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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.

    by georgemcbay
  • Quite the line: "a case of mordant laddish humor ramming slightly askew."
    by herniatedeel
  • Man, the soundtrack of the original Lemmings is indelibly etched into my brain -- cheery MIDI tracks of everything from classical music to folk tunes.
    by thedrexster
  • I feel that DHTML Lemmings deserves a mention - an implementation of Lemmings in Javascript in 2003 or 2004. At the time I saw it, my understanding of websites was basic HTML - I had no idea web technologies could be so powerful.

    Here it is online, not sure if this is the original site. https://pccc.com/downloads/junk/cool/lemmings/index.html

    by rm445
  • 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)

    by warpspin
  • 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.

    by boredhedgehog
  • > 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

    by probably_wrong
  • 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.

    by bluedino

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