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1 July 2004 - Armchair Arcade Article

The original Jumpman Junior ColecoVision cartridge (click for larger image)

Armchair Arcade, the excellent classic gaming internet magazine, has published a really good article comparing Jumpman to its immediate descendants - Spelunker, Ultimate Wizard and Pharoah's Curse. It's a very well written and very well informed piece. Any Jumpman or Commodore 64 fan will enjoy it.

Follow this link to go straight to the article.

For those that might not be familiar with these games, check out the following pages:

- This Spelunker web page is an excellent, if brief, introduction.
- The Ultimate Wizard Website is the home of all things Wizard.
- I do not have a link for Pharaoh's Curse. Please send me an email at matty@classicgaming.com if you know of a site.

5 April 2004 - Mugs, FAQ Update

As you can see, I've decided to sell some of the Jumpman mugs I currently have hoarded. Hopefully I'll sell one or two and recoup the cost of having them made. Email me if you've got any queries.

I've updated the FAQ thanks to Jeff who has solved most of the problems that Windows XP users have been having with some of the older DOS-based Jumpman games, like Jumpman Lives, Classic Jumpman and Jeff's own Jumpman Project.

4 February 2004 - New Jumpman-UC Beta, Downloading & FAQ update

Beta 3 of Jumpman - Under Construction is now available for download at the J-UC homepage. Also available is just about every available original Jumpman ROM for you to play on your favourite emulator. If you are new (or newish) to emulation, visit the ClassicGaming Newbie Guide for a great introduction to its finer points.

I've had a little trouble with the Jumpman Zero website in recent days. Anyone else having trouble finding a copy of Jumpman Zero PC can alternatively download it here.

Randy Glover is running a download site for Jumpman - Under Construction and he already has a big number of user-made levels, including some of his own creation. The site URL is 66.121.90.52. An essential bookmark for J-UC players.

I've updated the Jumpman FAQ with some new information kindly provided by Greg Davidson. Sadly, it's a series of newly identified problems while running DOS Jumpman games under Windows XP. If anyone has a solution to this problem, I (and a lot of other Jumpman players) would be very interested in hearing from you. Email me at matty@classicgaming.com.

28 September 2003 - More Jumpman-UC, Jumpman FAQ

The screenshot above is taken from one of the many user-made levels already available for Jumpman - Under Construction. Look familiar? Jumpman Kong, and the rest, are available at the the J-UC homepage, in the forums.

The Jumpman Lounge Jumpman FAQ is now online, replacing the old How To Play guide. It gives a quick introduction to all the Jumpman games out there, gives guidance on how to get going on Windows or a Mac including info on known issues and answers a few of the questions that I receive in email from time to time. It's not comprehensive by any means but hopefully some people will find it useful. If you have any extra information that could be added (particualrly with respect to getting sound working on DOS games in newer versions of Windows), or if you have a question you'd like to see added, please email me at matty@classicgaming.com.

18 September 2003 - Jumpman-UC Goodness, Jumpman Zero FAQ, Forums

There is a new beta version of Jumpman - Under Construction available over at the J-UC homepage along with a whole truckload of new levels. Most excellent. For those who are new, Jumpman-UC is the best way to get your old school Commodore 64 Jumpman fix on a Windows machine.

There is a Jumpman Zero FAQ for the current PC beta over at the Jumpman Zero PC webpage. This is great news for people who people who are as bad at this extraordinarily good game as I am.

I've added a sidebar (on the left) to point people towards the various Jumpman forums that are out there. There is a whole heap of great stuff at the Jumpman-UC Forum, including posts by J-UC developer Chris Leathley, original Jumpman programmer Randy Glover, lots of user made levels for Jumpman Under Construction as well as an opportunity to have input into J-UC itself. The MidnightRyder Jumpman 2049 Forum has just opened but already has some insightful info from J:2049 developer Davis Sickmon which is well worth your time. Finally, I've also included a link to the ClassicGaming.com Forums, not because of its occasional Jumpman content, but because it is a great starting point for those of you that remember other great games from the Jumpman era and would like to interact with similarly minded people. And I know you're out there.

