[BETA] Ultimate Lemmings - a new 2D Lemmings engine for Apple Silicon devices

[UltimateLemmings]

I've been building Ultimate Lemmings: an unofficial native macOS project bringing classic Lemmings; Oh No! More Lemmings, the Xmas and Holiday releases, Lemmings 2: The Tribes, and Lemmings 3 into one connected app.

It started with wanting to play Lemmings again. It has grown into something closer to how I remember playing it: sitting with other people, arguing over solutions, taking turns, making spectacular mistakes and cheering when we finally get everyone home.

How is this different from an emulator or another Lemmings engine?

An emulator runs the original game executable inside a recreated machine. Ultimate Lemmings reads the original game data and runs its own native engines. That lets the games share menus, profiles, controls, QoL, and saved-game flows, while retaining their different gameplay systems.

The aim is to preserve the original puzzles and character while making the whole experience comfortable to play today. That means original campaigns, the sequels, rarely played Macintosh artwork (2x artwork that only appeared in the classic Mac ports, not seen in any other port), shared play and modern controls in one place.

Community engines have already done enormous work keeping Lemmings alive, so of course not claiming that every convenience here is a new invention. What makes this project different is the combination and the emphasis on returning to these games with someone sitting beside you.

The artwork deserves its own mention

• Original 2× Macintosh artwork for Classic. The Macintosh release has beautifully detailed sprites, terrain and objects. These are actual higher-resolution assets, not simply enlarged DOS pixels. Unless you played the original classic mac games you probably never even thought to emulate them. So most will be playing these for the first time. Which of course means, once you get to L2+L3 you'll see a drastic graphical downgrade, except...
  
• I've also created NEW 2× Macintosh-style artwork for Lemmings 2 and 3. This is newly reconstructed artwork based on the original sequel assets and a close study of Classic's Macintosh art. It is not a recovered Mac release. The extra detail preserves the original collision masks, placement and animation timing.
  
• Classic presentation with optional modern touches. Original game lettering, selectable graphics and audio, CRT effects and HDR feedback. The Xmas and Holiday games retain their seasonal soundtracks.
  
• ACTUAL NUKES Now you can REALLY nuke the Lemmings the way you remembered it in your mind. No spoilers. This will blow you away.
  
• Vari-speed up to 10x across all three games and 6000+ levels (yes, I have included an insane amount of fan-created levels). There's also rewind. Undo nuke. Death sounds for Lemmings falling into the void (user controllable as this varied from port to port).
  
• DJ Soundtrack Soundtrack now auto-mixes into a new track once the level goal has been met. You can mix and match soundtracks across platforms, ports and games for optimal variation and proper audio cues. Mods have an optional modern sound which brings drums and percussion to the center stage instead of hard panning + modern EQ and sound treatment including Spatial Audio!
  
• THERE'S MORE?? Player profiles. Three star level ratings. Achievements! GLOBAL LEADERBOARDS?‽‽ Per level as well as across all??
  
• OKAY SO YOU KNOW HOW ...this game is an advanced trolley problem? In addition to all the meta-goals above it will also assign you a philosopher based on your playstyle per level. Useful? No. Utilitarian? You betcha!
  

Built for taking turns

Hot Seat and player profiles exist because that is how I played Lemmings as a kid: alternating attempts with my cousins, sisters and friends.

There are separate player profiles, persistent shared saves, clear turn ownership, paused handovers and explicit retry choices. You can leave a shared game, play solo and come back without losing your shared progress.

It gives that old "your turn—let's see you do better" experience a proper home in the game.

More comfortable to play, without losing the puzzle

• A connected Classic journey. Full Quest brings 292 Classic-family levels into a 13-stage progression, weaving together the original game, Oh No! and the festive releases. Oh Yes! More Lemmings is a collection of previously port exclusive levels from the SNES and SEGA ports. There is also a library of more than 6,000 fan levels. This is the most complete collection of Lemmings content in one place!
  
• Variable speed. Tap to toggle fast-forward. Hold F, the Speed button or a controller trigger to ramp up to 10×, then release to return to your previous speed.
  
• Clearer skill targeting. The reticle shows whether a lemming can accept the selected skill, and clicks favour the nearest eligible target—even in a crowd.
  
• Keyboard and controller controls. Remappable controller bindings, direct skill shortcuts, visible shortcut letters and quick access to pause, hints and menus.
  
