So it's way past the bedtime for a responsible adult like me, but I'm feeling nostalgic for the good old days. It's really comforting to see this community is still alive and around - maybe a little less active, something I certainly am not blameless in - but still here.

I've been getting hyped about Super Mario Maker, watching game reviewers stream their level creations, and thinking that as fun and accessible as it looks to create a Mario level, they cannot possibly stack up to the amazing creations we'd been creating since 1998 in JCS. (17 years ago... holy crap - how has it been so long?) I thought the same thing when Little Big Planet first hit on PS3 too. No level designer since JJ2 has ever granted the same amazing flexibility of creating a completely custom tileset, crafting a complex level with 8-layers of foreground and background, tons of possible events and custom animations, and putting the whole thing to a custom soundtrack. (Sadly most of the good old mod sites are long since gone). JJ2 looked and sounded absolutely beautiful in 1998, and still does today - it represents the very pinnacle of 2D game design, something which was going out of style back in 1998, but has really come back in a big way more recently.

And I remember being there, back in the very beginning, avidly posting on the original Epic MegaBoard, a big fan of Jazz Jackrabbit 1 hyped for the release of Jazz Jackrabbit 2. Eagerly devouring the demo when it first came out. Ordering the full game immediately by combining my allowance savings with my younger brother's. Downloading every level, tileset, and other creation posted back on Jazz 2 City (before J2O came into existence). Excitedly trying my own hand at both - even learning to create a few tilesets in MS Paint, since that is the software I had at hand. Heck, one time when I was spending a day at my grandma's house I designed a whole tileset on paper with colored pencils, and then painstakingly reproduced it in Paint. I had decided that race was my favorite multiplayer mode, and one that was badly underrepresented in custom levels, so I decided to take it on myself to create a pack of 10 race levels. And somehow I actually finished that project and released the Race Tournament Pack (using exclusively MEZ tilesets, because MEZ came out of nowhere in the early days of JJ2 and release 3 absolutely amazing tilesets that would be worthy of having been official, and then vanished again never to be heard from again). And I remember the amazing online games, the creativity of all the people who designed entire new game modes (I loved Survivor when that came out), and all the people who discovered new tricks that broke the level designer wide open.

So while I should've been getting myself to bed tonight, instead I dug up some of my unfinished single-player creations in JCS to play through them again. I'm surprised my own self at how far I was able to take the tool, and I don't remember many of the old tricks any more, but I really ought to polish them off and release my single player episode (Devan's Secret Weapon) one of these days. Goodness knows it's been over a decade since I've even touched JCS! Where has the time gone? (Boring real life answer: college, job, house, adult life - and plenty of videogaming and tv to distract me from trying to be creative). Perhaps this time I'll feel inspired again to finish them off; or perhaps it's just another trip down memory lane.

So, how has everyone been? Any interesting developments in the world of JJ2 in the past few years?

And seriously, how is it that the Jazz Jackrabbit games aren't on GOG yet? These games are timeless, and deserve to be available through legal means. (Thankfully I've saved my official copies - migrating all my files from PC to PC over the years).


~AJ2f (haven't used that name in awhile)


BTW, I'm happy to say that I saw Alexander Brandon at a convention (Magfest) earlier this year, and got to thank him for his amazing music (citing Tyrian as the first game that really made me appreciate videogame music). And I've really been enjoying his recent amazing original album of vg-inspired music: Just Fun. Also enjoyed what I played of Dean Dodrill's creation Dust: An Elysian Tail. The animation really reminded me of JJ2.

Always cool to see someone with an earlier registration date than mine!

It's late, so I'm just going to take the obvious route and plug the JJ2+ mod project. JCS is no longer the final frontier... now you can import external sprites, sounds, music files (including .mp3 tracks), etc., and run everything via scripting language instead of sucker tubes and trigger zones. Even the built-in Race gamemode has gotten a few upgrades, though it can't do everything the old sucker tubes did yet.

Nobody knows what Epic has against Jazz these days; they're very hard to get any words out of, let alone republishing. Nobody knows what happened to Mez either I think.

(Here's some AJ2F context for those who don't recognize the name, fwiw.)

Hey Violet! Always good to see a familiar name.

I've been reading up on JJ2+, and it sounds incredibly impressive. I always thought we'd need to get the source code to be able to do things like that.

Are people still playing JJ2 online games?

