OpenJazz - http://www.alister.eu/jazz/oj/
is a free, open-source version of the classic Jazz Jackrabbit™ games.
OpenJazz can be compiled on a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, macOS, GNU/Linux and *BSD. Also ports are available for some homebrew platforms, for example Wii and PSP.
To play, you will need the files from one of the original games.
With the demise of DOS-based operating systems, it has become necessary to use emulators to play old DOS games. Jazz Jackrabbit™ deserves more - and would benefit greatly from new features.
is a PC platform game. Produced by Epic Games (then Epic MegaGames), it was first released in 1994. The fast-paced, colourful gameplay proved popular, and the game won PC Format's Arcade Game of the Year award. Many people still fondly recall the shareware versions.
OpenJazz was started on the 23rd of August, 2005, by Alister Thomson. Academic pressures put the project on hold until late December 2005. The source code was released on the 25th, and the first version with a degree of playability was released on the 15th of January. Since then, a variety of ports have been released by other people.
More academic pressures meant there were few updates over the following few years, but in 2009 a multiplayer version was released.
OpenJazz is available under the GNU General Public License version 2 or later,
see licenses.txt
for additional information.
Enter
to choose a menu option, Escape
to go back to the previous menu.
F9
to view in-game statistics, P
to pause.
Alt
+ Enter
switches between full-screen and windowed mode.
The other controls are configurable via the "setup options" menu. By default, the controls are as follows:
- Left and right arrow keys to move left and right.
- Under Windows,
Alt Gr (right Alt)
to jump and theSpace bar
to shoot. - Under Linux, the
Space bar
to jump andleft Alt
to shoot. Right Ctrl
to change weapon.
Additionally, most game controllers and joysticks that SDL recognizes can be used. However, not all axes or buttons may be available.
Needed:
- SDL 1.2.x library (https://libsdl.org/).
Optional:
- SDL_net 1.2.x library (https://www.libsdl.org/projects/SDL_net/)
- xmp 4.x.x library (http://xmp.sourceforge.net/)
- ModPlug library (http://modplug-xmms.sourceforge.net/)
OpenJazz ships a basic Makefile that may be used and adapted to the specific
needs of the user or platform where it shall run. For network play, you need a
platform which natively provides sockets or use SDL_net, then either define
USE_SOCKETS
or USE_SDL_NET
in the Makefile. On the Windows platform, the
socket library (-lws2_32
) is needed while linking. For music support, you
either need ModPlug or xmp. Then define USE_MODPLUG
or USE_XMP
in the
Makefile. ModPlug needs to be patched to properly support looping tracks,
otherwise there will be a small gap in the playback, xmp does not have this
problem (no patching needed).
For UNIX systems also an autoconf script is provided, used like this:
./configure # `--help` lists options
make [install]
Further (partly outdated) instructions are available at: http://www.alister.eu/jazz/oj/build.php
DATAPATH
- use a fixed path for data filesHOMEDIR
- use the user's home directory for data filesSCALE
- enable scaling of the video output (i.e. Scale2X...)FULLSCREEN_ONLY
- disable window mode, useful for console ports
Execute OpenJazz
, depending on the platform and compile time options, the
data files are expected to be under different paths (see above). You can
also specifiy a game folder as command line argument.
Alister Thomson (alister_j_t at yahoo dot com)