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Comment by advael | Hacker News Reader

I loved lemmings as a kid, and bits of the soundtrack get stuck in my head to this day (I know a lot of it is just chippy arrangements of otherwise famous public domain music, but the arrangements were great). Even at the time it was a really original concept in a way that people seldom manage, like something that could have (but as far as I can tell didn't) become its own "genre" of game

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I could have sworn I saw a documentary where they talked about having legal issues with some of the music, because some of it (e.g. "She'll Be Coming Round the Mountains") was not public domain.

There's a little bit written about it on Wikipedia but I wish I could find the documentary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemmings_(video_game)#Developm...

O. My mistake, thanks for letting me know

Also, if you're not being facetious and actually didn't notice, they do have a youtube embed of the full documentary made in 2022 at the bottom of the linked article. I haven't taken the time to watch it, but maybe that's the one you're thinking of

Many of those traditional or folk songs I first heard in Lemmings.

"Dad, are they playing Lemmings music?"

"It's called Pachebel's Canon, it's from the 17th century!"

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXthGJfHLc&t=118s

(And I choose that one as the forlorn, mournful sound seems most appropriate as all the lemmings march to their death.)

Documentary: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RbAVNKdk9gA

Other well-known tunes include the ouverture from Orphée aux enfers by Offenbach (better known as "the can-can music") and How much is that lemming, er, doggie in the window

One version even included Scotland the Brave.

Back in the era when video games had music.

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