31 July 2003 - Jumpman Project 1.0, Jumpman Lives Source Code, Jumpman-UC Beta and more

The Jumpman Project has officially released version 1.0. The project started in 1999 and has finally achieved its objective of producing a speed-fixed, modern machine compatible version of the original 1984 Jumpman. The game will play on any modern PC with exactly the same look and feel as on the original IBM PC. It even works properly on the IBM PCjr with 16 colors and 3 voice sound. A new addition, a level editor, is also included. The Jumpman Project is an amazing achievement from a technical point of view and also plays perfectly. Visit the Jumpman Project webpage at www.oldskool.org/pc/jumpman for more details and the download.

A huge thankyou to Jumpman Lives programmer Dave Sharpless who has made the Jumpman Lives source code available for public use. It is available here (916K). The game was developed using Turbo Pascal 6.0 but also seems to work just fine under Borland Pascal 7.0. I would be very interested to hear from anyone planning an upgrade or improvement of Jumpman Lives - drop me a line at matty@classicgaming.com.

Beta 1 of Jumpman - Under Construction is now available for download over at members.iinet.net.au/~cleathley/jumpman/index.html. The level editor is up and running and the beta 1 release includes the first 8 levels from Jumpman and the first 2 level from Jumpman Jr. More will be added as the development of the game progresses.

I've finally got around to creating a level pack for Jumpman Lives with each of the entries to the level design competition I held earlier this year. The entries vary from the bizarre to the unique to the inspired and were generally of excellent quality. The level pack is definitely worth a download and is available here (8K). Just unzip the file and copy the contents into your Jumpman Lives directory and it should appear when you start a new game. I've arranged the levels approximately from easiest to most difficult.

Jumpman Lives Level Design Competition Winner, Manuel's Dodge 'Em (pictured) is available for download on a level pack along with the other six competition entries

Finally, there's a Jumpman thread of some interest on the ClassicGaming Forums (www.forumplanet.com/classicgaming), in the "Classic Games" forum. There are some very knowledgable game lovers over at the forums, making it a great place to visit if you wish ask a question (or express an opinion) about any game from the past. (You don't need to register to post a message.)

16 June 2003 - Jumpman Under Construction For Windows

I'm thrilled to announce that there is another Jumpman project in the works and due for a preliminary public beta release in just a few weeks. Jumpman - Under Construction is a Windows remake of Jumpman C64 and features a few fantastic extras, like a level editor and scripting support. The developer, Chris Leathley, has reached the testing stage already and his website can be found at members.iinet.net.au/~cleathley/jumpman/index.html. There is a heap on info, screenshots and a video available.

Jumpman Under Construction is an extended port of the C64 version into the Windows environment. This means that players will be able to create levels with their own enemies, objects and the like as well as the usual ladders, platforms etc in the level editor. Jumpman UC has Randy Glover's blessing and look to be a fantastic and unique addition to the growing family of Jumpman games.

8 June 2003 - Jumpman Project, Coffee Mugs

My ClassicGaming.com stablemate, the Jumpman Project, recently made a significant new release of their ongoing conversion of PC Jumpman that I failed to mention in my previous update. Check it out over at www.oldskool.org/pc/jumpman.

The picture on the right is of a Jumpman coffee mug that each of the entrants to the Great Jumpman Lives Level Design Competition will shortly receive. How cool! I have a few spare, but I haven't decided what to do with them - any suggestions? (Email, as always, is matty@classicgaming.com.)

26 May 2003 - Dodge Em Wins!, Jumpman Zero Release and Site News

Manuel's Dodge Em has won the Great Jumpman Lives Level Design competition, pipping Dave Campbell's Seedling and Khaine's Pancakes by a solitary vote. Congratulations to Manuel, who is the deserving winner of my Jumpman PC original and a Jumpman coffee mug. All the other entrants, along with our voter's prize winner, will also be getting a super-cool Jumpman coffee mug. If you haven't downloaded each of the entries yet, you can still check them out here.

Even more exciting, Jumpman Zero PC is now available for download at www.jumpmanzero.com and it is just fantastic. What are you waiting for? - it's the first new Jumpman experience on a PC since 1991!

Just a short update today due to time constraints, although I have an interesting backlog that I will post over the coming weeks - including an interview with Jumpman Lives creator Dave Sharpless. In the meantime if you have a query or anything interesting Jumpman-related, I can always be contacted at matty@classicgaming.com.