• Help over the actual level. Pause and display keyboard commands over the scene. The original 120 levels also have tiered hints and verified solution routes.
  
• Saved attempts. Escape saves your attempt and returns to the menu. Interrupted runs, including fan-level queues, can be recovered and resume paused.
  
• Reasons to revisit levels. Stars, personal bests, career awards, local records and replays, with verified routes behind supported rescue targets.
  
• Accessibility options. Scalable menus, reduced motion and flashes, pause on interruption, and clearer keyboard focus and control names.
  

Where it stands

The project is currently at beta 32, with universal Intel and Apple Silicon builds, a macOS 12.3 compatibility build and a separate Game Center test build. If you want to test leaderboards, please DM me your Provisioning UDID found in System Information and I'll add you to the private gamecenter sandbox test.

All 120 original Lemmings levels have verified winning routes. Validation is still progressing through the other campaigns. Lemmings 2 and 3 remain previews, and the size of the fan-level library does not mean every level has been checked for completion or perfect compatibility.

Why I'm still working on it

I cannot emphasise enough how well this game has held up.

We are playing it NOW, laughing out loud at how we are fkking up levels and solutions, then cheering when something finally works. The Hot Seat features came directly out of those evenings. It is pure joy to play still and I am sad this IP was left on the vine to die (we speak not of the current gacha mobile games).

For me, this is as much fun in 2026 as it was in 1992. Lemmings is a ridiculously good game, and I want more people to have that experience again.

Download Lemmings beta 32

[UltimateLemmings]

I am of course open to porting this back to Windows/Linux or other platforms once in a good state. I'm also currently exploring the best ways of distributing this without stepping on licensing and copyright toes. Ultimately no copyrighted material will be distributed, but a smooth end player experience is the ultimate goal for people for whom emulation is a step too hard.

[UltimateLemmings]

As for personal features that I am adding that I always wished were in the game, I am adding per level stats and leaderboards - my goal as a kid was always to max out the saved lemmings. Now this will be built in to each solution: The maximum possible saved lemmings versus your effort.

Of course any and all of these modern QoL features will be optional, but I bet you you'll be going back and min/maxing them all

Oh yeah, and I'll be adding a Retry button for each level even if you finished it 

[UltimateLemmings]

Some wild ideas I had

• Automatically fetched fan levels from this forum
• Oh Yes! More lemmings = All port exclusive levels from SNES/Genesis/Arcade Ports (already implemented)
• Saveable replays at the end of each level (already implemented)
• Two-player levels from AMIGA (already implemented, dual control options in progress)
• Enhanced HDR FX (implemented for explosions and speed)
• Vari-speed (already implemented)
• Undo-nuke (already implemented)
• Quick-restart (yup)
• Touch-pad/multi-touch zoom
• Achievements (Already implemented, ripe for enhancements)
• Global leaderboards and stats (now implemented also)

Open to suggestions...

[UltimateLemmings]

Okay so hey

[Mobiethian]

This looks awesome! Very nice work. I really like the various choices of Lemmings games and that's really a lot of great memorable levels! Keep up the amazing work on it.

[UltimateLemmings]

Thank you! I was hoping this would resonate with OG players. I have been having such a good time actually PLAYING these games as well as developing the port, and they truly do hold up so much. My favourite bolted on feature has been the hot seat multiplayer where my partner and I can take turns for each level/failure and have each of our wins and stats counted separately. It's how I remember playing it with my friends and family members back in the day, so I am glad to incorporate it into the actual game play as a core feature.

Everyone I have shown it to who has never played it instantly get it which is so great to see. My friend's five year old son has been playing it all day and is figuring it all out by himself!

[Guigui]

This looks very interesting indeed, incredible job.
Though I'm sorry to be the first one to ask this : is it possible to run it on a Windows or Linux based computer ?

[UltimateLemmings]

This looks very interesting indeed, incredible job.
Though I'm sorry to be the first one to ask this : is it possible to run it on a Windows or Linux based computer ?

I'll be looking at Windows and Linux ports after I've completed Mac and iOS. For now it remains a Mac beta only.

[spaceagemeats]

Thank you for doing this! I'd always hoped someone might attempt porting OG Lemmings to modern platforms. The fact it's out for the Mac first is a total bonus.

Been playing over the weekend and it's great! Happy to test any new versions as they come out.