Freeware Game Pick: Journey to the Center of the Earth (Dot Zo Games)
Journey to the Center of the Earth is an exploration platform game in which you play the role of a treasure hunter, out to retrieve forty pieces of relics from the ruins of an ancient civilization. You carry an unlimited number of bombs that can be used to hurt enemies or launch yourself higher into the air. A treasure map showing location hints and relics collected is accessible by pressing the A key at any time.
The game runs at a resolution of 1280 by 720 pixels, but you can also play it in full screen mode by pressing the F4 function key. There is no progress save feature, so you will have to spend about half an hour or more to complete the entire adventure in one go. (direct download link)
Comments
TOO AWESOME FOR MY BRAIN TO COMPREHEEEEEEEND!
Posted by: Michael Rose | September 17, 2009 7:49 PM
Great game. Took me a little under 30 minutes to complete. I love the size of the tiles; how awesome would a multiplayer game like this be (potentially procedurally generated) where you have tons of little spelunkers running around on a single screen?
Posted by: Greg | September 17, 2009 9:20 PM
Dont know how to enter the cave system... I found all treasures above earth but how do i get into the caves?
Posted by: Aron | September 17, 2009 10:46 PM
ok i found my error.
Im running only 1024x768 so the window crops at the right side, where the entrance should be. To bad.. really liked the style of this game.
Posted by: Aron | September 17, 2009 10:52 PM
@Aron: Pick up the key at your tent and then you can move through the big door at the right.
Anyone know how to get treasure #3?
Posted by: egal | September 17, 2009 10:53 PM
is there some sort of trick to get the 8th blue treasure (the one where you have to hit the three switches in a certain amount of time)?
Posted by: kevin | September 17, 2009 10:58 PM
@kevin
I did it by triggering the switch to the right with a thrown bomb (to get some extra time), and then running to the others (by holding the bomb button)
Now if only i could figure out what that "Bomb X3" treasure in the green area meant. (Where there's a stair-step like image in the background.)
Posted by: Mister Bile | September 17, 2009 11:01 PM
@mister bile, oh yeah that sounds like it'll work. i think i got the one you're talking about on accident. but i laid a three bombs on the middle pyramid that's in the background of the green area
Posted by: kevin | September 17, 2009 11:03 PM
@mister bile
There are three pyramids in the background, you need to lay one bomb at the left bottom of each one.
Posted by: egal | September 17, 2009 11:11 PM
Love the graphical style.
Posted by: Giorgio | September 17, 2009 11:28 PM
D'oh... I feel silly. Thanks!
Posted by: Mister Bile | September 17, 2009 11:41 PM
@kevin: There is! Throw a bomb under the far right switch to let the detonation time give you a head start, then start booking it left to the other two.
Posted by: Quetz | September 18, 2009 12:04 AM
You can blow up your Jeep if you throw enough bombs at it.
Posted by: Quetz | September 18, 2009 12:06 AM
Can't seem to get this to work. I get a black screen (and a menu bar at the top) and some music, but F4 crashes the game.
Posted by: qwack | September 18, 2009 1:58 AM
What a great little game, though that speed part sure was frustrating--I almost gave up.
The half-hour estimate is for people as good at video games as timw. It took me twice that long. :)
Posted by: c5 | September 18, 2009 2:02 AM
Such a cool game! Makes me wonder how many similar gems we're missing from non english speaking countries...
Posted by: Elie | September 18, 2009 3:01 AM
Awesome find, once again, Tim! :-D
Posted by: JohnB | September 18, 2009 3:18 AM
42 minutes, but I had my problems with the controls - sometimes the jump stopped in middair like I have hit an invisible wall or something. Still, the kind of limitation that adds to the game - 8-bits limitation style. This one is on my toy chest from now on.
Posted by: Terrivel | September 18, 2009 4:26 AM
The one and only resolution is a failure.
Posted by: Kris | September 18, 2009 6:09 AM
How spelunkish is it?
Posted by: Gr.Viper | September 18, 2009 6:42 AM
Just beat it in a bit under 30 minutes. Fun little game, though windowed mode is a bit sluggish.
Posted by: EvilLemmy | September 18, 2009 7:50 AM
I loved this, although I found that it didn't want to accept more than one button being pressed at the same time on my joypad, which was irritating. I also wish the enemies actually did some sort of damage- it would've been more of a challenge. That said, I really liked the "single screen" idea, and the multiple endings were a cute little find in something like this.
Posted by: Advenith | September 18, 2009 8:17 AM
Hmpfr... the jump is quite sluggish, i keep on failing with the timing when he comes out of his "after-landing-freeze"...
How do you get #14 (the little elephant)? I think it says "touch", but nothing happens, even when i bomb-jump...?
Posted by: badoli | September 18, 2009 9:42 AM
How do you get the different endings? I only got the bad one :(....
Posted by: dudeguy | September 18, 2009 10:17 AM
I got every treasure! Good end!!
Very fun game. Thanks for posting.
