Special level codes in Amiga Lemmings

[ahti0a11]

There are many special level codes in the Amiga version of Lemmings game, for example try:

First option:

FAJHMFIJJS

It says:

Code for level 1
One Player Level
Rating  - Blue

You can play the 'Blue' Rating until 30th level, it is all the same level every time, sometimes the music changes.

Second option:

Try:

HJANLLFHLM

It says:

Code for level 1
One Player Level
Rating  - Player h

You can play the 'Player h' Rating until 30th level, it is all the same level every time until the 11th, sometimes the music changes. From 12th level there will be some interesting levels to play...


Third option is weird:

Try:

LFIJAJLFNJ

It says:

Code for level 21
Two Player Level
Rating  - Fun

And it starts from level 1 - rating Fun....


These may actually work with PC, or they may crash the PC version game, I have no idea, try it..

***********

Similar codes exist in Xmas, Holiday and Oh No! More Lemmings, including demo versions.

Comment on you results.....

[G3K]

Wow, first time I've heard of this.

Mike, could you tell us anything about this?

Welcome aboard by the way, ahti - nice find!

[Mike]

Nah....looks like a bug. The level codes were actually fully encoded info about the game, and its current status.

The idea was that at the end of a game, we could look back and see if anyone cheated. (got 100% in a level that you couldn't etc.)

It "looks" like its a correct encoded level, but the skill level or something is past the end of the array.

Kind of like a buffer overrun in games!

Its interesting that it happens tnough.... never heard of it before!

The PC one will probabyl do the same, but the results would be different. i.e. each platform has its data stored internally differrently... might be rubbish... or might just crash if it trys to print too much, or some unknown characters.....

neat though...

[Mike]

Yeah... Had a look at what source I have.... You can see "Blue  " and "Player h" come after the normal ratings... its just over run... Funny

Code Select Expand

Ratings &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;' Fun &#A0; &#A0;'
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;' Tricky '
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;' Taxing '
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;' Mayhem '

TwoPlayerMessage
Stat7 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;5,6,'Blue &#A0;Player has 00 Lemmings',0
Stat8 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;5,7,'Green Player has 00 Lemmings',0
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;-1

TwoPlayerStats
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;3,2,'Blue &#A0;player rescued 000 Lemmings',0
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;3,3,'Green player rescued 000 Lemmings',0
 &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;dc.b &#A0; &#A0; &#A0;-1



[DragonsLover]

There are many special level codes in the Amiga version of Lemmings game, for example try:

First option:

FAJHMFIJJS

It says:

Code for level 1
One Player Level
Rating  - Blue

You can play the 'Blue' Rating until 30th level, it is all the same level every time, sometimes the music changes.

Second option:

Try:

HJANLLFHLM

It says:

Code for level 1
One Player Level
Rating  - Player h

You can play the 'Player h' Rating until 30th level, it is all the same level every time until the 11th, sometimes the music changes. From 12th level there will be some interesting levels to play...


Third option is weird:

Try:

LFIJAJLFNJ

It says:

Code for level 21
Two Player Level
Rating  - Fun

And it starts from level 1 - rating Fun....


These may actually work with PC, or they may crash the PC version game, I have no idea, try it..

***********

Similar codes exist in Xmas, Holiday and Oh No! More Lemmings, including demo versions.

Comment on you results.....

I tried the first one (FAJHMFIJJS) on Lemmings on PC/Dos and it gives:

Code for level 1
Rating Bogus

Then, at the right part of the screen on the main menu where we can select the rating, everything is snow-colored (if you understand what I mean) and if you press the up or down arrow keys, a lot of other colored-snow appeared. I even guess that I saw the main menu inside! But if you begin by pressing F1, then it shows:

Insert Disk Into Drive
Then Press Any Key

For the other codes: Incorrect codes.

As I can see, this code is like reserved for Two Player levels. But there's no 2-Player levels on PC.

EDIT: This is not over! I tried on Atari ST:

It gives the same results! But, I got more interesting results: I guess that:

- First, play any Two-Player level and quit the battle. Then, enter one of the 2 first codes and select 1 player: You'll be able to play a 2-Player level alone!

