I completed Lemmings this morning.

You might find it surprising that I, clearly no novice either at creating Lemmings puzzles or at
solving them, should take so long. The reason is simple: someone out there doesn't know his percentages.


This is 26 Mayhem, The Steel Mines of Kessel, PC version. You have ten bombers, ten blockers,
ten builders, and have to save 90% of 100 lemmings, which is of course 90.

On the Mac, possibly because the old machines the game was first designed on got too slow keeping
track of 100 lemmings, all levels that have 100 on other versions have only 80. And the designers forgot
that 90% of 80 is not all but ten, but all but EIGHT.

It would still be doable, but there are also three places down the right-hand slope (between the last wall
and the trap) where the lemmings can't walk past the thorns. Do you build past them? But nine builders
are needed elsewhere, and the three impassable thorns are too far apart to get past two with one
bridge, let alone all three. Or do you block and blow? But you need to use two fewer blockers and
bombers than the PC solution, not two more.

I looked through my diaries last night. It was in 1994 that I reached this level. In late 1996 (I was nearly
14) that I gave up on this and used codes to satisfy my curiosity about what the later levels contained. I
must have started designing my own levels soon after, because they were complete by late 1997. After that
I lost interest in the original levels, and when my designed levels were complete and I'd shown them
to everyone and there was nothing more to do, and God knows I never expected to come back to
Lemmings after that, at some point I lost the green book with the codes that let you get into the program.

But that level continued to haunt me, and eventually I thought I might have solved it. Finally, I discovered
this forum, and finlay gave me a code that would bypass the copy protection scheme. Eagerly, I loaded
up The Steel Mines, only to discover that the passage of ten years had not made it any easier. My solution
was sufficient... to save all but nine.

That was a bit of a shaggy dog story, so I'll cut the rest short. Anyone who wants to try to find the solution
to the Mac version of this level for himself should skip the next bit.

You need to time the first two bombers: the first just above the "elbow" of the large thorn just before
the apex of the hill, the second just as he falls down the first one's hole. You can use blockers to steady them
at the right places -- this is vital with the second, which must be pixel perfect to blast that wall with just
one bomb -- but both MUST blow before the next lemming reaches them. (This is to save having
to block against the water to the left.)

Make the fourth lemming a blocker just before the edge of the hole. The third goes down and builds across
the water. When four lemmings have collected on the far side of the hill before the blocker, make
another blocker to split them off from the crowd.

The builder must block and blow through the next wall -- again pixel perfect so you don't need a builder to
climb out of his hole. Release the four lemmings, and make the back one a blocker just after they fall
off the bridge.

Where there are two little stubs of thorns just below the right overhanging ledge, build up to the right
from the first one. You must use only three builders, but you will reach a little nook just beyond the green
hangy-down things. Block and blow through the wall -- precision is needed again! Because the ground on
the other side is higher than where the lemmings are, you'll definitely need a builder as well to reach it.

Build past the three impassable thorns and use your LAST builder to get over the trap. Blow up the
last blocker, and you're free!!!

- - -

After that, the last four levels didn't take too long. Although I was a bit shocked on Save Me, after
hoarding my builders like a miser, to find myself reaching the end short of one blocker, of all
things. Still, I did it in the end... and Rendezvous at the Mountain, and that was that.........

"So the great affair is over, but whoever would have guessed
That it would leave us all so vacant and so deeply unimpressed?
It's like our visit to the moon, or to that other star:
I guess you go for nothing if you really want to go so far."
-- Leonard (or Lemmard  B)) Cohen

Hehe Congrats! Nice to see you here. But the PC version only has 80 lems at maximum. So 10 percent would be 12,5. Hm. One lemming you only have to rescue halway. But maybe I'm completely wrong. :P Anyway, erm, yeah. Welcome! :D

Ah, and for some reason I like the name... "The Steel Mines of Kessel"....

Hm... I found a Kessel in Germany. But it seems like it's only about 7 houses or so on the map. So I don't think it's the one meant. :D

The other ones I found are also only 10 houses or so. 1st option: Something's wrong with the map. 2nd option: The names are messed up. 3rd Option: I can't read maps. 4th option: I see not existing things. 5th option: The Kessel which is meant is not on the map.

edit:// I found another option! 6th option: The level designer was smoking whatever and "The Steel Mines of Kessel" has never existed. (But maybe in the future somehwere on the moon or mars? Who knows?)

Heh, I think the reference is to Star Wars........

