Open-source Jazz Jackrabbit 2 reimplementation

_{Brought to you by @deathkiller}

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Introduction

Jazz² Resurrection is reimplementation of the game Jazz Jackrabbit 2 released in 1998. Supports various versions of the game (Shareware Demo, Holiday Hare '98, The Secret Files and Christmas Chronicles). Also, it partially supports some features of JJ2+ extension and MLLE. This repository contains fully rewritten game in C++ with better performance and many improvements. Further information can be found here.

Preview

📺 Watch gameplay videos

Running the application

Windows

• Install Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable
• Download the game
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ‹Game›\Source\
• Run ‹Game›\Jazz2.exe, ‹Game›\Jazz2_avx2.exe or ‹Game›\Jazz2_sdl2.exe application

‹Game› denotes path to Jazz² Resurrection. The game requires Windows 7 (or newer) and GPU with OpenGL 3.3 support. Game files should not be copied to Program Files. Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it can't be skipped. Also, the sound effects in the intro cinematics require the cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started up.

Linux

• Download the game
• Install dependencies: sudo apt install libcurl4 libglew2.2 libglfw3 libsdl2-2.0-0 libopenal1 libvorbisfile3 libopenmpt0
  • Alternatively, install provided .deb or .rpm package and dependencies should be installed automatically
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ‹Game›/Source/
  • If packages are used, the files must be copied to ~/.local/share/jazz2/Source/ or /usr/share/jazz2/Source/ instead, please follow instructions of specific package
    • Installations predating this layout keep using ~/.local/share/Jazz² Resurrection/Source/, which is still detected
• Run ‹Game›/jazz2 or ‹Game›/jazz2_sdl2 application
  • If packages are used, the game should be visible in application lists

‹Game› denotes path to Jazz² Resurrection. ~ denotes user's home directory. The game requires GPU with OpenGL 3.3 or OpenGL ES 3.0 (ARM) support. Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it can't be skipped. Also, the sound effects in the intro cinematics require the cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started up.

^{Alternatively, you can use package repository for your Linux distribution:}

macOS

• Download the game and install provided .dmg application bundle
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ~/Library/Application Support/Jazz² Resurrection/Source/
• Run the newly installed application

~ denotes user's home directory. Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it can't be skipped. Also, the sound effects in the intro cinematics require the cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started up.

Alternatively, you can install it using brew trust deathkiller/jazz2 and brew install deathkiller/jazz2/jazz2

iOS

• The game is not on the App Store, build the application bundle from source and install it on the device from Xcode, or sideload the built jazz2.app
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to Jazz² Resurrection/Source/ in the Files app (under On My iPhone / On My iPad), or through file sharing in Finder (or iTunes)
• Run the newly installed application

The game requires iOS 14 (or newer) and runs on iPhone and iPad, in landscape orientation, with on-screen touch controls and game controllers. Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it can't be skipped. The log file Jazz2.log is written next to the Source directory.

Android

• Download the game
• Install Jazz2.apk or Jazz2_x64.apk on the device
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ‹Storage›/Android/data/jazz2.resurrection/files/Source/
  • On Android 11 or newer, you can Allow access to external storage in main menu, then you can use these additional paths:
    • ‹Storage›/Games/Jazz² Resurrection/Source/
    • ‹Storage›/Download/Jazz² Resurrection/Source/
• Run the newly installed application

‹Storage› usually denotes internal storage on your device. Content directory is included directly in APK file, no action is needed. The game requires Android 5.0 (or newer) and GPU with OpenGL ES 3.0 support. Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup. Also, the sound effects in the intro cinematics require the cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started up.

Nintendo Switch

• Download the game
• Install Jazz2.nro package (custom firmware is needed)
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to /Games/Jazz2/Source/ on SD card
• Run the newly installed application with enabled full RAM access

Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it can't be skipped. It may take more time, so white screen could be shown longer than expected. Also, the sound effects in the intro cinematics require the cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started up.

