Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

Back a few months ago, there was some discussion revolving around the concept of a program that could scan JJ2 servers to find out when a certain player is online. While this is not by any stretch of the imagination that program, it is nonetheless a program with similar goals. ServerScan attempts to – and quite successfully does – find certain servers depending on certain specifications as they come up. There are a few possible uses beyond looking out for specific servers, though. Dull day? Set ServerScan to scan the list looking for any server at all. This also applies to late-night gaming sessions when a 1.23 server is about as rare as a decent resteraunt in Montana. Some other possibilities include waiting for a server to come up matching the IP of a JDC host (that is, when JDC comes along), for a specific hotel server, or just when someone has said they are going to serve but it is taking them a while. I tested every single feature on all four testbeds, except, under Windows XP Pro and Windows NT 4, the one that plays a .WAV file when the specified server is found. I can only assume this works, as I lack a working speaker set on these two test systems.

The Interface
The first thing you notice about the program when starting it is, as always, the splash screen. The splash screen in this program is delightfully irrelevant to anything. Granted, it looks nice, but it is a bit misleading. It displays a somewhat futuristic-looking layout with various messages from the program splattered randomly. It is a bit misleading as to how the program looks. This, of course, deserves no markdown. While it is cool looking, it is nothing more than that.

SPLASH: Good looking but, as usual, completely useless.

The program uses the icon from what looks a bit like the Find Files & Folders function under Win9x. This is an okay icon, although it is a bit difficult to distinguish it as a program from it. Perhaps the letters “JJ2” across the icon would have been preferable.

The actual program interface is fairly nice. The first prompt is for a list server (the options being Monolith’s or Logicware’s or a user-typed one). Beyond the options of what to do when the server is detected and what specific things are being looked for to alert for, the only other options are those defining whether ot not to show the list server actively refreshing to the right side of the program and whether private servers should or should not be scanned. After the Jazz 2 locations and whatnot are filled out (the only thing the program remembers between executions are the locations of the various versions of Jazz2.exe; that information is stored in the registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\Jazz 2 Server Scan\Paths), the user can customize what they want to happen when the server is detected (options include opening Jazz 2, playing a .WAV file {untested}, and displaying a customized message box). Finally, the user customizes what server they want to look out for. Options include version number, name, IP address, and game type. Not all of these have to be filled out for the program to work, but – obviously – at least one does. The interface is fairly clean and everything, although having the Logicware list server automatically chosen unless specified otherwise would have been nice. Also, it would have made more sense if “Include Scanning Private Servers” was listed under Miscellaneous Options instead of its current location, Notify Configuration. If there is one thing this program has problems with, it is customizability. This is sort of disappointing, especially when you consider how much of this program can potentially be user-defined. Such options as refresh rate are completely lacking reperesentation, putting those who do not wish to have it refresh so often because of bandwidth issues out of luck. More advanced options would definitely be welcome additions.

MAIN WINDOW: Your basic Visual Basic program interface with little room for tweakaholics to play.

