Jazz2Online News

Jazz Twosday: JJ2+ v6.0

Violet CLM — Tue, 27 May 2025 20:59:00 +0000

Version 6.0 of JJ2+ is now available, adding support for 32-bit sprites (including .j2a files) and 32-bit tiles (including .j2t files)! You can draw tilesets using any colors you want, and as many colors as you want, without worrying about a 256-color palette. A full alpha channel is also supported, so you can have images with semi-transparent windows, and images that fade at the edges, and so on. A new “plus32BitGraphics” example level is included. You can download 6.0 in-game or in-browser

We’re done focusing on the autoupdater and can now bring you other new features! We want to hear from you (ideally in our JCF thread, or you can use this news post’s comments)…

What should the update schedule be going forwards? Every week? Every two or three weeks? Something else?

Should it depend on what part of the game the next/previous update focused on, or how big the next/previous update feels?

Since JJ2+ now notifies you about updates and downloads updates on its own, do you want us to still announce every update in a J2O newspost and a JCF thread reply? Or is that redundant at this point?

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Jazz Twosday: JJ2+ v5.12c

Violet CLM — Tue, 20 May 2025 21:23:11 +0000

Version 5.12c of JJ2+ is now available. We weren’t quite done working on the autoupdater yet.

First, we gave ourselves the option to remotely disable autoupdating, in case a serious problem is ever discovered with a new release for example. We’re taking advantage of this release to test that option. The game should tell you “Invalid URL” and invite you to download the installer through your web browser instead.

Second, BlijBlijBlij and FawFuL noticed that the game ran the installer incorrectly for people with multiple JJ2 folders on the same computer.

Taken together, we’re once again asking you to download and run plus_install.exe yourself (for each of your JJ2 folders) for this release. Hopefully this is the last time you need to do this, and going forwards, the autoupdater will work perfectly for everything. :)

Thank you all for your patience and troubleshooting over the last couple weeks! As a bonus, all of today’s changelog is dedicated to resolving issues that you reported, mostly from our issues tracker.

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Jazz Twosday: JJ2+ v5.12b

Violet CLM — Tue, 13 May 2025 18:48:00 +0000

Version 5.12b of JJ2+ is now available. You can get it from the usual URLs, or preferably, you can run JJ2+ version 5.12a and try out the new automatic updater code, which should download and install 5.12b directly from within JJ2+. The update screen replaces the splash screen that you normally see after the logo videos but before the main menu when launching the game. (If you want to try the automatic updater process multiple times, to help us troubleshoot, you can redownload 5.12a here.)

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Jazz Twosday: JJ2+ v5.12a and the future of JJ2+

Violet CLM — Tue, 06 May 2025 20:29:00 +0000

It’s been a while since the last JJ2+ update, but we’re back! Let’s go over today’s release and what to expect going forwards.

5.12a is now out. It updates plus_install.exe to work on Windows XP and show better error messages. More importantly, we’ve added a new screen that automatically detects newer versions of JJ2+ and downloads and installs them for you (if you choose “Update”).

Currently, the game should feel completely unaltered, except that the main menu will say 5.12a instead of 5.12. However, please download this anyway. We want to make absolutely sure that this new update code didn’t mess anything up before we move on to the next release.

5.12b will release on May 13th at the earliest. It will feature assorted little changes that shouldn’t break anything, and will be the first public test of the automatic update code. Once 5.12b is out, when you run 5.12a, you’ll get to see the new update screen.

6.0 will release on May 20th at the earliest, once we’re satisfied that the 5.12b rollout worked. 6.# versions will represent the new JJ2+ era of smaller, more frequent releases instead of releases separated by many months that seem to change every last part of the game at once. We’re currently planning to stay in 6.# until JJ2+ leaves beta at 7.0.

