmings United, which I started around September 2019. I honestly thought I would never get myself into Neolemmix and would just stuck to Lemmini and Superlemmini, but surprisingly it's not as bad as I thought. I think the biggest turnoff for me was the huge amount of features in Neolemmix, which was why it took me at least 5 years after I first used Lemmini. I'm currently stuck on the final level of Neutrality. I've been stumped since the beginning of December, so for almost 4 months. I know that I could just skip around to other levels in the pack, but I myself love playing levels in order, which pretty much means I refuse to proceed with the rest of the pack until I solve Neutrality 41. And yes, I got up to this point without reading solution spoilers in the levelpack topic or watching Icho's commentary videos on the Pacifism rank. Clearly I'm missing a trick that's preventing me from solving the level, but every possibility I come up with I'm always either a walker or a platformer short. I know Icho gave Armani a hint for the level, but I absolutely refuse to read it. So, Icho, if you're reading this, once I send you a replay on the levelpack's topic, just tell me if I have the beginning part wrong, for example, but no hints yet!
In the meantime, I've been playing through other packs. The most recent I've been playing is Nepsterlems. From the posts I've been reading, this is a difficult pack that's up there with Lemmings United, but probably not as difficult as the latter, as I know United is very, very hard. I'm currently stuck and been stuck for a few weeks on Planet 13. I just recently finished Gigalems featuring ghosts and currently playing the one featuring zombies, but a couple of broken levels unfortunately. The penultimate level of the second rank has steel that doesn't work and the exit trigger is non-functional, and the one level in the Thy Flesh Consumed rank with the direct drop doesn't work. This is for the 1.43n-f player, of course.
Well, I think I pretty much got all bases covered in regards to my Lemmings history. As you all can see, I'm super detailed. Don't ask me why I remember all this, especially with Lemmings and ONML. It's been about 20 years since I first beat those two games and I still remember every single detail regarding levels that gave me major problems. In regards to my Lemmings solving skills, I don't consider myself an expert, but let's just say I love puzzles and that my skills are apparently good enough that I was able to complete difficult packs like Pimolems and Lemmings Reunion on my own without consulting any videos. I would consider myself making great progress with United so far, especially since I've solved all of the first two ranks except for the Neutrality rank finisher, again all on my own. Finally, sorry to disappoint everyone here, but don't expect any levelpacks from me. Personally, I'm good at solving puzzles, but when it comes to making them, forget it. I just don't have the skill to make puzzles. I don't know if this is common, though, where there's people who are good at solving puzzles but not making them like me, or vice versa.
See you around, everyone!
Best,
Ky (pronounced like Kai)
