SuperLemmini 0.104a

[Flopsy]

Wow, don't know what you did Tsyu but I can now extract SuperLemmini

I've never been able to get the program to work until now, I even had problems getting Lemmini to work recently.

Thanks so much for the update file

Also welcome to the forum phicr

[phicr]

Welcome to the forum Phicr

Hope a lot of people can get the superlemmini to work, I hear there has been a bit of problems but hopefully nothing too bad or something that can be fixed easily.

Thanks! When I first installed SuperLemmini on Ubuntu I had some weird issues:
  - The replay selection gui would sometimes freeze the game, and I would have to kill the process to close it.
  - After playing for a few hours (cumulative between sessions), the game would start to lag on occasion and I needed to restart the computer to fix it.
  - Having a lemming killed by the beheading (bear?) trap would mute the music, and exiting the level (by success or failure) would give a black screen, and I had to restart the game.

But eventually I had to reinstall Ubuntu, and all these problems went away. Either it was OS bugfixes, or replacing my (months old) java version solved the problems.
I guess the moral of the story is that hopefully compatibility is increasing! (If it wasn't corruption I introduced myself to my system, although I wasn't experiencing anything else out of the ordinary then)

Also welcome to the forum phicr

Yay!

[ccexplore]

As a user, I personally like that this version mimics the original because it makes my solutions feel "portable" (even if someone shows me a version where it doesn't work, I can say "hey, that's your version's fault, mine is like the original!!!!!1!")
Dunno if that's just me, though. Maybe a "optional bugfixes" mode or something?

Except doesn't Superlemmini uses high-resolution graphics and the game mechanics is based on that higher resolution?  (It's possible I'm mistaken and this is only true for Lemmini.)  That alone can potentially affect how a solution would play out between SuperLemmini versus actual Amiga Lemmings--Mac Lemmings has a similar situation, and there was at least one level there (The Steel Mines of Kessel) where the hi-res graphics affected level solutions (because one of the roots can no longer be walked through).  Beyond that, I'm sure there are currently other things that only work in SuperLemmini or only work in Amiga Lemmings.  If being 100% faithful to Amiga Lemmings behavior is important, you're better off just playing the actual Amiga version of Lemmings on an Amiga emulator.

Also, historically speaking the Amiga, Atari ST and PC (DOS) versions were developed in parallel.  Amiga might have the earliest release date of the 3 (though not by much), but it is reasonable for someone to consider, say, the PC version as just as much an "original" version as Amiga.  And already there are some game mechanics differences between PC and Amiga.

In any case, my guess is that in terms of the original levels from the game, most of the typical solutions won't require any version-specific behaviors anyhow.

[phicr]

Except doesn't Superlemmini uses high-resolution graphics and the game mechanics is based on that higher resolution?  (It's possible I'm mistaken and this is only true for Lemmini.)  That alone can potentially affect how a solution would play out between SuperLemmini versus actual Amiga Lemmings--Mac Lemmings has a similar situation, and there was at least one level there (The Steel Mines of Kessel) where the hi-res graphics affected level solutions (because one of the roots can no longer be walked through).  Beyond that, I'm sure there are currently other things that only work in SuperLemmini or only work in Amiga Lemmings.  If being 100% faithful to Amiga Lemmings behavior is important, you're better off just playing the actual Amiga version of Lemmings on an Amiga emulator.

Hmm, you're right! I was thinking too narrowly, reducing the differences to that single one when there are probably many others. Mind you, it's not that I prefer the Amiga version, it's that I wanted to feel that my solutions were "canonical", but the more I think about it, the less important it seems to me. In fact, this conversation made me want to go ahead and try the other versions, maybe I will learn to celebrate the differences instead of trying to avoid them!

So yeah, I retract my "vote" against the fix. I will still keep the current version of SuperLemmini safe somewhere because I thought the replays were funny

[Tsyu]

Except doesn't Superlemmini uses high-resolution graphics and the game mechanics is based on that higher resolution?  (It's possible I'm mistaken and this is only true for Lemmini.)

Yes, this is true for both Lemmini and SuperLemmini. However, SuperLemmini supports masks for terrain pieces, which, if present, are used instead of the actual terrain graphics for collision detection and such. To help prevent major changes in how levels play, all the default styles include masks that come from the low-resolution graphics.


If there's no objection (and I don't think there is), I'm going to remove the miner quirk from 0.103.

I finished testing all the object masks from the Amiga versions and found only one difference from the DOS versions: In the Amiga version, the Crystal set's trigger area is placed 4 pixels lower than in the DOS version. (The size of the trigger area isn't any different, just its placement.) Version 0.103 will use the Amiga version's trigger area.

