Current:
Jazz2--003.png

Proposed:
Jazz2--002.png

In 1999, when 1.24 came out, the TSF episode was a big deal! Nine huge new levels! Wow!

Nowadays, popular sentiment seems to be that the TSF episode just doesn't have the best official levels. Too much repetition, in particular. If you're a new player, you don't know that TSF is special, you just see that it's the top episode so you play it first, even though it's not as good and it has nothing to do with the story. TSF isn't an expansion pack anymore, it's just the default way that people encounter the game for the first time.

So what if we moved TSF down to where the other one-off official episodes are, Shareware Demo and HH98/CC99? Based on its position value inside secretf.j2e, instead of special code in Jazz2.exe that puts it at the top of the list and ignores its real position. Still playable (though beating it would return you to the main menu), but easier to skip over, and new players will start with Formerly a Prince as it does seem like they should.

This is not the most originalist argument--HH98, TSF, and CC99 all put their titular episodes at the top of the list--I'm just tired of this particular one.

Sounds intuitive to me. Approved from my behalf!

It should definitely be down there.

But you run JJ2: TSF. Don't you expect to see TSF on top? Best option would be an edit mode where you can press up and down keys to move a whole episode and enter to select / release.

Originally Posted by ShakerNL

But you run JJ2: TSF. Don't you expect to see TSF on top?

In 1999, yes. In 2026 you have a lot less of a choice--certainly not an informed choice--whether to run TSF or not. If you buy "Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Collection" from GOG, for instance, are you really knowledgeably agreeing to run TSF specifically? If you're seeking out the latest version, which is 1.24--or if whoever provided the download to you decided to give you the latest version--is any of that really a conscious choice to seek out the TSF episode?

Makes sense because of the version number. In that case I'd put TSF below Funky Monkeys and place Home Cooked Levels to bottom.

Sounds good!

About Home cooked levels: I would have also like the home cooked levels at the bottom judging by it's completely different option, but that's only true looking at this episode in isolation. EP1-4 are linked while TSF and Shareware are standalone. I prefer home cooked levels where it is because it is as a visual break between the main campaign and the standalone episodes, moving home cooked all the way down insinuates that Funky Monkeys leads into Shareware and TSF. Also, by keeping HCH there it links the game versions together.

The "proposed" order is present in the GOG one-click mod release and seems to be received fine so far, so I guess it'll probably make its way to everyone else in 6.6h.

I'm leaving this thread open because the discussion of where to put the HCL episode is pretty interesting. One advantage of putting it at the bottom is that it'd be very easy to reach, you just press up and loop around to it.

After making my post, I keep going back and forth if home cooked levels should be at the bottom. One thing that surprised me is that through the youtube comments of the trailer this is a very visible component people picked up on. Perhaps even the most noted thus far. This means that accessibility and a menu rework should definitely be a high priority to streamline accessibility and features.

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i also find it looks better, to move "The Secret Files" TSF Episode down.
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i think the TSF episode should be unlocked, from the start.
(i say this because there are episodes that are locked, and are only unlocked once previous ones have been completed)
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the TSF episode always standalone for me, as if it didn't belong to the original episode storyline.
so.. i think, its a great idea to move it down..
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and then I wanted to ask: whats the current situation with custom episodes (.j2e files)?
In the past, the display of episodes was limited to one page.
I don't know, if this has already been fixed in JJ2+, so that more episodes can be displayed
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if it hasn't been fixed yet,
i wanted to ask:
- if it would be possible to release a future JJ2+ update, that allows for a second page with custom episodes only?
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i would prefer to display custom J2E files on a "second episode page" there.
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There is no limit on how many episodes are displayed at once, but we recommend that people use the file extension j2pe for custom episodes, not j2e, to avoid crashing unpatched JJ2.

The episode select menu will be improved in 7.0. This topic is just about the order of episodes.