Posted by: Blueberry_pie | September 18, 2009 10:31 AM
Sad is this game not working on Linux (Wine) - and even worse is nobody here complaining about it... :(
Posted by: nitrofurano | September 18, 2009 11:30 AM
@Elie - at Youtube, search for 'hsp program contest tv', and you'll be very surprised with some japanese indie games made just on HotSoupProcessor
Posted by: nitrofurano | September 18, 2009 11:35 AM
If someone can record a video of it an publish at youtube, please do - i can't play this game because it sadly doesn't run on Linux or MacOS-X...
Posted by: nitrofurano | September 18, 2009 11:38 AM
Nitro, I might do a "Let's Play" of it after completing it once or twice. Keep an eye on youtube.com/mastatsan for the next few days.
Posted by: Carlz0r | September 18, 2009 1:34 PM
I just came to the blog saw the screenshot and looked at it for 5 minutes with an open mouth. Now let's see what it actually is...
Posted by: Nikica | September 18, 2009 1:47 PM
Doesn't work for me. I downloaded the file, unzipped it and when I try to run it I get the following error message:
"Can't start this application because d3dx9_39 was not found. Reinstalling the application may solve the problem".
I tried to install it several times but it never worked.
Posted by: Jon B. | September 18, 2009 2:02 PM
Scratch what I said a little while ago. The performance on the computer I'm using right now is not good enough to record with. Maybe when I get a new compy.
Posted by: Carlz0r | September 18, 2009 2:10 PM
Carlz0r, i'm following your youtube account from rss now! thanks!
Posted by: nitrofurano | September 18, 2009 4:08 PM
Jon B, by the looks of it you should reinstall the latest version of DirectX.
Posted by: TM | September 18, 2009 5:47 PM
Wow, amazing game!.
The jump should be improved.
I cannot turn on the three switches. I used the bomb, but still I don't have enough time.
I tried to throw the bomb from the above platform but it cannot reach the switch because there is a circle (?).
Posted by: Lucaz | September 18, 2009 6:03 PM
Make sure the bomb lands next to the switch, so that the switch is triggered by the explosion rather than the bomb falling on it. That should give you some more time. Also, start out with the switch on the very right. When you run to the left, you don't have to jump as often. (You can run over the pillars without falling between them)
Posted by: Blueberry_pie | September 18, 2009 6:33 PM
Heck, I didn't noticed that you can run holding B o.O.
Posted by: Lucaz | September 18, 2009 8:14 PM
BEST
GAME
..I've played for a long time. Best spelunker, even before spelunky (just because it proved that a game could be amazing without dying all the time)
and, GOOD END !!
Posted by: Anonymous | September 18, 2009 8:52 PM
I can't start the game... It gives me an error about some IGPlayer that can't find the device or something like that. Also the files names are scribblish... What can I do to play this?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 18, 2009 9:49 PM
I can't start the game... It gives me an error about some IGPlayer that can't find the device or something like that. Also the files names are scribblish... What can I do to play this?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 18, 2009 9:53 PM
Very nice and rather unique game. It seems strange that you can't really take damage, especially considering that boss, but it also makes for a very comfortable game to play.
Apart from the rather very annoying problem with the jumping (it at least seemed more like it doesn't register the keypress at times rather than some "after-landing-freeze") I thought that it could be more challenging, though, if only in the riddles.
Still, very good find, very much worth the short while it lasts.
Posted by: MisterX | September 18, 2009 11:11 PM
So what determines the ending? I got "Good End"...
Posted by: tesko | September 18, 2009 11:21 PM
So far, Indie game of the year.
Posted by: Lucaz | September 19, 2009 12:48 AM
I can't run this either.
It gives me a
"igplayer fatal error shutting down. There was an error selecting and acquiring the device."
Anyone know what that means?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 19, 2009 2:01 AM
Ahh... just got the "Bad End" also.
Posted by: Tesko | September 19, 2009 2:01 AM
There seems to be a bug where one of the three buttons in the red area disappears, making you unable to get that treasure
Posted by: Anonymous | September 19, 2009 2:13 AM
holy shit, during the f-ing boss fight i got stuck in the top right block in a glitch. I was so close too. Now the game is completely ruined for me
Posted by: waffle | September 19, 2009 5:42 AM
>>Ahh... just got the "Bad End" also.
what is it?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 19, 2009 12:07 PM
Finally got time to play it, finished in 41:11 with good ending. Goes straight into my top list. Thanks for the find Tim.
Posted by: Nikica | September 19, 2009 1:01 PM
Jon B., you just have to download d3dx9_39.dll and put it on the game folder. It worked for me with the same error.
http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?d3dx9_39
enjoy the game!
Posted by: wasabi | September 19, 2009 2:15 PM
I can't for the life of me figure out how to get the 33rd treasure. Anyone know how to get it?
Posted by: Error Mind | September 19, 2009 7:27 PM
If the 33rd treasure is the one with the 3 bombs:
In the level just above the bottom one, bomb the tiles on the right hand side (about a fifth of the way from the right), under the one-direction (down) floor, which itself is under the up/down moving platforms. Basically, just run around down there bombing like mad and you should get it.
