Lemmings (video game)

Lemmings is a 1991 puzzle strategy video game made by DMA Design. It was published by Psygnosis. They made it for the Amiga. It was later made for other video game systems. The game was programmed by Russell Kay, Mike Dailly and David Jones. The game was inspired by a simple animation that Dailly created while experimenting with Deluxe Paint.

The goal of the game is to guide a group of anthropomorphised lemmings through a number of obstacles to an exit. The player must save a set number or percentage of the lemmings in order to beat that level. The player must decide how to assign limited amounts of eight different skills to individual lemmings. Those skills them to change the landscape and/or their own behaviour so that enough of the lemmings can reach the exit safely.

Lemmings was one of the best-received video games of the early 1990s. It was the second-highest-rated game in the history of Amstrad Action. It was considered the eighth-greatest game of all time by Next Generation in 1996. Lemmings is also one of the most widely ported video games.  It is estimated to have sold around 20 million copies between its various ports. The popularity of the game also led to the creation of several other Lemmings games, remakes and spin-offs.  It has also inspired similar games. Despite its success, Lemmings lost  popularity by the late 1990s. The loss was attributed in part to its slow pace of gameplay compared to games of later generations.

References

Category:1991 video games
Category:Amiga games