The Lamentable Later Life of Lemmings

The Lamentable Later Life of Lemmings filfre.net

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> For a while there in the early 1990s, there seemed to be good reason to believe that Lemmings was on its way to becoming one of gaming’s perennial franchises. Developed by DMA Design of Dundee, Scotland, the original Lemmings game took the world by storm upon its release in 1991

DMA Design later created the GTA series and was rebranded Rockstar North when they were acquired by Take-Two. So they did end up creating a giant franchise (though "perennial" could certainly be debated given the gap between GTA 5 and GTA 6).

In any case the principles involved have probably been too busy sleeping on mountains of GTA 1-6 money to lament the untimely death of Lemmings too much.

That said, as a gamer I personally prefer Lemmings.

jtbayly11 days ago

It’s actually mentioned in the article.

topkai2210 days ago

Now I’m genuinely wondering if the in game deaths per minute are higher in a GTA game or a lemmings game…

bluedino11 days ago

So many parallels with Angry Birds.

Appeals to all groups, released on every platform. Then come the sequels, special editions (like Christmas Lemmings), and then it just kind of faded away.

Lemmings just didn't get a movie and merchandising.

Jare11 days ago

Lemmings was one of the 3-5 inspirations for the Commandos games: - giving different tasks to characters over the level to finish it. Lost Vikings won over Cannonfodder and the Commandos would be very defined characters not a mass of generic soldiers. - levels structured as "bubbles" of logical challenge; after you solve one you typically move on to the next one, eventually reaching the level finish.

The Commandos series also parallels a bit of the history, fizzling out very quickly after Commandos 2, when it might have seemed that the sky was the limit for the series.

ChrisMarshallNY11 days ago

There was a stage show[0] (just kidding).

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmings_(National_Lampoon)

probably_wrong11 days ago

> The Children’s Television Workshop, the maker of Sesame Street, entered into talks with Psygnosis about a Lemmings television show. (…) Television shows, whether aimed at adults or children, are built around memorable characters. (…) So, an edict went down from Psygnosis to DMA to find a way to give the lemmings more individualized personalities.

I wonder if anyone brought up Fraggle Rock [1] during these discussions. The Doozers, a race of tiny creatures whose whole purpose in life is to build structures, feels like a perfect fit for the lemmings.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraggle_Rock

ycombinete10 days ago

You just solved a decade/s old personal mystery!

I randomly saw an episode of some show with these doozers maybe 20 years ago, and I have occsionally remembered them and wandered who they were ever since!

boredhedgehog11 days ago

Disagree about 3D Lemmings. Yes, the camera controls sucked, but the extra dimension opens up tons of interesting puzzles and interactions, and it's also aesthetically pleasing to watch them move around and change 3D objects.

There's an open-source engine for it called Loap that comes with a custom level pack, and I think the block-based design holds up better than the fiddly Revolutions.

ChrisClark10 days ago

I came here to say the same, and wonder if a better engine and controls wshould be made. I had no idea to look for one till your comment, thanks!

warpspin11 days ago

I didn't even consciously register the release of the many sequels back then. Always assumed it stopped after Lemmings 2.

Lemmings Revolution reminds me a little bit of good old Nebulus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebulus_(video_game)

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