Features
This program has a good supply of features. Unfortunately, it could easily have many more. Aside from the lack of much in the way of user-defined options, the program also lacks a few things which potentially could make it great. Boolean logic would do wonders for this program. As stated in the previous review, the program is greatly missing the ability to detect a server which is not matching the defined configuration. For instance, if you were waiting for a server to come up and the only current server crashed and has been pinging for sixteen hours because of this, it would be nice to have the program wait for a server that was any server but the pinging one. This feature, among others, is missing. While on the subject of pinging, there is another feature that could be added: the option to ignore servers which are currently pinging. This would be useful in situations such as the one described previously. Some other possibilities include an exclusion list, the ability to load a currently active server’s properties by right-clicking on it, the ability to look for a server that matches one or more of the specified criterea but not necessarily all, and even the ability to check which players are playing (much like JazzTool, except hopefully without the annoying flashy colors). The problem of “JazzTool attacks” (flooding a server with JazzTool probes until it is unplayable) could be easily solved with a cross-program floodguard (as in, if more than one ServerScan was active on a machine, they would make sure that there could be no flood of this type between eachother and natively to that one program instance). I think, above all, though, the features this program are most missing are definitely the ability to have more than one query going at once without having to open an entirely different instance of the program and the ability to use modifiers such as asterik () and maybe even question mark (?), notably in the IP field. For instance, if you know someone has a dynamic IP address but is in the range 127.5.35.xxx all the time, being able to input 127.5.35. would be very helpful. To a lesser extent, this would also be welcome in server names. For instance, if you were waiting for a JDC server, putting in “JDC” or “pregame” would be a lot easier than guessing the name of the server. Another problem that I found during testing was a field that should be ignored in some situations. As many long-time Jazz 2 add-on users know, private servers have their IPs masked. This can be problematic in this program, especially if the user is using the IP lookup function. A user might be confused and think that they are able to find private servers by IP address, which is not possible. For instance, say that a user was waiting for a friend’s server who used the IP 192.0.34.166 and had a static IP address. They might put in the version (say, 1.24), name (perhaps “Come John”), game type (battle, in this instance) and the IP address, as well. Even though the server might match everything other than the IP address, ServerScan would make no alert because it is unable to lookup the IP address and considers it to not be a match because of the IP lookup failure. I propose that the program might instead ignore the IP address if the server in question matched all of the other criterions, there was a minimum of one other criteria in addition to IP address, and the other criteria was not version. There are a few things this program could do that would be quite nifty, but more problematic than anything. As cool as being able to specify which level would be looked out for, what player would be in the server, or similar things that require a probe to the server to be known, such things would make the program much more annoying than it already is. At this state, it is completely invisible to server hosts beyond a refresh of the list server and causes absolutely no problems or annoying “OMGWOWCOOLBOT“-like messages. The program’s stability is not an issue at all. It does require Visual Basic 6 and its respective .dll files along, naturally, with the Common Controls DLL and Mswinsck. Most systems already have these DLLs, although an upgrade to Visual Basic 6 (not included) might be necessary to run ServerScan on some systems. The program claims support of Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows NT 4, Windows 2000, and Windows XP. The program was functional under Windows 98, Windows ME (which apparently was, as it often is, forgotten in the compatability listing, despite being functionally almost a carbon copy of Windows 98 Second Edition), Windows NT 4, and Windows XP and is probably functional under the other operating systems as well, although I lack a way of testing those. The only notable stability annoyance was a minor to moderate one, in that the program freezes until the notification .WAV file (if applicable) finishes playing. For longer WAV files, this could be somewhat of an annoyance.

Conclusion
ServerScan is an excellent program in every way. It is, however, a first-generation program and does suffer because of this. There are an ample number of options to entertain most program enthusiasts, but it lacks the features of a highly refined program and also suffers from a general lack of customizable things. Still, this program does what it claims to do in a nearly flawless manner. The interface is good, although it probably could stand to be reorganized a bit and, in testing, it did everything it was intended to do without any major problems. ServerScan is a fine program with many uses and, while it does not have the features that it could, and really should, have, this is not a sign that this program is bad as much of a testament to how good this program could be. With a bit more refining, ServerScan could truly be a program in the league of JazzTool, Controller, and the like. For now, though, ServerScan is an excellent example of a good program with great potential that has long been painfully missing from the repertoire of Jazz 2 add-on programs.

Test Conditions
On all test systems, the program was ran both with mIRC, AOL Instant Messenger, QuickTime, Trillian, WinZip, and CuteFTP running and without. There was no measurable difference in the stability of this program with or without these programs running.

Test System One
3GHz Pentium 4 Processor, 1024MB of RDRAM, ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 9700 Pro, and Windows XP Professional in safe mode.

Test System Two
450MHz Pentium 4 Processor, 96MB of SDRAM, Diamond Viper V560, and Windows 98 Second Edition.

Test System Three
Dell Inspiron 8000. 650MHz Pentium 3 Mobile Processor, 128MB of SDRAM, ATI Rage 8MB Mobile Graphics, and Windows ME.

Test System Four
Micron DeskPro. 250MHz Pentium MMX Processor, 32MB of SDRAM, Integrated Graphics, and Windows NT 4.

The Good, the Bad, and the Rating
PROS: Very useful and stable program with a great future ahead of it if work is continued on it.
CONS: Suffers from first-generation syndrome. Not very customizable. IP lookup and private servers do not mix. Freezes until .WAV is finished playing.

RATING: 8.5

EDIT: Disregard part about variables like * and ?. This is supported already.