Anyway, I don't know the versions other than Mac, but the site that pic came from,
http://home.wanadoo.nl/lemmings-solution/lemmings
whichever version that's from, you have to save 90% of 100 lemmings.

I know the SNES version uses 100 lemmings instead of 80, and I think the original Amiga version (both Lemmings 1 and Lemmings 2 I think was originally released on the Amiga and then ported to everything else) also uses 100.

-------------------

It's interesting how subtly different the various versions can be.  The thorn problem you have on the Mac version AFAIK doesn't exist in the PC version.  I know the SNES version has some speed differences that makes Just a Minute part II nearly impossible to solve (the typical solution that works for the PC will probably be at least 3 or 4 seconds too slow for the SNES, believe it or not).  And so on.

Incidentally, I believe one of the best solutions (in terms of % saved) someone has worked out for the Mac version involves bombing thru the think barrier with the "backbone" graphics.  (It can be done with 5 or 6 exploders I think.)

Hell, no.

I was stuck on this level for ten years, remember? I tried EVERYTHING.

Going through that backbone takes seven bombers. If it could be done with six, which I admit might be possible with EXTREME precision, much harder than anything in my solution, you'd save the same percentage as my solution -- no more. (You have to lose one to blast the next wall and one to keep the crowd back.) Five is definitely out of the question.

In fact, I find it hard to believe that there is another solution at all.... I really have thought of every possible route.........

Addendum: I sent my solution off to the writer of the guide on GameFAQs -- he couldn't solve this level either -- but his e-mail address no longer exists.

Don't quote me, the info was from http://www.kallex.de/lemmings/hints/imperfect-levels.

If you Google for "Ephraim Vishniac", I believe you should be able to find a complete walkthrough (unlike the link above) this person wrote, and somewhere in there he has stated that he played the Mac version of the game.

I certainly didn't say bombing thru the thick barrier is the easiest way to do it, it's just interesting because most people wouldn't even contemplate doing it this way due to the difficulty as you described.

Sorry (and thanks for the link!)

However, what the walkthrough actually says is that you CAN break the barrier with six bombers, which, as I said, saves 72  of 80, the same as my solution (and the exact number required).

As for the cryptic comment at the end of the other page: "using the many BUILDs as delays, five of a 6-Lem team sacrificed themselves to save the remaining 75. This is the Low-Road solution"... well, seeing is believing. You don't have many builders; you have ten. All ten are needed on the Low Road on the Mac because of the thorns; this solution may be from another version. Ephraim's walkthrough is for the Mac, but he doesn't say that this solution is, and the page it's on is separate from his site. (I've heard that some versions actually allow 20 builders on this level, which would make this solution plausible.)

The original DOS version gives 20 bombers, 20 blockers, 20 builders, and you only have to save 75% (out of 80), making this level quite easy for that version.

While we're on this topic, I beat the game a couple weeks ago, after playing through all the puzzles in about a week and a half. When I was a kid I didn't think it was possible, I remember getting stuck on Taxing 3 and claiming it was impossible. When I tried it recently I beat it on maybe my 2nd or 3rd try. I got stuck on "Save Me" for a little while, but I realized the solution while walking to calc class to take a quiz... strange how things work out ;)

Are you sure?  My copy of the DOS version (admittedly from less than reputable sources) is still 10-10-10, although the 75% might be correct, I don't really remember (and am on a different computer now so I can't check).  Anyone else care to confirm?

I distinctly remember that on the DOS version, Mayhem 26 was 20/20/20. It had a quite a bit of easying up done to it, for example, "Come on over to my place" [sic?] Was only save 80%, not 100% (Although, 100% isn't very hard, either.) -- there are a couple other changes.

Doh!  I re-check now that I'm on my home computer, and it is 20-20-20 after all.  Guess I must've confused it with the SNES version or something.  [Dammit, I'm not that old yet!  ;)]

Interesting how the various versions have all these differences.  Then again I shouldn't be surprised, considering how they mutilated Lemmings 2 the Tribes on the SNES.  (I guess they are, um, targeting a "younger" audience for the SNES port.  ;))

Hay!! That was my pride and joy that was!!! What was wrong with it?   :???:

The SNES one looked so much better than the rest, what with the neat parallax background, falling SNOW on the polar level, AND! if you stuck a superscope in port 2, you can shoot them!!!

Oh, and click on the dot on the screen to get "visual" sound effects...

