Jazz Jackrabbit 2 1.20

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Version 1.20 of Jazz Jackrabbit 2 is what usually would be called 1.00. It is the original boxed retail release of the game. This version was distributed in Europe and Australia, in two seperate formats.

The European release is the well known purple box with Jazz and Spaz standing next to each other. It comes with 2 versions of the manual, each holding different languages. It is in black and white and missing the introduction comic that is included in later versions of the game. The CD-Rom is purple as well, with no art for the jewel case.

This version also comes with the full version of Jazz Jackrabbit 1 CD. While the CD contains the same data as the original Jazz Jackrabbit CD mail order release and the game itself is unchanged, the art for the jewel case has been changed, removing the "CD-ROM" part from the cover and adding Project2 as publisher. The full colour manual is also not included with this copy, but is replaced with a black and white, shortened version, unfortunately without the comic as well.

The Australian/UK release got a different box, in blue with Jazz and Spaz jumping into action with the words "He's at it again!" at the bottom. This release comes with a single manual in the same blue colours, only in English and is basically the same as the one in the EU version, but lacking any art. The CD is in green with, again, no jewel case art. The version on the disc is the exact same as the European release. Jazz Jackrabbit 1 is also not included in this release. It's unknow why this seperate release of 1.20 exists, since Project2 is still being referenced as the publisher, though the box has another company on it as well called "Black Friar".

This version comes with a readme.bak file, which seems to be a backup of a previous readme. Opening this file refers to version 1.12. It seems this was the last beta version of the game before store release.

A shareware version for 1.20 was also made available under version number 1.20s. Two different versions of this shareware version exist, one with 1.12s in the readme, and a Share1.j2l with different file size from the final version, and a second version that fixed both. There exist also two versions of the shareware in regards to the video files. Since at the time internet wasn't as fast, a version with the intro cutscenes removed was made available, with a seperate download existing to add them in.

Scans for the European release's manual only include the English section, five more instances of the same pages exist in five more languages. Scans for the Australian release will be added in the next post, to keep the art seperate.

Full Game:

You can download and play the shareware version by downloading it here. The full game is not made available, because it can be patched to the latest version. Get the full final game by purchasing Jazz Jackrabbit 2 from GoG - you will be supporting game preservation done correctly.

 

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Australian box and manual.