like the Drowners in this example, Swimmers "warp" straight to the top of the water area
I've used the Amiga .bat version
assuming your video was made in the DOS version
Thanks! Yes, I've used DOS L2.
I've just tested DOS L2 with an underwater walker that knows how to swim. It's exactly as you describe from Amiga L2: On rising by at least one pixel, the lemming teleports to the water's top surface, the splash animation plays there, and he immediately starts swimming.
-- Simon