CC99: January 2000.
JJA: December 2002.
NOTHING SINCE THEN.

Clearly, waiting for Epic to take an interest in Jazz again isn't working. Here is how low Jazz is on their priority list:

• They have no plans for another Jazz game.
• They don't even care about a Jazz Jackrabbit mod for UT2004.
• www.jazzjackrabbit.com is down - what more do you need?

Our other hope was Game Titan - but Game Titan lost interest in making Jazz games after the world received JJA, bought it, and said it wasn't really very good at all. To clarify, I do not mean the people at this forum, I mean the world in general. Waiting for Game Titan isn't going to work either.

What we need to do is get rid of that word, "Waiting". We are acting like the United States Democrats. We are rolling over and letting the game industry walk all over us. What we should be doing is taking the fight back to them, and putting Jazz Jackrabbit in the public eye.

Here is why it isn't in the public eye. A few comparisons!
HOW TO CHANGE MUSIC:
Sonic: Wait years and years until someone develops a hacking tool which only a select group of people ever hear of.
Jazz: Edit the field in level properties.

HOW TO MAKE NEW LEVELS:
Sonic: Wait years and years, OR make a fangame!
Commander Keen: Wait years and years, OR make a fangame!
Jazz: Use JCS.

HOW TO USE NEW GRAPHICS:
Sonic: Make a fangame! I suppose technically there are hacking tools these days, but I don't think anyone knows how to use them.
Commander Keen: Make a fangame, or a mod.
Jazz: Open up MS Paint and create a bitmap image, then load it in JCS.

HOW TO USE A NEW STORY:
Sonic: Write a story and post it on some popular fan fiction site.
Commander Keen: Make a fangame.
Jazz: Make a level pack out of .j2l files.

WHAT DOES THE COMMUNITY DO?
Sonic: Creates fangames, edits sprites, makes sprite comics, writes fan fiction, and complains that every new Sonic game is absolutely horrible.
Commander Keen: Creates fangames and edits sprites.
Megaman: Edits sprites, creates sprite comics, writes fan fiction.
Jazz: Makes .j2l and .j2t files, and remixes old Jazz music in formats nobody knows how to use because they're not .mp3.

Do you see the problem yet? Because we have JCS - because we can do infinitely more than any other game community - for that VERY REASON nobody notices us. Suppose there's a download site. A guy called Jamie Bailey posts a Sonic fangame on it. It's an .exe file. Everyone (who uses windows) can download it and play it, whether or not they own any Sonic games at all. A guy named Kejero posts his JJ2 level pack. It's a series of .j2l files. The only people that can play it are the people who ALREADY have Jazz 2, and thus don't need to be attracted to it by downloading this file.
Likewise goes for stories. We tell epic tales of evil forces being summoned from the depths of hell and doing battle with an old moldy pastry - in the format of .j2l files. Sonic fans tell stories of Sonic and Tikal having a tea party with Knuckles, who is tied to a chair because he didn't want to come, and the stories are in the format of ordinary text documents. Megaman fans create sprite comics where all their favorite robots have really big fights and then praise the author. These sprite comics are then put online in the format of ordinary image files, where anyone can read them.

What we need to do is move out of .j2l and .j2t files and into the visible world of gaming and game fans. Here are a few ways to become noticed:

• Put Jazz in your signature. My typical signature has links to J2O, JCF and Haze's Hideout's downloads page. Yours can be like this or it can be more eye catching.
• Use Jazz as your avatar. This is good as everyone sees it! Here's what I use, steal it or make your own, whichever.
• Find various places looking for images, and put Jazz in there. I saw a Sonic fangame looking for billboards, I edited the J2O logo a bit. Hey, you never know.
• If you write a Jazz story, publicize it. There's already the Jazz Jackrabbit section at fanfiction.net, use that. And go out into that big open internet and find other places you can post your stories!
• If you draw Jazz or one of the other characters, put it out on the internet wherever it's appropriate! One easy place is the Jazz Jackrabbit section at Fanart-Central, but that's only going to attract people already looking for Jazz Jackrabbit, right? Find other sites and post your stuff there. Deviant Art is excellent for this - and if people recognize the character, post some links!
• If you have cooperative english or art teachers, feel free to showcase your work there! Hey, the people in your school could play Jazz too!
• If you have uncooperative teachers, put Jazz on your shirt or your backpack or something! Hey, I had the Jazz doll sticking out of my backpack at the start of WC2004, that's how Mike recognized me. Jazz is noticable.
• This is an obvious one... if there's a poll someplace you visit about the best games, or just a topic about games in general, be sure to mention Jazz.
• Just because you're part of the community doesn't mean you can't start Jazz discussion elsewhere, by the way. Don't always wait for someone else.
• Find companies which could go well with Jazz. DC Comics does a lot of liscensing, and Archie Comics creates the Sonic the Hedgehog series. Would it be possible to interest them? What about toy makers?
• If you can't draw big pictures, but you can do sprites, make some Jazz sprites. Put them somewhere where there are lots of sprite artists. There is an enormous spriting community out there, most of which consists of game players. Probably the best places to go would be the Megaman and Sonic communities, although there might be some other game/s I'm not thinking of.
• Or, for that matter, make a sprite comic. Remember Iam Canadian's Jazz comics? Everyone who saw them liked them - but only we saw them. And they're not too hard to make. Think of a story which would work well illustrated, take a few screenshots of sprites, assemble a few backgrounds in JCS, and you're doing fine. Then post it somewhere where there are lots of sprite comic fans and/or creators. Suggestions would include the Megaman, Mario, Metroid and possibly Kirby communities. Don't try Sonic, they hate sprite comics these days.
• If you CAN draw big pictures, and you have some time, why not a real comic? JSZ Jazz did it!
• If you can program at all, make fangames. You don't have to be skilled to do fun stuff. You can screenshot a lot of JJ2 sprites, or use Doubble Dutch's JJ1 extractions, or even draw your own (or get someone else to draw them for you). ET did it, but we've been slow to follow on this one. Then post your games anywhere that's appropriate, and use the forums for your development environment (E.G. Gamemaker, Darkbasic, MMF) while the game is still being made. Promotion!
• Are you in the community of some game that supports modding or at least graphic editing? Guess what I'm going to say to do.

That's a big list. There are probably other things you could be doing that I'm not thinking of, and which you are free to post. But that's a lot to start off on.
Why should we do all this? So that people notice Jazz Jackrabbit who aren't already in the Jazz Jackrabbit community! It's possible. I'm part of Sonic Fan Games HQ, and I didn't own a single Sonic game until sometime afterwards when a friend gave me one. Let's get some people like me, and we can encourage them to buy the games afterwards.
And even if they don't join the community, they have still been seeing Jazz Jackrabbit all over the internet by now (because I trust you guys). People have memories, and they talk about this. Eventually, maybe a game company notices. Maybe something happens. The absolute worst thing that could happen is nothing at all, so we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

On a final note, it wouldn't hurt to make a few allies. Sonic has always been similar to Jazz, and he's imitating the green hare even more these days with that new Shadow game. A lot of Sonic fans know who Jazz is. Let's take advantage of that. Commander Keen used to be an ally, but I think only about eight people play it these days, so don't bother. Who else? There are a lot of games out there...



"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world, indeed it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead