Play Earthworm Jim in Your Browser

About Earthworm Jim

Earthworm Jim is a run and gun platform game that Shiny Entertainment developed and Playmates Interactive Entertainment published in 1994, with Virgin Interactive Entertainment handling Europe. It came out first on the Sega Genesis and Super NES, both reaching North America in October 1994, and was later ported to several other systems. Doug TenNapel and Tom Tanaka designed it, David Luehmann produced it, and Tommy Tallarico and Mark Miller wrote the music. It is a single-player game.

The hero is Jim, an ordinary earthworm who ends up in a super-powered robotic suit. DOS.Zone’s description sums up the rest: you steer him through odd levels full of strange enemies, using his own head as a whip, on the trail of the villainous Queen Slug-for-a-Butt. The same description credits the game with surreal humor, fluid animation and a stiff challenge.

The ports came from several studios. Rainbow Arts made the MS-DOS version, Eurocom handled the Game Boy, Game Gear and Master System, Kinesoft did the Windows release and Game Titan the Game Boy Advance one. A Special Edition reached the Sega CD in 1995, published by Interplay Productions. Interplay Entertainment holds the rights today.

How it runs in your browser

When you press Play, a new tab opens on DOS.Zone’s Earthworm Jim page. The site uses js-dos, its open-source version of DOSBox for browsers, to emulate a PC and run the MS-DOS release right there in the tab. DOS.Zone hosts all the files, so there’s nothing to install, no copy of your own to supply and no account to make. The site has no ads. Players give the listing 5 stars across 15 reviews.

The page doesn’t say whether your progress is kept between visits. Keep in mind too that DOS.Zone has taken games down when rights holders asked, as it did with GTA 1 and 2 after a request from Take-Two, so a listing like this one isn’t guaranteed to stay.

Controls and devices

The MS-DOS version is played on the keyboard. DOS.Zone doesn’t publish the key layout, so look through the game’s options before you set off. When the game has loaded, click into its window so the emulator picks up your keys.

On a phone, DOS.Zone adds virtual on-screen controls. The game was built for a keyboard, though, and a desktop or laptop handles it better. Chromebooks haven’t been confirmed.

Who it’s for

It suits players who remember Jim from the 1990s and want to try the PC version without setting up an emulator, and newcomers looking for a platformer with a strange sense of humor. If you like side-scrolling action from the same years, Rayman and Jazz Jackrabbit are on DOS.Zone in their MS-DOS versions too, so you can try three platformers from the mid-1990s in a row.