WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth

WURM: Journey to the Center of the Earth
Also known as: Chitei Senkou Bazolder (JP) Developer: Cyclone System Publishers: SOFEL (JP), Asmik (US) Platform: NES Released in JP: November 15, 1991 Released in US: November 1991 This game has hidden development-related text. This game has unused graphics. This game has a hidden sound test. This game has a hidden level select. This game has regional differences.

This page is rather stubbly and could use some expansion. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue this article?

To do: More regional differences.

The Core ain't got nothing on this, yo.

Build Date

What appears to be a build date near the end of the ROM. As it happens, this was a good two years before the game's release. According to an interview with the game's designer, Shouichi Yoshikawa, this was because of a bugfix that took an unusual amount of time.

In regards to the development of Wurm, the specifications were fully entered at the end of March 1990. I left the staff to work on Astro Rabby. But during testing, we found a fatal bug, and one of our skilled outsource coders was given the details. This bug had to do with the end of the 3D lava battle in the third stage. We were within hardware limits, but it was an issue with the specifications, so it was my responsibility. This is why the game wasn't released until November 1991.

This also goes against the more common practice by having the date stored in the game's graphics rather than as plain text in the code.

Unused Text

At the ROM location 0x1C258 an unused text string exists: "VISUAL DEMO". No code that uses this string still exists.

Sound Test

At the title screen hold Up + A + B on the second controller. Press Select to switch between the SE and BGM modes. Press Left or Right to change the music index. Press A or B to start or stop playing sounds accordingly.

Stage Select and Invulnerability

At the title screen press Up + A + B on the first controller and Down + A + B on the second controller at the same time. Press the B button to change level and press Select to toggle invulnerability on or off. (You can tell if it's on by the word "TEST" appearing on the screen)

Regional Differences

Title Screen

Japan	US