Posted by: gamecreator | September 19, 2009 7:54 PM
I got all treasures and finished in 40:00, but still get the bad ending.
How do you get the good ending?
Posted by: monsterror | September 19, 2009 8:13 PM
@gamecreator:
ah okay, I get it. I never really looked at the symbols underneath the pictures so I didn't really understand what it meant. now it makes perfect sense, thanks!
Posted by: Error Mind | September 19, 2009 9:18 PM
seriously, there's a bad ending? What is it?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 19, 2009 9:47 PM
The game is good, but the musics are just so very very irritating. Very very so.
Posted by: Hempuli | September 19, 2009 10:18 PM
found a video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIEI6ON9aG4 - awesome! developers, i want to play this nativelly on Linux! :)
Posted by: nitrofurano | September 19, 2009 10:30 PM
Does not work in any way, shape or form. Even with d3dx9_39.dll
Posted by: Greg | September 20, 2009 2:54 AM
The difference between the two endings is the jeep. I'll just leave it at that.
Best time so far - 13:07
Posted by: Tetrominon | September 20, 2009 3:18 AM
I'm getting that igplayer fatal error as well. Would really love to give this game a try if anyone knows what's causing this problem.
Posted by: Matt L | September 20, 2009 8:32 AM
>>>The difference between the two endings is the jeep. I'll just leave it at that.
I exploded my jeep (the first thing I did) and got the "good end". How does leaving it give a bad end?
Posted by: Anonymous | September 20, 2009 11:03 AM
At last anonymous: you get a car crash.
Posted by: Nikica | September 20, 2009 1:17 PM
because of these dx9 errors this game could be coded using SDL library instead...
Posted by: nitrofurano | September 20, 2009 1:39 PM
Got the bad ending now in 13:36 but didn't get all treasures.
Posted by: Nikica | September 20, 2009 2:13 PM
Got 39 treasures without looking at the map, then I had to return up for the last treasure so that my record with getting all the treasures is now 15:24.
Posted by: Nikica | September 20, 2009 3:15 PM
apparently the zip file is password-protected? did anyone else get this?
Posted by: concernedparent | September 20, 2009 10:08 PM
@concernedparent: No, try to download it again or if you want to I can upload it for you but I downloaded it twice and it never asked me for a password.
Posted by: Nikica | September 21, 2009 2:20 PM
"
---------------------------
There was an error selecting and acquiring the device."
What the heck?
Posted by: Eelnest | September 22, 2009 6:53 AM
Does anyone know anything about author of this nice little gem?
Posted by: susosus | September 22, 2009 10:25 PM
Excellent little game! Although, I have three qualms:
1) I'm wondering why the game view is the width of the entire game room. I felt myself having to lean in really close just to make out what was going on a lot of the time.
2) The controls (jumping, etc) can be a bit unresponsive at times, which is very detrimental to this type of game.
3) I was unable to acquire treasure #28 (the one where you have to activate 3 switches in time) because the floor panel that makes that task possible disappears if you've collected too many treasures.
Other than that, I really enjoyed this game and spent a full hour playing it.
Posted by: phubans | September 23, 2009 3:01 AM
phubans: You can still get the three switch treasure even if the floor panel is gone. It's just more annoying. Took me forever until I remembered that you can run by holding down the bomb button and the arrow keys.
Posted by: Pravit | September 23, 2009 4:12 AM
My record is 12:26 with "good end" and all of the treasure's collected. Still it can be improved, at least by 1-2 min.
Posted by: susosus | September 23, 2009 1:29 PM
BRILLIANT!!!
What a jewel!...
I love this game. This is a clear example that a talented programmer can create an excellent game without big-heavy-beautiful graphics... And only 12 MB.
I would like to know who's the creator. Congrats!
Robbie.
Posted by: Robbie | September 23, 2009 8:06 PM
I love this game! :D My record now is 10:08.
Posted by: susosus | September 23, 2009 10:12 PM
Could somebody please help us guys getting the "There was an error selecting and acquiring the device." out?
Posted by: Cody F | October 4, 2009 6:16 AM
Very good game up until when I accidentally ended the game without knowing it and wasted 20 minutes of work getting a bad ending -.-
Posted by: Adam | December 29, 2009 5:20 PM
Guys - Run the game in a VM and when you are done playing for the day just suspend the VM, then you can come back to it whenever you want! There's your save function!
Posted by: Techx | December 29, 2009 6:17 PM
What are the controls? And what do they mean you can get extra jump height with bombs? Please enlighten me!
Posted by: Gurkan | January 4, 2010 9:58 PM
@Gurkan:
arrow keys: left/right/duck
x: jump
d: bomb
a/d: open/close map
extra jump: place a bomb, stand on it, wait until it explodes, than jump (you jump even higher, when you let 3 bomb explode at the same time)
Posted by: CmdrData | January 8, 2010 12:09 AM
@CmdrData
Thanks :)
Posted by: Gurkan | January 10, 2010 6:23 PM