[Violet CLM]

DOWNLOAD LINK
I was waffling about posting on these forums too, since y'all feel more about the asm wizardry and the momentum physics and I can't offer you either of those, but then Bartman was kind enough to mention me in the Monday Links, so why not?

Quote

Sonic With A Gun alters Epic Megagames' 1994 DOS game Jazz Jackrabbit (in graphics, enemies, and level design), primarily in the style of SEGA's 1991 Genesis/Megadrive game Sonic the Hedgehog. Certain details are also lifted from various other games, such as Sonic 2 (G/MD), Sonic 1 (SMS/GG), Sonic 4 Episode 1, Sonic CD, Sonic Advance 3, Sonic Mars, and so on. SWAG encompasses six main planets/zones, each with graphics, level layouts, enemies, and other obstacles unlike anything before seen in Jazz 1 modding, in an elaborate celebration of the Jazz engine and the Sonic series.

All elements of this mod are to be seen as a remake: next to none of the original graphics or level design from Sonic 1 are present, and instead 99% of the graphics are edited from Jazz art and the level design is a hybrid between the styles of the two games. Enemies and other level objects are included as accurately as possible within the constraints of the Jazz 1 engine, with occasional new additions or modifications in the spirit of either the original or the mod.

Two prominent differences between the gameplays of Sonic and Jazz are that the former can run up walls, ceilings, etc., and the latter has a gun and disposes of enemies with it rather than by jumping on them. These differences remain in SWAG, which features the standard ammunition types from Jazz 1. Perhaps the best way to think about this mod is as Jazz visiting the equivalents of the Sonic zones but in the Jazz Jackrabbit universe.

Unless you're running a sufficiently old version of Windows, you will need the DOXBox emulator, which can be downloaded for numerous different operating systems. Playing under the open-source "OpenJazz" remake of Jazz 1 is not recommended; OpenJazz is far from perfect at emulating the native Jazz 1 levels, and SWAG takes the engine nearly as far as it will go in various directions, including various parts of the game that were never used in the native levels and are therefore not implemented in OpenJazz.

SWAG has been in development--very, very intermittently--since mid 2008. I'm excited to share it with the world at last, as part of SAGE 2014 and in honor of Jazz Jackrabbit's 20th anniversary.

Here are a few of the screenshots I've posted so far in the buildup to release... I talk about them (and the overall ideas for their respective planets) on the ModDB portal.










(download link again)

This post has been edited by Violet CLM: 25 February 2014 - 02:41 AM

[Ell678]

I never played Jazz Jackrabbit, but this looks really nice.

[Retroman]

This is epic! The combination of my two childhood games into one package!

[winterhell]

Retroman, on 04 February 2014 - 09:10 PM, said:

This is EPIC!

I saw what you did there />

The game looks awesome so far.

[Tichmall]

That looks excellent, and I'm a great fan of Jazz Jackrabbit in general. Does it have awesome S3M remixes of Sonic music as well ?

Good work anyway !

[Violet CLM]

Thanks for the kind words so far!

Tichmall, on 05 February 2014 - 09:03 AM, said:

Does it have awesome S3M remixes of Sonic music as well ? />

Oh, I wish. Sadly what I know about music could not fill a floppy disc, and the range of music files JJ1 can play is rather smaller than the range of extant module files, since they need to be converted into Epic MegaGames' own music format and that conversion isn't always successful. Unless someone miraculously brings me readily converted files, the best I think will be possible will be taking midi renditions of Sonic music from VGMusic, converting the .mid files to .s3m, converting the .s3m to .psm, and then hoping for the best.

[Tichmall]

Didn't know about the conversion problem. If you ever want to try, OpenMPT can read the original Jazz 1 & Jazz 2 music files, and you can save the different instruments used in the tracks as wav files (most of the instruments used by Allen and Brandon for the games are simple wav sounds).

[Lord Nero]

I'm REALLY looking forward to this release, I'm in no way decent at running DOS, and I'm more a fan of Jazz Jackrabbit 2 then the first, but the idea of bringing in all the memorable moments/set-pieces from one of this franchises biggest influences is just downright amazing (and surprising it took this long).
This is certainly gonna be one of the first SAGE games I'll be Let's Playing for Nero Networks Countdown to SAGE 2014.

[Violet CLM]

Lord Nero, on 06 February 2014 - 09:18 AM, said:

(and surprising it took this long).

There are a few factors at work here... most modding (for lack of a better term) is done to Jazz 2, which is a lot easier to make levels and graphics for. However Jazz 2 is more similar to Earthworm Jim and such than to Sonic, so it's a less natural fit, and it's only in the last year that JJ2's gotten a scripting language, which would be necessary for any really detailed Sonicization.
Jazz 1, by contrast, is much more customizable in terms of its enemies and other obstacles, but imposes other restrictions (tiny resolution, only 240 tiles per planet) that make it difficult to work with. And it wasn't until 2010 that we got really good programs for editing JJ1 anyway--the 2003 level editor was pretty limited and managed to lose some data while saving. (This project was begun in 2008, so I know what I'm talking about there...)

Anyhoo, four new screenshots and commentary are up!

[Graxer]

I too am more of a fan of Jazz Jackrabbit 2, but this looks amazing and I really look forward to giving it a go when it is released!

[Mikel]

Like Lord Nero and Graxer, I'm more of a Jazz Jackrabbit 2 fan, but this is showing off a lot a promise. I will look forward to this and give it a try when its released!

[InstantSonic]

HAHA, oh man! This looks incredibllllle. I can not WAIT to play this. <3

[Violet CLM]

Four new screenshots and commentary are up!

[KingofHarts]

I'm gonna preface my comment by stating this: I've never played Jazz Jackrabbit... nor have I really ever heard much about him/it until recently.Seeing him in this light... with the Sonic style... This has got to easily be the freshest, Sonic-related entity I honestly think I've seen in the almost 4 years I've been a part of Retro, and the overall Sonic scene, and I very much look forward to this.

[Bobinator]

Anything that gets more people playing Jazz Jackrabbit is going to be pretty sweet, in my opinion. I admit, in certain ways, it hasn't aged quite as well, such as the complete lack of any physics engine. But I'd still say that Jazz is probably in the top 5 list of "Post-Sonic animal mascots with 'tude", next to Sparkster and Aero the Acrobat.

I really want to ask, though, Violet, just how you're actually making this. I know you're using the original version, but is there a level editor you're putting this together with, or something more complex? I'd also like to see some of the unused stuff you've mentioned, if you get the chance, please.

More than anything, though, seeing what you did with Labyrinth Zone makes me want this thing in ways that probably aren't legal. I can't wait.