Nintendo 64

• The game plays from a cartridge ROM, which has to carry the game content converted from an original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 installation
  • Use Content Swapper to create your customized ROM, otherwise ROM is empty and unplayable
• Copy the resulting jazz2.z64 image onto an EverDrive-64 or SC64 flashcart
  • The image also boots directly in ares or simple64
• Run the ROM – the console must have an Expansion Pak installed

Sega Dreamcast

• The game plays from a disc, which has to carry the game content converted from an original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 installation
  • Use Content Swapper to create your customized disc, otherwise disc is empty and unplayable
• Burn the resulting jazz2.cdi image with a tool that understands the Dreamcast's multi-session layout, or serve it from an optical-drive emulator such as GDEMU/MODE
  • The image also boots directly in Flycast, lxdream or redream
• Run the disc

Nintendo Wii

• Download the game
• Copy contents of the provided sd directory to the root of an SD card or USB storage device
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to sd:/apps/Jazz2/Source/ on the same device
  • Alternatively, prepare the content in advance as described in the developer documentation to skip the conversion
• Run Jazz² Resurrection from the Homebrew Channel

Nintendo GameCube

• The console can't convert the game data itself, so the content has to be prepared in advance from an original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 installation and can't be distributed
  • Use Content Swapper to create your customized disc, otherwise disc is empty and unplayable
• Start Jazz2/Jazz2.dol from Swiss

Nintendo 3DS

• The console can't convert the game data itself in any reasonable time, so the content has to be prepared in advance from an original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 installation and can't be distributed – see the developer documentation
• Copy the resulting sdmc directory contents to the root of the SD card (custom firmware or another way to start homebrew is needed)
  • For Azahar, copy them into the emulator's configured SD card directory instead
• Start Jazz2 from the Homebrew Launcher

Sound needs the DSP firmware that every console running homebrew has at sdmc:/3ds/dspfirm.cdc (dump it with DSP1 once), without it the game runs silently. New 3DS runs the game at its full 804 MHz clock, on an Old 3DS the frame rate drops in busy scenes.

PlayStation Portable

• Download the game
• Copy the provided PSP/GAME/Jazz2 directory to the memory stick at exactly that path (custom firmware is needed)
  • For PPSSPP, copy it into the emulator's configured memory stick instead
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ms0:/PSP/GAME/Jazz2/Source/
  • Alternatively, prepare the content in advance as described in the developer documentation to skip the conversion
• Run the newly installed application

PlayStation 2

• As on the Dreamcast, the game plays from a disc that has to carry the converted game content
  • Use Content Swapper to create your customized disc, otherwise disc is empty and unplayable
• Burn the resulting image to a disc, or load it in PCSX2
• It can equally be run from an SD card in an MX4SIO adapter: copy the ELF and the content tree to mass0:/Games/Jazz2/, and the game reads and saves there (a card is shared storage, so the game keeps to a directory of its own – the same layout it uses on the Switch)

PlayStation 3

• Download the game
• Install Jazz2.pkg package (custom firmware is needed)
  • Alternatively, run the unsigned Jazz2.self on a CFW console or in RPCS3, which requires the PlayStation 3 firmware installed once
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to Source/ next to EBOOT.BIN of the installed package (/dev_hdd0/game/JAZZ20000/USRDIR/Source/)
  • Alternatively, prepare the content in advance as described in the developer documentation to skip the conversion
• Run the newly installed application

PlayStation Vita

• Download the game
• Install Jazz2.vpk package with VitaShell or over FTP (custom firmware is needed)
• Extract libshacccg.suprx from the console firmware to ur0:/data/, shaders are compiled on the console
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ux0:/data/jazz2/Source/
• Run the newly installed application

Amiga

• Download the game for the particular system – AmigaOS 3.x, AmigaOS 4.1 or MorphOS
• Copy contents of the archive – the Jazz2 executable next to Content/ – onto the Amiga's hard disk, or mount the directory as a hard drive in an emulator
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to Source/ next to the executable
  • Alternatively, prepare the content in advance as described in the developer documentation to skip the conversion, which takes far longer on these machines than on a desktop
• Run Jazz2

Web (Emscripten)

• Go to https://de4th.dev/jazz2/wasm/
• Import episodes from original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory in main menu to unlock additional content

The game requires browser with WebAssembly and WebGL 2.0 support – usually any modern web browser.

