We invented "Lemmings" concept WAY EARLIER on 8-bit
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 ก.พ. 2025
- One of my earliest games, Thingummy (which I coded for the ZX Spectrum and was never published) had a lot in common with Lemmings, which would only come out years afterwards...
Link to game file - www.dropbox.co...
Random ZX Spectrum emulator - fms.komkon.org... - เกม
To be honest, I think all you needed to do to fix this was scrap the falling physics (have them stay where they land), and have everything you need to complete a screen on that same screen, at least until the more advanced levels.
I like the falling physics. Maybe have two types of boulders. Some which roll others which have flat bottoms.
I'm not sure how respawns in mid-level would work if you don't reset the command blocks. And part of the puzzle is to how to get the command blocks in place within the allowed time, so if you reset those you might end up in an unsolvable death loop. Instead something like a "pause" command that you can use for a limited time might be useful at first. Then you can decrease the number of the pause blocks to speed up the game once the player is familiar with the mechanics. Also: _hello you!_
Or maybe even just reorder the levels and have an actual difficulty curve.
You also invented the Bitcoin logo decades early, by the look of your Bonus tiles :-D
I can see where you're coming from (maybe the dithering on the bonus tile confused you), but it's just a regular letter B with Serifs (𝐁).
The 2 dashes that differentiate the Bitcoin sign (₿) from the regular letter B are in a different orientation and position compared to the game's bonus tile's B (𝐁).
@@sosasees ohhhhhh that's what serif means? I've read the word thousands of times in font titles but never put together it's meaning
I really wonder why you couldn’t get this published, it looks like a great puzzler!
If it were released it would hopefully include a small instruction manual in the cassette sleeve!
Those gears are absolutely grinding together lol
They are staggered in the z-direction :)
A real shame this never got released. This is a million miles better than many games released on the ZX Spectrum. Would definitely have a hardcore fanbase determined to master every level.
"Do you prefer WASD or arrow keys for directional controls?"
GameHut: "Neither."
UK: wot m8? It's clearly QAOP
ESDF to pity the french keyboard layout.
Back in this era it was pretty standard to split directional controls across the keyboard. Usually there weren't many other keys required, so it made sense to have both of your hands in a comfortable position at a bit of a distance from each other. As Carl says elsewhere in this thread, QA and OP was a common arrangement.
@@carlcouture1023 And on the Beeb it was ZX*? or AZ (* being where @ is on PC).
This looks really dope for an 8-bit game, but I can kinda see why it didn’t get published. It doesn’t really communicate what each thing does very well, in my opinion. I’d never have guessed the arrows would crush the round white snowballs, and once I figured that out I wouldn’t have made the connection that it can also crush the square red bricks.
Not that I think you needed to be told that, since you have an insane amount of experience in gamemaking since making this.
- 5 starting points with 5 levels each.
Kinda wild to think back them you would pitch practically a entire game to be published, and not only a couple of levels to prove your idea/gameplay.
Pois é
It's never too late to remake the game, a puzzle game like this is really what's missing these days
Agreed, it'd make bank on Steam
I think you'll find a tonne of them on steam
It reminds me of baba is you
You could play Zombie Night Terror. It’s basically modern lemmings and it’s amazing
Yay this video’s on my birthday! I love your videos, your channel and the fact that you are a game developer
Kinda reminds me more of Sleepwalker/Eek the Cat! or Nintendo's Mario & Wario. But the slow plodding, suicidal idiot genre came as quite a thing after the meteroric success of Lemmings.
But it's madness Firebird never accepted this, considering the absolute dross they did agree to publish, Ever see "Don't Buy This"? But I thought budget home computer games were all about being incredibly unintuitive, you just wandered about the game aimlessly until you eventually died. Then loaded up Chase HQ :P
You're the bloke I've seen who's brought up Eek the Cat on the SNES
That was like one of the worst rentals of my childhood xD Strangely, I've never really seen anyone on youtube bring it up
Sleepwalker - interesting - didn't know about this game but it might be inspired by the sleepwalking gags from 1934 Popeye cartoon Dreamwalker which incidentally was the one of the documented sources of inspiration for Donkey Kong. Popeye and Bluto manipulate the environment to keep sleep walking Olive Oyl from falling to her doom.
"A Dream Walker" is available over at dailymotion. www.dailymotion.com/video/x44xxuz
Also a bit like Troddlers. With just one troddler.
@@djmips I think that sounds like a theme that might have appeared in a few different cartoons. Actually it's also basically the same as "escort missions" in other video games.
The bot animation is really smooth.
I'm getting a Blast Corps vibe from this game.
And Cortex Command
I find it hilarious how Rockstar (who was formerly DMA Design) went from Lemmings and Earthworm Jim 3 to making some of the most controversial games of all time.
Interesting video nonetheless.
