Planet Bob - Playing Journey to the Center of the Earth (C64)

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Hi there!

 

Not a movie license, this game is actually based on the book from Jules Verne:

 

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/journeytothecenter.gif

 

While borrowing the basic formula of a Cinemaware title, the execution quality whitnessed here is on the very opposite end of the spectrum as you can see above. (Bonus points if you find the player sprite or some of the rocks and boulders raining down on him )

 

I still managed to have a fun time with it, getting some enjoyment out of the enormous trash factor of this game

 

I don't even know where to start. The graphics were obviously made with automatic conversion tools, run over the already badly digitised Amiga pictures. The game has zero music and 3 sound effects. It's bogged down by horrible loading times. Every. Single. Message. it displays on the screen, does it load extra from disk.

 

Disaster strikes in every detail, e.g. it constantly says "Please insert the other disk" - when it was actually shipped on 3(!) disks

 

Most of the game plays on a map screen. The game doesn't tell you where you are in this map though. Instead you can move in 4 directions and the game then describes what happened (Worst case you just fall off a cliff - instant Game Over!). According to these descriptions you can then guess where you are on the map

 

Occasionally your try and errorized path through the game is interrupted by half a dozen mini games with gameplay hovering slightly above the complexity of pong.

 

Well, if you read the book (I actually did once! ) or saw one of the movies, you know that it ends with a bang. Prepare yourself for the best picture found in the entire game:

 

http://home.arcor.de/cybergoth/xype/journeytothecenter_x.gif

 

 

Some future day the "Playing..." series may see another game from Chip Software in the form of Jeanne d'Arc, but first it'll continue with something else.

 

http://www.atariage.com/forums/index.php?app=blog&blogid=54&showentry=6685