I really wonder why Epic seems to want to bury their rich history. I grew up on Epic MegaGames shareware, and saved up my allowance to buy their games back when I was in Elementary School. This was one of the first communities on the internet that I ever joined. Epic has Unreal up on GOG - I always figured the rest of their classics were soon to follow, but it's been years and nothing. I can't imagine that CliffyB is ashamed to have made something other than a dude-bro shooter, the Jazz series are fantastic games.

Also, a few years back I got the chance to try the Jazz 3D demo, and was amazed at just how good it actually was. I think the gaming landscape would be quite different if it had come out back when it was initially under development - the early days of 3D platformers (Mario 64, Spyro, Crash Bandicoot, etc.) - it could've been huge. I see someone in the community also made a patch for that to fix some of the issues, I'll have to try that if I can dig up my copy!

Any other oldies still hanging around? I was impressed to see the news that EvilMike and ET were part of the team that made Ori and the Blind Forest. I'll have to pick that up when I get an Xbox One later this year.

~AJ2f

Well, CliffyB doesn't work at Epic anymore. Here's his new jam.

Oldies will no doubt peek their heads in here from time to time to say hello. I think the J2O Games in Progress page is still broken, but here's a good page for browsing online games, and JDC is recently back in session.

Originally Posted by Another Jazz 2 fan

Are people still playing JJ2 online games?

Any other oldies still hanging around? I was impressed to see the news that EvilMike and ET were part of the team that made Ori and the Blind Forest. I'll have to pick that up when I get an Xbox One later this year.

~AJ2f

1. Yes, check for yourself. Good luck trying to play with Americans, though (there is very few of them left). There's still the annual bashes, and JDC is running.

2. A few. Sal, KRSplat, Stijn and Shadow hang about occasionally.

Originally Posted by Violet CLM

Well, CliffyB doesn't work at Epic anymore. Here's his new jam.

Oldies will no doubt peek their heads in here from time to time to say hello. I think the J2O Games in Progress page is still broken, but here's a good page for browsing online games, and JDC is recently back in session.

Yeah, I read about Cliffy striking out on his own. He's definitely gone on to become one of the most recognizable game designers out there! Good for him.

I wonder why Epic still ignores their history, though. It was awesome seeing a few music tracks from their old games (including Pull back the Bass) included in their 20th anniversary soundtrack.

I was wondering why Games in Progress didn't seem to be working. So many game servers have shut down for far faaaar more recent games, so it's great to see that JJ2 still has a home! (I guess it helps that we only really need a list server, as the game is hosted locally).

I think I only ever tried JDC once or twice. Truth be told, I never was actually all that good at the game! I was always more interested in creating levels.


~AJ2f

Originally Posted by Treylina

1. Yes, check for yourself. Good luck trying to play with Americans, though (there is very few of them left). There's still the annual bashes, and JDC is running.

2. A few. Sal, KRSplat, Stijn and Shadow hang about occasionally.

The game seemed to be better marketed/sold in Europe from the beginning (with TSF being Europe exclusive!) So it's not a huge surprise that there aren't as many Americans playing. Doesn't really matter where people are from, though.

Wonder if it'd change if the game got re-released on GOG and Steam and so forth. Who do we need to persuade to make this happen?

Originally Posted by Another Jazz 2 fan

Wonder if it'd change if the game got re-released on GOG and Steam and so forth. Who do we need to persuade to make this happen?

First, welcome back! I remember you just by name from several J2O download reviews back in the day.

People have persuaded Epic by any means possible besides breaking down their building with bulldozers. Basically all we can still do is to keep reminding them that there's a dedicated fanbase and people wanting to play the JJ games legitly without having to scavenge the dark corners of Ebay. There are however some fairly recent cues showing that Epic still holds and protects their JJ trademark, notably the legal shutdown of a malicious kickstarter campaign claiming to revive JJ. They are also still selling a T-shirt in their official online store.

Oh, hey there, old member! Nice to meet you, I'm a new member :l I'm always excited to see old inactive members returning to J2O and JCF. Enjoy your stay, this forum is pretty inactive but the active members are great imo.

Greetings old and new alike! I figured it would be pretty inactive around here - I'm actually amazed at the level of activity that there is for a game that hasn't been supported in 17 years! Not to mention that younger fans are somehow discovering this game, even though it's older than they are, and not sold via any digital distribution.

So I actually did pull up JCS this evening and gave it a shot for a couple hours, working on a level I barely began, and starting to flesh it out a bit more. Who knows if it'll come to something.

