Jazz Jackrabbit 2

Jazz sets out on another adventure, taking along his unfortunately named brother for more side-scrolling, fast-paced run-'n'-gun action.

The game was set to be expanded on with a lot of post-launch updates, but support was dropped early, leaving a number of things unfinished or broken.

Development Info Prototype Info Prerelease Info

Unfinished Bosses#

There are two, unused, functioning bosses in the game, and one that doesn't function.

Functional Bosses#

Rocket Turtle#

This boss flies around following a path of Area ID events. If the player dies, when the level restarts, he'll skip the Area ID events he already touched, usually resulting in him just flying off to the top left, never to be seen again. Aside from that, he's perfectly functional, however, and the bugs in his coding can be worked around by clever level creators. He is strangely put under the "enemy" section.

Bilsy#

Bilsy is an extremely difficult boss. Unused in the based game, but fully functional, later seeing use with a slightly modified version in HH98, he teleports around while throwing fireballs that seek you out, doing two points of damage each. Likely, he went unused in the base game due to the sheer difficulty.

Non-Functional Boss#

Tweedle#

This boss never spawns when placed into a level, but the artwork is still present in the game's data. According to an interview with one of the developers, you would fight two of these at once, and they would have stolen your gun at the start of the fight - the goal of the fight would be to trick them into killing each other. If placed in a level, they can still be interacted with and destroyed. However, doing so won't advance the player to the next level. All of his animations can be seen below.

Tweedle's Animations

Unfinished Enemies#

Blue Ghost#

A goofy looking Pac-Man Ghost. This was added in v1.24 (Holiday Hare and The Secret Files). He's commented out in JCS.INI as "Don't use", and behaves like the Sparks enemy. To enable him in v1.24:

1. Open up your JCS.ini file.
2. Scroll down to event number 253.
3. Rename the "EMPTY" to "Blue Ghost" or whatever you want to call it.
4. Change the "+" sign to a "-" sign and then change the "DON'T USE" to the name of the enemy. Be sure not to delete the pipe "|" between the two words.
5. In the blank spot to the right of the "-" sign you created, type in "Enemy".
6. Save and open up JCS. Go to the Bad Guys section and there you go!

Butterfly#

A very unfinished enemy with its graphics still present in the game's data. When placed inside a level, it doesn't function properly or move, and is invisible unless frozen.

BeeBoy#

Though unused in the normal game, this enemy is very much fully functional in-game if not a bit buggy. It spawns five of them in a circle that fly towards you in the same way most flying enemies do, but it's hard to hit and takes 5 hits to kill due to the number of bees.

Bees#

Even less functional than the Butterfly above, this enemy's graphics are the exact same as the Beeboy's. The game doesn't load its graphics, and it cannot be frozen. It can be "killed" and it gives points; however, the event is not removed, and you can keep shooting it to keep "killing" it, though it won't award any more points. It will still hurt you, even after you've shot it the first time.

Unused Graphics#

3D Sprites#

3D View Jazz and Spaz#

There are sprites of them standing still, jumping, braking, running, rolling, and spinning. These would've been used in pseudo-3D bonus stages like in Jazz Jackrabbit 1, but they've been scrapped.

3D View Bird#

A 3D view of the bird, Hip-Hop. Appears to have been used in the cut 3D bonus stages.

Jazz and Spaz Sprites#

Jazz and Spaz Gunless#

Animations exist for both Jazz and Spaz that show them without their guns. These were part of the Tweedles boss battle, in which they were to steal your guns. However, not enough animations exist for the concept to be used.

Door Entry#

What seems to be a work-in-progress animation depicting Jazz and Spaz entering a door. Not usable in its current state, due to the fact that none of the art has been split into individual sprite frames. The stoplight in the corner was likely used by the animator for timing.

A standalone version of the door.

Item and Weapon Sprites#

Spaz Blaster Powerup#

While a blaster powerup exists in the game, it always shows Jazz's gun as it's only on his official path that it can be obtained. This one showing Spaz's gun is never used.

Purple Potion#

An unused food item. Unlike most food items, it has its own animations instead of a single frame. It's also possible it was a powerup instead of a food item.

