Lemmings Challenges

[finlay]

it's three roots that you should be able to climb over and you can't. One is the big root that sticks up over on the right section, on the hill on the way down towards the exit.

[ccexplore]

it's three roots that you should be able to climb over and you can't.

Exactly, that's what makes it so bad, as I found out myself half a year ago when I tried a certain challenge solution for that level on the Mac.  I always thought it was just the big one, but turns out there are actually 3 roots that blocks the lemmings.  No wonder it sucks so bad for the Mac Lemmings players!

It's perhaps true that on the Mac they should've also change the save percentage so that you are allowed to lose the same number as for the Amiga version (rather than keeping the same percentage, which means you can't lose as many since the Mac has 80 rather than 100 lemmings).  But the level still would be ok without the percentage adjustment, if not for this double-whammy of the three unclimbable roots.

[tseug]

Oh my... that actually makes it a hard level to even pass. Someone must not have liked macs...

[finlay]

You know what's even more annoying about that? I've tested the 100 lemming "limit" by messing around with the resources, and making levels with 100 lemmings, and the actual game works perfectly fine. (it properly crashed when I tried making a level with 200 lemmings, when it got to about 140/150, though) However, the strings got messed up and it didn't give me any messages afterwards ("You totally stormed that level" et. al.), and the ratings, so it'd say " un" instead of "Fun" or something. It just strikes me that they should have fixed this problem with three digits...

It also actually supports (if you mess around) time limits 10 minutes or greater, and percentage goals over 100%... which is quite funny when you get things like "You rescued 100%; Better rethink your strategy before you try this level again!"

[ccexplore]

You know what's even more annoying about that? I've tested the 100 lemming "limit" by messing around with the resources, and making levels with 100 lemmings, and the actual game works perfectly fine.

Keep in mind that these limits (well, at least the one on number of lemmings anyway) are usually due to performance issues rather than some sort of technical hard limit.̆ I don't know how old your Mac is, but I guess back when they ported the game apparently they felt that the best course of action, given the speed and amount of memory of the lowest-end machine they want to target the game to, is to reduce from 100 to 80 lemmings.̆ And for most levels, that change makes no practical difference in terms of solvability while undoubtedly lead to a much safer margin in turns of the smootheness of the graphics rendering and responsiveness of the game etc.

[Liebatron]

I was just wondering, and this seemed to be the right topic to ask in, has anyone ever beaten Timballistos level, Finland?

He got 98% on it.
:angry:

[tseug]

Yes, cce did. There was a screenshot of his solution on the old forum.

[ccexplore]

It's ultimately just a matter of playing it over and over until you become familiar with when there are lemmings about to fall off.̆ And of course, lots of pausing to make sure you didn't miss a lemming that's about to die.