- When I entered one of the 2 first codes, then I clicked on the UP arrow on the Rating panel and that I selected 1 Player, the rating always changed and each part of the new rating is the part of the Two-Player level texts. Here the results to understand:

Rating:

Blue
player h
as 40 le
mmings
Green P
layer ha
s 00 Lem
mings
Blue p
layer re
scued 00
0 Lemmin
gs
en playe
r rescue
d 000 Lem
mmings
Blue
player h
as won 0
0 games
 Green
player h
as won 0
0 games

time is
up!
ll lemmi
ngs acco

And so on...
Sometimes, on the statistic screen of the level, some texts of the Two-Player stats screen appeared.

- For the third code, maybe it could be possible to play normal levels in a Two-Player Battle.

These codes are so interesting!

[Andi]

Once I wanted to programm a code generator for Lemmings/Lomax. But I never worked out where to begin to find out the code. Maybe with that we could have some other funny results.

And I tried code 2 in the Lemmings Demo for PC/Dos. Before you enter the code, it starts the level normally. But after you have entered the code, it says: Incorrect Level. If you then want to start the game, it says: Please enter gamedisk.

[Proxima]

I know that on some versions of Lemmings, after you complete 30 Mayhem, because there are no more levels you get that one over and over again but it calls itself "1 Blue". Any connection?

(And the code ahti0a11 gives is quite similar to the 30 Mayhem code, just as codes for adjacent levels normally are.)

[DragonsLover]

For the second code on Atari ST, when you are at level 11, you can play all Two-Player levels alone! That's cool! B)

EDIT: OH! It's also possible to play 1-Player levels in 2-Players battles with the third code. First, you must normally select the 1-Player level you want in to fight. Then, press Escape directly to quit. After, enter the third code above. Select 2-Players panel and enjoy the fight in the level! B)

That's cool! With these codes, it's possible to play 2-Players levels alone and 1-Player levels in battles!

[Isu]

You can play the 'Player h' Rating until 30th level, it is all the same level every time until the 11th, sometimes the music changes. From 12th level there will be some interesting levels to play...

ahti0a11, you couldn't give me the code for level 12 on "player h" could you (Amiga version)? its just that I can't be bothered to do "Rendezvous at the mountain" over and over again.

[DragonsLover]

Try this: During the level, type: "in iamnotgood" and press Space Bar to skip the level. If it doesn't work, then I don't know how you could.

On my version of Atari ST, there's already a crack included in the Rom to skip levels just by pressing Escape. It's easy for me to pass directly to these levels.

I don't think there's an access code for the levels. When I tried typing the codes for the levels, they are the same than the multiplayer levels normally.

The only way you could skip levels easily is by using a crack or by typing the level code of the 10th level of Rating "player h" and by passing the level "Rendezvous at the mountain" one time instead of all of them. Do you want the level code of this level (I guess that the level code on Atari ST is the same on Amiga).

[Shvegait]

I tried the first one (FAJHMFIJJS) on Lemmings on PC/Dos and it gives:

Code for level 1
Rating Bogus

Then, at the right part of the screen on the main menu where we can select the rating, everything is snow-colored (if you understand what I mean) and if you press the up or down arrow keys, a lot of other colored-snow appeared. I even guess that I saw the main menu inside! But if you begin by pressing F1, then it shows:

Insert Disk Into Drive
Then Press Any Key

For the other codes: Incorrect codes.

As I can see, this code is like reserved for Two Player levels. But there's no 2-Player levels on PC.

For me, on PC/DOS, I got all three codes to give results.
The first gave Rating (blank), but the letters "ou" appeared in the top left of the screen. (I'm guessing that the first character in the Rating name was one that sent the cursor back to the top left of the screen, where it printed a Y off the screen.)

The second gave Rating "r time", and the third gave Rating " is up".

The strings spell out "(Y)our time is up". All three did the "Insert disk" type message when you try to play, though.

For the second and third codes (but not the first, which you can't change), you can keep cycling through the difficulty ratings, getting different garbage graphics each time. Sometimes you can even make out "Tricky", "Taxing", and "Mayhem", although they may be in a bluish color. If you go far enough, you get back to the regular difficulty levels, and can't go back down to the garbage.


Ahribar, it seems there is a good possibility for a connection. FAJHMFIJJS looks like a code that you could get for beating Mayhem 30 (but of course you shouldn't get the code, the game should end). The second to last letter is a big clue to the position of the code (look at any list of codes and you'll see what I mean). For the latest Mayhem levels, this is J. The latter two codes have L and N as the second to last letter, and this makes sense assuming the two-player levels are all listed after the one-player levels in those versions. I'm not sure how the two-player levels work in those versions that have them, but could it be possible that there exist some codes in the PC version that reference the two-player levels but just don't point to anything? You'd probably get the same garbage as the other codes give you, but it's interesting anyway.

