I've now found the printout again, and can produce the instructions, hints, and how the screen data is created:
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Lemming Dropout
version 1.7
Written by Daren Rawlings and Stephen Scott
May 1991 - January 1992
Written for the Micro User Magazine
Text file by Stephen Scott January 1992
Introduction
Lemming Dropout is the 8 bit version of a certain game written by a certain Liverpool based software house for the Atari ST, Commodore Amiga, PC, Spectrum, Amstrad and the Archimedes.
Although it has only four levels, most of the features from the original have been transferred. At the end of this article will be an explanation on how to create your own screens.
Instructions
The object of Lemming Dropout is to guide the lemmings, one at a time, from the start to the finish. But a perilous journey awaits each lemming, as it attempts to reach home.
You can help them get home by using the icons shown at the bottom of the screen. These icons are explained later, but first here are a few things you should know about the lemmings.
- Lemmings will move left when they appear out of the start symbol
- Lemmings can only fall four spaces downwards before getting squashed.
- Lemmings will be killed if they touch the poison spikes
- Lemmings cannot dig through the steel blocks, shown as white blocks.
- Lemmings cannot climb in any wayl they can only move left, right and down.
- Lemmings cannot fall directly onto the finish symbol, even if they use parachutes.
- If a lemming falls on top of a blocker, then it will still move in its current direction.
The icons can now be explained. They are, from left to right, as follows:
BLOCKER - Any lemming meeting a blocker will turn back. Blockers cannot be destroyed in any way.
DIGGER - Digs out one block in the direction the lemming is going before turning back.
MINER - Digs one space downwards
PARACHUTE - Enables selected lemmings to fall long distances.
SELF DESTRUCT - Kills the selected lemming, unless it is a BLOCKER.
SUICIDE - Quits the game
To use an icon, guide the square cursor, using the Z,X,* and ? keys over the lemming and press Return. The icon is now activated. The numbers below each icon (except Suicide) show how many of each action you have left. A beep will sound if you try to use something you have nothing of. Use the left and right arrow keys to select an icon.
In order to complete the levels, a certain number of lemmings must reach the finish, before the timer runs out. The clock is shown in the bottom right hand corner of the screen. This clock runs in realtime, so it will still be going when you have the game paused. The number of lemmings to save is shown at the top of the screen, along with how many are left, and how many you have saved. Once all the lemmings have gone, you go onto the next level, otherwise the game ends.
When you start each level, you are given information relevant to the level - number of lemmings, lemmings to be saved, and the time limit, in minutes and seconds. Pressing the spacebar then draws the screen, and then waits again for the spacebar to be pressed, so you can have a good look at the level.
Z,X*,? - move square cursor
Return - select icon
Cursor L,R - move icon arrow left or right
P/Return - Pause/unpause
The Listing
Lemming Dropout comes in two listings. The first - DROP1 - draws the screen border and sets up characters and envelopes. PAGE is then set to &1100, so that DROP2 - the game - can be loaded. DROP2 is then relocated down to &E00 before running.
Designing your own screens
The screen data starts from line 1370. Each level uses three lines of data. The data format is as follows:
Line One
Level name, number of lemmings, lemmings to save, time for info screen, time for timer procedure, number of blockers, number of diggers, number of miners, number of parachutes, number of self destructs, x and y coordinates for start symbol, x and y coordinates for end symbol, amount of data stings in Line Two (for use in the FOR... NEXT loop)
Line Two
Data strings for earth blocks
000006 - Print in top left corner of level a string of 6 blocks
101215 - Print at 10,12 in level window a string of 15 blocks
Line Three
amount of x,y coordinates for spike locations, spike coordinates
It is best to design your levels on a piece of squared paper, confining your designs to a 32 x 16 size grid. Treat the top left corner as 0,0, the top right corner as 31,0, the bottom left corner as 0,15 and the bottom right as 31,15.
If any number is less than 10, add a zero in front of it, as in the examples shown above.
If you don't want any spikes or steel blocks on your level, replace Line Three with the following:
DATA 3,0,0,0,0,0,0,3,0,0,0,0,0,0
This is to avoid the computer making a FOR...NEXT loop from 1 to 1!
Bear in mind the lemmings restrictions listed above when designing levels, and make them sensible, so that they can be completed.
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I hope this is useful. I'll find a way of incorporating these instructions at a later stage.