*sniff*.... I done good on that...  :(

Agreed - the SNES version is brilliant. Admittedly, I've only played it on an emulator, but still brilliant. Close seconds would have to be the PC, Megadrive and Amiga versions, with the GB port somewhere far, far away in last. Dire music, annoying controls, and not a very good view.

Well done, døød. Glad I could help you on your quest.
I'm sure I once completed this level, though I have absolutely no idea how; I was quite young and had extensive help from my father. It did cause me grief at the time though.
But certainly, giving this level a save rate of 8 to spare but with 10 bombers is just moronic. Especially since the level format is numbers entered as 80 and 72.

Now, how did you design and make levels back in 1997?

Damn, I better start watching what I say here.  :-[ Keep forgetting how many people here were actually involved in the development of the Lemmings series.

It's just that the SNES version's puzzles are considerably dumbed down.  Besides changing skill distributions here and there, they often changed the terrain, sometimes so much so it really "ruined" some of the levels.  Like, in one case they change the terrain so that whereas originally you have to do work to hold back a crowd, now it's like there's a pit there already in place to contain the crowd.

Basically, I felt let down that after comparing my solution based on the SNES version with walkthroughs based on other versions, I have no choice but to scrap my progress on the SNES version and start anew with the real version of the puzzles.

Also, what happened to so many of the traps????  Like for example the Boogieman (red eye) traps in the Cavelem tribe?  It is completely absent in the SNES version!!!  (or at least on the ROM I downloaded anyway)

I do agree the graphics are good, and the SNES version likely has the best sound and music thanks to the SNES choice of audio hardware.  Overall I enjoyed it a lot but I did wish they didn't dumb down the puzzle, but as I said, SNES marketing probably has to target to a younger audience.  That, or they think SNES gamers are less intelligent or something...... O_o

ResEdit. I couldn't actually design the levels -- well, I could, but learning how the code represents the layout would have been inordinately complex -- but I could change the skill assignments and level statistics, and some of the levels I made were very different from the originals in spite of having the same layouts.

Did your levels file have templates in it that show how the resources are broken up? If not, it goes like:
Rate: _
Minutes: _
Lemmings: _
Save: _
Climbers: _
...
Diggers: _
and you just type in the numbers in the boxes.

Then it has:
GroundType: _ ; that is the tileset of the level. Changing it gives interesting results
IFFNumber: _ ; if you put 1-4 in here you get the special terrain levels
an unused field: _ ; but for ONML levels putting 1 in here makes the lemmings into SuperLemmings.

The next ones are big blocks of code:
Objects: all the background objects in the level. Each line of eight includes the type and the coordinates, plus special flags.
Blocks: all the terrain blocks. Each half-line of four contains the type, coordinates and special flags of each.
Collisions: the metal and arrow collision locations. I haven't worked out how this works.

And the Level Name is at the end, and has a maximum of 32 characters, and should begin with a space character.

But you might have known that.

I made about 3 or 4 brand new levels by experimenting with the code, but it's very time-comsuming as you have to test each code to see what it ends up as in the game, and you can't have both open at once, and some codes actually crash the game because there's no graphic for them. As a result they're pretty crap, but one, "The Magic Wishing Wells" is interesting IMO because it uses four wishing wells as entrances; ie. four invisible entrances are positioned exactly above four wells so that the lemmings exit them standing exactly on top. But it never got further than that.

I'm guessing you used just hex code, though? That's what you seem to imply.

No, I did it exactly as you describe, by editing the templates. (The only thing you've mentioned that I didn't know was the SuperLemmings -- wish I had known that! I could have had such fun.........) But it would have been far too time-consuming (for me at my age at the time) to work out the co-ordinates for all the objects and graphics to design levels as I pleased, so I contented myself with just changing the "easy" ones.

Oh, and level names don't have to begin with a space -- it's just that if the number is 10 or more and it doesn't, they collide! But if the number is only a single digit, the space where the other digit isn't separates the number from the name. I used this on one level, "Lemming in the Sky with Diamonds".

I haven't done anything with ONML yet, can anyone briefly explain what SuperLemmings are?  Can they do things that normal lemmings can't do, or is it just a graphics change?

SuperLemmings are just lemmings that move (and do everything) considerably faster than normal. On the real game they occur in only one level, the second of the "Wicked" category.

In fact, the entire level INTRODUCING: SUPERLEMMING is fast-forwarded, if you look carefully, it's not just the lemming that speed up, the time decrease more quickly and when you scroll the screen, it's faster too. But I guess you already knew that.

