Lemmings
Anyone who played games in the early 90's has had their hand at Lemmings. After the Amiga, it had crossed MS DOS, the SNES and just about every available system at the time. It's widely known as one of the most ported video game to date. Developed originally as a test for DMA Design's Walker, Lemmings is a puzzle game where you guide a hoard of upright-walking lemmings who each follow the lemming before him. By selecting individual lemmings and using commands like 'stop' or 'build' you attempt to guide as many as possible to the final goal with as few casualties as possible.
But of course, you already knew that, because even if you haven't played it, this game is as archetypal Tetris. Lemmings was always so odd. I don't think anyone considered the fact that of course, the Lemming's depicted looked nothing like
actual lemmings. More like some kind of green-haired Muppet, and you had to stretch your imagination even further considering each lemming was animated within an 8x8 pixel square so they could fit dozens of them on screen at the same time. Which of course, could become a hairy mess as you frantically try to keep them from all walking over cliffs into lava, water, or some other abyss.
Lemmings was one of the great original puzzle games. One of those games that you could fail at relentlessly and still come back for more, not to let the game get the better of you. I remember, almost everyone I knew had a copy of this. It ran right off of a 3.5", 1.44Mb floppy diskette and you could just pop it into pretty much any DOS based PC and play it. Even if it was at school. Which was known to happen. Of course, now you can play the entire Sega CD library emulated on a web browser; so I have no idea how kids get any schoolwork done anymore..
I'll always remember Lemmings. It's just one of those first games I played that you never really thought too much about and yet, looking back it's incredible to consider how this single game is now the equivalent of a very small component of most modern games. I'm sure the amount of coding and artwork that went into Lemmings also went into Lara Croft's torch in Tomb Raider.
But of course, you already knew that, because even if you haven't played it, this game is as archetypal Tetris. Lemmings was always so odd. I don't think anyone considered the fact that of course, the Lemming's depicted looked nothing like
Lemmings was one of the great original puzzle games. One of those games that you could fail at relentlessly and still come back for more, not to let the game get the better of you. I remember, almost everyone I knew had a copy of this. It ran right off of a 3.5", 1.44Mb floppy diskette and you could just pop it into pretty much any DOS based PC and play it. Even if it was at school. Which was known to happen. Of course, now you can play the entire Sega CD library emulated on a web browser; so I have no idea how kids get any schoolwork done anymore.. I'll always remember Lemmings. It's just one of those first games I played that you never really thought too much about and yet, looking back it's incredible to consider how this single game is now the equivalent of a very small component of most modern games. I'm sure the amount of coding and artwork that went into Lemmings also went into Lara Croft's torch in Tomb Raider.
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