I've been sitting on what - in my opinion - is my masterpiece: the best, most polished, most enjoyable level I ever made. I had been holding off to release it as part of my single-player episode. But as that episode hasn't gotten finished in over 10 years now, perhaps I should at least put that level up for download. I'm sure people wouldn't mind re-playing it in the proper context if the episode ever does get finished.

The interesting thing about the level is it started life as a very different level I actually did release - Electric Nightmare. I initially intended to revamp the level and give it some polish for inclusion in DSW; and ended up completely remodeling it into something new and barely recognizable from the original framework. If you know where to look, some of the bones of the original level are still visible.

I had already released "Ocean of Acid" as a "demo" of the episode back in the day, so a second demo may be a bit much - but like I said - at this rate the full episode may never get finished. So what do you think? Should I put up "Factory in the Depths" for download?

yes

I'm pretty damn sure that the community would get a boost when JJ & JJ2 are released on Steam and/or GoG.

Speaking of releases, Yessss.. bring them out!

Greetings. Didn't you make that War Tavern story on the JMMB where like... Pikachu fought Spaz or something? Haha.

Originally Posted by Ninja

Greetings. Didn't you make that War Tavern story on the JMMB where like... Pikachu fought Spaz or something? Haha.

That would be news to me!

Ok, I'm readying Factory in the Depths for a release soon.

Playing back through some of my older levels... many of them are actually pretty embarrassing to me now. I remember I was so proud of Electric Nightmare back in the day, and it was even one of the top downloads back on Jazz2City, believe it or not. Now I play through it and cringe at how amateur it was.

Just for fun, I stuck it in, along with my very first small level "experiment" which was also named Electric Nightmare, as a secret level, and added a few commentary text blurbs. It would be nice if JJ2 allowed for longer text though, they all got cut off and had to really be shortened.

I kinda wish I had gone ahead and just released some of my finished/mostly finished levels separately back when I was still active over 10 years ago. I wanted to make a big impact with a full episode, but as a result none of my best work - after years of practice in JCS - ever saw the light of day. I'm definitely excited to see what people think of Factory in the Depths when I put it out there. (Do people still write reviews?)

Of course now that I'm actually going to release the level, I'm going crazy and polishing it and making other changes. Just like old times.

~AJ2f

Originally Posted by Another Jazz 2 fan

It would be nice if JJ2 allowed for longer text though, they all got cut off and had to really be shortened.

Look for "showText" here...

More proof of my oldbie status. (Too bad there's no record of the original Epic Mega Message Board days, where I was a member of the community in the months before the JJ2 demo was released.)

Oh man... right in the nostalgia! (Also I completely forgot about all the strange Christian overtones on Jazz 2 City.)

I actually forgot about almost all the levels I had released on J2C. I looked them up again... and turns out it was probably for the best that I forgot about them. They're pretty bad! Everyone has to start somewhere, I suppose. But J2C's Wakeman always gave pretty good reviews to my stuff. I can't believe he actually played every single download people sent him - most of which was really crappy in those days - and wrote up a blurb for each and every one. No wonder he burned out!

It's kind of cool seeing how my level design evolved over the years. Starting all the way back with my first released level "Roadkill v 1.6" I can't imagine there were actually improvements made over several versions, when you look at how poorly tiled it is (using Colonius), and over-packed with weapons and other special items, and built around huuuuuugely ridiculously long sucker tube events that literally zig zag back and forth as many times as I could paste that stupid event. What the heck was I thinking? (Maybe that people might not want to actually play that level - which might have been the right line of thinking, actually.)

I just have to remember that I was 12 years old.

~AJ2f

Originally Posted by Stijn

Look for "showText" here...

Cool, I figured they'd fix that in JJ2+.

For now though I'm keeping the levels as is in vanilla JJ2 1.23. True to their original design.

Originally Posted by Another Jazz 2 fan

For now though I'm keeping the levels as is in vanilla JJ2 1.23.

Use this then: http://www.jazz2online.com/downloads/5621/-/

Or WebJCS.

LOL - It's been over ten years since this thread. (And the sad thing is, I literally hadn't made any progress on DSW since then. I even forgot that someone else used the name since then, lol, but at this point I think it's been enough time I can just keep it... or come up with something new... we'll see.)

Impressive the utilities people have managed to create, btw! I don't think I'm going to do anything fancy at this point, though. I guess I'm just old and set in my ways.

If I could just finish... a few more levels... I could release the whole episode. But some of them are nowhere near done, even after I cut a lot of initially planned levels. I've already decided that if I ever get around to finishing, some of the levels are just going to have to be much shorter. LOL

Hay there clan leader!

