Jazz Jackrabbit 2 Online

JCS Awards 2016: The Results - January 18th 2017

Source: JCF

The results are in!

Best Battle Level of 2016

Forest Swamp – FireSworD
Zes – DarkSonic
Twin Stalactites – FireSworD
Trademark II – Snooze

Best CTF Level of 2016

Scrapyard – PurpleJazz
The Astrolabe – Ragnarok
Hall of the Mountain King – Superjazz

Best SP Release of 2016

A Generic Single Player Level II – Blackraptor
Forest Forgotten – Spaztic
Ürdüng Chronicles #1 – FarkasUrdung

Best JCSer of 2016

Loon
Blackraptor FireSworD
FarkasUrdung Sir Ementaler

Thank you to everyone for all their hard work in keeping the JCS scene alive in 2016, and thank you to all who voted! Who knows, maybe 2017 will finally be your year… ;)

Jazz 1 to be speedrun at Awesome Games Done Quick - January 3rd 2017

Source: AGDQ Schedule

As was the case a couple years ago, Jazz Jackrabbit will be featured in this winter’s edition of the Awesome Games Done Quick marathon.

Games Done Quick is a series of charity video game marathons. These events feature high-level gameplay by speedrunners raising money for charity. Games Done Quick has teamed up with several charities in its six-year history, including Doctors Without Borders and the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

JJ1 will be speedrun by CapnClever.

JCS Awards 2016 - January 2nd 2017

Source: JCF

Perhaps you weren’t so happy with the way world events played out in 2016, or it could’ve been the best year of your life for other reasons. Regardless, as we look to the future we now have the chance to reflect on the last 365 days. It’s the annual event that all JCSers look forward to! Check out the JCF thread and cast your votes!

Voting closes on 15th January at 23:59 GMT+1.

Happy holidays! - December 25th 2016

Aaaaaand it’s that time of the year again! The Jazz2Online staff wishes you all a (slightly belated) merry christmas and a spectacular new year. Enjoy the last bits of 2016!

News Roundup - December 12th 2016

Source: this very website tbh

• Remember this post about Nick Stadler coming across a cache of JJ2 artwork? Well, Jazz J. followed up about this on Twitter and was told that much of the work was destroyed. No more details have emerged yet but it’s not looking promising.
• Long-running Jazz 2 recode project Project Carrot has just posted a new update video, the first since May, “including features such as the lighting system, positional sound, bonus warps, the base for the Freezer weapon, and a number of other newly implemented events.”
• If you’re looking for a way to spend your time inside in these cold winter months, we’ve got some fresh single player experiences for you in the Downloads section. Blackraptor has released a massive update to his old Generic Single Player Level, making it the “biggest standalone single player level ever released,” and Speaktrap just finished a metroidvania-inspired level using the HauntedH tileset. And if you still haven’t played Forest Forgotten from long-time SP enthusiast Spaztic, there’s no time like the present!
• Did we mention a new JJ2+ got released the other day? Most of the server list has been updated by now, though there are a few 5.3 holdouts still.
• Somewhere there is a school teacher who likes JJ1.
• There are some new interesting sprites and tiles in the Jazz Jackrabbit Custom Sprites section of The Spriters Resource. The Jazz 1 page got some significant updates recently as well.
• After 7 years, The Last Guardian has been released.

JJ2+ v5.4 released - December 10th 2016

Santa visted Carrotus early this year and look what he left in our Christmas stockings, a new JJ2+ release!!

Lots of bugfixes and behind-the-scenes improvements this time, as well as some new features:

• /gemtransfer allows instant transfer of gems in Treasure and Head Hunters, instead of the default behaviour of gems dropping to the ground.
• /resetadmins reloads the admin configuration file, restoring admin privileges to those specified in there
• Code that draws translucent tiles was made faster, so that they won’t slow down the game as much
• A health glitch associated with anti-radar mode was fixed

…and more! As always, check the changelog for the full list of updates, report bugs in the JCF thread and download the latest version here.

Jazz Jackrabbit is digitally archieved - November 15th 2016

Source: http://pers.beeldengeluid.nl/139438-jazz-jackrabbit-nieuwe-aanwinst-voor-collectie-beeld-en-geluid

The Dutch institute for Sound and Vision have announced that the game Jazz Jackrabbit is such an important piece of digital history. That it should be preserved for future generations. Because the game was a leap for gaming technology and also the kickstart of Arjan Brussee’s career.

To quote;
“The Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision is an player when it comes to management and accessibility of Dutch audiovisual heritage. The special building on the Media Park in Hilversum stores a daily growing collection of over 1.000.000 hours of radio, television, film, pictures and music. Sound and Vision is committed to make this unique collection and the knowledge about it widely accessible for diverse audiences, including media professionals, the creative sector, education and the general audience. Through research and innovation, the institute has developed into a broad cultural institution that, with its accumulated knowledge and infrastructure, occupies a central position within the archive and media branch.”