Edit: Ok, the level # is determined by the next to last and third to last letters, always! This is also consistent with FAJHMFIJJS being a code for the level right after Mayhem 30.

An interesting note: I tried typing in a random code with "KJ" as the third to last and next to last letters. I got the message "Incorrect Code". However, when I tried starting a level, I got the "Insert disk" message! When I typed in a bunch of random codes with "BC" as the third to last and next to last letters (would be a code for Fun 1), I didn't get this error. Weird.

Maybe this is when a semi-valid code appears and the game has to validate it, but can't, because the levels don't exist... or something like that. (It only happens sometimes.)

[Isu]

I'll try that "iamnotgood" code, when I setup my Amiga again (I need to switch between Amiga and GCN, and setting up the Amiga takes time)

I'm not sure if the Atari ST and Amiga share the same level codes, maybe I can compare the Amiga's codes to the DOS ones, and if they share the same level codes, it's likely that the Atari ST will too. Mike said the three versions were worked on alongside one another

Interesting point on the level codes Shvegait. I don't think the 8th and 9th digits refer to levels in the game, because there are another 8 digits in that code, which must point to something.

Maybe this is when a semi-valid code appears and the game has to validate it, but can't, because the levels don't exist... or something like that.

You're probably right.

[Shvegait]

As Mike said,

The level codes were actually fully encoded info about the game, and its current status.

The idea was that at the end of a game, we could look back and see if anyone cheated. (got 100% in a level that you couldn't etc.)

It "looks" like its a correct encoded level, but the skill level or something is past the end of the array.

So I'm guessing the other 8 characters refer to stuff like tools remaining, time remaining, lemmings saved or something like that. I'll test this later.

If you look at a list of codes, you will see the 8th and 9th character are ALL sequential (for ANY code you get for these levels).

(Fun 1 - "BC"?)
Fun 2 - "CC"
Fun 3 - "DC"
Fun 4 - "EC"
Fun 5 - "FC"
etc.
Fun 16 - "QC"
Fun 17 - "BD"
Fun 18 - "CD"
etc.
Tricky 2 - "QD"
Tricky 3 - "BE"
etc.
Mayhem 29 - "HJ"
Mayhem 30 - "IJ"
"Blue 1" - "JJ"

I'd imagine this gets translated into a hexadecimal code for the level. There are 16 codes for each 9th letter.

Of course there's probably some encryption or movement of data. But look at these codes with 8th letter "P", for example:

Fun 15: LCANNMDPCJ
Tricky 1: LCANLMFPDK
Tricky 17: ICANLOLPEQ
Taxing 3: MCANNMFPFP
Taxing 19: LGENLMDPGT
Mayhem 5: HGAOLONPHJ
Mayhem 21: MGANNMDPIU

I'm not sure exactly what it all means, but look at the similarities! You can do the same thing for any 8th letter, and you will see similarities in the codes. Cmon, we can break this!


Edit: Ok, here's some more stuff. Pick a level, and then go to every 8th level after that (not just every 16), and you will see similarities in the codes. There's also this comparison:

Fun 9: CAKHMDLJCK
Fun 10: IKHMDLCKCT

Notice how the the code for Fun 10 looks like the one for Fun 9 shifted one position.

Also:
Mayhem 17: NJMDMGALIM
Mayhem 18: JMDMGINMIV

There is definitely some shifting involved. I wonder what the values actually mean, though...

[guest]

As Mike said,

So I'm guessing the other 8 characters refer to stuff like tools remaining, time remaining, lemmings saved or something like that. I'll test this later.

If you look at a list of codes<snip>

Wow, I'm amazed how much interest there are in the level codes.

Anyway, if you download the "Lemmings Code Generator" (lemgen.zip) from Lemmings Universe (just Google for this), in the zip file there is a file LCP100S0.BAS.  This is the QBASIC source code for the program, and if you open it up via Notepad or something similar, you can read the text comments which explain how the codes for the PC version are put together.

[ahti0a11]

>>  ahti0a11, you couldn't give me the code for level 12 on "player h" could you (Amiga version)? its just that I can't be bothered to do "Rendezvous at the mountain" over and over again.

Heres the code for 13th level, I lost the 12th:

NJLDMKADML

Anyway, it seems all the codes were generated using the same algorithm, on Amiga, Atari and PC-Dos version, it's just that in Amiga and Atari these codes are usable, in PC again, not.