Rockstar North specifically. Rockstar is a separate company that bought DMA and made them a division iirc.
@@bangerbangerbro I believe what actually happened was Take-Two Interactive purchased BMG Interactive (Grand Theft Auto's publisher), and soon after DMA Design (GTA's developer). As part of the following restructuring, some BMG executives including the Housers set up Rockstar as a new label under Take-Two. The first two releases published under that name were the two GTA London expansions, which were developed by the newly-acquired Rockstar Canada (formerly Alternative Reality Technologies). GTA2 and GTA3 were then published under the Rockstar brand, but with DMA as the developer. After that, DMA was rebranded as Rockstar North.
In short: yes, the Lemmings people went on to make GTA; and yes, DMA became Rockstar North as a result of being acquired (though the renaming happened a few years after the fact, and they weren't bought by Rockstar as such).
@@TheJamesM Ah alright then. I didn't really know anything about the rest of Rockstar and where it came from outside fo DMA.
I'd love to see you have another go at this concept. I could very easily see this as an indie puzzle game on steam. Would be really fun!!
I'm getting Sleepwalker (CTA Developments, OCEAN, 1993) vibes from this.
Getting a lot of nostalgia from this comment! Had totally forgotten about that game.
"He's going to fall to his death... let's watch him do it" Well that was more macabre than I was expecting.
As a dev it's part of his job to make sure death mechanics and animations work right so he's probably a bit desensitized to it.
To me this is kinda like the idea of Blast Corps but in reverse: you create a path to be traveled on rather then clear it.
But, as Blast Corps and even Lemmings proves, sometimes it's just more fun to destroy stuff then build it :p
The weird thing about Blast Corps was, the first time you cleared a level, you had to get to the exit first, before you got a time, when you replayed a level, as soon as the way to the exit was clear, you got a time.
I say this is a good game for the ZX Spectrum! Feels almost like an MSX game.
This game could a map and some rebalancing though.
It doesn't remind me of Lemmings, but Mario & Wario (Super Famicom 1993). Super interesting puzzle game regardless. I love that it's copyright FIRD BIRD.
I think it's interesting that basically the only thing people want old computer hardware for is video games. Not many people are interested in old word processors, or spreadsheets, or even old photo editing software. If you want an old 8-bit computer, most of the software that interests you is gaming-related.
That's because there's practically no reason to use old software, as most modern equivalents are just better in every way. Unless you really want authenticity, or just enjoy the experience and aesthetic of old software, then there's really no reason to not use modern software.
Games, on the other hand, are art, not tools. It is very rare for a new game to be better in every way than an old game, such that there is no reason to play the old game instead of the new one.
@@alfiehicks1 On the other hand you can still emulate the old games. Sometimes it is still fun to mess around with old paint packages etc but you are mostly correct I would say.
I'm not sure where I personally first encountered this 'escorting' game mechanic but for sure Spyro resonates the most. For example Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage - Fracture Hills - Alchemist Escort.
Earthworm Jim has one I believe. Some of the strike games probably have it too.
Ok. And no one wanted to publish that? More quality on this game than my entire Firebird collection.
I wouldn't mind a brief overview of how the assembly for this was put together.
I can't see that there is a great deal that is different to your average spectrum game but I suppose I haven't seen a great deal of detailed explanation of how the average game for one of these basic framebuffer CPU drawing machines is written in one place so maybe it would be interesting.
Why did it take you so long to figure out how to beat your own damn game? You're the one who made it!
It was 33 years ago...
I read the title as "thin gummy"
Reminds me of this old Java aplet game I used to play called Rubicon, which I think used to be a DOS command line game. You had to push these numbered boxes around to certain destinations, and there were conveyor belts and slopes and stuff that made the movement rules a little more intuitive.
Thank you so much for continuing to share your past knowledge and games!
The gears spinning in opposite directions in the title screen triggered me way more than they should have.
Difficult game, but kind of adictive. Well done. Thank you for giving a download :)
The bot animation looks like lemmings too, very nice walking
Goodness me, the sheet hubris of this video title! ;) This definitely has that ‘free with Your Sinclair’ kind of vibe. Like it.
This game seems more like those "pipe/track games" where you pick up and place pieces of a pipe or track to create a path for liquid/vehicles to go from point A to point B before they spill out/fall off.
Lunar Jetman meets Pipe Mania perhaps?
@@RobertPayne556 Something like that, yes.
It is kind of like Lemmings. But it also reminds me of Sleepwalker and Dungeon Keeper.
Nice to see an 8-bit game where the world exists and keeps ticking along outside the current screen.
Those counter-rotating gears in the menu really grind my gears...
Technically they don't touch, even if they are just microns apart, lol. So maybe in this universe they use such wheels to keep the dead body rotating on top of them until they break it into small enough pieces to be carried by the gear that rotates outwards. Alright, I'm overthinking it :D
Really pretty game for the speccy Jon! Love the animation!
