“It’s a day like any other. A crow is chasing a worm, a worm named Jim. Today the worm escapes to safety and the crow eats dirt. Jim looks left, then right. It seems he has given the crow the slip. Jim returns to his normal daily life, cruising about avoiding crows and doing other general worm-like things. Jim is suddenly struck by a very large ultra high tech indestructible super space cyber suit.” This is all the backstory we get from the manual to explain why a worm is walking around in a space suit. And to be fair, it’s all we need!
Earthworm Jim (1994, Shiny Entertainment) is the kind of 2D platformer, with its cartoony graphics and smooth animations, that was becoming quite commonplace on the consoles of the time, but was still pretty rare to see on the PC. As a product of the 90s it’s full of bizarre humour, only elevated by its eclectic soundtrack. There’s no doubt this game has a great production quality. But is it fun to play? Let’s find out!
Joining hosts Martijn (“Tijn”) and Florian (“rnlf”) we are joined by two guests. First of all DGC member Wouter (“Jefklek”) is back, who previously was on the Heretic episode. Newly joining the show is Lukasz (“Red Hexapus”) who turns out to be a big fan of the game, so that’s always good.
Once again DGC members Watchful was so kind to send in a voice message, for which we are very thankful. If you also want to send in a voice message, you can email them to us at [email protected]
https://www.dosgameclub.com/podcast/2025/08/ep105.mp3
[ download mp3 ] (117mins, 134 MB)
Thanks to our producer Pix, who also recorded the audio clips from his retro hardware which you hear in the episode’s intro. And thanks to DGC member Console for editing the episode, you’re a lifesaver!
Thanks to all who make this show possible, we can’t do this without you.
RELEVANT LINKS:
* Earthworm Jim DOS and Windows comparison by DGC member dr_st, who also suggested we play the game!
* Very colourful Earthworm Jim fan site full of drawings and other cool things
* All of Jim’s idle animations by Master0fHyrule on YouTube
* Shiny Entertainment was previously discussed in DGC episode 96, on MDK
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Earthworm Jim,
The Soil He Did Crawl
Earthworm Jim,
A Super Suit Did Fall.I still say “all employees must worsh their hands” because of that show.
One of my all-time favorites, and it sparked a lifelong appreciation for everything Doug TenNapel created. The Neverhood, Skullmonkeys, Iron West, you name it. All gold. 🤘🏼
I grew up loving the EWJ games and cartoon. I was pretty dismayed to discover Doug has repeatedly said/written awful, bigoted things
It’s an ancient saying for a reason: ”No one should have to meet their hero." 🥲🤞🏼
Great game. It’s where I learned to love some classical music. Moonlight sonata and the mountain king i think are the two featured. It’s been a long time
Fun and funny and good music.
I highly recommend this podcast. I only discovered them earlier in the year and have started from the beginning. I’ll be up to date soon and hope to join in with their schedule.
Come join the IRC channel
I’ve poked my head round the door several times but it must be the wrong time of day. It’s always quiet. 😁
Wow! I knew this was on the Genesis, SNES, and even the Sega CD and GBA (not to mention the remasters)…but I forgot it was on DOS, too!
Which version is the DOS port made from? (… don’t tell me the DOS version is the original!!)
Sega and Super Nintendo was the original. It was released initially for both Sega and Super Nintendo, but Dave Perry was primarily a sega dev.
Activision ported it to Windows 95, and I believe the dos version is basically based on that port.
