Lemmini

A platform independent game engine for Lemmings in Java

To learn more about Java, click here.
To learn more about Lemmings, follow this link

 

Introduction

Lemmini is the attempt to combine the playing sensation of the original Amiga version of Lemmings with the improved graphics of the Win95 port to create the best possible Lemmings experience on all platforms that support a Java virtual machine.

Be aware that you need a copy of "Lemmings for Windows (95)" to play Lemmini. 


Resized screenshot


 

Download

If you don't have a Java runtime installed, you can find it here. Get and install the JRE (Java Runtime Environment) to run Java applications (as Lemmini).
Lemmings will run on anything >= JRE1.5. The latest JRE (currently JRE8) is usually the best choice. 

Lemmini (click to download the JAR archive)
After downloading, you can start it locally either by double clicking on it or manually using "java -jar lemmini.jar"

If you want to create a desktop link to the JAR, you can use the following icons:
Icon for Windows
Icon for Mac

Installation

When starting Lemmini for the first time (or when updating to a new version with different resources) you will be prompted to select your "WINLEMM" path and a destination path that the resources will be extracted to. You don't actually need to install Lemmings for Windows, it's enough if you enter the original CD-ROM or copy the WINLEMM path from the CD-ROM to your harddrive.
While this is a bit of a hassle, this step is necessary to not infringe the rights of the copyright holders. Indeed, Lemmings for Windows is still on sale here and there and usually a bargain ... I paid 5€ for my version.
Apart from that, Lemmini is pretty easy to use. Either start it with the Webstart link provided at my homepage which will install a desktop shortcut or download the JAR.

System Requirements

Lemmini should run fine on system with an 800Mhz CPU or above and a Java J2SE runtime environment installed (>=1.5). Lemmini will need at least 64MB of heap, so you should have at least 256MB of RAM, a soundcard for sound and a graphics card with support for high or true color modes. The desktop resolution should be at least 800x600 since the game window is 800 pixels wide.
Note that Lemmini was only tested on WinXP and on Linux in high and true color modes, I have reports that it runs on Mac OS X and Win98 (though there still might be some problems under Win98). Indeed it should run on every system supported by J2SE, including Solaris, but I can't test that.
Lemmini will also run in 256 color indexed mode, but only with reduced color quality. Note that on very low end machines, it might be a good idea to reduce the desktop color depth to 16bit mode as this might improve performance quite a bit.

 

Menus

File
Exit: Exit the game
Player
Manage Players: create and delete players
Select Player: select a player (becomes default player)
Level
Select Level - Select a level. Note that at the beginning, only the first level of each difficulty level is available. Win levels to enable more levels.
Restart Level - Restart current level.
Load Level - Load a level from an INI or LVL file.
Load Replay - Load a replay file created with Lemmini's replay function.
Enter Level Code - Enter an Level Code obtained by Lemmini (or the original Amiga game).
Sound
Music - Enable/Disable Music.
Sound - Enable/Disable Sound.
SFX Mixer - select a sound device. "Java Sound Audio Engine" is most compatible, but others may have better performance (less latency).
Options
Advanced select - if enabled, pressing cursor left/right will select only lemmings heading left/right; if disabled, cursor keys are used for scrolling


Control

Control

1

change release rate (the new rate is displayed above "+", the minimum release rate above "-"). Double clicking selects maximum/minimum

2

select climber skill (lemmings with this skill can climb walls)

3

select floater skill (lemmings with this skill will survive falling high distances)

4

select bomber skill (lemming will explode after 5 seconds)

5

select blocker skill (lemming will stand still and change direction of other lemmings)

6

select builder skill (lemming will build stairs)

7

select basher skill (lemming will bash through walls)

8

select miner skill (lemming will mine into the ground)

9

select digger skill (lemming will dig  a hole)

A

pause game (press again or assign lemming a skill to continue)

B

Nuke - activated by double click (all lemmings will turn into bombers)

C

Fast Forward (game speed is increased, press again for normal speed)

D

Minimap - click/drag inside to jump to that playfield position

E

Score: "OUT" is the number of lemming on the screen, "IN" is the percentage of lemming that have entered the exit, "TIME" is the time left

