.lvl and .dat: How to play and edit

[Simon]

This topic deals with the ancient level format for DOS Lemmings. Level files in this format end with .lvl, 10-level-packs end with .dat.

Consider NeoLemmix or Lix: DOS Lemmings's .lvl/.dat format was popular around 2000 to 2010 for custom levels. Since 2014, the most popular engines are NeoLemmix and Lix. We encourage you to create new levels for these games.

Play old Lemmings games: This topic is about custom levels. If you want to play DMA's old Lemmings, Oh no! More Lemmings, Holiday Lemmings, ..., get a Lemmix player, or run the old games in DOSBox. You don't have to set up Lemmix editor.

See also the 2013 list of game engines and editors.

Lemmix + Eric's Lemmix editor

Lemmix is a lemmings clone that comes with a level editor and is probably your best choice for playing custom levels in .lvl and .dat format, like most of those on the level database, as these levels were designed for Lemmix/CustLemm physics and might not work in other clones. Due to the physics it's also a good choice for the challenges from the Challenges Board. Lemmix features saving and loading replays, savestates and a few more convenient features. Setting it up is a bit complicated, and it has no music.

Link: https://web.archive.org/web/20180929192201/http://ericenzwaan.nl/eric/lemmings/lemmix.htm

Setup

Get CustLemm which essentially merges the graphics files from Lemmings and ONML. Extract Lemmix and open the file LemmixStyles.ini. Navigate to [style_9], and two lines below you should find "CommonPath=". Enter the path where CustLemm is located there. (Optional: If you have the original game and/or ONML, find [style_0] and [style_1] and put the paths to Lemmings and ONML there respectively. This will allow you to play the original and ONML levels.)

Now run Lemmix, and go to Tools -> Compiler. Select 'Custom Lemmings' and click 'compile all graphics sets for this style'. (Optional: you can do the same for Original Lemmings and ONML.)

Usage

When opening a .lvl file, you'll be prompted to select a viewer style. Select 'Custom Lemmings' there. When opening a .dat file, you'll be presented with a level list. Right-click on that dialog, select 'change viewer style' and select 'Custom Lemmings'.

To play a level, open it and press [F2]. Press [u] to save a replay of your solution. Press [Shift]+[R] to load a replay during play; make sure you are already playing the correct level.

CustLemmix

An alternative to Lemmix + Lemmix Editor (explained above) to play levels from the level database in a Lemmix player. Download CustLemmix, create a new empty folder, put that executable inside the folder. Rename your level pack to LEVELPAK.DAT and put the pack in the CustLemmix folder. Run CustLemmix to play.

More info about CustLemmix. Don't have CustLemmix in a folder with other Lemmings/Lemmix styles. CustLemmix has styles compiled into the executable and should use those styles. It would prefer other styles from its folder if it found any styles there, thus don't have any styles there.

CustLemm, LemEdit

Obsolete since 2007, but historically important. Both of these run in DosBox. CustLemm is a hack of ONML that loads any given LEVELPAK.DAT instead of the ONML-included levels. See the included readme for instructions.

Download CustLemm

You can select levels 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 from the 10-level pack with the arrow keys in the CustLemm main menu. To play even-numbered levels, you have two ways: Either press F2 in the main menu, enter SKIPLEVELS, then press [Numpad-5] during the preceding odd level to skip the odd level. Or press F2 in the main menu and enter one of these codes:

2: IRRTDTSICR
4: RTDTSIVKCX
6: DTSIRVTMCJ
8: SIVVTDTOCP
10: IRRUDTSQCK

Amiga

Creating and playing custom levels in Amiga Lemmings.

Link: http://www.lemmingsforums.net/index.php?topic=1206.msg32683#msg32683

-- Simon

[Minim]

Just letting you know http://ericlangedijk.nl/eric/lemmings/lemmix.htm is a dead link. I wonder if anyone still has a copy of the Lemmix editor available for upload? Only because I need to find out the exact steel area placements of levels.

[kaywhyn]

To find the answer to your question, here's a copy of Eric's original website for Lemmix, courtesy of the Wayback Machine:

https://web.archive.org/web/20180929192201/http://ericenzwaan.nl/eric/lemmings/lemmix.htm

This link that ccexplore linked in the Lemmix player control topic in levels for other engines works. Scroll down to the editor section to download.

[Simon]

Updated link to vanilla Lemmix in OP. Thanks!

-- Simon

[Minim]

Got the Lemmix Editor back again. Thanks for your help!