Originally Posted by Another Jazz 2 fan

I wonder why Epic still ignores their history, though. It was awesome seeing a few music tracks from their old games (including Pull back the Bass) included in their 20th anniversary soundtrack.

Thanks for linking that, I'd totally missed it! (edit: oh no, the links are all dead )

I think I only ever tried JDC once or twice. Truth be told, I never was actually all that good at the game! I was always more interested in creating levels.

It's been years since I was in JDC and even back then the skill level was moderately beyond me, but the group events were a lot of fun~

Originally Posted by Another Jazz 2 fan

Oh man... right in the nostalgia! (Also I completely forgot about all the strange Christian overtones on Jazz 2 City.)

Haha, oh man, I'll never forget. Remember, DethMan closed the JMMB because it wasn't upholding Christian values.

Another thing that's always stood out in my memory was one time on Wakeman's site he received a letter via the weekly survey he ran (remember those?! they were awesome!) about how the person was concerned about their Wiccan family and Wakeman offered his condolences and prayers for their souls.

I also remember how fast the admins explicitly banned homophobia after Gummy came out, too. Do you remember when 'gay' was a filtered word?

Man.

Originally Posted by Talec

Hay there clan leader!

Hey there! It's good to see you're still here (and still remember me!) Sorry about the late reply - I only now thought to check the forum again, lol.

Thanks for linking that, I'd totally missed it! (edit: oh no, the links are all dead )

Damn, sorry to hear the links are dead. Silly Epic! I do have it downloaded, so could send to you if you like (considering it was offered as a free download in the first place I'm sure there is no issue with that.)

It's been years since I was in JDC and even back then the skill level was moderately beyond me, but the group events were a lot of fun~

Yeah, likewise. I just liked the group events. I think I only tried the dueling once, and immediately discovered how few skills I had as I got totally PWNed.

Haha, oh man, I'll never forget. Remember, DethMan closed the JMMB because it wasn't upholding Christian values.

Another thing that's always stood out in my memory was one time on Wakeman's site he received a letter via the weekly survey he ran (remember those?! they were awesome!) about how the person was concerned about their Wiccan family and Wakeman offered his condolences and prayers for their souls.

I also remember how fast the admins explicitly banned homophobia after Gummy came out, too. Do you remember when 'gay' was a filtered word?

Man.

Haha, I totally forgot about why it got closed like that. Pretty crazy! I'm glad that the community moved on to a more accepting place - and J2O has been and continues to be an amazing resource and such a great community site for sharing levels. Looking back, it's too bad there was never any official support for sharing user-created levels - you look at games like Little Big Planet and Super Mario Maker today, and they do that much better - but neither of those captures the depth of what you could create in JJ2 (considering you could create your own tilesets, and use any music you wanted to!)

Wow, those were different times. I'm glad that this place became more of an open-minded community, without being limited by people's religious affiliation/orientation/etc. Back then, I guess I just got used to it, such is living in Christian-dominated America. But isn't it supposed to be about the game we all love?

Good on Gummy for having the courage to come out, and to effect actual change!

So I still really need to either release that level, or try to finish the episode. I keep wavering because a few other levels are close to complete - but others are barely started - and it's become an intimidating amount of work!

I've also tried making 3 levels in Super Mario Maker, and while the tools are really nice to use (and it's awesome being able to jump in and play right away, from any point in the level), they make me miss all the things you could do in JCS. (BTW - does anyone have a Wii U and want to exchange friend codes?

I think that thread about coming out was a hoax, actually...

So it looks like JJ2 still has a hold on me. For fun, I pulled up one of my half-finished levels, which I hadn't seriously worked on in *mumble* years. And I started adding stuff to it, and making improvements, and tweaking, and testing, and tweaking some more, and testing some more... and before I knew it I had accidentally stayed up until nearly 7AM. Not sure what happened there, but at least it was a Saturday night!

Now I'm trying to figure out if I just go ahead and release Factory in the Depths - which is basically finished and my best complete single player level (which sadly has been sitting completed for *mumble* years, but I was holding back for the Devan's Secret Weapon episode I didn't finish), or try to finish up a few more levels and actually release them as a ( necessarily trimmed down) version of the planned episode. Hmmm...

I wonder if there are even enough people left still active to actually get some reviews when I do put stuff up. :-/

Hey, people still play Single Player. I think players just aren't as bothered to review anymore.

Hopefully my episode will be worth reviewing. It has been in the works for quite a long time, after all (although many years of little progress in there).