Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

This thread is for listing interesting findings in the Jazz Jackrabbit 1 Reviewer Copy (version 0.9). Because I've had some extra time with this copy before its release, I've written down a lot of stuff already: play the game before reading this thread if you want to avoid spoilers. I'll lead with how to use cheat codes because I had to disassemble the game to figure that one out, but everything else you should be able to find on your own.






















Cheat Codes:
Rather than type cheat codes one letter at a time, you must hold backspace and all letters simultaneously. (Your keyboard may not support them all, depending on its key rollover.)





















List of cheat codes:

• APOGE: same as APOGEE
• ARJ: same as GUNHED
• BAD: unchanged
• BOUF: unchanged
• DOM: same as DOOM
• HOCU: probably the same as HOCUS
• HOKRE: same as HOOKER
• JOS: same as CSTRIKE
• KEN: unchanged
• LAMER: ends level but shows score tally and so on instead of skipping to the next level immediately
• MARK: unchanged (like 1.0, but unlike 1.3, it doesn't give you an extra life)
• SABLE: unchanged

Miscellaneous:
The bird uses totally different AI, it follows your movements precisely (but at a delay, and offset some distance upwards) instead of tracking you.


The boss health bar is translucent gray (same effect as in Letni maybe?) instead of solid red.

Pressing F8 in normal gameplay pauses the game and begins moving the camera around through nearby memory until you press any key. (Similar to pressing Esc in debug mode in G_MAIN.) Holding F9 pauses the game.

There's an FPS counter in the bottom right in normal gameplay. It gets confused sometimes, especially when you're at flashing red health or changing weapons.

One of the yellow shield gems is drawn in front of foreground tiles like Tubelectric tubes when the game is paused or showing a demo.

All the level files define names for events and animations. (Different releases of JJ1 are inconsistent about this.)

ORDER.0SC seems to have been corrupted on the disc somehow, so it's not in a usable state.

"Instructions" from the main menu doesn't work.

The text written to DOS when starting or quitting the game is different.

An intro screen says "A BRUSSEE BLESZINSKI PRODUCTION", whereas 1.0's screen says "A GAME BY ARJAN BRUSSEE AND CLIFF BLESZINSKI" (and uses a smaller font).

The main menu says "REVIEW COPY NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION." The shareware notice is moved to the splash screen instead.

The images for episodes 3 and 4 are switched between 0.9 and 1.0.

1.0's "graphics detail" setting is not present in 0.9 at all. 0.9 uses different wording for the palette cycling speed in the main options menu, and doesn't include slow motion mode in the ingame options menu (although pressing T does work).

MACRO.4 is identical to 1.0's, but MACRO.1 through MACRO.3 are different in 0.9.

0.9 unnecessarily includes BONUS2.000 through BONUS6.000, the tilesets for the bonus levels from episodes 2-6. (They're identical to 1.0's.)

(The BLOCKS, SPRITES, BONUSMAP, and PANEL files are also all identical.)


Level layouts:
Diamondus 2
There are a lot of minor differences near the start, mostly having to do with removing events from 0.9 (maybe the game was running into memory issues?)


In this little passage, 1.0 (right) removed two signs and added more background gems


Just above and to the right of that, a lot of events got removed in 1.0


Another three events got removed here in 1.0


1.0 added one more RF pickup here but also moved them two tiles up

The treestump at 23,25 is in the foreground in 0.9 but the background in 1.0


Lots of the grass tiles in the big cave just before the end got changed (flatter in 0.9, more jagged in 1.0)


The end signpost is raised up one tile in 1.0, presumably because there's a secret 1up above it, and this makes it much easier to reach the 1up and much less likely the player will shoot the signpost by accident.



Tubelectric 1

The entrance to this tube (just to the right of the start area) was redesigned between 0.9 (top) and 1.0 (bottom)


This extra life that you can get from the tube had not yet been added in 0.9, there's just wall here


You're supposed to jump into this tube from below; in 1.0 the platform is higher up, to make the jump easier.


Tubelectric 2
1.0 adds a hard/turbo spark at 26,2, 67,14, and 76,18. This is event #37, which is not defined in 0.9 and appears only in those three locations in 1.0. Curiously, event #32 is ALSO a hard/turbo spark. Event #32 has movement speed 3, same as the regular sparks, but the new #37 has movement speed 1 instead.

The "floorgunhard" event (only appears at 66,3) is not properly configured in 0.9: it uses a spark animation while shooting, and Jazz can stand on top of it.


Medivo 1

In five different spots (here are two of them), 0.9 (left) allows a partially masked tile next to some spikes, but 1.0 (right) replaces the partially masked tile with a fully masked tile, so that the player can't get stuck inside the cranny.

In both versions, there are two hard/turbo vertical rapiers in the swinging platform sequence. 1.0 moves one of them from 103,16 to 93,14, so that it doesn't hurt players standing atop the checkpoint.


The area above the end signpost is noticeably cleaner in 1.0 (right), even though none of this area is visible ingame.


The area to the right of the checkpoint has ten more launcher pickups in 0.9, whereas 1.0 adds two carrots.


Guardian

There are five +15 toaster monitors on the top row in 0.9, and four on the bottom row in 1.0.