From: hallodek@sd.znet.com (Norm Hall) Newsgroups: alt.lemmings Subject: Re: Poor Psygnosis Date: Fri, 01 Mar 1996 18:47:17 GMT Message-ID: <4h7gns$or@ns2.zNET.net> References: <4h2slq$1dn@northshore.shore.net> Reply-To: hallodek@sd.znet.com Alas, it seems that the Tribes ARE being left to "... Oh no!" I'm sorry I also misunderstood and blamed the Sony Corporation for the lack of further Lemmings Chronicles. But has it occurred to anyone at Psygnois or Sony that the REASON that the Chronicles didn't sell so well was BECAUSE there were only three tribes represented? And not everyone's favorite Tribes? (SpaceLems! CaveLems! MedievalLems!) It took me a long time to want to buy the game precisely because there were so few Tribes represented -- I felt I was being cheated somewhat. I was greatly cheered to read in the manual that the other Tribes planned to make an appearance. But now, alas, I really feel cheated, and worse. All of this seems to leave us Lemmings Chronicles fans in the lurch. As I said in my story (attached), "Jimmy MacLemming and the Sad Day," doesn't anyone care that WE care? I'm sorry, but your lack of support for the rest of the Tribes makes me feel as though Psygnosis is less than trustworthy. And what's the point of buying more stuff from you (e.g., Paintball Lemmings) under those circumstances? (Not that I can FIND Paintball Lemmings in the stores around here anyways.) Besides, one of the things that I LIKED about Lemmings is that they are NOT like "EveryOtherComputerGame," and, Lemmings or not, Paintball Lemmings sounds like it is sliding off in that direction. (To tell the truth, the Chronicles seemed to be sliding off in that direction as well, by adding the monsters, until I realized that the monsters were just another fancy kind of trap, and that the STRATEGY aspect of the game was still intact.) Yeah, I know -- if you can't make money doing it, there's no point in selling it,right? But I can't inagine that Im the ONLY die-hard Lemming fan left in all the world! Heck, if I had the chance, I'd make my OWN Lemmings games, just like little Jimmy. As a matter of fact, if you folks are really abandoning the Chronicles, why don't you sell my husband and me the programming engine by which the game is constructed. Or, for that matter, why don't you sell the engine and a game construction kit to anyone who will buy it, so that Lemmings could be open-ended, like "After Dark" is? I mean, if you don't want to continue the Chroncles, fine -- let the fans do it!! My goodness, we could have a whole Lemming Rennaisance here! Anyway, read the story (if you haven't already). And Let Me Know What Can Be Done!! Sincerely, Lucia K. B. Hall Jimmy MacLemming and the Sad Day (Or: Where Have All the Lemmings Gone?) Jimmy MacLemming was at school. Ordinarily, he liked school. (It was a very practical school, which taught young Lemmings all sorts of things to do with paper and string and chewing gum). But today he found he could not concentrate on his work. He was feeling sad. It had been more than a year since the Twelve Lemming Tribes had come to the Archipelago. He liked his island (now that all the monsters had been properly barbequed), and he was glad that the Classic, Egyptian, and Shadow Tribes had done so well for themselves. "But what about the other Tribes?" he found himself wondering. "In all this time, we haven't heard from them. Have they survived? Has the Ark crashed? Did the monsters on the other islands eat them all? Has the Guide given up on them?" He didn't know what had happened. He found himself daydreaming. "I wonder where the other Lemmings are, and what the other islands are like," he wondered. "Where did the Space Tribe end up? Or the CaveLems? Or the MedievalLems?" He picked up his pencil and started to doodle with it. "I'll bet the BeachLems are having the most fun," he said, starting to draw a picture of what he thought their island would look like. "I'll bet they found some coral reefs, with lots of colorful plants and animals. They'll have to do a lot of swimming!" And, to be sure his beach buddies would be safe, he made sure to include lots of swimming tools in his picture. "Or maybe the OutdoorLems," he thought. "They'd pick an island with lots of very tall trees. They will have to do a lot of jumping from branch to branch, and that will be good exercise for them." He made sure that the OutdoorLems knew how to jump. "No, the Lemmings having the most fun would be the SpaceLems -- their island looks like it's on another planet!" And he began busily drawing the island that he thought the SpaceLems would like, with lots of alien rock spires in the distance and strange, soaring towers and domes. He knew they would