I just played through the first 26 or so levels in Lemmings. The original. Yeah, from 1991. I feel kind of bad for all the people who played it on a machine running DOS, though..
Since I don’t keep any early-90′s x86 machines around (well, not ready to use anyway), I was playing the game in DOSBox – in fact, a DOSBox wrapper so it would behave similarly to a native OS X app that you just double-click. Nice and convenient.
Playing the game via DOSBox was sort of bittersweet, though: the quality of the DOS version of Lemmings is surprisingly bad! Even when enabling the more “advanced” settings, the sound and music quality is still a mere fraction of that which you get when playing the Mac OS version of the game. Until now, I had only ever played the game on Mac OS.
Compare the following two screenshots:
Pretty much sums it up. First off you can notice that the Mac version has double the resolution. Then there’s the color palette – probably ~16 colors in DOS vs. 256 colors in Mac OS. It’s really noticeable when comparing the “nuke” button:
Which one is DOS??
I noticed this pretty much right away since I used to love nuking the lemmings when I played this in school years ago. 
Even worse, though? The sound is just horrible! Then again, I found this constantly when visiting friends’ houses when I was younger. Hell, I still remember when one buddy of mine got a sound card as a birthday gift. I was pretty shocked – “Your computer doesn’t HAVE SOUND???” … Wow, he could play WarCraft 1 with [non-PC-speaker] sound for the first time…
But seriously, compare the DOS music (top) with the Macintosh music (bottom), for example.
| DOS: | |
| Mac OS: |
I mean, neither sound amazing, but at least the Mac one doesn’t sound like it’s shredding my speakers.
Anyway, I would like to think that maybe the DOS version I’ve been playing is some “first version” that was later improved with some kind of update. I know that has happened with some games in the past – quickest example I can think of offhand would be the Quake runtime for Win95, I guess.
Regardless I’m reminded to be glad that I grew up using Macs. The contrast between the two platforms is still really surprising, even in regards to current offerings on the “PC” and Mac platforms.
Oh, it’s worth noting that the Amiga version also looks very nice, completely on par with the Macintosh version. The funny thing is that Lemmings was released for Amiga first, yet the Amiga version still retained top quality even when compared to the versions ported to other platforms (which were released up to 1-2 years later).
Related posts:
- Matecha – Marathon “Splash” remix
- The elusive Maxis propeller hat from Macworld San Francisco 1996
- Myst wallpapers for iPhone + iPod Touch
- Music-old
Tags: dos, games, mac, retro gaming
There’s no denying that the Mac (and Amiga) version of Lemmings has much better quality picture and audio. But I grew up playing the DOS version. I’ve played it since I was 5. I originally got DOSBox specifically to play Lemmings again after not playing it for several years. I wouldn’t give up that crappy music for the world.
I know that I’m a year late posting this, but…
You know, a simple visit to Wikipedia or a Lemmings forum/website would reveal that the DOS version is one of the first versions made.
The Amiga and DOS versions were made at the same time. The DOS version comes in three graphical variants: VGA graphics, EGA/Tandy graphics, CGA graphics. It also has two audio variants: AdLib, and Tandy.
The VGA version is that which you’ve played. You probably played it with AdLib sound since that is the default choice.
The EGA/Tandy graphics are the same, but with only 14 colours. Most pink things become grey or purple, and brown things become bright orange and yellow. Still, it’s very playable. The graphics in this game were made for EGA graphics cards (which were quite common at the time), and for a computer called the Tandy Jr.
The CGA graphics are horrible: blue, pink, and white. Maybe grey as well. It’s awful to play, but it was necessary as monitors and graphics cards at the time were still quite limited. To actually own a graphics card capable of running the VGA version of Lemmings was extraordinary.
The AdLib sound is bad. You’ve heard it. At the time it was cutting edge, but by today’s standards it sounds like squealing.
The Tandy sound sounds a bit like playing on an 8-bit console, and was still a considerably good sound. By today’s standards, it sounds just slightly better than an NES.
It’s worth noting that the Macintosh version was made 4 or 5 years after the Amiga and DOS versions were released. It was released around the same time as Lemmings for Windows 95 which featured the same graphics but different music. Given time, of course it’s going to be a superior port.
There are negative changes (depending upon your viewpoint) to remark on. The exit for the Hell-themed levels is changed from a demon-pig to a sort of nerdy face with extremely short ears and huge eyes. Also, a level called “All the 6s” (which is a giant ’666′ made out of boulders) was removed in favour of another level.
For some inexplicable reason, the Lemmings have sleeves on their shirts in the Macintosh and Windows 95 versions of the game.
Thanks for your reply Jase. Would you be the “Jase” whose XM/MOD/S3M modules I’ve listened to in the past?
I didn’t realize that the Mac port was made years after the DOS version – in fact, I thought they came out right around the same time. Indeed, even a few years would make a huge difference, in that era. Actually quite sad, though. That sounds like a record amount of time porting a DOS/Win32 game to Mac OS!
I like this distribution much, this is the bluff where i can step by step smth from me, a trial of two seconds this is what i like.