TNT Box#

Box of ammo that would probably contain 15 TNT, much like the other ammo boxes.

"Fireball" and "Bladegun" Projectiles#

file:Jj2-fireball_normal.gif‎file:Jj2-fireball_upgraded.gif‎
These are the projectiles to the cut Fireball weapon. While present in the 1.00g version of the game, it was replaced with the Pepper Spray in the final game.

file:Jj2-bladegun_normal.gif‎file:Jj2-bladegun_upgraded.gif‎
These are the projectiles to the cut Bladegun weapon. While present in the 1.00g version of the game, it was replaced with the Electro blaster in the final game.

Enemy Sprites#

Upside-Down and Sideways Sucker#

Bunched up with the other sucker enemy sprites are these. It's pretty obvious what they are indicative of.

Unused Bubba Animations#

This was part of an unused concept where after a boss was killed, it left behind a death sprite. Bubba was the only one who got such a sprite however.

Unused Devan Projectile#

Found in the sprite set for the Devan used to control the Robot Boss, oddly enough. No clue what it's doing here, but it looks different from the projectile used by the actual Devan Shell boss (Devil Devan), which is a recolored version of the Fire Shield projectile.

Spinning Devan and Falling Devan#

Also found in the Robot Devan's sprite sheets. The former was used in a demo version of the game, while the latter's purpose is unknown.

Devan Losing His Gun#

Bundled in with the animations for the final boss, it shows Devan losing his gun, along with a spinning gun animation. May have been used after you defeated his first form.

Miscellaneous Sprites#

"Chris is a redneq"#

A running in-joke at Epic, at the expense of their country-boy IT/tech support guru at the time.

Green Pulse#

Another nonsensical sprite.

Tree#

A duplicate of the tree tiles found in the Diamondus 2 tileset. It's possible that these types of trees were once used as shootable objects, such as the normal shootable trees.

Boxing Glove#

Assumed to be a hazard in the cut 3D bonus levels. Aside from that, no clue how it would be used.

Bouncing/Jumping Eva#

Found along with the CTF base sprites, and probably intended to be used when you scored a goal.

Unused Levels#

Included in the game are a few unused .j2l files that can easily be opened up and explored.

Return of Birdland (Labrat3.j2l)#

This is a bonus level in which Jazz/Spaz morph into a bird and fly through the level. Beating the level takes you to Loose Screws, so apparently a secret exit in Weirder Science was to take you here.

Voltage Village (Tube3.j2l)#

An empty level with only the background. It also shares its name with the second Tubelectric level. Using JJNXT to go to the next level makes you go to Medieval Kineval, indicating that this level was to be entered from the second level.

Battle Game (Battlea.j2l)#

A variation on Battle1 with non-functional spikes, a bird, and text saying "destroy your enemy ten times to win". Nothing very notable.

Far Out (Psych.j2l)#

Though mostly complete in terms of layout, there's a warp near the end of the playable section that leads nowhere and causes the game to crash. Looking around in JCS, there's an incomplete, arena-like area to the right. Where you were going to fight Tweedle, perhaps?

SECRET LEVEL (Diamsecr.j2l)#

A duplicate of A Diamondus Forever, the first Diamondus level, but with the tileset of Fourteen Carrot. Next level is an empty level called die.j2l with absolutely nothing defined.

Unused Events and Parameters#

Events that don't function or have functions that aren't used.

Functional Events#

These are events that when placed, spawn an object and a sprite even if the object does nothing.

Rec Gems#

Stands for Rectangle gems. JCS contains the events RecGem Red, RecGem Green and RecGem Blue. When placed, they spawn a normal gem, however sprites for rectangle gems existed in earlier prototypes.

Fast Feet#

These shoe items don't do anything, but can be collected and have a sprite.

Freeze Enemies#

Would have been used to freeze all enemies on-screen. However, when placed in a level, it does the opposite; it freezes the player in place for a while.

Electro Blaster Powerup#

Never used in the official levels, but can be placed in a level and actually powers up the Electro Blaster. However, the powered up version doesn't change anything other than the HUD color.

Extra Time#

Same sprite as the Stopwatch that adds time to your shield if you have one. Does nothing, but its name indicates that there were probably time limits for the levels in-game at one point.