Less like lemmings and more like the Mario vs DK March of the minis game
Speaking of early invention. Have you ever seen the Yoshi's Island proto "super donkey" that has mechanics similar to puggsy?
It happens to be a big coincidence, since they both being developed around the same time (late 1991).
Redefines keys. Doesn’t use QAOP. Wtf?!
So it's basically "Lemming" :D
Honestly, the biggrst problem is the level design/difficulty curve. Graphics are really good, I love the smooth animation.
Traveller's Tales: *creates* *this* *game*
Psygnosis: IT'S FREE REAL ESTATE-
This a BRIILIANT hardcore game! You MUST release a "remastered" version of this for at least the PC and hoperfully all other consoles! This is a KILLER game that I adore!
Looks more closely aligned with Mario and the March of the Mini's, but it's similar in a way.
Bridge It on Amstrad CPC was the prototype
Also noticed from the 'Bonus' sprites you appear to have invented Bitcoin long before it was first conceived! Haha
I like this concept. And the animations, for the most part, look nice and smooth.
It's like Gyromite (1985).
Really great idea, it just seemed a little too ambitious for the spectrum
Feels like one of those hidden little DOS games I’d find as a kid on the shelf.
Coverdisk game?
could be shareware
He's got an oddly comforting walkcycle
Thank you, this is very neat, not many people go and release things that otherwise would've been lost for free. Work is still work.
Nice! The droid looks quite smoothly animated at least when the framerate is doing well. I think this and even other "Lemmings-style" games like the DS Mario Vs Donkey Kong games are more different to Lemmings than say, Tetris, Columns and Puyo Puyo are to each other. The way you interact with the "lemming"(s) is diferent in all three. In this you drop things in font of it to change the environment, in Mario Vs DK you draw bridges, and in Lemmings you give the Lemmings themselves the jobs.
It might just be because I am watching you play it and/or because I am tired but I think this actually looks more playable and less frustrating than Lemmings. It might also just be that it looks a bit more action packed, I don't know. Lol "Firdbird" instead of Firebird.
So if you actually wanted these games to be published, but you couldn't get any of them published, couldn't you have tried selling some copies you made yourself or letting people copy it as shareware? Or did you want them to be sold with proper copy protection that requires high end professional decks?
One last thing, 1988 isn't "way earlier" than 1991 lol.
This is nothing like Lemmings if I'm being honest.
Agreed, it's yet another bragging video.
If there's anyone I should believe about that, it's you - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Jones_(video_game_developer)
@@GameHut XD.
😂
We need remake
You could port this to a web game, throw in some ads and you'd have quite the money maker...or just make it a web game :-)
Love the intro comic strip style, maybe this needs a ZX Spectrum next update and release? 😁
I like the Spectrum Next but I have always found it difficult to justify its existence.
For the most compatibility, ATM-Turbo 2 is better (the Next authors promised to emulate it). ATM-Turbo 2 exists since 1992 and has a lot bigger software base (550 titles) and many recreations and emulators.
@@alonecoder600 Yeah ATM turbo is pretty cool. CPU could do with being a bit faster though to drive the display. I would like to build one at some point. But if we want compatibility with all spectrums then best to just stick with the normal spectrum version. I think the OP was getting at keeping with the spectrum brand or something like that in not sure.
Very clever game, and quite comprehensive for the time! It reminds me a bit of a game called "Flappy" where you had to move and crush boulders to clear a path to the exit.
Yeah, I think a directors cut of this would be pretty cool
The concept probably got popularized on a different platform.
You should upload this somewhere so it doesn't become lost media.
Never mind, there's a download link in the description.
Wow that looks incredible, i would have loved that back in the day if it was released!
I'm surprised this was rejected. Seems pretty fun and innovative.
I feel like this would still be quite fun, with a bit of a difficulty adjustment of course!
Of course, back in the day, it was impossible to find resources on how to make good games. Sure, it's obvious that the first level should be easy, but how can you tell which level is the easiest? When you're constantly tweaking and testing the game yourself, you tend to learn the levels by sheer rote memorization, so they all seem easy.
Apparently that happened to Super Mario Bros. But probably happened to everything I suppose.
if only it had a fast-forward key, i would have had bought that game back then, had it been released
This isn't a bad game, in fact, I suggest you put it on IOS or Android! This is an amazing game! Test it a bit, modify your levels to the appropriate difficulty curve, this is a winner!