[Chib]

Just getting back into a bout of playing some more Lemmings, awesome to see you're still updating it, thanks!

No pressure or anything, but was wondering if you were still planning to implement the following suggestions?

I wanted to make a few suggestions for you to consider too:

• Allow re-binding of shortcut keys, including separate keys for scrolling left/right and selecting a lemming moving left/right (from advanced select). I mostly want this so I can bind the WASD keys for moving the screen (while maintaining the ability to select left/right moving lemmings). Something like space to pause would be much more handy than P/F11 too.
• Add a shortcut key to restart the level (ctrl-R maybe?) to avoid having to use the menu with the mouse.
• On the end level screen, rename "Replay" to "Watch Replay", just to make it clearer that it's not a button to replay the map (I clicked it several times before realising what was going on).

I'll look into implementing all of these into the next release.

And while I'm here, I thought I'd add one more suggestions onto the pile.

On the select level screen it would be super handy if a folder contained only levels that had been marked as completed then the folder itself would say (completed) after it too. You could do the same for the top level folders too:



Thanks again, and keep up the awesome work!

[Proxima]

Better than putting "(completed)" after every folder name would be to change the icon in some way, e.g. recoloring or add a tick.

[Tsyu]

No pressure or anything, but was wondering if you were still planning to implement the following suggestions?

I wanted to make a few suggestions for you to consider too:

• Allow re-binding of shortcut keys, including separate keys for scrolling left/right and selecting a lemming moving left/right (from advanced select). I mostly want this so I can bind the WASD keys for moving the screen (while maintaining the ability to select left/right moving lemmings). Something like space to pause would be much more handy than P/F11 too.
• Add a shortcut key to restart the level (ctrl-R maybe?) to avoid having to use the menu with the mouse.
• On the end level screen, rename "Replay" to "Watch Replay", just to make it clearer that it's not a button to replay the map (I clicked it several times before realising what was going on).

I'll look into implementing all of these into the next release.

I intend to implement the last two in version 0.103, while the first one will have to wait until 0.104. (I want to release 0.103 soon, so I don't want to make any major changes or additions that I haven't already made.)

On the select level screen it would be super handy if a folder contained only levels that had been marked as completed then the folder itself would say (completed) after it too. You could do the same for the top level folders too:

I'll look into adding this to 0.103.

Better than putting "(completed)" after every folder name would be to change the icon in some way, e.g. recoloring or add a tick.

I agree, but since those icons aren't built into SuperLemmini, that would entail creating new icons. I'll see what I can do for version 0.104.

[grams88]

Hi PsychEyeball

Welcome to the forum.

I remember watching a bit of your Duke3d youtube videos celebrating 20 years since duke3d was made. Goes to show that the time is going by very quick.

Glad you like the Superlemmini program, it is a very well made program for playing lemmings I feel. One big difference I've noticed is in the older program lemmini I don't think it allowed you to click builders or any skills when lemmings are in the same position but with the Superlemmini it seems to work quite well. It's interesting watching the lets plays of people playing lemmings. I find them quite interesting the lets play as not only do you get to see them playthrough the levels you get to hear peoples thoughts on certain levels also seeing individual solutions to the levels.

I discovered lemmings on the atari st originally and have always found lemmings to be a very fun game that can sometimes take you sometime to complete the levels.

[PsychEyeball]

I found Lemmini to be really strange when it comes to assigning skills to a giant mass of lemmings and it was my big gripe about it. That, and the way it handles steel as an absolute barrier, which makes Wicked 1 a pain to complete.

I waited so long to do a Let's Play of it because while my first contact with Lemmings was the DOS version and the SNES version, I only completed the game way later in 2001 while playing the Windows 95 version. While it was fine for the time, it didn't age too well, the UI is hard to capture well and the fast-forward is busted. However, it did have action replay and I owe it a lot. I don't think I could beat Lemmings without it or its ability to assign skills to lemmings going in a certain direction.

Honestly, I have mad respects for the people who won the game with any of the other versions without these luxuries because I don't think I could do it!

