Extracting levels from the Amiga version

[zennehoy]

While we're at it, does anyone have the original Amiga DAT files handy (original, oh no and holiday lemmings, plus any I forgot)? Or were the DAT files a DOS-only thing? I suppose I could use the above extracted level sets and convert them back into a DAT, but so far I think the community created compressors don't do as good of a job as the original.
Would be great if someone could post them,
thanks,
Zen

[Mindless]

O_o  my compressor generally gets a better ratio than the original DATs had
and yes, DAT files were just DOS

[WillLem]

The links are broken... does anyone still have copies of these? (i.e. the Amiga .lvls for Lemmings and ONML)

[Proxima]

The download link in this post still works.

[WillLem]

The download link in this post still works.

Brill, thanks Proxima!

Just one thing - this only contains the "alternative" levels (Go For It, Going Their Separate Ways, etc) which is great, but I need the full packs as well.

Does anyone have copies of the full Lemmings/ONML packs, or know how to extract them?

[WillLem]

ccexplore - do you still have the Amiga levels that you extracted?

[geoo]

I found these sitting on my hard drive. Is this what you're looking for?

[WillLem]

I found these sitting on my hard drive. Is this what you're looking for?

Yes! Brilliant, thank you!

[WillLem]

OK, so... here's where I'm up to:

Thanks to namida, I have an extraction tool that can generate LVL copies of the Amiga levels by decompressing emulation savestates - genius!

Furthermore, thanks to geoo, I have a full set of already-extracted Amiga LVLs, which saves me having to create 120 savestates and extract them all manually.

I did a few manual extractions in order to compare the two by opening the respective LVL files in the NL Editor, to make sure they're the same. Indeed, both the savestate extraction and the LVL from geoo's zip folder looked like this:



As you can see, some of the water graphics are missing. It's good in the sense that, at least I know that the zip folder from geoo contains the exact files I'd obtain by extracting them manually using namida's tool. So, that puts the conversion project a few steps forward.

I then discovered that opening either LVL file in the 1.43 Editor yields the following:



So - all of the water is there! This indicates that the files themselves do indeed contain the necessary data to generate the objects. However, it also confirms what namida said about new formats disregarding objects that are in a certain "slot", as the LVL file marks these as "fake".

All I have to do is open the files in 1.43, save it as a new LVL file, and then open it in the new Editor - everything is there, intact!



This means that no manual editing is necessary, which is great! However, it would take quite a lot of time to open each file, save it, re-open it, and save it again.

So, thankfully, namida then provided a magic version of NeoLemmix which doesn't disregard "fake" objects. By using NL's F8 "Cleanse levels" feature, I was able to obtain a full pack of completely processed NXLVs with all terrain and objects intact!

So, once again: thank you, namida and geoo! I can now start work on the newly restored conversion of Lemmings.

[ccexplore]

ccexplore - do you still have the Amiga levels that you extracted?

A little late to the party, but had you read through the thread more carefully, you might see that Mindless was the person that extracted the bulk of Amiga levels.  My one and only contribution on this thread was extracting "Going Their Separate Ways" from Mac version of Lemmings, and later in the thread it was determined that there was never an official Amiga version of that level released (there was only a manual reproduction someone made of the level, based on looking at the Mac version).

If you want that level and it isn't already included in geoo's attached zip file, I'll see if I can dig it out from my backups and such.

[Proxima]

We have "Going Their Separate Ways" now. A few posts up, I linked PIGSgrame's post containing this together with the Budget Amiga levels. Looking at the sequence of posts on the first page, it was your extraction of the level that he included.

[ericderkovits]

Here are the conversions from the uploaded zip from geoo. Not sure if they around here yet but here they are. 1 set is for the old
lemmix players and the other set is for neolemmix. I already have them working with my old players (1st set) and also with neolemmix 2nd set. they are for original lemmings, oh no more lemmings, holiday 93, 94 lemmings and 4 extra level files that were in the uploaded zip(Go for it!, lemming lament, it's not over till it's over and Don't make the wrong choice). In neolemmix the levels I noticed have a width of 1584 to about 1600. compared to the originals, most way smaller than that. in some levels
one can really see the difference (ie taxing 22-come over to my place, the level has much more green water to the left and right)
or oh no more lemmings wild level 12 snow joke with a lot more snow past the exit to the right.
NOTE: the .lvl for neolemmix won't work for old players and old player .lvl files are not used for neolemmix.

also the neolemmix levels need to be packed using the pack tool kit but this is quick compared to the converting.

[ericderkovits]

I just noticed that the neolemmix .lvls seem to work in Superlemmini. look at the levels come over to my place (taxing 22) and oh no more lemmings snow joke (wild 12). looks awesome in superlemmini

[WillLem]

Here are the conversions from the uploaded zip from geoo. Not sure if they around here yet but here they are. 1 set is for the old
lemmix players and the other set is for neolemmix.
---
also the neolemmix levels need to be packed using the pack tool kit but this is quick compared to the converting.

Thanks for doing this ericderkovits! Brilliant stuff! It's good to have these backed up in multiple formats.

I also prepared a set of Amiga-NXLV conversions for original Lemmings and have already compiled them for inclusion with 12.9.0 as the new official pack, so there's no need for anyone to pack these particular levels themselves.

It's great that you've taken the time to do the others as well though - I'm looking at doing a similar restoration project for the other official packs, maybe we can work on these together from your conversions? It would be good to have help for these!

[Mindless]

I fixed the links in my previous posts.

I also ripped the "demo" and "bookclub" levels, but I can't recall if there were any differences:
https://www.camanis.net/lemmings/files/rips/levels/