16 March 2003 - Latest on Voting, Jumpman Zero PC reaches Alpha stage

Just two weeks left to cast your vote in the Great Jumpman Lives Level Design Competition. Dodge Em and Pancakes are leading the voting, closely followed by Seedling. Sadly (but predictably), my own effort is coming dead last. Don't be shy - vote for your favourite and put yourself in the running for a Jumpman coffee mug.

Dave Campbell has noted that Jumpman Zero PC has reached Alpha stage, which is the first round of bug testing.

20 February 2003 - Jumpman 2 Dead, Voting, Junkman Jr, More IBT

Some bad news to start off with - Randy Glover's Jumpman 2, after almost two years of no activity, now seems to be completely dead and buried. Randy's website, www.jumpman2.com, is no longer online. Of course, I'll be sure to mention it if there is any change to the situation.

I received an email from Matthew Minehan recently detailing another way to solve the much-maligned In Big Trouble, from Jumpman Lives. Matthew's method is particularly notable because it doesn't require the player to lose a life whilst completing the level - although be warned that it will not work every time. Visit the In Big Trouble Guide for more information.

Voting is still going on for the Great Jumpman Lives Level Design Competition with Manuel's "Dodge 'Em" leading the current voting, closely followed by Khaine's "Pancakes". Voting closes at the end of March - get your vote in to have a chance of winning a super-cool Jumpman coffee mug. The voting page is here.

Thanks to Keir of The Ultimate Wizard Website, we now have a local review of Junkman Junior, a Jumpman knock-off released for the TI-99/4A in 1987. Unfortunately Keir needs a joystick before he can actually play the game, but he has been kind enough to pass on his impressions to date, as well as a few graphics. The review is here.

There is a stack of new information on Dave Campbell's Jumpman Zero PC Developer Diary as the game nears completion. Dave has listed the few remaining tasks before beta testing and he talks about some of the more interesting features, including a planned 2-player co-operation mode for some levels!

Finally, I've removed the links to Jumpman Reborn. It would appear that this project is dead, but I'll be sure to update if there is any change to this situation.

4 February 2003 - More on Voting, Jumpman Lives Legal, New Ad

I forgot to mention that I'll be posting progressive voting results for the Great Jumpman Lives Level Design Competition periodically - there is no 'live' vote counter. (At the time of writing, there have been three votes placed and we have a three-way tie for the lead.) Download the entries and vote for your favouite user-made Jumpman Lives level at this page.

I noticed yesterday the following phrase at the bottom of this page on the 3D Realms (Apogee) webpage - "We do not retain any copyright or control on Jumpman Lives! (which means we don't care what you do with it)". Looks like everyone can now sleep at night with a clear conscience.

One of the benefits of being hosted by ClassicGaming.com is the opportunity to run ad banners across the GameSpy network. Just in case anyone is interested, the new Jumpman Lounge banner - "win crap" is released today. It follows the "now playing" and "don't care" banners, which generated somewhere in the order of 5,000 clicks each.

2 February 2003 - Level Design Competition Voting Now On and more

Big thanks to everyone who entered the Great Jumpman Level Design Competition. The standard of entries has been very high indeed. You can take a look at each of the levels and vote for your favourite here.

There are prizes for the two entries that receive the most votes and also a voter's prize - one randomly selected voter will receive a super-cool Jumpman coffee mug. If you've got any queries about the competition, drop me a line at matty@classicgaming.com.

If you have designed a level of your own which you would like to enter in the Great Jumpman Level Design Competition, I'll happily accept late entries. Just send it my way.

Davis Sickmon, developer of Jumpman: 2049, has posted a lengthy and interesting developer diary on his upcoming game, including plans to bring it to the Mac.

Dave Campbell, developer of Jumpman Zero (and designer of the most unusual entry to the Great Jumpman Level Design Competition), has a stack of new information about the upcoming Jumpman Zero PC, Jumpman Zero Palm and more over at jumpmanzero.com.

31 December 2002 - Jumpman Level Design Competition

As promised, the Great Jumpman Level Design Competition is here! Hopefully everyone will be able to get their Jumpman fix while we wait for Jumpman Zero PC and Jumpman: 2049.

I'm giving away my First Edition copy of Jumpman PC to the winner and also some Jumpman coffee mugs to second place and a randomly selected voter. I don't have a picture of the coffee mug yet but I will include it the second I do. Needless to say, they're very cool.