The game is playable during the “Let’s Play expo” this week in the “Beeld and Geluid” expo center in Hilversum. Together with other historical Dutch games. ‘

[Edit] the people of Sound and Vision has translated their press release.

Jazz Jackrabbit new addition to the Sound and Vision archive

Hilversum – You are a fluorescent green rabbit, entangled in epic battles with tortoises amidst colorful and dreamy landscapes. While this may sound like a psychedelic high, it’s a reality in Jazz Jackrabbit; a video game by Epic Games (back then: Epic MegaGames). The game is now added to Sound and Vision’s game collection and consequently preserved for future generations. Ineke Middag, Unitmanager Museum at Sound and Vision: “Producer Arjan Brussee was and is a trendsetting Dutch game developer. The iconic and high-quality game Jazz Jackrabbit, of which Brussee was one of the main producers, cannot remain absent in a collection of Dutch video games.”

Sound and Vision, the national audiovisual archive of the Netherlands, has been acquiring video games since February 2016 – as well as other forms of ‘contemporary’ media. Media consumption in the Netherlands has long surpassed the trend of solely tuning in to the traditional channels of radio and television. Jazz Jackrabbit is added to the newborn collection of games due to the involvement of Dutch programmer and game developer Arjan Brussee, who together with Cliff Bleszinski developed the game. Jazz Jackrabbit was commended as an innovative and popular game at the time of release in 1994. It was the first PC game that featured ‘side scrolling’; a mechanic solely used in console games until then. The first episode ‘Turtle Terror’ was distributed freely as Shareware – a strategy that aided the game’s reach and success – while five additional levels could be purchased to expand the original game. The magazine PC Format praised Jazz Jackrabbit’s high-quality graphics and gameplay, dubbing it “Arcade Game of the Year” in 1995.

Arjan Brussee: “Jazz Jackrabbit was the start of my career, and therefore also the early onset of what would later be Guerilla Games. It’s great to see Sound and Vision taking up this game in her archive. Computer games are unfortunately rather fragile, and older games often dissolve due to the rapid evolvement of technology in a broad sense. Nowadays, video games assume an important role in the daily interests of kids and adults. By preserverving them we can recognize the cultural impact the game had back then. I hope that many games will be added to the collection!”

Arjan Brussee kicked off his career in the so-called demoscene. This competitive group of programmers, active in the ‘80s and early ‘90s, created impressive audiovisual presentations – despite the limited computational power of that time. Brussee was one of the founders of Guerilla Games (est. 2000) and worked on the successful Killzone franchise which made Guerilla Games the largest Dutch game developer. He is now reunited with Cliff Bleszinski in Boss Key Productions.

Sound and Vision’s new addition – Jazz Jackrabbit – is currently playable during the Let’s Play exhibition, which runs from the 12th until the 20th of November. Play through several other Dutch games that belong to the collection, such as the popular race game A2 Racer II by Davilex. A variety of consoles and arcade machines from partner ‘Nederlands Instituut voor Games en Computers’ in Zwolle are also available to play on. And, don’t forget to create and stream your very own Let’s Play video of a Dutch retro game to YouTube!”

Rad Rodgers available for early purchase - November 14th 2016

Source: GOG

A couple months ago I told you about an in-development 2D platformer that’s trying to tie its wagon to the 90’s DOS platformer nostalgia train, or however metaphors work. Flash forward to today (okay, Friday actually) and it’s ready for you to buy. It’s still “in development,” which is kind of like “early access” but not really I guess. The point is if you, like apparently everyone else, dislike the writing, now may be the time to get them to change it?

Assault the Base contest updates - November 1st 2016

Looks like TreyLina’s excellent Medium-sized battle map contest awoke some sleeping giants, cause suddenly there’s some interest in what surely is one of the longer-running fan contests in gaming history by this point: BlurredD’s infamous Assault the base contest.

We first wrote about this all the way back in December 2004, and were chastised for being “a few weeks late” even then. Twelve years later, the contest is still going, thanks to the unique rule that it will only end when a set number of entries have been received. That number of entries is now 10, but on the other hand the prize has been raised to $20 multiplied by the amount of entries, netting the winner a guaranteed minimum of $200. Not bad, right?

There are some other rule changes as well, so check out the thread and get that Assault level going.

The medium-large battle map contest! - October 29th 2016

Source: https://www.jazz2online.com/jcf/showthread.php?p=490548#post490548

That’s right, I’m doing another contest again, and possibly my final one. The map should ideally accomodate 8-16 players.

First prize is £30, second is £15, and the deadline is the 31st of December 2016. NO DELAYS, I’d like some JCS award candidates!

Click here for more information!