How game became a jumping-off point for new generation
Its diabolical puzzles drove players to distraction. But just what was the appeal of Lemmings?
For Chris Scullion, video game historian and journalist, the appeal of Lemmings was simple – it was easy to learn but hard to master.
“A lot of games at the time were quite complex where you needed to use the keyboard and mouse to play.
“Lemmings only really needed a mouse, and it did a really good job of teaching you how it worked in the first few levels. The game demonstrated how your Lemmings’ skills worked.
“Within 10 minutes you were given a grasp of how the entire game worked which served you for the next 100 hours of gameplay.”
The game, Scullion explains, grew in popularity with (pre-internet) buzz the oldfashioned way.
“It was a word of mouth thing. It started off on one platform and quickly spread to all the others. It was one of those games where you play and it became an obsession; people were telling their friends and colleagues they’d spent all night playing Lemmings which made them want to try.
“Terry Pratchett played Lemmings, he said he had to uninstall it and destroy the disks because it was stopping him from writing his next book.”
The game’s sequels never quite reached the peak of the originals but that hasn’t stopped a host of remakes.
“The problem is they nailed it first time,” says Chris. “It’s the sort of series where simplicity makes it what it is. Modern remakes often attempt to add complexity but that makes it not like Lemmings.
“If Lemmings had failed, the studio who had made it wouldn’t have gone on to do other things; one of those things was Grand Theft Auto.
“Lemmings might not be going as strong as a game franchise but without it we wouldn’t have had Grand Theft Auto.”