Lemmings DOS. That 'SKIP' cheat...

[The Mole UK]

In some of the DOS builds, especially, Xmas Lemmings Demos, there is a cheat hidden in the code.  You can type the code in and then press NUMLOCK+5 to skip a level.  However, on some builds >1.9 it seems, the code is still present but the mode does not work.  Has anyone worked out how to activate it?  I'd like to make some new levels and playing one by one is a bit cumbersome...

I wonder if there is a switch in the code.

[Simon]

(I'm answering this mostly from memory with only 5 minutes of websearching to support this answer. There might be more that I don't know; others should jump in.)

The cheat code is either BILLANDTED or SKIPLEVELS. Have you tried both?

Are you sure that it's pressing [Numlock] and [5] at the same time? I thought it was the single keypress [Numpad5], where [Numlock] is possibly required once beforehand to toggle the numpad to numbers.

When you say "the code is still present", do you mean that you get a special response (i.e., not: Incorrect Code) from the password-entering screen? Or have you looked for the cheat in the executable with a hex editor?

-- Simon

[The Mole UK]

If you unpack the exe (ahem!) and look at it under a HexEditor...  So yes, BILLANDTED, SNOWFLAKES, ENTERPRISE etc...  VERSIONNUM is also a code.  That is still working.   On the Xmas demos, they use v1.9 and the code SNOWFLAKES works, but in other builds, like 1.91, 1.92 while a code is in the Hex and Cheat activated is in the Hex, they don't work.  So, I suspect, there is a code switch.  So, when building the game it is 1 and 0 when retail.

With Holiday Lemmings 1993 v1.91, I think the exe was buggy and rather than fix the crash with -v -o, they disabled the enhanced bar in v1.92.

The only reason I would want the code to work, is if I make levels and want to test them.   Thirty years, this year...