Lemmings 2: The Tribes for Game Gear and Master System final

[TL]

[align=center:1ka208ns][/align:1ka208ns]

Quoting Matt Taylor, who wrote (unreleased) Lemming 2 for SMS and GG.

[font=georgia:1ka208ns]After doing Andre Agassi on the GameBoy, I went on to write Lemmings 2 on the Game Gear and Master System. The code was written using a single codebase for both MS/GG versions as well as the Game Boy version, and was developed in around 8 months. Although I had access to the original source code, it was x86 real-mode code and not much use. So, as with Hook, I spent many hours studying and cataloging how the PC version worked, how many pixels per frame of animation, how the skills worked, etc, and then coded it from scratch in Z80. The levels were designed in such a way that no more than 128 characters could be modified on any level to ensure that the game did not run out of spare background characters when modified by exploding Lemmings or built bridges and the like. This was achieved by designing the levels using non-modifyable blocks ("steel" blocks, water) and limiting how many modifying skills were used on each level. As there were only 8 lemmings per level (to stay within sprites-on-a-line limits) this was pretty easy to achieve. In fact, out of the original levels only about 20% had to be redesigned.
 
In the code I wrote a unified single bitplane collision detection system and character modification system so that arbritary areas of the level could be modified on any pixel boundary. All collision detection for the lemmings was done a single pixel basis and several collision tests had to be done per frame for some of the more complex lemming skills such as the Magnobooter. Out of all the lemmings skills the Magnobooter is my favourite and was by far the most fun to code and play with.

The game was completed in 1994, but Psygnosis decided that it was not commercially viable to release it on the Sega 8-bit platforms. A lot of publishers were pulling out of Sega 8-bit cartridge production in Europe due to the high cost of production runs. This was very disappointing, especially as the Game Gear version is the best version out of the 8-bit console versions of Lemmings 2, even including sampled sound playback. The only 8-bit console version to be released was the Game Boy version which received 95% in GB Action magazine. This score was only surpassed in the same issue by Monster Max which received 96%. Ironically Monster Max was written by Jon Ritman (who wrote Match Day and Head Over Heels on the Sinclair Spectrum) who I would later end up working for at his start-up company Cranberry Source after I left Spidersoft.

The Game Gear and Master System versions of Lemmings 2 were reviewed in Sega Power magazine and I will scan in these reviews for you if you wish to include them on your site. Lemmings 2 is an 8-bit title I am particularly proud to have written as I think a good job was done of faithfully reproducing the original without compromising on features or levels and it really showed off what the Sega 8-bit machines were capable of. It is just a shame they never got released due to Sega's cartridge production pricing.[/font:1ka208ns]

He has now released the ROM of both versions for everyone to play and enjoy!

[align=center:1ka208ns]Lemmings 2 The Tribes (Unreleased) Game Gear

[size=240]DOWNLOAD HERE![/size][/align:1ka208ns]

[zapiy]

Flipping brilliant stuff..

[TrekMD]

Cool, I just downloaded the SMS version! 

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

Even more reason to get my old Xbox out and sort out the emulators on it 

[Bobinator]

What a nice guy! It always makes me feel really good when people do things like this, and I wish more people would follow suit. I'd send him a personal thank you letter, if I knew how to contact him.

On topic, this looks like a pretty good port! The Game Gear port was actually probably one of the best handheld ports of the first game for a while, in my opinion, so I've got high hopes for this one.

[64bitRuss]

good news for SMS and Game Gear fans! 

[WiggyDiggyPoo]

GG Lemming and presumably this one will be one of the only time the famous dodgy screen on the GG will help you - the crosshair puts a slight line up/down/left/right on the screen and it always helped me line up where the lemming was that I wanted to interfere* with was.
[size=10]
*Yeah I dont actually interfere with lemmings, maybe manipulate? Influence? Lead? Screw it I like to kill lemmings lol[/size]