 

Keyboard Control

The following keys are defined:

F1

decrease release rate

F2

increase release rate

F3..F10 or "1".."9"

assign climber skill (F3/"1") to digger skill (F10/"8"). Order is the same as the icons

"P" or F11

pause mode (same as pressing pause icon)

F12

Nuke (press twice quickly like the icon)

"F" or "Enter"

Fast Forward (same as pressing fast forward icon)

"Shift"

When pressed, the scrolling speed via mouse or keyboard is doubled

"Cursor left/right"

Scroll playfield left or right. In "advanced select" mode (default), pressing left/right is used to select lemmings heading in this direction only (similar to the mode in Lemmings Revolution)

"Cursor up"

Select walkers only (like right mouse button in some versions)

"S"

create a screenshot of the whole level. It's stored in the resource directory and called "level.png"

 

Mouse Control

Left click

press an icon or assign the lemming under the cursor a skill

Left click/drag

jump to that map position

Right drag

move the playfield

The playfield will also scroll if you move the mouse cursor to the left or right border of the screen.

 

Author

Name Volker Oth
Born 1971
Country Germany
Occupation Embedded C software development (automobile)
Contact You might contact me by email if you have questions/bug reports regarding Lemmini: VolkerOth (at) GMX.de

 

Source Code

As of version 0.82, Lemmini became an Open Source project. All files that are my own creation are released under the Apache License 2.0. In a nutshell that means you can use them and modify them even for closed source or commercial projects, as long as you leave some copyright info in and give appropriate credit. See the linked Apache License for details.
Note that there are also some sources included which are based on the work of other people and thus have partly different license models:
Each file of the source code should contain a header with the license information.
The whole source code, the icons and the patch files needed to build the JAR are now stored in a Git repository hosted by Bitbucket.
I recommend to use SourceTree to handle the repository but there are several other tools and also Eclipse plugins.
Repository URL

https://bitbucket.org/fade0ff/lemmini

Legal Stuff

Lemmini is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind. Use it at your own risk.

The resources used are under copyright of Psygnosis/Sony. Therefore only legal owners of "Lemmings for Windows" are allowed to play Lemmini.
No code of the original game is used, also no illegal form of reverse engineering of an original game was performed to create Lemmini.

Lemmini itself (the game engine) is freeware in the sense of "free for all to use". Download it, give it to your friends or whatever.
If you intend to put it as download on your site, please make a reference to the original home page. Same is true for distribution on magazine CDs/DVDs.
Anyway, to respect the rights of the original copyright holders, I explicitly forbid to distribute Lemmini with the "Lemmings for Windows" resources in any form. If you intend to do so, please contact the copyright holders.
Please note that also the distribution of the resources extracted by Lemmini is not allowed; neither with or without the Lemmini engine. If you need help to extract the resources from the WinLemm data for your own Lemmings port, just contact me or have a look at the source code. 

As of version 0.82, Lemmini is "free software", as all parts of the source are released under licenses approved by the Free Software Foundation. See chapter Source Code for details.
Lemmini uses code by Martin Cameron and Jef Poskanzer. See above  for references.


 

History

 

Credits

Thanks to
The guys of DMA Design for writing the original Lemmings.
Martin Cameron for his MicroMod Library (the page is down).
Jef Poskanzer for his GifEncoder Library.
Mindless for his MOD conversions of the original Amiga Lemmings tunes.
rt for his original LVL format description.
Herman Perk (LemGen) for analyzing the level code algorithm.
ccexplore and the other nice folks at the Lemmingswelt Forum for discussion and advice (the forum is down).
Sun for maintaining Java and providing the community with a free development environment.
The Eclipse open source community for the great IDE.

 

Links

Lemmix - a Lemmings level editor for Windows with support for Lemmini
Lemmings Universe - lots of information and files around Lemmings games
Planet Lemmings - all level codes for the Amiga version and more
The Lemmings Compendium - walkthroughs and level codes
The Lemmings Solution - walkthroughs and statistics

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