So, I think there's an hex value for the speed of the game... imagine a level that is very very fast or... very very slow! ;P

:)

Well, if you ask Gary Timmons who re-did a huge chunk of the levels, he would tell you that these were in fact much more finely tuned. The Amiga+PC ones were rushed at the end, but on the SNES we had much more time, so Gary (and a guy called Gareth) spent much longer crafting them.

Many skills were dropped due both space, and because they were pointless. For example, the cannon.... waste of time. Roller! Whats the point. Many skills seemed like a good idea at the time, but just didnt add anything new, and so were dropped. Traps were usually down to memory, and since they were just ways to kill, they didn't usually spoil the level.

Believe it or not, Gary actually prefered playing on the joypad(!), and although I think we had finally got a good Lemmings control system for the jotpad, I think he was nuts - particually since we had the SNES mouse! He however, liked the ability to pause and "step" lemmings a frame at a time.....

The number of lemmings being dropped from 100 to 80 was a technical descision. I just couldn't draw 100 and keep the speed up - it was only 3.5Mhz! They were ALL drawn with the processor! This affected most levels, and since they all now had top be tweeked anyway, we took to oppertunity to  fine tune them.

And since Gary was Mr. Lemming in those days... I think he was right :)

Including The Steel Mines of Kessel, I wonder? Are you saying you deliberately made it as hard as it is, so that it requires an incredibly complex solution? Or did you just overlook it somehow?

Actually, Mike was talking about the SNES version of Lemmings 2, not the Mac version of Lemmings 1.  [Although I don't think there is anywhere near 100 or even 80 Lemmings in the few versions of Lemmings 2 that I've played, so I think Mike's memory might've gotten a bit mixed up over the years...]

Yeah, I was talking L2 on the SNES here... although the Steel Mines was mine, I did it on the Amiga, the Mac guys managed to mess up without my help....for a change.

I remember the MONO version on the mac had a problem with Pea soup. The "peas" were the wrong shade of gray, and so you couldn't see them  :D

You could usually tell my levels. Pretty pictures... funny names (island of the wicker people - I had just seen batman), fast food kitchen... hero time... and the rest.

Gary's were ALWAYS minimalist with surrounding irrelavent  "fluff".

Scotts were "normal" I guess.

So...who did "We All Fall Down"?

Gary Timmons

I have a couple more questions for Mike if he's willing to answer, since I've wondered about these for a long time........

Which solution was intended on the following levels -- If at first you don't succeed; Come on over to my place; Poor Wee Creatures; The Great Lemming Caper; Save Me? (There are others I want to know about, but I thought I'd better start with just five so as not to overwhelm you!)

And was it intentional that on some of the levels where it's not required to save 100%, it's still possible but much harder (Turn around young lemmings, Tightrope City, Cascade)?

errr... you can ask... I might not remember though. those levels were Gary's too, so I cant remember the original solution.

Actually yes. The great thing with Lemmings is the "open" nature of the game. There usually more than one solution. We all spent many hours playing it and getting all the tricks that you guys used long before the game was out.

All of us would try over and over to save even more, just like you guys.

The tricks of using diggers, then building to make a blocker and not losing him.... or minding under a blocker to save him too were all done by us before the game was even released.

Once of Gary's levels had an "oddity" that made Dave insist that the level must be possible 100% of the time, and Gary found a way to do it.. (Cant remember the name of it off hand).

???  I don't understand what you mean.  I suppose you can always create a leve that's possible 100% of the time simply by providing a short, direct route with nothing to do between the entrance and the exit.  That wouldn't make much of a level though.

The Level "All or Nothing" (found here: http://eng-forum.lemmingswelt.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=news;action=display;num=1090216677;start=120) requires 3 bashers. Dave didnt want it to be pure luck that you could solve it.

When the Lemmings fall in to each trap, you put the cursor on the opposite side. When it flashes you can click. The lemming starts his skill but turns around first.

You can do this 100% of the time, but its a programming glitch, and was pure luck it turned out that way.

Pity.

In that case I'll mention some of the others I wondered about -- were any of these yours, and if so, what solution was intended?

I have a cunning plan; Lend a helping hand; Perseverance; Izzy Wizzy Lemmings Get Busy; Tribute to M C Escher (and why that title?); Triple Trouble; It's hero time; One way or the other; Time to get up; Have a nice day.

Sorry to press you like this... it's just that these are things that have intrigued me for twelve years!!!

