This wasn't a total waste of time. I learned about something called NeoLemmix which is some kind of hack of Lemmings. It's pretty much identical to Lemmings with a few improvements. I think that the guy who made it somehow used the original Lemmings code. It's all here:

http://www.neolemmix.com/

He has all the offically-released levels too, including from shit I've never heard of. Levels released for some corporate promotions, the levels on the Genesis version, PSP, whatever. Everything. Shitty Oh No More Lemmings too.

There's also a couple of fan-made games and he made his own five part series of Lemmings games, each with hundreds of levels. There's enough shit there to last a lifetime.

And the improvements. Oh man. I was skeptical at first but no, these really are improvements. It shows you where the ladder will be or the tunnel or whatever before you build it. So you can really make it precise. And you can act on Lemmings when the game is paused so it really eases the whole process.

There's also some bullshit replay feature that I haven't figured out but it really annoys me. When you restart a level, it will automatically do the same thing that you did last time. I can see the use for this but I don't know how to turn it off during play, which is necessary so that you can stop whatever it is that you did which caused the previous attempt to fail. But if you just go back to the main screen, that replay shit is turned off.

So I've been playing the original Lemmings all day today. Really not much of a game. In about five hours, I've managed to complete all of the levels that I completed as a kid.

Oh, here's another improvement: you can choose whatever level you want. You're no longer stuck on a level and unable to advance in the game. It also shows you which levels you've already beaten.

But yeah, it just doesn't seem like there's much to this game. How did I play it for years? I wasn't huge into it but I definitely played it quite a bit. I guess it's just that in those days, you didn't have many games. And load times are another issue. There was a lot of waiting around back then. And the game was slower. If I didn't mention this already, this NeoLemmix seems to run quite fast.

I found the level that I got stuck on. Even in NeoLemmix, I couldn't figure it out.



I couldn't figure out that mining trick that he does, so I figured you just had to lose a lot of Lemmings. Then at the end, I knew you had to lower that ground to make the ladder reach it but I couldn't figure out how to do this with the limited number of abilities available. Even with the walkthrough, I don't understand why it works. Why doesn't that basher keep bashing? Not enough pixels, I guess.

That's the big problem with the game. Too much precision both in timing and pixel perfection. And when you have a mob of Lemmings, it's impossible, at least in the original game, to choose which one you want. NeoLemmix fixes that.

But yeah, I finally got to see the rest of the levels in the "tricky" section and I beat them all. Usually in the first try. So that's another bad thing about the game: if you can't pass a level you're just stuck for all eternity. One bad level and the game is over for you.

That's how all games were but it's still bad game design. On the other hand, games today are often way too easy.

Just looking at a modern example of this, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in 2004, was a great game but it comes to a screeching halt at the flying missions. The game won't advance until you beat the flying tutorial and it's absolutely impossible. Not just me, this is a common complaint. For most people, the game ends at the flying tutorial. I've read desperate messages on forums where people beg more skilled players to download their save and get them through those missions so they can continue to play the game.

Bad game design. The game shouldn't end because you inserted an impossible level.

But Grand Theft Auto 5, released in 2015 (for PCs) takes the opposite approach. In previous games, there were checkpoints (save spots) after each mission. But now, there's numerous checkpoints during each mission. Safely advance ten feet? Game saved.

And even if you're some kind of a total moron and can't beat a level even with these liberal checkpoints, YOU CAN JUST SKIP THE LEVEL. I mean, that's what I wanted in GTA San Andreas for the flying missions but really a better solution is to make those flying missions less insanely difficult. With GTA5, you can skip any mission with no repercussions. I'm pretty sure that you can skip every single mission and "beat" the game.

There's no satisfaction in that. But with Lemmings, it's nice to have the ability to skip levels. It's not like there's a story anyway. Each level is it's own puzzle.

Interesting to note that Lemmings was produced by the same company who later produced Grand Theft Auto.

In other news, Legos are coming. It's taken a long time. I ordered this shit on the evening of 29 November. That's six days ago. And it's only now shipping. AND only half my order is shipping. And not the half that they said was backordered. Totally bizarre. So I have to wait even longer for the Snowglobe and the Vacation Getaways.

My US order shipped a day earlier, the complete order.

In yet more news, did my invoice yesterday and even though I only worked like eight days, I still made almost £3,000 because I did so many transcripts. But had I done these jobs directly for the solicitors, I would have made three times that. £9,000 a month for working 10 days.

Fortunately, I've been getting on this to try to make this happen. Sent my CV to all the courts. About a quarter of them said they would send my details to local solicitors and/or put my CV in the solicitor room in the court. Most of them, including Glasgow, just ignored my email. But I went and personally put my CV in the solicitor room in Glasgow last week. I'm going to have to do that with every court I go to. Try to get the information out there.

Nobody contacted me yet. But it takes time. And there's not many people who need the service.

But I spoke to a woman who works directly for the solicitors and she says she's working all the time. So yeah. £10,000 a month I think is absolutely reasonable. I'd be a damn fool not to do this. I'm going to have to track down every solicitor firm in Scotland and send them my CV.

Think about it. £10,000/month. There's no limit to where you can live. As it stands, I don't want to move to Edinburgh because I think £700/month is too much for what I'm making. But with £10,000...I mean...they say you shouldn't spend more than 1/3 of your income on rent. What one bedroom place is going to be £3,000/month? In Glasgow, the highest you'll find is £700. Even in London, you'll have a tough time finding a one bedroom place for £3,000/month.

Let me check Zoopla. Yeah, only seven places in Glasgow for more than £2,000/month. They all have between 3 and 5 bedrooms. All look semi-luxury. Obviously, these are the top of the line places, price-wise, at least.

Let's look at London. Actually, there's thousands between £2,500 and £3,000. Let's narrow this down to one bedroom. Still a thousand places. That's crazy. Probably all shitholes even at that price.

Yeah. These are not impressive. Can you believe that? £3,000 a month won't buy shit in London. Who on earth can pay that? They all look to be city centre at least. Must be an enormous number of bankers and Russian swindlers in London.