Libretro core (RetroArch)

• Copy jazz2_libretro.so (and jazz2_libretro.info, if provided) to the frontend's cores directory
• Copy the Content/ directory next to the game files, then copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to Source/ beside it – Cache/ is generated next to them
  • Alternatively, place both in the frontend's system directory as ‹System›/jazz2/Content/ and ‹System›/jazz2/Source/
• Load any file from Source/ (for example Anims.j2a) as content, or start the core without content if ‹System›/jazz2/Content/ exists

Xbox (Universal Windows Platform)

• Download the game
• Install Jazz2.cer certificate if needed (the application is self-signed)
• Install Jazz2.msixbundle package
• Run the newly installed application
• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to destination shown in the main menu

  • Alternatively, copy the files to \Games\Jazz² Resurrection\Source\ on an external drive to preserve settings across installations, the application must be set to Game type and NTFS is the recommended filesystem

  • On NTFS, the ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES group must be granted full access to that directory, otherwise the application can't read the game files or write its settings there – attach the drive to a Windows PC and run in Command Prompt or PowerShell as administrator:

    icacls "D:\Games\Jazz² Resurrection" /grant "*S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)(F)" /T

    where D: is the external drive. *S-1-15-2-1 is the SID of ALL APPLICATION PACKAGES, so the command works regardless of system language. Filesystems that have no permissions at all, such as exFAT, need no such step

• Run the application again

Cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it can't be skipped. It may take more time, so white screen could be shown longer than expected. Also, the sound effects in the intro cinematics require the cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started up.

Dedicated server (Docker)

• Pull the image, which is available for amd64 and arm64

  docker pull ghcr.io/deathkiller/jazz2-server:latest

• Copy contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory to ./Source/
• Copy ServerConfiguration.json to ./Config/Jazz2.Server.config and adjust it, at least the playlist
  • The directory must be writable by uid 1000, the unprivileged user the server runs as
• Run the container

  docker run -d -i --name jazz2-server --restart unless-stopped \
      -p 7438:7438/udp -p 7438:7438/tcp \
      -v "$PWD/Source:/app/Source:ro" \
      -v "$PWD/Config:/app/Config" \
      -v jazz2-cache:/app/Cache \
      ghcr.io/deathkiller/jazz2-server:latest

The image contains only the headless server, contents of original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory are never part of it. Besides latest, every release is tagged also as X.Y and X.Y.Z to pin a particular version, and edge tracks the current state of the master branch. Game files are converted into the jazz2-cache volume on the first start, so the first startup takes longer. docker attach jazz2-server opens the server console, docker stop shuts the server down cleanly, disconnecting the peers and delisting the server from the online server list. ServerAddressOverride has to be set for a public server, because the container sees only its own address on the Docker network. The docker-compose.yml in this repository describes the same setup declaratively, including several servers running on one host, and docker build -t jazz2-server . builds the image from sources instead of pulling it. See the developer documentation for details.

Building the application

This section contains only a brief explanation of the build process. For a more detailed explanation, including build configuration parameters, please refer to the developer documentation.

Windows

• Build dependencies will be downloaded automatically by CMake
  • Can be disabled with NCINE_DOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES option, then download build dependencies manually to .\Libs\
• Build the project with CMake
  • Alternatively, download build dependencies to .\Libs\, open the solution in Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 (or newer) and build it

Linux

• Build dependencies will be downloaded automatically by CMake
  • Can be disabled with NCINE_DOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES option, then download build dependencies manually to ./Libs/
  • System libraries always have higher priority, there is no need to download them separately if your system already contains all dependencies
  • In case of build errors, install following packages (or equivalent for your distribution):
    libgl1-mesa-dev libglew-dev libglfw3-dev libsdl2-dev libopenal-dev libopenmpt-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev zlib1g-dev
• Build the project with CMake

macOS

• Build dependencies will be downloaded automatically by CMake
  • Can be disabled with NCINE_DOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES option, then download build dependencies manually to ./Libs/
• Build the project with CMake