- Trafton

(Snip)

It does refresh itself until your “server search” has been completed. If thats what your talking about?

Thanks for the 9.5 NaT, Yes, i did make this program.[This review has been edited by spazzyman]

Very nice program here. It’s like JazzTool, except you are not able to lag people with it purposely, and you don’t get to know who is in the server. Also, it doesn’t crash constantly. I would give this 9.7 if there was a function letting you refresh the server list every, let’s say, 5 seconds.
Download, everyone, or else >)

Sort of, Spazzyman. I’ll give an example.

Okay, there is one server up, and it is “n00b central.” I do NOT want to join there. I want to wait for somebody else to host. However, I don’t know WHO it will be, so I want it to keep searching until it finds some other than “n00b central.” I only want the alert unless there is something other than “n00b central.”

Understand better?[This review has been edited by labratkid]

Its not a super tileset but its not too bad. it looked like it was almost no hope to make good levels using the tilset at first sight but after going thru the example level it looked much easier. one of several things giving this a lower rate is that the background tiles looked to simple and would make mostly of the level ugly. At the other side: I always think that making your own tileset is great, since I actually dont know how to make them.

Keep up the good work! :)

Dear level creator, You levels charm and amaze me! They’re best levels ever known to Jackrabbit Kind! You are a supreme being.

Just Joshing. THESE LEVELS SUCK BAD!

Lets try to be organized now Gecko {Mr organized Gecko}
yeah yeah whatever you win {Gecko}
Lets try to organiized when i rate:

Tileset name: Red Steel {har har}

Section 1:

Looks and Stuff:
Hmmmmmmm this tile is very colorful for only 30 colors, but looks ok.
+ Very Little colors used so it might reduce framerates. Very detailed for a paint tileset
- Some tiles look ugly
Rating For Section 1:
7.2 = C

Section 2:

Eyecandy Stuff:
This is where it starts lacking quite a bit. theres no Textured background a all. you just use a black block for the background. only a few blocks can be used for eyecandy.
+ Theres at least something you can use for eyecndy
-not much for eyecandy at all
Rating for Section 2:
6.1 = D-

Section 3:

Holes, Bolls, Books, Hooks, Scenery, Etc:
This is where another place where it lacks again. Theres some destruct and buttstomp scenery, but no trigger scenery. also its missing vines and hooks too.
+some scenery tiles to use
-Very little of anything else
Rating For Section 3:
5.9 = F

Section 4:

Tileset Use:
Finally something good for this tileset. the tileset has quite a few tiles to chose from in 3 colors: red, green, and blue. for each group for that color is the same tiles as the other color. one problom though: This Tileset Lacks Animating tiles!
+Lots of tiles to chose from in 3 different colors
-Lacks animating tiles
Rating for Section 4:
8.9 = B+

Section 5:

Extra Credit:
(Note: this Section is like “Extra Credit” and is not going to affect my average rating unless you get more some points here)
None
Total Extra Credit Points For Section 5: 0.0

Overall
Heres the Scores for all 5 Sections
Section 1: 7.2
Section 2: 6.1
Section 3: 5.9
Section 4: 8.9
Extra Credit: 0.0
Overall Rating for Red Steel:
7.0 C-

Download: Yes!

Now my Grading system because this is my first time using this system:
10.0-9.0 A
8.9-8.0 B
7.9-7.0 C
6.9-6.0 D
5.9 & < F

(Edit: Needed to fix things -Gecko)
(yeah next time edit it -Mr Grammer Gecko}[This review has been edited by Gecko]

I don’t feel like writing a big review, but I’ll just say that this level pack is a bit above average.

The eyecandy sucks…
The weapons placement and enemy placement is good…
The music choice seriously sucks (more than the eyecandy.)

Download rec. if you like all single player levels.

Hmmm…Not bad! :)

A little too simple though.

OooOOoOooO….

