Lemmings 1 (SNES) PC Remake

[Ramon]

Link to newest beta: http://www.vertigofx.com/jrkstudios/lem/lemmings_19.exe" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.vertigofx.com/jrkstudios/lem/lemmings_19.exe

Contains 19 levels (3 unfinished) without any particular order

Backstory:

The only Lemmings game I possess is the SNES one. It had me enchanted when I was younger.

In older times (still some time ago) I found out about Lemmings on other platforms. I tried Lemmings for PC but I didn't like the interface. I've always wanted to make own Lemmings levels too (I remember having drawn a lot of them on paper long ago, I lost all of em in the meantime), and I found LemEdit and Lemmix. However, LemEdit was pretty hard and annoying to use and Lemmix also had some flaws, so I couldn't really enjoy doing Lemmings levels to the max.

Some time ago I got ahold of a program developing software (Multimedia Fusion 2) and I've seen other great games made by it, so I decided to remake the SNES version (I haven't seen any remake with the SNES interface before).

It's gone pretty well in the beginning, though I had to rip most of the GFX from the emulator while playing the ZSNES Lemmings. I also ripped the font as I couldn't find the SNES one anywhere. It wasn't too hard to do the basic movement engine but when stuff like assigning actions or displaying numbers appeared, I often racked my head. Luckily I had an online friend who helped me out and the MMF2 community also gave me hints along the way. Finally I've come towards completing a pretty stable engine with nearly all the SNES Lemmings features implemented already. (This project was started October 27th and I didn't have any major prior knowledge about the software I was using.)

Demo (engine and physics testing):

http://www.vertigofx.com/jrkstudios/lem/lemmings.exe" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.vertigofx.com/jrkstudios/lem/lemmings.exe (always updated to the newest build if available)

Test level to test interactions with obstacles, goal and steel. (Only recently implemented those.)
Release rate 50, Amount of Lemmings 100. Don't panic when nothing happens after all the Lemmings are gone, didn't do that yet. Just restart with R if you like.

I've been looking for sounds so I haven't implemented them yet (except when you assign a skill to a lemming).

Controls?:
Scroll left: Left Arrow or A or move cursor to left edge
Scroll right: Right Arrow or D or move cursor to right edge
Switch between skills: Up/Down Arrow or W/S or F3-F9 or click on them (for some reason MMF2 won't take F10 yet, I hope it's going to be fixed)
Release rate: F1 (decrease) and F2 (increase) or click and hold +/- on screen
Pause: 0 (Numpad) or Space
Restart: R

Screenshots?: Eh, the game should look 100% like on the SNES (judging by screenshots themselves) as all the GFX are ripped.

Differences from the original SNES game:
-Frame rate. The remake is a bit faster in fps, and thus the lemmings' animations aren't exactly spot-on-spot. I hope I can fix that in future.
-Bombers CAN bomb through steel.
-Controlled by mouse!
-Can't get the release rate exactly like in the original game, only similar. Does anybody know the exact formula of how fast the lemmings are emitted per release rate point?
-...can't think of anything else at the moment

Known bugs:
-Trouble with displaying the bomber countdown number above the correct lemming. Don't worry the lemming itself will explode after 5 (game) seconds, uninfluenced by the countdown number.
-Sometimes when a builder hits a wall, he goes backwards while doing moonwalk. Absolutely no idea what causes this.
-Blocker is quite buggy. The second time a lemming hits the same blocker, it starts to moonwalk. Again, makes absolutely no sense.
-Building a bridge into trapdoor/exit will make the bridge appear behind the object. I know what's the problem but if I fixed this then you could make a hole into them by bashing, mining or digging.
-When a lemming falls into liquid right before a wall, during their drowning animation they will appear in the wall. Won't be a hard fix, I hope. Just a graphical issue.
-Sometimes a basher stops bashing and turns around when bashing while walking up a bridge. Again, no idea, but it doesn't happen often.
-Game starts lagging (slowmo) when about 40 lemmings are out. This is due to the tremendous amount of fastloops used in the conditions. When I finish the engine, I'll try to take some away and build the game hardware-accelerated to try to get rid of the lag.
-A couple of very minor things I can't think of at the moment.

Missing:
-Traps for each level style
-Sound effects and music
-Nuke.
-Minimap at bottom right + its engine
-Lemming identifier + number at the left when you hover over a lemming with the mouse ("Faller", "Walker", ...).
-Level select and level end screens
-Levels! The only reason I made this remake was that I could make Lemmings levels SNES style, and that other people played it.
-Motivation to learn for the history exams tomorrow.

Planned extra features:
-NO additional skills.
-Some extra traps and landscape features with lemming interaction.
-A whole new generation of levels. Wow I'm so looking forward to this. Don't know how many I plan to do. Probably a gazillion, or only until I run out of ideas.
-The game has a score system that hardly anybody noticed. I'm trying to give it more of a use.
-Perhaps a level editor... perhaps. If my friend helps me.
-If I'm going to make a level editor, then I'll be determined to have it feature online playability, like sharing levels and levelpacks online and such.

Please report any bugs you find not listed on this known bugs list

...and now, have fun  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" class="smiley" />

EDIT: Oh by the way a friend of mine reported that the mouse cursor (neither standard one nor Lemmings one) showed up. If that happens then please tell me.

[GigaLem]

Theres a glich on there
Moonwalking lemmings  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/cool.gif" alt="8)" title="Cool" class="smiley" /> lol

[Ramon]

Yes. If you read my post you'd have seen it on the known bugs list

[covox]

I must say, this is a pretty sweet Lemmings engine. No idea how much Clickteam have changed since MMF1, but it must've been substantial considering this was possible to make in a couple of weeks. Can't say I'm the biggest fan of the SNES version of the game though (especially the music).