And another question: who did Rendezvous at the Mountain? There's nothing I particularly want to say about the level, but that title... I'm a writer, you see; ever since early childhood I've invented stories and worlds; but the evocative power of those four words has opened up a completely new direction for me, and the series I'm writing, which is going to be massive, might not have existed without them. So I'd really like to know........

Yes, but I think Ahbriar is interested (obsessed?;P) in knowing which solution(s) the level designer had in mind when the level was being designed.  Not all levels were like this of course; some are obviously intentional to have multiple solutions (such as those with multiple exits for example).

Most of these are Gary's. "Its hero time" is mine.

The idea was to send a lemming over the top - as it were - to set everything up, while the rest bounced off the wall and chased after you the long way. This one stumped Psygnosis for over an hour.  The reson for the bomber was to fool you into thinking youd use a blocker, only for you to remember later that you needed 100% :)

From what I remember Scott did the last one, and the name "Rendezvous at the Mountain" came from the fact that there were 2 starting points that met in the middle; the "Rendezvous".

I get that, but...... let's make it clearer. I'll describe the two solutions I know.

(1) The FIRST lemming digs the first platform so one goes ahead (who becomes climber and floater). Then, the SECOND lemming of the crowd bashes at the sloping wall, while one goes over it to build and stop the crowd from hitting the water.

(2) The LAST lemming digs the first platform, bashes the one-way wall and builds to turn round and not hit the water, while any one of the crowd becomes a climber and floater.

(3) I've heard that the level can be done somehow without using the climber or the floater. I don't know the details of this solution.

Which solution did you intend, or is it deliberate that more than one solution is possible?

Well clearly this one is not intended, since you won't be sending anyone over the top as Mike stated, as that is no longer possible without a climber.

Also it might not work on all versions of Lemmings.  It specifically requires that if you let the first Lemming mine, a single stroke of mining is enough to break through the thin floor at the top.  (There's a more straightforward way which does not require this, but that wouldn't work as you will run out of time.)  That is true on the DOS version, but I already know it is not in the SNES version, and so it might well be not possible in other versions as well.

Actually I take this back, you might not need the miner to cooperate as stated.  It might still be possible to use the more "straightforward" concept I referred to.  I'll have to work out the timing and see.

Ok, nope.  You do need the miner to cooperate as stated in order to make it in time in the climberless solution, even in DOS.

I checked, and nope, you do need the miner to cooperate for a climberless solution, even in DOS.

OK, but what is this solution? And what's the more straightforward solution that would work with more time?

Ok, I'll e-mail you with the details.

As for the "straightforward" climberless solution, here's a hint:  _{it's not much different from solution #2 you described}

btw, I just remembered that for some people, the e-mail address I used to e-mail you can't get past Yahoo spam blockers.  (Not that I'm a spammer, but you know how spammers like to fake the "from" address?  seems that was enough to fool Yahoo's spam blockers in the case of my e-mail address).  So since you use Yahoo e-mail, if you haven't received anything yet, you might want to check your "bulk" folder.

Turns out I'm making things way too complicated for myself as usual.  There's a very easy way to solve this level without climbers & floater.  As long as you can get Ahbriar's solution #2 to work, you are pretty much guaranteed to be able to solve it without climbers, regardless of what version of the game you have (well except for the SNES, but its timing is different enough that even Ahbriar's soln #2 runs out of time).

The detailed solution....

1st dig so they drop out before the slop. On the second lemming, set to bash. The first lemming heads over the top. He then builds to stop falling in the water.

Set him to be a climber and a floater.

Now, I cant remember the number of skills here so, its either stop the basher with a builder so they all turn round... or let them bash through so they hit the wall a nd turn round - but I think you run out of  time that way.

Anyway... after he climbs over and drops down, dig/mine to the exit.

Its pretty much as 99% of people would solve it. BUT as has been said... you can probably do it without a climber - depending on free skills. Thats what nice about  Lemmings :)

Ouch!!!

After guest and myself have between us identified no fewer than eight solutions, along you come and say that the intended solution is different again!!!

As you describe it, it doesn't quite work, because the first few of the mass of lemmings reach the last platform before the climber/floater (at least on the Mac). But this works:

Lemming 1 digs/mines the first platform and bashes the sloping wall, letting one go ahead. That one builds -- as in your solution. Because building is slower than walking, some lemmings reach him while he's still building. The first of them becomes a climber/floater and digs/mines to the exit.

