Wow. That was the one word that came to mind when I ran this. It delivers what is promised and more (The JCS launcher, however, doesn’t work :() and does so with the touch of a professional.
The episode manager is easy to figure out, it tallies up all the episode files in your Jazz2 directory [as long as you unzip the files there], tells you how many more you can put in there before the program will crash, gives you the options of deleting the extra episodes, or deactivating them [which has the same effect as deleting, except you don’t lose ‘em], tells you the name of the episode, and if it is activated or not. Very spiffy, no bugs detected there.
The Jazz2 launcher is even better: It totals up all the levels in your JJ2 directory and puts them into a giant list. You can delete any number of levels. It will also tell you how big each level is, and when it was last modified. Then, if you select “run”, it will give you a host of options, ranging from using a spy window, to keeping game logs, to detecting joysticks, to detecting hardware, to even safe mode! It bypasses any passwords, essentially pulling the “save and run” trick in JCS, but without the JCS. Very neat! Again, no bugs.
The one thing that saddened me was the fact that despite its amazing potential, the JCS launcher fails to send the knockout blow. It is essentially the same thing as the JJ2 launcher, but runs JCS instead, and obviously doesn’t have the graphics options. But when you hit “run level”, it gives you a runtime 53 error! Oh well, maybe it’s just missing a file or something. But that is a huge bug, and perhaps the only one of its kind in this[these] progs.
Since my primary JJ2 directory is TSF, I of course tested it [all three] there and found to my delight that it worked! Yay!
So to wrap up my critique, I’d like to saya few things about RedJazz’s Jazz 2 Utilities program bundle. Very, very well done, only one outstanding bug, prompt and quick. I was truly amazed by the usability factor of it, and how incredibly easy it was to pick up and learn. This will definitely be a big help in my level testing and episode managing in the future, and I heartily recommend downloading it. It’ll be something you’ll appreciate as I do for the rest of your gaming days!
EDIT:
I need to take back what I said about the JCS bug, because I figured out the problem! Here’s the scoop: The JCS launcher will not work if you rename your jcs from “jcs”. It needs to be named jcs in order to work. SO I’ll raise you to a 10, accordingly. Again, great work!