Enter the competition by emailing me your original Jumpman Lives! level (just send the .JML or .SCR file created by the level editor) to matty@classicgaming.com anytime in January. If you need a copy of the full version of Jumpman Lives!, complete with level editor, get it from the Resources page. I'll post all the entries in early February for everyone to vote on their favourite.

26 December 2002 - In Big Trouble, QBasic Jumpman and more

I have finally got around to putting together a detailed solution for Level 24 from Jumpman Lives!, "In Big Trouble". IBT is a great example of very poor level design and is all but unsolvable. The solution I have posted is a bit tricky and requires the player to lose a life to complete the level - but at least it is a way to get past the level, every time. The solution is here.

An idle search through some old Usenet postings has unearthed a bit of a gem - a QBasic tribute to Jumpman. QBasic is very limited and this will be obvious to anyone who plays this version, which is not even close to being a good quality port. However, it's very recognisable as a Jumpman game, which is a feat in itself by the programmer, Steve Hanov. Download the game and the QBasic source code here (62K).

Keep an eye out for the next Jumpman Lounge update in a week or two. I'm planning to run a Jumpman Lives! level design competition with a few great prizes up for grabs, including my much-beloved original, first edition copy of Jumpman PC (pictured). The best levels will be voted on by visitors to this site.

Finally, a transcript of Davis Sickmon's IndieGamesCom speech is available online at his developer diary on garagegames.com. Davis tells me that it all went well and he even managed to get his Jumpman: 2049 t-shirt (which you can buy at MidnightRyder.com) on TV a couple of times.

1 November 2002 - More Jumpman Zero, IndieGamesCon, Jumpman Reborn...?

Dave Campbell has gazed into the crystal ball in a recent Jumpman Zero PC developer diary and estimated a release date of around March 2003. Sounds good to me.

David Sickmon of MidnightRyder and Jumpman: 2049 will be speaking at this year's IndieGamesCon, which starts today. He is also planning to release his latest game, Trajectory Zone in the very near future. His (planned) next project is to return to Jumpman: 2049, which is already at an early stage of development. Keep an eye on the MidnightRyder website for more details.

Jumpman Reborn has dropped completely of the radar in recent times, with any reference on the GearWorx website completely disappearing. Steve Adamson from GearWorx tells me that other issues have taken his full attention, but Jumpman Reborn is still in production and any updates will be posted on his forum - which is currently down due to an unrelated database problem.

1 October 2002 - Ad from 1984, New Background, Bookmarks, Jumpman Zero PC

My favourite website, The Epyx Shrine, has recently added a number of advertisments for Epyx games scanned from old Computer magazines. Included in the update is a 1984 ad for Jumpman and Jumpman Jr., shown here to the right (click for the full-sized image - 1024x1384, 176K). I can't help but wonder what the guy modelling Jumpman is doing now.

I've taken the opportunity to re-jig the ad such that it fits perfectly as your Windows desktop background. It's available as a 800x600 (55K) or 1024x768 (74K) jpeg. (Download the larger of the two if you're not sure which size you need.)

I've also collated all of the vital Jumpman links (as listed in the Resources section) into a single Jumpman Bookmark Collection that you can import into your browser at the click of a button. Download it for Internet Explorer or Netscape and Opera - right-click on the link and save the file on your own computer.

Once you have saved the appropriate file, import the bookmarks into your browser as follows:

• Internet Explorer - File | Import and Export... then choose Import Favorites

• Netscape - Window | Bookmarks | Edit Bookmarks... then, in the Bookmarks window, File | Import...

• Opera - File | Import | Netscape Bookmarks...

Email me at matty@classicgaming.com if you have any problems.

Finally, there is even more info on the continued development on Jumpman Zero PC at www.jumpmanzero.com. Dave Campbell is updating his development diary all the time, but I'm pointing it out especially today because of the inclusion of a nifty Progress Meter which shows exactly how the design of the game is going.

I have shamelessly copied Dave's Progress Meter below for my own purposes:

16 September 2002 - Jumpman Reborn Video, Developer Diaries, URL Changes

Steve Adamson of Gear Worx has produced Gear View: The Show, a 9 minute video talking about the development of Jumpman Reborn. There is heaps of info about the game and it is well worth the 5.7 MB download (even for modem users like myself). Get it from the Gear Worx webpage.

