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Jazz Jackrabbit

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit cover
Developers
Epic Games
Publishers
US B&N Companies
EU Romware
Release dates
DOS July 30, 1994
Windows (DOSBox) November 30, 2017[1]
macOS (OS X) (DOSBox) November 30, 2017[1]
Linux (DOSBox) November 30, 2017[1]
Reception
IGDB 87
Taxonomy
Monetization One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Modes Singleplayer
Pacing Real-time
Perspectives Scrolling, Side view
Controls Direct control
Genres Action, Platform, Shooter
Art styles Cartoon
Themes Fantasy
Series Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit on HowLongToBeat
Jazz Jackrabbit on IGDB
Jazz Jackrabbit on MobyGames
Jazz Jackrabbit on Wikipedia
Jazz Jackrabbit
Jazz Jackrabbit 1994
Jazz Jackrabbit 2 1998
Jazz Jackrabbit 3 Cancelled

Key points

Use DOSBox 0.74-2 or newer on Windows 8 and later to avoid temporary pauses during transitions.
Level 2 of Orbitus is pretty much impossible to beat in the 1.3 version of the CD release (fixed in GOG release[2]).

General information

GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Official site for game series from Internet Archive
Hardcore Gaming 101 - Comprehensive feature
Jazz2Online - A fan site for game series
Version differences

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
DRM-free
Floppy and CD-ROM release. See: Version differences. Use DOSBox (see Run in DOSBox).
DOS
GOG.com
DRM-free
CD version + all the expansions are included.
Windows
macOS (OS X)
Linux
A shareware episode was released.
Two free Christmas episodes were released: Holiday Hare and Holiday Hare 1995. See DLC and expansion packs.

Version differences

Jazz Jackrabbit CD-ROM includes three bonus episodes with new music and additional animated cutscenes.[3] Later releases also include the Christmas episode Holiday Hare (1994).

DLC and expansion packs

Name Notes
Holiday Hare Standalone expansion released in 1994. Included in later releases of Jazz Jackrabbit CD-ROM version.
DOS
Holiday Hare 1995 Standalone expansion. The levels and music are different from Holiday Hare (1994).
DOS

Essential improvements

Run in DOSBox

To run correctly in DOSBox set cycles=max, gus=true and timed=false. Leave all other DOSBox settings at their defaults.[4]

Use DOSBox 0.74-2 or newer on Windows 8 and later to avoid temporary pauses during transitions.

Configure Gravis Ultrasound (GUS)

This game takes advantage of the Gravis Ultrasound sound card's hardware mixing capabilities for higher quality music and sound effect playback; comparison.[5]
Follow this guide to configure the GUS drivers for use in DOSBox.
The stable version of DOSBox has a bug that results in GUS audio being played back in mono; this is fixed in certain SVN builds.[citation needed]

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\CONFIG.000
<path-to-game>\SOUNDCRD.INF
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
It's unknown whether this game follows the XDG Base Directory Specification on Linux. Please fill in this information.

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVE.*
Windows <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
macOS (OS X) <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]
Linux <path-to-game> (mounted in DOSBox)[Note 1]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy

Video

General settings.
General settings.

Graphics feature State Notes
Widescreen resolution
Menus are 320x200, whereas gameplay is 320x199.[Note 2]
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed
For DOSBox toggle with Alt+ Enter (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
Borderless fullscreen windowed
See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)
Anti-aliasing (AA)
Vertical sync (Vsync)
For DOSBox use an unofficial build (see the glossary page for other workarounds).
60 FPS
120+ FPS
Frame rate is capped at 60 FPS.[7]

Input

Audio

Audio feature State Notes
Separate volume controls
Music and Sound FX.
Surround sound
Subtitles
Everything is text-based.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
For DOSBox change the priority background value in the DOSBox configuration file.

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English

Issues fixed

Game temporarily pauses during transitions

This issue occurs with the official DOSBox builds before 0.74-2 in fullscreen mode on Windows 8 and later due to the game changing the resolution and refresh rate between menus and levels.
Use DOSBox 0.74-2 or newer

Runtime error 200

This error occurs due to a higher speed processor running the game natively.
This fix is not needed when running the game using DOSBox (see Run in DOSBox).
Use the TPPATCH fix[8]
  1. Download the TPPATCH fix here.
  2. Place the files in the installation folder.
  3. Type: TPPATCH file0001.exe in the prompt.
Holiday Hare '94 and '95 also requires the patch: type TPPATCH jazz.exe for this.

Level 2 of Orbitus is almost impossible to beat

An error exclusive to the 1.3 version of Jazz Jackrabbit CD.
While it is possible to beat it using the Slo-Motion Mode (with T), this is not recommended.
Use the airboard cheat[9]
  1. Press P
  2. Press ← Backspace
  3. Enter CSTRIKE
Download maxstrike's fix[10][11]
  1. Download LEVEL1.005 from Google Drive.
  2. Paste it in the <path-to-game> folder, replacing the file.
There's another fix in Jazz Jackrabbit Online, but it has issues with sound.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
DOS video modes VGA

OpenJazz

Open source re-implementation

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel 386 33 MHz
System memory (RAM) 4 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 13 MB
Video card (GPU) VGA
Sound (audio device)
Controller
Windows
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 7
Processor (CPU) 1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 7 compatible
macOS (OS X)
Minimum
Operating system (OS) 10.9
Processor (CPU) Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) 64 MB of VRAM
Linux
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) Ubuntu 14.04
Processor (CPU) 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM) 1 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 1 GB
Video card (GPU) OpenGL compatible
256 MB of VRAM


Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 File/folder structure within the installation folder reflects the path(s) listed for DOS game data. For the GOG.com release, file changes in DOSBox are redirected to <path-to-game>/cloud_saves/ even if GOG Galaxy is not used (this folder contains all redirected files, so some files in the cloud_saves folder might be temporary files or other files that do not contain saves or settings).
  2. This appears to be used to force 60 Hz output on original hardware to avoid screen tearing. It also has the side effects of resulting in being displayed with square pixels on original hardware and having an issue where the game hangs when changing between menus and gameplay in DOSBox.[6]

References