Jimmy MacLemming and the Sad Day
(Or: Where Have All the Lemmings Gone?)
Poor Psygnosis
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
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