iOS

• Install Xcode (the Command Line Tools alone have no iOS SDK) on a Mac
• Build dependencies (SDL2, OpenAL Soft, Ogg/Vorbis and libcurl) will be downloaded and compiled from source automatically by CMake
• Build the project with CMake for the iOS system, for example with the Xcode generator, which also signs and deploys the application to a device:

cmake -B build -G Xcode -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=iOS -D CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES=arm64 -D CMAKE_OSX_DEPLOYMENT_TARGET=14.0 -D NCINE_IOS_DEVELOPMENT_TEAM=<Apple Developer team ID>

• For the iOS Simulator, use CMAKE_OSX_SYSROOT=iphonesimulator with the Mac's own architecture instead, see the documentation for details

Android

• Install Android SDK (preferably to ../android-sdk/)
• Install Android NDK (preferably to ../android-ndk/)
• Install Gradle (preferably to ../gradle/)
• Build dependencies will be downloaded automatically by CMake
  • Can be disabled with NCINE_DOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES option, then download build dependencies manually to ./Libs/
• Build the project with CMake and NCINE_BUILD_ANDROID option

Nintendo Switch

• Install devkitPro toolchain
• Build the project with CMake and devkitPro toolchain

cmake -D CMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${DEVKITPRO}/cmake/Switch.cmake -D NCINE_PREFERRED_BACKEND=SDL2

Other consoles

The game runs on Nintendo 64, Sega Dreamcast, Nintendo Wii, Nintendo GameCube, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Vita as well. Each of them is cross-compiled with its own SDK and CMake toolchain file, most of them have a bespoke window and rendering backend for their fixed-function graphics hardware, and on most of them the game content has to be prepared in advance with AssetPacker and passed to the build with NCINE_CONTENT_DIR option (a few, such as the Wii, PSP, PS3 and Vita, can also convert the original game data directly on the device).

Please refer to the console documentation for the toolchain, build, packaging, deployment and logging steps of each console.

Amiga systems

The game also runs on AmigaOS 3.x (68k), AmigaOS 4.1 and MorphOS (PowerPC). Each is cross-compiled with its own CMake toolchain file in cmake/toolchains/ and stages a ready-to-run directory into build/<target>/dist/; the two PowerPC SDKs come as container images, so only the m68k toolchain has to be installed. The classic Amiga has a window and input backend of its own (Intuition + RTG) and an AHI audio backend; the PowerPC systems use SDL2 and render through the fixed-function OpenGL each of them provides.

Please refer to the Amiga documentation for the toolchains, the hardware each build targets, the system quirks each of them works around, and how they can be run under emulation.

Web (Emscripten)

• Install Emscripten SDK (preferably to ../emsdk/)

cd ..
git clone https://github.com/emscripten-core/emsdk.git
cd emsdk
./emsdk install latest
./emsdk activate latest

• Build dependencies will be downloaded automatically by CMake
  • Can be disabled with NCINE_DOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES option
• Copy required game files to ./Content/ directory – the files must be provided in advance
• Build the project with CMake and Emscripten toolchain

Libretro core (RetroArch)

• Build the project with CMake and NCINE_BUILD_LIBRETRO option, the result is a jazz2_libretro shared library instead of an executable, no window backend (GLFW, SDL2 or Qt5) is needed

cmake -D NCINE_BUILD_LIBRETRO=ON

• By default the core uses the software renderer, so it runs on any frontend. Add -D NCINE_PREFERRED_RHI=OpenGL to render on the GPU instead – such core requires OpenGL ES 3.0 and a frontend context obtained through SET_HW_RENDER

Xbox (Universal Windows Platform)

• Build dependencies will be downloaded automatically by CMake
  • Can be disabled with NCINE_DOWNLOAD_DEPENDENCIES option, then download build dependencies manually to .\Libs\
• Run CMake to create Microsoft Visual Studio 2019 (or newer) solution

cmake -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_NAME=WindowsStore -D CMAKE_SYSTEM_VERSION="10.0"

License

This project is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License v3.0 and uses extensively modified nCine game engine.