I present to you, my latest Lemmings-related project...

[namida]

The Lemmings Replay Database!

Now, this is still considered a work in progress, but I feel it's far enough along now that I can open it up.

Remember, this should be treated as a "beta"! Do submit interesting replays, but please don't rely on it as your sole replay backup source - keep a copy of them elsewhere (even if it's just on the forum here).

If you find any issues, please post them in this topic. For now, no suggestions (unless it's minor details - "I think you should add a link to X on page Y" is fine, but let's keep the "how about level images and replay stats?" for later); there's room for those later. For now, the main priority is simply making sure anything works.

You can access the database here:
http://www.lemmingsforums.net/replaydb/

Your login username and password will be the same as it is on the forums. Also, if you have moderator or administrator access on the forums, you'll automatically get that on the replay database too (not that it does much at this stage - the only real additional features they have are being able to add levels to ranks, add ranks to games, and upload replays under other people's names). Note that currently, if you log in on the replay database then later change your password on the forum, you will still be able to log into the RDB with your old password, until you log into it once with the new password (at which point the old password will stop working on the RDB too).

Replays are supported from Lemmix, NeoLemmix, Lemmini and SuperLemmini. Please note that for Lemmix and NeoLemmix replays, you need recent versions (V28 for Lemmix, V1.28n or higher for NeoLemmix), and for best results you should save your replays from the postview screen, or at least not until all required lemmings have exited.


EDIT: I've taken it down due to lack of interest.

[namida]

Known issues:
- If you change your password on the forums after logging into the RDB once, you can still log into the RDB with the old password. This fixes itself once you log in with the new password at least once.

Future plans:
- Support Lemmini / SuperLemmini replays
- Support custom levels / fangames

Noted suggestions:
none yet


How you can help:
- Test the database and let me know if there's any issues!
- If you know anything about Lemmini / SuperLemmini's replay format, let me know!

[LJLPM]

Great work! I think such a database is very convenient! 

[namida]

Thanks!
At the moment its functionality is quite limited, but I hope to improve on this over the next... well, not sure exactly how long it'll be. It'll probably be one of those things I keep improving over time until it seems like there isn't much left to improve.

[namida]

Lemmini and SuperLemmini replays are now supported.

To avoid this hassle with having to enter details manually (although most likely the "authentic version" thing will still have to be manual), I might look at doing another update to traditional Lemmix (and adding to the next NeoLemmix update) to add a feature that automatically saves more useful data to the replay file...

[namida]

I'm testing out a few things with reading some data directly from the replay; please don't upload anything in the meantime, and please ignore the large number of improper replays on Mayhem 3.

[namida]

Okay, done!

Firstly, I had to wipe all existing replays (well, I didn't have to, but it was tidier this way). This shouldn't be a huge deal to anyone but myself, as no one else had submitted any replays yet.

Anyway, the need to fill out data such as lemmings saved etc manually is no longer an issue - it can get these from the replay file itself! However, you do need to record your replays with the newest version of Lemmix (or NeoLemmix). If you already made a replay with an older version, you can simply load it then re-save it with the new version; you don't have to execute the solution again.

For Lemmix and NeoLemmix replays, it will now also show the time taken to complete the level.

There isn't any skill-counting yet, sorry. I still need to add that.


So yeah. This should be a tad more convenient now. Please do give it a go, so you can let me know if there's any issues. It doesn't seem anyone else had used it yet - a few people had logged on, but no one had submitted anything - so if it continues to not see any use, I'll probably take it down - no sense in having it there and taking up hosting space, or working on it in general, if it isn't being used.


EDIT: Just to add, on each level (if it has any replays), it now displays the highest number of lemmings saved, and best time achieved. If more than one replay are tied, it will list the one that was uploaded first. It currently doesn't distinguish between different mechanics sets when doing this, though.

[namida]

Alright well, it doesn't look like there's that much interest in this, so I'm probably going to take it down. If there is interest in it but people find it unsuitable for use in its current form, please let me know why so I can improve it.

[geoo]

I think the main issue is that the interest in challenges is at a low currently, I think the heyday for challenges was in 2009 and 2010. x_x

That said, I have a ton of challenge replays lying around, and I'd be happy to upload them if there was a way to do it in batch. Right now each of them has to be opened manually in the latest version of Lemmix (which I can't even do right now as I'm running on Ubuntu and haven't booted into Windows in a good 5 months) to convert to the new format, and then uploaded one by one.
Then we could have an archive that lists, on the level list, the max saved, min skill and min time, together with the relevant replays. This is what I wanted to do for lix at some point at least (so maybe you could give me your code, even though I'd probably lay out everything a lot differently).

But yeah, if there's nobody using it then there's no point extending it to that effect. Though I don't see much of a point of taking it down either unless it takes a lot of space/bandwidth. Some things pick up slowly.

EDIT: Oh, and I messed around and took your Fun 01 replay and re-uploaded it with 20 lems saved x_x

[namida]

By hex-editing the file itself? Yeah, I didn't really implement any checks of that kind, both for simplicity and for the fact that (once I add code to handle it) these kind of replays can easily be reported and removed; besides I doubt anyone here is likely to upload them for any reason other than proof-of-concept that it can be done. (If it's a glitch though, not an edited replay... I shall need to look into this...)

[Nepster]

At least standard solutions to the official Lemmings levels are easily found on YouTube, so I cannot imagine that there is demand for them in the replay archive (other than for the sake of completeness).
As for challenges: I think the interest in challenges is so low, because it is very likely that the vast majority of interesting solutions was already discovered by the existing challenges (at least for the official lemmings levels). So there is not much sense in creating/discussing new challenges. However it might be useful to have all challenge replays collected in one place. But why search for them in the forum to upload them or even remake them yourself, if it is commonly known that geoo has "a ton of challenge replays lying around" ?

Coming back to my first argument: I do not expect that the replay archive will be used much, until it contains more replays than readily found on YouTube, e.g. once it contains many replays for (small) custom level packs like tseug's one.

A suggestion for the replay archive (in case it gets more active there): Add screenshots of the levels and the good/bad statements found in the Lemmings review topics.

PS: Changed the subject title slightly, to be more descriptive.

[LJLPM]

I think it's useful to have a single place to look for when searching for a replay, especially since there's a lot of custom/fan-made levels here and there! With this database, one instantly knows where to find a replay: nice!
Maybe a batch process for quickly loading multiple replays into the database may help to make the database more attractive as it is currently...?

[ccexplore]

Just leave it up for a few months and see if engagement improves, before deciding whether to take it down.  I don't know that you will get much progress on existing challenge replays (most of which were found and produced ages ago), simply because the people who actually have them are at this point likely the least motivated to do the work to move them to the database (since it's basically all for benefit of newcomers), but as LJLPM said it could get more interest for more recent custom levels.

[namida]

I'll look into what can be done about conversion of existing replays at some point...

[Clam]

I also have a ton of challenge replays lying around

Challenges are kinda dead, but we should at least have readily available evidence of the challenge results we've found.

(Also, I really need to try the new Lemmix )