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Jazz Jackrabbit
Developer(s)	Epic Games, Arjan Brussee
Publisher(s)	Epic Games
Designer(s)	Cliff Bleszinski
Platform(s)	MS-DOS
Release date(s)	30 July 1994
Genre(s)	Side-scrolling platform game, shoot 'em up
Mode(s)	Single player
Media	Floppy disk/CD-ROM
System requirements	386 Computer (486 or higher recommended)
Input methods	Keyboard, Joystick

Jazz Jackrabbit is a platform game produced by Epic MegaGames. It was released in 1994 for PCs operating DOS.

Jazz Jackrabbit was created by Cliff Bleszinski and Arjan Brussee, and inspired by classic console games such as Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, and especially the fast-paced Sonic the Hedgehog. The gameplay is a pastiche of Sonic the Hedgehog's. As a result, its console-style vibrant graphics and speedy gameplay made it somewhat novel as a PC game. PC Format magazine named Jazz Jackrabbit "Arcade Game of the Year", and it was popular enough to spawn two sequels, Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and the Game Boy Advance game Jazz Jackrabbit Advance.

[edit] Storyline

Jazz and a turtle

Devan Shell and Eva Earlong

Three thousand years after the events of Aesop's "The Tortoise and the Hare", the enmity between tortoises and hares continues. Jazz Jackrabbit visits various planets to save Princess Eva Earlong and the rabbits' homeworld, Carrotus, from the megalomaniacal Devan Shell and his army of Turtle Terrorists.

The eponymous hero is a bright green rabbit or hare with a red bandana, bracers and a blue gun.

[edit] Gameplay

The first level from the shareware version

Jazz Jackrabbit is similar in gameplay to the Sonic the Hedgehog games, with some differences. The game features six episodes; each episode consists of three worlds, with two levels and one 3D bonus level (reached by finding a special gem hidden in one of two standard levels) per world, a secret level on each episode hidden in a particular planet and finally a boss level. Unlike Sonic, Jazz has a life bar: when enemies shoot or come in contact with him, he loses health that must be replenished by collecting carrots. If his health falls to zero, Jazz turns to ash and the level restarts from the last checkpoint. Also, instead of jumping on enemies (which would only result in Jazz losing health) Jazz must shoot his enemies with a blue gun he always carries. A variety of different bullet types can be found in the game and do varying amounts of damage.

Originally, the game was sold on floppy disks; one could purchase the first three episodes, the final three episodes, or all six at once. A special CD-ROM version was later released that contained all six original episodes, three completely new episodes, and the 1994 Christmas edition (retitled Holiday Hare).

[edit] Shareware releases

Jazz Jackrabbit - Holiday Hare

Jazz Jackrabbit has a shareware release that contains the first episode. In December 1994, Holiday Hare, a Christmas episode, was released. This standalone game could be played without downloading the first shareware release. In 1995, a second Holiday Hare with all-new worlds was released; like the previous Christmas game, it was also standalone.

[edit] Other releases

OpenJazz is a game engine recreation for Jazz Jackrabbit created by Alister Thomson. Work was started on August 23, 2005, made public on November 28 of the same year, and had its source code released on Christmas Day. It is available for Linux and Microsoft Windows; there are also ports to the Dreamcast, GP2X, GP32, Wii, PlayStation Portable and Windows Mobile based pocket PC/PDA devices.

JCS'94 is a Level editor for Jazz Jackrabbit. It was started more than two years before the OpenJazz project. Its latest proposed release date was November 2005.^{[citation needed]} The makers of JCS'94 helped resolve some issues in the development of OpenJazz.

J1E is another Level editor for Jazz Jackrabbit. It was started as a more feature complete alternative to JCS'94. It contains features lacking from JCS'94, including editing possibilities for movements, animations and attacks. This editor is criticized because of its lack of documentation. J1E was written in Java and requires a JVM. It has been tested on Microsoft Windows.

[edit] External links

• Jazz 2 Online (J2O), the hub of the Jazz Jackrabbit community
• JazzJackrabbit Community Forums (JCF), the message board associated with Jazz 2 Online
• Earlong Royal Encyclopedia (ERE), the wiki associated with Jazz 2 Online
• Haze's Hideout JJ1 page
• DOS Games Archive | Jazz Jackrabbit
• OpenJazz JCF thread
• Jazz Jackrabbit at MobyGames