First off, the very few flaws:

1. Overdone background.
2. Not very complex
3. Gets boring

Positives

TOO MANY TO LIST! IT ROCKS TOO MUCH!!

overall: 8.7

Introduction
The All Your Base phenomenon, while short-lived, embedded itself permanently in not only popular netculture, but culture in general. The badly-translated Japanese-to-English video game sequence has, in all accounts, became an Internet legend. While most everyone has, by this point, grown tired of the various catch phrases of the All Your Base fame, it is still always fun to occasionally poke fun at the oddly-crafted Engrish which made the rare successful migration from so-called “geek culture” to the general public. Somewhere, out there, a level celebrating the joy that is All Your Base and its various lines and stupidity was waiting to surface. This is not that level. Instead, what you get here is an excellent example of a space-themed Capture the Flag level with a creative title. This level – I repeat – has nothing to do with its name. In fact, the closest it gets to propegating the All Your Base legacy a few weeks, months, or perhaps years beyond its life time is one simple text sign reading “How are you gentleman?”. That is it. Perhaps that is a good thing, though, as it avoids it becoming a gimmicky level with absolutely no quality. And that is definitely not what this level is.

Eyecandy
The level itself uses Blade’s excellent Space tileset. Blade’s work in this tileset is, as it always is, not extremely flashy. The tileset is not quite borderline cartoony, but does look nothing near realistic. This quasi-cartoon methodology definitely works for Blade in his tilesets, and it worked for CelL in this level. CelL, a true eyecandy master, is at his best here. The eyecandy, from the vairous pipes that wind throughout the level to the control panels, background, and everything, is well-done and without any major deficiencies. This, however, brings me to my first complaint. Either my eyes have not adjusted after a long time without reviewing or there is something odd about the scroll rate in this level. The way the background was moving in proportion to the sprite layer gave me a slight headache, but was not too much to bare. Turning on low detail helped this a bit, but it was not way too significant, and since I have no way of knowing whether it is just me or the level, I will not subtract for it. One thing about the eyecandy – and a minor one – did, however, bother me either way you slice it. The little animated microchips that read what looks like graphs and wavelengths changed in a very unnatural way. It looked like they were meant to stay as the same tile instead of be animated, and this bothered me. Plus, their attachment to the pipes seemed a bit artificial, and the surroundings just looked unfit to place that sort of tile there. Other than that, however, eyecandy was what everyone has came to expect from CelL.

Gameplay
While CelL may excel eyecandy, that does not mean by any measure that this level is a slouch in gameplay. Flow was, as it generally is with CelL’s levels, quite good. This level is, however, a bit on the small side, notably when going from base to base. The average start-to-base time is about three seconds while the average base-to-base time is around seven. This does not allow for time to pick up ammo or to plan strategy before getting the flag as it does in other levels. Instead, the player must get the flag and then think. This might be a challenge in larger games where the other team can spare enough base guards to shoot the player down to two lives while getting the flag and then just hunt the flagholder down and “do away with him.” Layout was good, although it takes some getting used to. As with any level with a playing area of this size, it is somewhat difficult to distinguish the various “layers” of the level. However, the author has made them significantly distinct. The only part of this level I object to is perhaps its linear qualities. There is one route to the base which is fastest. The others are less so. Along the fastest route is a seeker powerup. Where is the fun in that? This is a fun level, although there are a few layout quirks.

Item Placement
I have a few problems here. The first of them is the placement of the seeker powerup. It is positioned in the middle of the level, but it is also positioned on the shortest route between the bases. Other than to get a carrot, the player would not at all have to stray off of the original route for most of the game. Dying is quicker than getting a carrot in this level, anyway, other than the loss of the flag if applicable. The second problem is that the red team gets RF missles while blue only gets pepper spray. Do not get me wrong. Pepper spray is an increadibly versitile weapon – just not in this level. The long-range effects that lend pepper spray so well to chases are completely useless in a level like this, being that there are often walls and many other weapons (like RFs) would go just as far while doing more damage and being more likely to hit the opponent. This is somewhat uneven placement and, while it is not a huge problem, it is significant, since this will probably be the second most-used weapon behind seekers. For that matter, seekers are not all that hot (no pun intended) in this level, because of their sluggishness. Otherwise, however, powerup placement is fantastic. Basic weapon placement is a completely different story. Everything is placed very well and there is a good deal of strategy. Effort was definitely put into this level in that respect. The same goes for carrot placement.