One problem, I can't seem to get past the success screen following Level 1. A shame, I'd like to see how all the other skills are implemented. The MMF I know would wet its pants in fear at the sound of pixel-level graphic operations and collision detection.

[Ramon]

I must say, this is a pretty sweet Lemmings engine. No idea how much Clickteam have changed since MMF1, but it must've been substantial considering this was possible to make in a couple of weeks. Can't say I'm the biggest fan of the SNES version of the game though (especially the music).

One problem, I can't seem to get past the success screen following Level 1. A shame, I'd like to see how all the other skills are implemented. The MMF I know would wet its pants in fear at the sound of pixel-level graphic operations and collision detection.

Haha, thanks for trying. When I posted this I still had a test level up. Now I've started to build levels for another beta tester so I overwrote that file. And no I haven't built anything beyond the first result screen yet http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

I've uploaded the version with test level, here it is http://www.vertigofx.com/jrkstudios/lem/lemmings2.exe" class="bbc_link" target="_blank">http://www.vertigofx.com/jrkstudios/lem/lemmings2.exe

In terms of collision detection, there's hardly any problem (as far as I have tested), but I've noticed a new bug. The same frame when a lemming walks off an edge and you apply builder to him, he starts building from 1 or 2 pixels in the ground and all the other bridges are duplicated to the right. I know sounds weird but you might be able to recreate it.

Also the basher still turns around when building... I'll try to fix everything today.
And I'm still having trouble with bomber.

About the SNES version, I like the interface better and especially the music. :p I can't stand the music from other ports...

[GigaLem]

Love the level whats is its name

[Ramon]

Love the level whats is its name

Which level? lol the test level is just a test level and not an actual level in the game.

[Dullstar]

Mind if I remake the levels you make for this project in either L++ or LemEdit for the benefit of people with Macs or running Linux?

The MMF I know would wet its pants in fear at the sound of pixel-level graphic operations and collision detection.

I must ask, since I used MMF before, were you using the Platform Movement, a custom engine, or the Platform Movement Extension?  I would recommend the extension, because it's not as complicated as the custom engine, and works better than both.

[covox]

Ah, nice. Apart from really weird behaviour with the bomber timer, and no nuke button, it looks remarkably up-to-scratch. Only complaint is that the click detection seems a little rubbery with walking lemmings, with up to a half-second gap before registering a new skill. Is it possible to let skills be allocated while the game is paused?

Mind if I remake the levels you make for this project in either L++ or LemEdit for the benefit of people with Macs or running Linux?

Runs fine under Wine 1.1.32 for me.

[Ramon]

Mind if I remake the levels you make for this project in either L++ or LemEdit for the benefit of people with Macs or running Linux?

I wouldn't mind but let me make the levels first :p

Ah, nice. Apart from really weird behaviour with the bomber timer, and no nuke button, it looks remarkably up-to-scratch. Only complaint is that the click detection seems a little rubbery with walking lemmings, with up to a half-second gap before registering a new skill. Is it possible to let skills be allocated while the game is paused?

Yep, as I said, I'm having trouble with the bomber, thus the nuke button isn't implemented yet either (same with minimap).

...hm, about the clicking, I didn't actually notice anything out of the ordinary, but I'll look into it and see if others report anything weird with that...
Skill assigning is not possible during pause (hasn't been on the SNES either) http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

Fixed the basher bug, it actually looks like I've mistakenly used the "turn around" event for "no floor detection" instead of "hit steel".

Also, I got a completely custom engine that is only run by events.

I'm hoping to fix the bomber soon, because it's been bugging me for quite a while already and still haven't found any solution...

[Dullstar]

...hm, about the clicking, I didn't actually notice anything out of the ordinary, but I'll look into it and see if others report anything weird with that...

This above issue was brought into light by covox.  But this seems...  strange down here.

Runs fine under Wine 1.1.32 for me.

WINE works pretty well, but it's not perfect.  Are you suere that's not the problem?  I once made a game that ran slowly on WINE in MMF.  That's probably about when I decided to learn to program the games (it was only the first testing release, though, so there wasn't much to it),

[Ramon]

Guys I actually fixed the bomber issue, it now works along with nuke. Also implemented vertical scroll!

What I'm missing is the bomber explosion particles, because it's quite hard to rip and there's no specific formula for that.

About minimap... dunno how I'll do that yet. But I've started building levels.

[ccexplore]

What I'm missing is the bomber explosion particles, because it's quite hard to rip and there's no specific formula for that.

When I'm back home later today, I can give you the data from DOS Lemmings (I'm pretty sure they use the same data for all similar ports).  It's basically just a big table of particle positions.  Alternatively, you can use a formula for parabolic motions (which appears to be the same type of motion as the ones represented in the table) to implement your own particle explosions.

[Ramon]

What I'm missing is the bomber explosion particles, because it's quite hard to rip and there's no specific formula for that.

When I'm back home later today, I can give you the data from DOS Lemmings (I'm pretty sure they use the same data for all similar ports).  It's basically just a big table of particle positions.  Alternatively, you can use a formula for parabolic motions (which appears to be the same type of motion as the ones represented in the table) to implement your own particle explosions.

Wow, that'd be awesome, thanks in advance  http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/smiley.gif" alt=":)" title="Smiley" class="smiley" />

[GigaLem]

Can you make more levels for the new version ? http://www.lemmingsforums.com/Smileys/lemmings/huh.gif" alt="???" title="Huh?" class="smiley" />