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.103 is done, and it's got some changes that work around Linux case sensitivity and make the game experience more like what you guys have been wanting (no more timed bombers, for instance). Here are the changes:

• Implemented a workaround for Linux case sensitivity that caches the path of every file and folder in the resource folder (and the Windows Lemmings folder during extraction) and maps them to all-lowercase paths. Whenever a file is to be opened, its path name is first converted to lowercase and then used to get the actual path to the file (if it exists) from the aforementioned map. A similar (and simpler) workaround has also been implented for LZP files.
• Implemented a workaround for cases where the extraction process fails to copy a file.
• Updated the Apache Commons IO library.
• Renamed and moved the text buttons on the debriefing screen.
• AffineTransform is no longer used for image transformation. This should prevent colors of mirrored images from being changed. (At least it does on the one system that I tried that exhibits this issue.)
• Level packs and ratings whose levels are all completed now display "(completed)" next to their names.
• Ctrl-R now restarts the level, skips the preview screen, and shows the action replay.
• The arrow keys can now be used on the level preview screen to cycle through levels and ratings of a level pack. Left and right select levels, while up and down select ratings.
• Clicking any part of the level while SuperLemmini is paused now advances the game by one frame, even if cheat mode isn't activated.
• Added three new options: "Stop Fast-Forward When Pausing", "Scroll Level During Replay", and "Unpause After Assigning Skill", the second of which is enabled by default.
• Steel placed by terrain or steel areas is no longer cleared by object trigger areas. (Steel objects can still be canceled this way, however.)
• Lowered the Crystal set's exit trigger to match the Amiga version. This fixes the exit in Bonus 8, "Don't Make The Wrong Choice!"
• Modified some of the terrain graphics to better match their masks (which determine which pixels of terrain pieces are really solid).
• Removed timers from normal, non-nuked bombers.
• SuperLemmini no longer mimics the Amiga behavior where bashers and miners that are extremely close to the top of the level don't remove terrain.
• Added a safeguard that prevents the user from extracting Windows Lemmings to its own folder.
• Fixed a bug that caused the game to use the first audio device on startup rather than the one that the user had previously selected.
• Left-facing builders can now build one pixel further into a wall before being forced to stop and turn around.

[phicr]

Bug report! These things happen on Ubuntu:

• Starting the .jar from the commandline prevents it from creating/updating the superlemmini.ini file. (happens on 0.103 and 0.102a both)
• Starting the 0.103 .jar outside the commandline and when there is no superlemmini.ini gives an Access Denied error. (attachment 1)
• Even after installing successfully, trying to start the game gives me another error. (attachment 2)

Because of (1) I can't "sudo java -jar" 0.103 to avoid (2) and install it But I can get around (2) by using SuperLemmini 0.102a to create the .ini, and (3) by going to the Options dialog in 102a and changing the "SFX Mixer" option. (I can just change, apply, then change back and apply, and then 0.103 starts working...? No idea.)

[Tsyu]

SuperLemmini 0.103a has been released to address the bugs that phicr has found, as well as one other that I found:

• Fixed a bug where no sound device was selected if no valid device was specified in superlemmini.ini, resulting in a crash.
• Hopefully fixed cases of the AccessDeniedException by using a different method of scanning a directory and ignoring files and folders that cannot be read due to insufficient privileges.
• Fixed a bug where the case-sensitivity workaround would not be utilized for files that were expected to exist in the same location as another files (such as "oddtable" levels) unless they were in LZP files.

@phicr: I strongly recommend against using "sudo" to run SuperLemmini. This is because SuperLemmini places the superlemmini.ini file in the user's home folder, and placing "sudo" before a command runs it as the root user, which has a different home folder (/root in Ubuntu). Thus, if you run SuperLemmini from the terminal, just type "java -jar superlemmini.jar"; no "sudo".

[phicr]

@tsyu Oooh, I didn't know about that one detail of sudo. There is indeed a superlemmini.ini file in my root folder, oops! Thanks for the warning.
Also, confirmed that everything now works fine! Thanks!

[UnrealGecko]

Hello! New to the forums and somewhat new to lemmings.

I played a few other versions before, like a mobile port on my old Nokia phone, but I wanted to try SuperLemmini for the sake of completing the game someway finally. Thanks to PsychadelicEyeball's videos I learned of SuperLemmini in the 1st place

Anyway, for whatever reason I cannot complete some of the levels in SuperLemmini in the latest 0.103a version, as now the detection for the exit seems to be a bit above the usual reach for the lemming, so I need an extra builder in those levels.
I attached a few demos showcasing this, hope that helps explain what I mean.

EDIT: Turns out the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Only Floaters Can Survive this does not have this bug, while the original one does... there are other levels that seem to have it as well. It just seems to happen with certain exits for me

Lastly, a lot of the Traps seem to crash the game for whatever reason, here's the crash window if it helps:



Other than those, I'm loving the enhancements done to the game, and the inclusion of all those different version levels (like the XMAS ones etc.) is really awesome! Thank you for your hard work and for making me remember this great classic