This has as much in common with lemmings as it does alien 8
I would bet it was tough to code this game. I think you would have added more "lemmings" if it would possible on the hardware. Very cool
Nice one :) Always love to see unreleased speccy games. You should check modern speccy games to see how we push it with beam tracing multicollor scrollers %)
Lemmings is one of those classic franchises that I just never played on any platform back in the day. I think I would've cared about it more in the 32-bit era, but that's pretty much when Sony bought Psygnosis and stopped putting them out :P I _did_ play a charming little game by LucasArts called _Lucidity_ that's really reminiscent of this concept though. That game had a sleepwalking theme to it, and it's creative and warm, but I really like _this_ '80s space game theme too where you have to protect a robot. This just makes a lot of sense for the concept. Robots - especially clunky space-age ones - are usually pretty dumb and useless and need defending. This makes so much sense!
Weirdly, the game that this concept most reminds me of is the Rocko's Modern Life game on SNES. They used almost exactly the same game play concept.
Thank you so much for sharing this! Any chances you could make a .TAP or .TZX version for preservation purposes, pretty please? :)
Awesome work ! Nice Video
I really enjoyed watching this. Shame it did not see a release.
It is a stunning game and a very unexpected one for the Spectrum. They definitely should have published it. But actually, with the current retro gaming boom and the Spectrum Next, I think there might still be a market for a boxed version among collectors and enthusiasts. Thanks for sharing.
Games back then didn't have tutorials. My guess is that this would've been a pretty good game for the era. Maybe with a few simpler levels first
Love your channel and when I found out I’m going to work with 1 of your ex workers I was so happy about that fact
Who is that?
It's crazy that they would turn down this game. I wouldn't play 95% of the Spectrum games which are totally outdated but THIS is still interesting today!
I'm also impressed that the AI continues to run even when you're outside the screen. I can't remember any game from that era which did that!
I love it. It could also become very addictive. Ive beaten lemmings and Xmas Lemmings, but lemmings 2 is so overwhelming, that I gave up. 😊
You just wait, in a couple of days there's going to be a video of someone speedrunning this lol
I don't think it happened with the other spec game he released but you never know.
Very cool! It also reminds me of "Go! Go! Tank" for Game Boy. Thank you for sharing this with us!
Maybe its just me, but i think you should give this game a second chance. Improve the graphics, improve and flesh out the game mechanics more and re-release it on PC. Could be potential for a fun little game here.
I remember something John Romero talked about in regards to their games, always make the first level last.
In many of your coding videos from your time with SEGA, you show your assembly code (what I assume to be MIPS). Did SEGA really not have a compiler for developers like you to use? When did game development shift from assembly to higher level coding? Thanks for your videos.
I seem to remember hearing that devs were using C code around the GBC or GBA era, I know Donkey Kong Country (GBC) used pre-rendered sprites and I presume if they had that capability they probably had good compilers. N64 I think they used C++ (higher level code and game engines were basically required for 3D work). I'm less familiar with the Sega side but from what I've seen they had very basic editors and no emulation capabilities (games were compiled and streamed directly to real hardware). Pretty much as soon as the hardware allowed it and/or the compilers got good enough to make efficient enough code devs started switching.
Hah I mean you didn't HAVE to make the first level so hard. I think the concept was great! Not huge on the round ground tiles myself.
I like this. This is really clever. I’d play this when I was kid. I’d play this now.
Man you could have made thousands $ should you've released this game during 1st iPhone era...
It's more like Sleepwalker/Marsupilami than lemmings.
Love the video!!!
very impressive. You are pretty good.
our guy's voice sounds from young man. but he is veteran.
Bit-coins in the load screen? He's a witch!!!!!
Awesome! This game seems like a lot of fun, it's just not very clear what object are supposed to do. Has really great physics and animations
The graphics + the odd block properties, makes me think of Baba Is You
It's a predecessor of "Lemmings" but also of Dark Souls, by how difficult and punitive it is.
Chakan
Dark souls has nothing on 8-bit computer game difficulty.
@@Gambit771 It can't be that hard then? Having said that, Manic Miner is the scariest game I have ever played.
This is nothing like lemmings. And it feels broken that he sometimes can jump 2 blocks high instead of one. But I always loved the puzzle aspect of lemmings. Like tower defense you must choose what and where. Lemmings would have been even better with upgrades to choose. 6 dimensional thinking: 2d, plus time, plus different choices, plus different updates, and have many different ways to reach the goal instead of 1 possibility. Always love those kind of games. Also that fysics game with a basketball, that there are solutions a game developer hadn't thought of.
You should release it on the switch. Lots of Spectrum-like games being released lately (Cecconoid p ex.) I think the gameplay is decent enough. I would have loved it on the spectrum. Also smooth af 😍
I like the classic Legoland-style tree.
Looks like a fun game. Maybe you should've been able to store these balls in your Chopper?
Lemmings was the first game I ever played. My mom used to play it at night when I was little (3-4) and she would bribe me to get me to go to bed if she let me play for a few minutes. I was really good too. Then we played Sim City and incredible machine. Then when I turned 5 I got my own PC. 16Mhz :D