Jazz² Resurrection: an open source Jazz Jackrabbit 2

A reimplementation, which means it needs the original game

Jazz² Resurrection is a reimplementation of the game Jazz Jackrabbit 2, released in 1998, and the important consequence of that word is visible in every install instruction in the project. It supports various versions of the game, namely the Shareware Demo, Holiday Hare '98, The Secret Files and Christmas Chronicles, and it partially supports some features of the JJ2+ extension and MLLE. But the engine does not carry the assets. On Windows you copy the contents of the original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory into a Source subfolder of the game directory and then run one of the executables. On Linux the same copy goes into a Source folder, and on macOS into the Application Support directory for the application. The original game is the content, and the reimplementation is the machine that plays it.

The repository split, and which one you actually want

The first thing in the project overview is a construction notice in bold. The game was fully rewritten since version 1.0.0, and to build it you should visit the deathkiller/jazz2-native repository instead. This repository will contain only new Releases. That is a significant change in how to approach the project, and it is easy to miss because the badges for the build status, the code quality score and the licence still point at the jazz2-native project, so the two look like one thing from the outside. The official website at de4th.dev/jazz2/ is where the fuller information lives. If your goal is to compile the game, the source is not here any more, and the releases here are the built artefacts. The release history shows how active the project remains, with 3.9.0 on 2026-10-17 for reworked physics, 3.8.0 on 2026-08-22 for consoles and optimisations, and 3.7.0 on 2026-08-01 for online multiplayer, player colour customisation and D3D11 and Vulkan backends.

Windows: three executables and a cache you cannot skip

The Windows instructions are the shortest. You install the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable, download the game, copy the contents of the original Jazz Jackrabbit 2 directory into the Source folder, and then run one of three executables: Jazz2.exe, Jazz2_avx2.exe or Jazz2_sdl2.exe, which suggests a default path, an AVX2 build and an SDL2 build. The requirements are Windows 7 or newer and a GPU with OpenGL 3.3 support, and the game files should not be copied into Program Files. Two warnings follow. The cache is recreated during the intro cinematics on the first startup, so it cannot be skipped, and the sound effects in the intro cinematics require that cache, so they will be missing the first time the game is started. In other words, the first run is not instant and not silent, and that is by design rather than a bug.

Linux: dependencies, packages and three different source layouts

On Linux you download the game, install the dependencies, copy the original game files and run the binary. The dependency list is a single apt command covering libcurl4, libglew2.2, libglfw3, libsdl2-2.0-0, libopenal1, libvorbisfile3 and libopenmpt0, and the alternative is to install the provided .deb or .rpm package, in which case the dependencies come with it. The source layout has three cases, and the documentation is careful about it. With a plain download, the files go into a Source folder under the game directory. With a package install, they must be copied to ~/.local/share/jazz2/Source/ or /usr/share/jazz2/Source/ instead. Installations that predate that layout keep using ~/.local/share/Jazz² Resurrection/Source/, which is still detected, so an existing installation does not break. The requirement here is a GPU with OpenGL 3.3 or OpenGL ES 3.0 on ARM.

Packages for most distributions, and the macOS and iOS routes

The project is packaged for a wide range of Linux distributions, with badges for Arch Linux through the AUR, Debian, Flathub, Gentoo, NixOS, openSUSE, Ubuntu through Launchpad and XtraDeb. The macOS route is a.dmg application bundle, and the game files go into the Application Support directory for the application under the user's home. There is also a Homebrew route, installed by trusting the tap and then installing the package. iOS is the exception to the pattern of a downloadable build, because the game is not on the App Store, and the instructions say to build the application bundle from source and install it on the device from Xcode, or to sideload the build. That is the one platform where the project cannot hand you a finished artefact, and the topics list for the repository includes Android, Steam Deck, Windows, Linux and macOS as targets.

Where this project is the wrong choice

Two boundaries make it the wrong project. The first is the asset requirement. A reimplementation that reads the original game's files cannot be installed by someone who does not own Jazz Jackrabbit 2, and the documentation's insistence on the Shareware Demo, Holiday Hare '98, The Secret Files and Christmas Chronicles as the supported versions tells you exactly which editions work. The second is the repository split, and this is the one that catches people out, because the project is presented as an open source game but the code to build it is not in the repository you would clone first. If you want to study or extend the engine, you need jazz2-native. If you want to play, the releases here are what you want. And if you were looking for a from-scratch modern platformer, this is a compatibility reimplementation of a specific 1998 title rather than a new game that happens to share its engine.

Editorial conclusion

Jazz² Resurrection fits a player who owns Jazz Jackrabbit 2 and wants it to run on modern hardware, on Linux, macOS, a Steam Deck or a phone, and it fits a developer who wants to work on an open source reimplementation of a game from 1998. It does not fit someone without the original game, because the engine reads the original game's files rather than shipping its own assets, and it does not fit a developer who wants to build the game from this repository, because the project was fully rewritten since version 1.0.0 and the code now lives in deathkiller/jazz2-native, with this repository carrying only new releases. Before you start, copy the original game directory into the source folder the instructions give, install the runtime dependencies for your platform, and expect the intro cinematics to build a cache on first run that cannot be skipped.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. deathkiller/jazz2 on GitHub
2. License: GPL-3.0
3. Project website
4. README
5. Releases