Jazz2Online news for April 2023
Tidying up Anniversary Bash 25 - April 20th 2023
The Battle and CTF level lists are now available for download right here on J2O, alongside every other bash list since 1999.
If you missed the Bash or want to relive it, you can view 20+ hours of livestreamed footage here.
Thanks for Playing - April 11th 2023
Anniversary Bash 25 has come to a close! We had a wild, fun-filled four-day weekend but every party has its end.
Instrumental in organizing this Bash and its level lists were cooba, FawFuL, Loon, PurpleJazz, Seren, and Superjazz. cooba in particular played a big role in keeping us on task, gathering level suggestions, and keeping lists up to date. PurpleJazz’s new level voting mutator was an exciting new way at the end of each level to build anticipation for what would come next. Huge thanks also to DanZeal, provider of the Zeal server network, for hosting the Bash server and keeping it running all weekend long.
These were the largest level lists ever, with 120 levels, ranging from Diamondus Warzone on April 9th 1998 to Tubolation on April 9th 2023. It’ll take us a little longer to get the packs uploaded to J2O but it will happen, just give us some time to rest and figure out the right versions of everything.
We tried to source levels from all eras of JJ2’s history and include numerous significant authors, not just the current level designers. The levels were made by Birdie, Blackraptor, Blackrose, Bluez, BlurredD, CelL, CliffyB, cooba, DanZeal, DarkSonic, Disguise, Dragusela, EvilMike, FawFul, FireSworD, Foly, jeh, Jelly Jam, Lark, Loon, Lynx, martin, minmay, Newspaz, P4ul, PurpleJazz, Quickz, Ragnarok, Sacrush, Seren, ShadowGpW, Slaz, Smoke, Snooze, spy, stripe, Superjazz, TreyLina, Unhit, URJazz, and Violet CLM. Huge thanks to everyone for their contributions!
Four brand-new levels even debuted during the Bash itself: Central Park, Cold Beers Beach, Land of the Snooze, and Tubolation! The real showstopper, though, may have been Smoke’s great new “death circle” mutator, which came out of nowhere and completely transformed the LRS experience. Hopefully everything will find its way to J2O soon for everyone to try out!
The Anniversary Bash is a direct, unbroken line of community history from the beginning till now. One thing that sets it apart from other online servers is the hope that old friends will drop by and say hello. It was great to see Blade, HyperJazz, Mez, NY00123, Salamander, Shadow, and Toxic Bunny, among others! And of course, we have to thank Jazz Jackrabbit 2 itself and its creators… not every video game is still being played 25 years later!
Speaking personally for a moment: I love this game. I had so much fun this weekend, hour after hour, smiling and never wanting it to end. Thank you all so much for coming and playing. We roasted, we chatted, we visited levels old and new, we had the best damn time.
It’s time to find out what’s next!
Anniversary Bash 25 is now live - April 7th 2023
Download the Battle levels here until we can get them uploaded to J2O
Same for the CTF levels
Previewing Future JJ2+ Updates - April 1st 2023
For no real reason, today feels like a good date to announce some upcoming features in JJ2+, to be released whenever GOG gives us the signal by lighting bonfires across a series of majestic mountaintops.
4-bit color
Sometimes people turn on 8-bit color because sometimes it makes the game run a little bit faster than 16-bit color. Well, logically, shouldn’t 4-bit color run even faster than that?
Increased Transparency
When JJ2+ developers join multiplayer servers, our rabbits will now be drawn with only 50% opacity. We’re confident this is what you wanted.
Seasonal Content
Pestilence can now only be played in the week surrounding Halloween, and CTF only on your country’s respective Flag Day. To compensate for this inconvenience, a new Christmas-themed gamemode will be introduced where you give presents to other players instead of roasting them. It will be available whenever JJ2+ uses the Christmas Chronicles menu theme, which will be expanded to be six months out of every year.
New Playable Character: Devan’s Shell
The limiting factor preventing the addition of new characters has always been the countless new sprites that would need to be created. Thankfully, we’ve hit upon a novel solution: a character with only one sprite. By playing as Devan’s Shell, you will be able to sit in one place on the ground, until you are shot, at which point you will careen around for a while before losing momentum.
Replacing JJ2+ Developers With ChatGPT
People do say that ChatGPT can write code actually, but I’ve never experimented with that, so, uh, instead… let’s say that we’re introducing a new form where you can type your feature requests, and if you use it, an advanced text parsing AI will automatically tell you why we won’t be implementing your idea.
Sponsored LevelList Suggestions
Pay us $8 a month and everyone’s servers will periodically cycle to your levels.
Youth Culture
To attract a younger playerbase, we’re going to rename Last Rabbit Standing to Lit Rabbit Stanning.
Improved Controller Support
But, like, only for the Ouya.
Bringing Back The /bestpony Command
Y’know, in retrospect, 2013 was a weird time.
More Version Numbers Beginning With 5
We’re pretty confident that 5 is the biggest number there is, okay?