Jazz Jackrabbit

About the game

Jazz Jackrabbit was conceived as a boast: that a DOS machine could run a mascot platformer with the speed and colour of a 16-bit console — and then some. Jazz, a green rabbit with a red bandana and a rapid-fire LFG-9000, sprints through the planet Carrotus and beyond to rescue Eva Earlong from Devan Shell's turtle armada, inverting the tortoise-and-hare fable into cheerful ballistic warfare.

The game moves absurdly fast, and its design leans into the sensation: springboards, hoverboard bonus stages, weapon pickups from bouncing blasters to toaster guns, and sprawling levels that reward replaying at full tilt. Cliff Bleszinski's level design and the pounding tracker soundtrack gave it a swagger PC platformers had never had; the VGA palette work made console rivals look washed out.

For Epic MegaGames it was the shareware-era flagship that established the studio's arcade credentials — and the fanbase that would follow it into a rather different future. As a statement of PC platforming confidence, it has never really been bettered.

Technical notes

320x200 VGA engine tuned for extreme scroll speeds with tracker-module music — shareware-distributed episodes in the classic Apogee mould. Documented here in its DOS release.