Non-Functional Events#

Events that when placed, spawn nothing.

Max Weapon and Auto Fire#

Do absolutely nothing. Max Weapon may have been used to max out the ammo of your guns, while auto fire may have auto fired your gun without holding down the space bar.

TNT Powerup#

Would have been used to power up TNT. The actual event doesn't load a sprite, but it spawns an invisible object you can push. If destroyed using TNT, it will give you 15 TNT ammo.

Laser Shield#

The event itself spawns nothing and no sprite exists for it; however, coding for the shield is in the game. By using the cheat JJshield 4 times, you will be given the laser shield. It instantly fires a long, straight projectile that destroys enemies and blocks in one hit, which may explain why it was ultimately removed. If used in multiplayer using cheats, it tends to crash the server.

Springcord#

Watch on YouTubeDoes nothing in most versions of the game, but in 1.00g, it functions as a weird, chainlike string of bombs. The event tends to follow the player around, seemingly trying to attach to him. The likely use of this event was as a sort of bungee cord, considering how the basic behavior works, with the bombs being placeholder sprites.

Lava and Fire Events#

In JCS, there are events for lava and fire. Both of these spawn nothing, and were likely used in levels that used said scenery. However, levels containing these elements are all tileset based.

Slide#

Does nothing to Jazz or Spaz. May have been used to make slippery surfaces, or used in the slide tiles found in the Castle tileset.

Unused Parameters#

Fire Shield Destruct Scenery#

Setting Destruct Scenery's "weapon" value to a certain number makes it capable of only being able to be destroyed with the Fire Shield or TNT. This is not used in any of the standard levels, or even mentioned in the original JCS help file.

Debug Window#

Starting JAZZ2.EXE with the -spy argument enables a simple debug window with a core dump function. This setting is saved in the game's configuration, and can be disabled with -nospy. This feature is also present in Dune Runner.

Unused Tilesets#

JCS has a number of unused tilesets. They all begin with the name Jazz 1: with the name of the tileset after the :. These are the tilesets for some of the original levels of Jazz Jackrabbit. The tilesets however, cannot be normally accessed until they are built using the tileset builder in JCS. When built, they have no mask meaning that the player will collide with every pixel in the tileset. They are also not ported properly, meaning there are no animations and background tiles can be interacted with. Some tiles that are associated with Jazz 1 were also removed. This essentially makes them unusable.

Unused Tileset Assets#

Some tilesets in the game have unused tiles and assets which are still present when looking at them in JCS.

Money Balloons#

These balloons are found in many different tilesets. They appear to be leftovers from when the bonus warps were tileset based and not event based.

Beach#

file:Jj2-tileset_beach_leftovers.png‎

These sky tiles are never used in any level. They are leftovers from an old background, which can actually be seen in old screenshots.

Castle#

file:Jj2-tileset castle leftovers.png

These slide tiles are never used in-game. They may have been used for the slide event.

Labrat 3#

file:Jj2-tileset_labrat3_leftovers.png

These spikes are only found in the Labrat 3 and Labrat night versions of the tileset. They are not used, but they may have been early versions of the spike balls. In Labrat night, they are not masked, so they can't be used as obstacles. They are also missing frames.

Tube Electric#

file:Jj2-tileset_tube_leftovers_1.png
This odd tile actually doesn't belong to this set! It belongs to the tileset of a game called Battery Check, which ran on the Jazz 2 engine.

file:Jj2-tileset_tube_leftovers_2.png
These spike tiles are never used in the game, but they do work as intended.

Unused Music#

Medivo#

Inside the game's folders is a song called Medivo. You'd think it would be used in the Medivo levels, but the song used is called Medivo2. This song cannot be normally played, as it doesn't play when loaded into a level. This song was used in the 1.00g version of the game, as the music for Colon2.j2l, Colonial Chaos.

Bonus 2 and Bonus 3#

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These two music files go unused in the game. They appear to be the music from the cut 3D bonus stages, as they are both remixes of the bonus music from Jazz Jackrabbit 1.

For some reason, the last pattern of Bonus 3 is ended early. This is how it sounds when removing the C00 command.

References#