The Enigmatic Fun Factor
This level is enjoyable to play. However, it is not all-out fun. The trouble is, while this is a high-quality space level, there is not much that revolutionizes much of anything. I am sure that this level will see a good deal of play and admiration, but it just does not interest me all that much. There have, over the past year, been a great number of solid capture the flag levels. This one is yet another one. And perhaps that is the root of the problem – there are too many solid capture the flag levels out there. After a certain amount of time reviewing CTF levels, I have found that these days, the best you get is a solid level with nothing new. Unfortunately, there are only so many solid levels one can play before solid starts feeling a lot more antique. Still, this is what it is billed as – a good capture the flag level that is enjoyable to play. Ho-hum.

Summary
There is really no other way to say it. This is a fine level. In fact, it is a great one. Unfortunately, the only thing that is really creative about it is some of the eyecandy and the name. After about a year of very nice capture the flag levels, it takes a good deal to distinguish a level, especially one using one of Blade’s excellent, but unfortunately not extraordinarily versitile, tilesets. It is difficult to complain about this level. It is excellent in nearly every single respect. And that is really all I can ask. Still, I feel as if there was some creativity missing from it. Not that this level lacks any kind of creativity. The eyecandy does, in fact, push Blade’s tileset beyond what it is normally used for. However, the gameplay just feels the same. There is no new spin on it. It is just, in every way, a solid capture the flag level. Not, of course, that there is anything wrong with that.

The Report Card
GAMEPLAY: A
Flow: A
Layout: A
Creativity: B+
Bugs: A

EYECANDY: A
Tileset use: A
Eyecandy look: A
Creativity: A
Bugs: A

PLACEMENT: A -
Weapons: A -
Carrots: A
Enemies: N/A

THE FINAL GRADE: A

THE FINAL RATING: 8.0

PROS: Great level. Creative eyecandy.
CONS: Not much creativity other than in the eyecandy field. Annoying background scroll rate.[This review has been edited by Trafton AT]

Yet another program from Eagle. This one, in my opinion, is more effective. Commonly in duels I find seeker holes almost everywhere. They just pop up, and sometimes in the most devious places. Several times in duels I found myself shooting seekers at my enemy, but instead of homing in on the opposite team player, they home in on a seeker hole, which is extremely annoying for me. The layout of this program resembles the one of the previous program “Project Gamma”. It has the activation button, the refresh button and the hide to systray button. It also has a nice picture of the hatter enemy. The layout is very simple, you don’t find yourself being confused about which button to press or what to do. The program is reasonably small so it probably won’t cause a disturbance by covering up your whole screen. This is a definite download for anyone, since seeker holes tend to be quite common and pose a great nuisance. No CTF player should duel in a seeker infested level with this program not turned on. This is a must download for everyone, and I’m surprised this wasn’t made before. My verdict is that this is a very effective program and is guaranteed to help in CTF duels to make them as fun as possible. It does what it is suppose to, so it deserves the 9.5 im giving it. Amazing work, I can’t wait to see what program idea you will come up with next, Eagle!

Good eye candy, bad enemy placement, bad platform usage a hard end boss challenge and a short level. I agree with Snooz. This makes a 5.5 points!

Kinda cool.

I’m too lazy to mention all the good things that have been mentioned above, so I’ll just say which things lowered the rating in my review.

The tileset use: some tiles weren’t used as Blade intended, I think. Especially in the background. -0.5

The layout: the bad part about the layout is that it makes the level way to easy. The path from the red base to the blue one is almost just straight. And I don’t think anyone will go to all the stuff in the upper part of the level when it’s hosted online. -1

That’s all. Apart from that, great level.

10-1-0.5=8.5

This is Much Better than Most of the Xmas Packs.I give this 9.0 rating.

The Fixed Version Just Doesn’t Seem as good as its Old Version.This is a Disapponing.

This is Great Now I can hold even more Jazz Levels.GREAT!!

Myn always has a error saying CAN NOT FIND DEL what does that mean.

a good tile-set

Well, now, this tileset is very different. It’s kind of comical, too, how you can use McScrooge to control the robot. I never did like Scrooge’s storybooks when I was little… I think he scared me ;)

This is a paint tileset, which means we’re not going to see something Disguise put up here. However, I can’t blame people for having to make paint sets because they may not be able to afford better things (and stuff).

Anyway, this tileset looks pretty much unusable until you run the example level, which is than that you see how it can be used…. not easilly, but it can be used. There isn’t much variety, though.

No download reccomendation here, sorry.

(Content replacement. -Trafton)[This review has been edited by Trafton AT][This review has been edited by labratkid]