Mike! I want to ask you...

[DragonsLover]

I made this post to ask your questions about Lemmings games to Mike!

So, here's my first question:
I know that the 1st version of Lemmings was on Amiga. But what were the next ones? I guess that the second version you did was on Atari ST, isn't it? Can you tell me more about this?

[namida]

A question I have: Where do some of these level names come from? Some are self-explanatory(such as "Rendezvous At The Mountain", the training levels, "Turn Around Young Lemmings", "Cascade" and "Watch Out, There's Traps About"), some others need a bit of thinking but can be worked out("Heaven Can Wait(We Hope)", "Compression Method 1" and "Time To Get Up"), while some I have absolutely no clue about the name sources("It's Hero Time", "Save Me", "Mind The Step" and "Curse Of The Pharaohs").

(Those levels are just examples, there are more)

[Proxima]

The ones I wonder about are ones like "Smile if you love lemmings" and "Keep your hair on Mr Lemming"; in ONML there are lots of titles that parody well-known slogans, like "Thunderlemmings are go!"; are these more of the same, it's just that I don't know the originals?

[Andi]

As far as I remember Mike already gave answer to "It's Hero Time". If I am right it's because one skill is only 1 time available. -> The lemming who uses it is a "hero".

[Shvegait]

"Mind The Step" - You don't see all the step pieces used in this level!? And there are times when you can fall pretty easily.

"Curse Of The Pharaohs" - The level is supposed to look like a pyramid.

"Save Me" - My only guess is that this has to do with how the small platform the lemmings start on is so far removed from any other land that you really do need to "save" them... Or perhaps they chose to give it an intentionally vague name as to not give any hints on the solution since it's supposed to be the hardest level...

"Smile if you love lemmings" - Yeah, "smile if you love _____" is a pretty common slogan. The blank can be just about anything.

"Keep your hair on, Mr. Lemming" - Saying "Keep your hair on" is to tell someone to keep calm and not to over-react or get angry. I've never really heard it used but I just looked it up. So this is an address to Mr. Lemming to keep calm, which is appropriate since Fun 11 is the first level that you actually have to think about (although of course it's not very hard, but to new players it might take a little time.)


Here are some I'm wondering about though:
"Bitter Lemming", "Luvly Jubly", "Diet Lemmingaid" (I get the reference, but why is it spelled "aid" instead of "ade"?), "From the Boundary Line", and "The Steel Mines of Kessel" (not sure of the reference)

[Proxima]

Bitter Lemming -- from Bitter Lemon, a soft drink

Luvly Jubly -- a phrase meaning "really great", variously spelled

Die Lemmingaid -- I assume the spelling change reflects the fact that you have to aid the lemmings?

Kessel is a planet in the Star Wars universe. I'm not a big SW fan, but I think they had some kind of mines there, not steel ones though? (But changing it to "steel" fits Lemmings better, even though there isn't much on that level.)

[namida]

One Way Or Another - I don't get this one. Sure, I get the implication, but I can only find one way to beat this level. So why is it called this?

[Proxima]

Because there are two ways to beat it -- round by the left or round by the right.

Since we seem to be pretty good at helping each other without waiting for Mike, anyone know what "Konbanwa lemming san" means? What language?

[G3K]

Japanese for Good Evening Mr. Lemming, I think.

[Mike]

The first ever lemmings code to be written was on the PC. I've "just" found the disk with the actual demo on it. The next one was the Amiga, but only by a month or so.

The Amiga, PC and ST versions were all done side by side. The Amiga version took the lead, but the PC version at least had an effect on it (Lemming colours are an example).

After these... we did the spectrum version in-house. A guy called John dye did it. After that... it went out into the world to be ported to every system under ther the sun.

As to names.... sometimes they were hints, sometimes they were refering to things we were watching at the time ("Luvly Jubly" for example is from Only Fools and Horses), and other times they just sounded nice. ("Island of the Wicker people"; although this one was inspired from batman, and "Curse of the Pharaohs").

I wouldn't put too much stock into what a 20 year old thinks is a good name

[Andi]

When I did some levels I also named them after stuff which was just flying through my brain.

[namida]

Most of my level names are either self-explainatory or just simply totally crazy. Some that don't really relate to the level, but do have a source, are:

Oblivion - This comes from the name of my favourite(at the time) attack on Final Fantasy 10.
All Your Lemming Are Belong To Us - Ever heard of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us"?
Sayonara Lemming San - Well, we've got Konbanwa Lemming San(Good Evening Mr Lemming), and on the SNES version, Ohayoo Lemming San(Good Morning Mr Lemming). So why not Sayonara Lemming San? (Goodbye Mr Lemming). Also, this fits the level's position, as it is(or at least was going to be) the last level of Lemmings Plus 2.

[Proxima]

You certainly have some weird level names in your packs (such as "Oaluga Alemineg", if I spelled it right). Are those just nonsense, then?

In my packs I always try to fit the name to the level, but if I can't think of one that fits I have a stock of "general" titles that could fit any level, and I use one of those. For instance, I thought of the title "This title is a Lem pun" and I knew I had to use it, so I stuck it on the next level I couldn't think of a better title for.

One level on the original I'd really like to know about is "Tribute to M C Escher". I love Escher, and I've done my own tribute to him by naming a level after one of his works, "The Belvedere", but I don't see how that level is connected with him.

[Mike]

Gary did that level..... he had an Escher picture up at the time so....

[Proxima]

Heh....... and I always thought it was because the way you have to build all the way up the one-way wall resembled Escher's many "house of stairs" pictures.........