Happy holidays! - December 3rd 2018
Snow is falling in the backgrounds of J2O, JJ1, and JJ2+, carolers are out in the streets without their safety goggles, and candles are being lit at sunset around the world. The J2O staff wishes you all a spectacular holiday season and a happy new year. Enjoy the last bits of 2018!
PurpleJazz is planning a JJ2 Christmas Party from 20th to 23rd December; check out the JCF thread for further information!
Jill of the Jungle released as freeware - November 2nd 2018
Source: GOG.com
Before Jazz, Epic MegaGames had a different platformer hero: Jill of the Jungle. She was the star of three episodes released from 1992 to 1993, and later reappeared as a table in Epic Pinball and in one of Jazz 1’s episode selection pictures… then nothing more. With the demise of the Epic Classics webstore in 2012, it became impossible to obtain the latter two (non-shareware) episodes of Jill legally.
Until today, when GOG.com has not only rereleased the complete trilogy, but made it permanently freeware for the first time ever. Is your Epic collection complete??
(Another Epic game, Xargon, was built from Jill’s engine/gameplay with significantly upgraded graphics, but Xargon was declared freeware over ten years ago.)
Quirky Combo Battle jam contest - October 25th 2018
Source: JCF Thread
Have you been itching for an excuse to make a JJ2 level? Maybe Treylina can help you out with 2-Week Jazz JAM #1: Quirky combo battle. Entrants have two weeks (less than that now) to make a battle level (or two, or three) using multiple tilesets. There is no prize for winning, but you can click through for more details and rules.
Or if you’re more interested in single player level design, there is talk of making a Holiday Hare ’18 community level pack as a sequel to last year’s HH17. Nothing concrete has so far emerged in terms of planning, but you can join in the discussion in this JCF thread.
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - 20th Anniversary Tribute Album released - August 29th 2018
Source: so this one page on bandcamp
Last week a group of Hungarian music artists teased us with their 20th year anniversary album and promised to release it very soon.
"Bun and Gun" fangame released - August 24th 2018
Source: JCF thread
JCS has always provided us with such so much easy-to-use power that there’s never been much of a drive to create fangames for Jazz Jackrabbit, and the introduction of AngelScript, like such earlier additions as Karrot Shire, have only served to further solidify the place of Jazz Jackrabbit gameplay experimentation as firmly inside of Jazz 2 (and very occasionally Jazz 1) itself. The only Jazz fangame to be finished and reach any level of prominence was et’s Jazz Ski Rabbit in 2001, which justified its standalone executable status by mostly eschewing platformer gameplay.
And yet, not so with Bun & Gun, a “a high-speed run-and-gun platformer where you play as Bun E. Bazooka in an attempt to save the Jade Kingdom from the vile clutches of the surprisingly-vampiric turtle Shelltopias Turtatory Von Turtula.” Created by happygreenfrog for the Demake game jam, Bun & Gun stays carefully on the friendly side of copyright laws while recreating most of Jazz 1’s shareware episode (Diamondus/Tubelectric/Medivo, with their full array of weapons and enemies included) within an even smaller resolution and a four-color palette. Download today!
JJ2 20th Anniversary Album teaser - August 21st 2018
Source: Bandcamp
Did you forget that 2018 is the 20th anniversary of Jazz 2? Well, Hungary didn’t! In just over a week, a team of musicians from Hungary (including community member tazar) will release a free Jazz 2 tribute album of nine different remixes on Bandcamp:
It’s been 20 years since Jazz, the green jackrabbit has returned with his sidekicks to take blastin’ revenge on the evil turtle Devan Shell and his nasty minions. Since then, Jazz Jackrabbit 2’s popularity has been on the rise and its legacy has not just been kept alive up to this day but enriched by its fan community.
To celebrate the two-decade anniversary of this shiny gem of classic platformer gaming, a musical tribute album has been arranged by various Hungarian artists. This collection is an expression of appreciation towards Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and its creators, especially Alexander Brandon, the composer of the game’s remarkable soundtrack.
You can listen to previews of the tunes right now, along with some nifty JJ2-styled animation.
Egypt wins 2018 National Tournament - August 14th 2018
Source: JJ.net news post
This weekend marked the finals of 2018’s National Tournament, the semi-annual JJ2 tournament for national teams hosted by jazzjackrabbit.net.
This year’s finals were a real thriller – both teams went the distance and it took 7 (seven!) rounds for Egypt and The Netherlands to decide which of them Would be The Star of this National tournament. In the end, Egypt came up on top, delegating The Netherlands to the second place, just in front of Serbia which placed third.
Take a look at the announcement on jazzjackrabbit.net for the full results and more details!
Additionally, JJ.net has announced a level making contest in preparation for the upcoming ladder season. If you want to see your own level played online, this is an excellent opportunity.
Summertime Jazziness voting begins - August 14th 2018
Source: JCF Thread
It’s time for some single player! Primpy’s Summertime Jazziness level contest is just wrapping up, challenging community members to make single player levels “with emphasis on things that are related to summer and the summer holiday. There are a lot of possible themes for this: the beach, mountain trips, pool parties, the exaggeratedly hot weather and so on.” Now the entries are in, featuring blazing hot Texas skies, sunflowers and rolling sand dunes, a solar eclipse, and an artificial summer brought on by Devan Shell himself.
Download and play through the new SP levels, then go to the voting thread for the (simple) instructions for how to vote.
Summa Summa Summatime!
Seven new beta JJ1 screenshots discovered - August 2nd 2018
Source: JCF thread
Until today, there had been only nine known screenshots taken of Jazz Jackrabbit 1 before its release. featuring such oddities as different character sprites, a different HUD, simplified ammo pickups (explaining the references in the game’s manual to “red orbs,” “green orbs,” etc.), and indications of a different planet order.
New magazine scans from PC-King, however, almost double that number, with seven new images from a never-before-seen stage in Jazz 1’s development, appearing to have been taken earlier than almost every other known screenshot. Check them out!
Jazz to be featured at the Shots Fired marathon! - July 10th 2018
Source: horaro.org
So you’re probably thinking “What the heck is Shots Fired?” Well, it’s a semi-annual speedrunning marathon which exclusively features shooting games of all kinds. And not one – but two Jazz games are featured to appear!
There will be Jazz 1, All episodes + bonus levels with turbo run by SimonN on 7:33pm UTC+1, Saturday the 14th.
And also a Jazz 2 Spaz race of the original campaign between BinaryBlob and Dominator101, (the top two runners) on 9:03pm UTC+1, Saturday the 14th.
The marathon itself is running on the 10th-15th of July. Check out its full timetable here, and here for the marathon stream.
DISCLAIMER: Times are announced at the time of creating this post, and may become delayed. Keep rechecking the timetable (which automatically adjusts according to your own timezone) if you want to catch them live.
In other less but somewhat related news, BinaryBlob just smashed a new World Record in this classic category!