You don't have a second builder to stop the bashing (you only get 1 of each), and anyway you need the lemmings to bash right through the wall so that one of them can climb/float. But on the Mac, this is still OK for time -- you finish with six seconds left.

We should have a poll, to see whether 99% of people really did do it like that....... personally I think my two solutions are much more obvious.

I just completed this more or less how Mike described it on the DOS version. I mined first instead of digging, though, so none of the lemmings got by. However, the builder should not become the climber/floater. Instead, the builder should just build to prevent others from falling (2 steps) and then turn around, then one of the lemmings who gets through after the basher bashes the whole way can become the athlete. With this solution the athlete can get down and dig before any of the lemmings get near the exit, and even with lemmings hitting the far wall after having bashed through, you can still complete this with 0:01 remaining (at least that's how much time I had left).

Mike, how do you not remember the skills? It's hero time... one of each!

As for the poll, the first time I solved this, I sort of did Ahribar's solution #1, except instead of having one lemming go over when the one bashes and making it a builder, I instead didn't let any go over, and made the basher the builder to turn them all around. The athlete part was done the same way though.

hahahaha! It was 14 years ago thats why!! A lots happened since then!  ;P

Of course, but isn't that the reason for the title? :P

I can't remember exactly how I solved "It's Hero Time!", but I DO remember it uses everything but the bomber and blocker. I think I mined the platform, bashed the wall, and builded to the platform with the lemming that goes over (turning it), and climbed/floated with the basher, digging the platform before the exit. It's one of my favorite levels in Lemmings (And if you look in my notebooks, you'll see a LOT of one of each skill levels...)

I never liked "All or Nothing" -- seemed FAR too easy for late Mayhem. Although, when I was about 8 and saw Fun 30 for the first time, I sat there thinking that there'd be a version later with 3 bashers, and thought of how hard that would be to pass. Heh.

I think you've answered this before, and I'm sorry for wasting your time if you have, but did you make the "easy" levels first or the "hard" versions?

Maybe it was on his site that I read it, but I'm almost positive that they made the hard levels first, and they added the easier versions to make the learning curve smoother. It makes a lot of sense, since the easy levels are the same but with (generally) 20 of each skill, while the harder versions clearly had thought put into them.

It makes more sense that way then making a bunch of layouts, giving 20 of each skill, then thinking "Oh, what's the least obvious possible route that uses not too many skills?" I could see this working, experimenting with all skills available and finding the simplest but non-obvious solution (I'm sure a good number of levels are designed this way), but not for all levels. Some were clearly designed for the harder version, like "It's hero time!", "Compression Method 1", and "Down, along, up. In that order" to name a few. Maybe it was a mix of the two methods?

Here is how I (well my dad) figured Hero time about 10 years ago:

DIG the LAST lemming from the pack of thirty and make the FIRST lemming an athlete. Bash that other lemming through the one way block and build it under the thin ledge to stop it falling into the water. make the athlete a miner over the exit. Every lemming will (just) make it out on time.
Hell, I didn't even know about that other method until I looked at this board. Maybe I'm that 1% of people who didn't do it that way

If you use ResEdit to look at the level resources on the Mac game, the easy versions are all saved as copies of the hard versions, except for the training levels.

Also, there are only two unique levels (3 Fun and 1 Tricky) in the "easy" part of the game, other than the special graphics levels. If the easy levels had been designed first, you'd expect that several wouldn't be appropriate for making hard versions of (as with my Simple set).

So my money's on the hard versions having been designed first, at the moment.....

Hard ones first. By the time we started doing "real" levels, we were all so good at it by then, that making a level that would take the others more than a couple of seconds to figure out was almost impossible.

But, this did mean that no one else would have even been able to START playing lemmings! So we had a stack of good, to hard levels, and no easy ones.

Gary made a couple of introductionary ones (first few), to get players used to skills, and they made some of the hard ones easier to try and give some sort of learning curve.

A good example of how we "jumped right in" were levels like "heaven can wait". Many found this hard to figure out, but I sure this was done almost first time by Gary and Scott.

Levels like "It's Hero time" did require a bit more thought, and some like the "fast food kitchen" just required you to do it all at once... as someone said, you tended to get it wrong at the same point each time.

BTW I did all the special ones... This was Daves idea. It started with Menace (A DMA Game), and then we looked for other 16 colour games.  These were ones that usually used dual-playfield. This meant we couldn't use BloodMoney (32 colours), and got some other Psygnosis games. Due to the lack of "metal" in the levels (no styles!), they were quite dull.