have to do a lot of climbing and shimmying, so he added several boxes of both kinds of tools. "Of course, we can't forget the CircusLems!" he thought, drawing feverishly. "Or the HighlandLems!" And he drew an island for each of them. He put the HighlandLems on an island that resembled a vast brick-and-board construction site, and gave them lots of bombs and grenades to clear away the rubble. He put the CircusLems with a number of sideshow tents, circus trains, cotton candy bushes, and trees full of sweets, with a vision of the Big Top in the distance. He made sure both of them had lots of digging tools, for some reason. "The PolarLems will have a beautiful island, far to the north," he said, and drew a number of glaciers and deep, blue ice caves. A few polar bears lurked about, but they ignored the PolarLems and the PolarLems ignored them. Instead the PolarLems walked on huge blocks of glistening, silver ice and built lots of stairs. "I'll bet the island of the MedievalLems is just one huge castle," he thought, and drew at least a dozen different rooms, filled with tapestries, trestle tables, bales of hay and joints of meat. It was near lunchtime and he was getting hungry, so he drew everything very large. He gave them lots of umbrellas. "The CaveLems will find themselves in a museum," he thought, "Which is where they belong, anyway." And he drew his CaveLem friends surrounded by artifacts of all kinds and let them walk on stone-inlaid floors. He gave them a few of every kind of tool. "And, last but not least, the SportLems will have their own gymnasium!" he thought, being sure to include lots of basketball hoops, uneven parallel bars, gynmastic mats, a pool, and an indoor skating rink. He knew they would like the place, so he added lots of clocks for them. All this feverish activity had not gone unnoticed by Jimmy's teacher, of course. Since Jimmy so very rarely worked at anything feverishly, she thought he might be ill. As soon as the rest of the class was let out for recess, she came to see what was wrong. Jimmy very proudly showed her the drawings he had made. "What's happened to them all, teacher?" he asked. "Why haven't we heard anything about them?" The teacher was impressed with what Jimmy had done, but also troubled. She, too, had once wondered what had happened to the other Tribes, and had written a letter, asking the Wise Ones of the East why no one had heard anything about the other Tribes. Their reply had disappointed her deeply. They had been taken over by a large creature called a sonycorporation, and were doing a brand-new series of Lemmings. Although the new series sounded interesting, it was clear that the sonycorporation had no intention of continuing the saga of the Lemmings Chronicles. She sighed, went to her desk, and brought out the letter she had received from the Wise Ones, and gave it to Jimmy to read. "The Chronicler doesn't seem to want to continue the story of the other Tribes," she explained. "He says there are new and different games, now. I'm sure they will be fun to play." "But the story of the Tribes isn't finished!" Jimmy protested. "And what about the promise contained in the Book of the Chronicles?" And he jumped up from his desk and went to the shelf, bringing back a large and dusty tome. Right there on page 22 were the words, "Not all the Tribes make an appearance. There are three Tribes in the game with more to come in the form of data disks (Keep reading the magazines and watching the shops! The saga just runs and runs!)" Jimmy had no idea what a magazine was, or what shops might be, but he had the feeling that this was a promise that there had to be more stories in the Lemming Chronicles, just like the stories that had been told about the Classic Tribe, the Egyptian Tribe, and the Shadow Tribe. "I'm sorry, Jimmy," his teacher said gently. "I'm afraid there just won't be any more." "I don't understand!" Jimmy said forlornly. He felt a lot like crying. "Don't they care?" "I don't know," his teacher replied. "Maybe -- maybe they just don't care that we care." Jimmy sat back in his chair, stunned. His teacher, not wanting to disturb him further, took a peppermint from her pocket and laid it on the desk for him. Then she left to take care of the other young Lemmings in her class, who were now outside playing for recess. Jimmy sat still for a very long time. He looked at his pictures, one by one. Tears filled his eyes. He took them all, folded them up, and threw them in the wastebasket. He sat back at his desk. He picked up the peppermint his teacher had given him and closed his fingerless paw around it. His pencil dropped to the floor. He buried his face in his arms. ------------ Story by Lucia K. B. Hall