The Humans^[a] is a puzzle–platform video game developed by Imagitec Design in Dewsbury, England and originally published by Mirage Technologies for the Amiga in May 1992.^[1] It was later ported to other home computers and consoles. The goal of the game varies per level but usually revolves around bringing at least one of the player-controlled humans to the designated end area marked by a colored tile. Doing this requires players taking advantage of the tribe‘s ability to build a human ladder and use tools such as spears, torches, wheels, ropes and a witch doctor in later levels.

It was conceived by Rodney Humble during his time working with Imagitec Design as a project for the Atari Lynx spawning a trilogy based upon the human evolution inspired by Psygnosis‘ Lemmings, creating and drawing his ideas before transferring the design work to Imagitec programmers in developing them further, serving as the first game to be published by MicroProse offshoot Mirage, while Atari Corporation liked the title and commissioned two additional conversions for their platforms.

This game was very well received by video game magazines and garnered praise for the originality, presentation and audio upon its initial Amiga launch. Other versions of the game have been met with a more mixed reception from critics and reviewers alike.

Gameplay – Humans

The Humans is a puzzle game similar to Lemmings whose objective is to manipulate the given number of humans, taking advantage of abilities and tools to achieve the level’s goal, usually consisting of finding a certain tool, killing a certain number of dinosaurs or bringing at least one human to the end point, marked by a conspicuous colored tile. Each level is independent of the next, each with its own tools, goal, and set number of humans allowed per level. The only things that carry from level to level are the total number of humans in the player’s tribe and the player’s total score.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

The player controls one human at a time, and may switch between any human at any time. In order to complete a level, it is often necessary to use certain tools or abilities, such as stacking to reach a high ledge. For instance, the spear, a tool obtained in the first level of the game, may be thrown across gaps to other humans, used to jump chasms, thrown to kill dinosaurs or other enemies, or brandished to hold off dinosaurs temporarily.

Certain levels also feature NPCs like the pterodactylus that can be ridden in order to reach otherwise unreachable platforms, that cannot be controlled, but can be used to the player’s advantage. Several forms of enemy appear and can range from dinosaurs that eat a human if he is unarmed and within its walking range to spear-wielding members of enemy tribes.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

There can be up to eight controllable humans in a level, though some levels only allow as few as three. Though there is a preset number of humans allowed per level, there is no limit to how many humans are in the player’s tribe. If a human dies, he is replaced by one from the tribe as long as there are humans there to replace him.

During the course of the game, the player is given chances to rescue other humans and add them to their tribe. If there are fewer humans in the player’s tribe than the minimum required number for any given level, the game is over. Each level, however, has a password that can be used to jump to that particular level from the beginning of the game.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]}

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Introduction

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