As you may know, since November 2017 we’ve been lucky enough to have GOG.com distribute JJ2+ directly through its website and Galaxy client. Unfortunately, GOG is busier than it used to be, and months can elapse before we hear back from them when we want to do a new release. We eventually managed to get their permission to adopt this new automatic update system—and a big shoutout to grovespaz for coding most of it, and stijn for server support!—which will allow us to finally start updating again. We’re very grateful to GOG for this accommodation and all the others they’ve made for us in the past, and we’ve got loads of fixes and new stuff that we’ve been waiting to show you. :)

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Bash 27 Retrospective

Violet CLM — Sat, 19 Apr 2025 22:00:00 +0000

Last weekend was light on oldie visits, but heavy on great gameplay and fun chatter! Between that weekend and the days getting ready, I spent an entire week probably doing nothing but sleeping, working, and JJ2, sometimes with overlap… so it’s taken me some time to recover, but what a great few days!

If you enjoyed the levels we played, please remember to write reviews so the level creators feel appreciated!

What’s next? I know it’s been a while, but you should be able to expect some JJ2+ news soon… ;)

Finally, I recorded most of the bash—here’s day 2, day 3, and day 4, but twitch deleted all of day 1. Everyone else please feel welcome to drop your own recording links in the comments too.

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BASH is TODAY

cooba — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 09:19:40 +0000

Anniversary Bash 27 is planned to begin today, between 5:00 PM and 6:00 PM!

Download the packs here:

Battle | CTF | see the full list

The Bash will be hosted by PN Events, courtesy of ShakerNL.

See you soon!

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Anniversary Bash is this weekend

Violet CLM — Wed, 09 Apr 2025 08:07:50 +0000

It’s April 9th, and you know what that means… it’s the anniversary of Jazz Jackrabbit 2’s shareware release! 27 years ago today, people around the world first began blasting each other in Diamondus Warzone. Tune in this Friday for the Anniversary Bash weekend-long party, and look forward to the bash’s level packs being posted to J2O soon.

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Holiday Hare 26 Released

Violet CLM — Tue, 01 Apr 2025 19:21:00 +0000

A glitch in linear time has resulted in Holiday Hare 26 getting released twenty months early!

In this pack, instead of focusing on winter holidays, Jazz will go on a tour of holidays from all throughout the year. The first level, “Skull Issue,” will be inspired by Dia de los Muertos and feature Jazz reconnecting with familiar names who are no longer with us, such as Vigilante, Blobby, Zoe Cottontail, and jazzjackrabbit.net.

The next level will be named “GoldenEye 777” and seems likely to incorporate themes from St. Patrick’s Day and gambling, but because the pack is from the future, most of the levels can’t successfully be played because they rely on JJ2+ features that haven’t been released yet. A new class “jjVOXELMAP” looks especially interesting, as well as a new function “jjTilesFromChatGPT.”

Mechanically we can make a few inferences from the first level. Similarly to other Holiday Hare episodes, players will be tasked with collecting gems (or skulls), mainly because in the year 2026 everyone will work in emerald mines for a living anyway. The gift boxes will also return, but the April Fools Day level’s script suggests that most of the gift boxes will hit you with boxing gloves when opened.

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Anniversary Bash 27 approaching

cooba — Tue, 18 Mar 2025 20:22:56 +0000

Clear your calendars for Anniversary Bash 27! The annual event celebrating the shareware release of Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is scheduled for April 11th to April 13th.

The Bash is the community’s longest standing tradition. This occassion marks the largest gathering of players in the Jazz calendar, with several old time players usually coming by with a freeze frame and a “SPECIAL GUEST STAR” card. If you want a taste of Jazz both new and old, come play!

To join the Bash server, the JJ2+ patch will be required – get it now, if for some reason you still don’t!

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JCS Awards 2024 Results

cooba — Wed, 12 Mar 2025 13:40:00 +0000

The votes have been tallied, and the results of the JCS Awards 2024 vote are now in!

Best Battle of 2024: Titan Armory
Best CTF of 2024: Copper web and Saline Shores
Best Single Player of 2024: Diamondus Ultimate
Best AngelScript of 2024: Astral Witchcraft
Best Eyecandy of 2024: Astral Witchcraft
Best Author of 2024: Dragusela

Click here for a full breakdown of the vote totals, runners-up, and commentary from PurpleJazz.

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