New developer diaries have been added by Dave Campbell of Jumpman Zero PC (at jumpmanzero.com) and Davis Sickmon of Jumpman: 2049 (at garagegames.com) in recent times. Both are updated regularly and are chock full of information about these two potentially excellent games.

There have also been some URL changes - Jumpman Zero has now moved to www.jumpmanzero.com, Lon Matero's Apogee Page seems to have reverted to www.oakland.edu/~lcmatero and Retro Remakes has moved to www.remakes.org. Update your bookmarks.

26 August 2002 - Two New PC Jumpman Games(!), Mastering Jumpman

If I were to say that a lot has happened this week, it would be an huge understatement. There are two new and original Jumpman games in the works for Windows and both have great promise. Great news for Jumpman fans everywhere.

The first game is Jumpman Zero PC, which is being written by Dave Campbell of Jumpman Zero (for Palm Pilots) fame. The Palm version of Jumpman Zero is fantastic and the upcoming PC version should also be great. It is not a port of the Palm version though - rather, it is a completely original game designed for Windows and will be released as freeware. Visit the Jumpman Zero webpage, which now has Dave's developer diary for the new game, including screenshots, techy info for those of you that are inclined that way and a request for suggestions.

The second game is Jumpman Reborn, which is being developed by notable classic game remaker Steve Adamson of Gear Worx Productions. Jumpman Reborn is also an original game for Windows and Steve has posted couple of screenshots, a couple of short videos of the game in action along with some info on the Gear Worx Forum. There is some really interesting stuff on there, including Jumpman's different new look - so check it out.

Finally, Keir of the Ultimate Wizard Website has passed on a link to Creative Computing magazine January 1984 edition, which includes their guide to Mastering Jumpman. Follow this link to the article, which has all the text of the original but unfortunately none of the pictures. Apparently some genius decided that transcribing the entire magazine into HTML and posting on the web was a good idea - I can't say that I'd do it but it's all good anyway. Of course, if anyone has this particular magazine kicking around at home (or any other old magazine with some Jumpman-related content or advertising) then I would be very interested - please email me at matty@classicgaming.com(.)

14 August 2002 - Classic Jumpman Bug Workaround

For those of you that are having speed problems with Freeze on Classic Jumpman, I have a copy of Classic Jumpman without Freeze here (286 K).

Classic Jumpman was originally released without Freeze in 1994 and was updated to include it in 2001. The version with Freeze suffers from speed problems on some Pentium computers running Windows 95/98, making Freeze all but impossible. This is particularly annoying if you are playing Grand Loop! If you are after the new version (with Freeze), get it from the Classic Jumpman webpage - the old version is no longer available.

The picture to the left is a scan of the original Jumpman Junior cover for the Commodore 64, which I picked up off lemon64.com, a great C64 website. There is all sorts of goodies on Lemon64, including the original Jumpman music. Click on the image for the full-size version (59 K).

18 July 2002 - Jumpman Zero Webpage

The Jumpman Zero website has moved to www.integraclaims.com/jmzero(.) Jumpman Zero is a top-notch, original Jumpman game for Palm Pilots that was released about this time last year. It is also free! Download it from the Jumpman Zero webpage which also has, among other things, a top score competition that is regularly updated.

25 June 2002 - Jumpman: 2049 Status Update

As most of you will be aware, there has been scant information regarding Jumpman: 2049 progress on MidnightRyder's website recently. The good news is that Davis Sickmon, the developer, has been as busy as ever but has been posting progress updates over on garagegames.com. Click here to check out his archive of diary entries.

Amongst the wealth of information Davis has posted (and is continuing to post), he has announced a tentative release date for Jumpman: 2049 of October this year. Can't wait!

Davis has been using garagegames.com's facilities since he licensed Torque, a games development tool for Windows. His first Torque game is called Trajectory and is due to be completed in a month or so. Jumpman: 2049 will not be a Torque based game.

9 June 2002 - Jumpman Movie Wallpaper

This is great. Huge thanks to Khaine for this mock-up Jumpman movie poster that is almost a bit too real. Click on the image for the full-sized picture (36K).

As well as creating this fantastic poster, Khaine is the genuis who has no less than 180 Jumpman Lives! user-made levels available for download in the Resources section of the Jumpman Lounge. They are great - check 'em out.

4 June 2002 - Classic Jumpman Bug

Greg Davidson has been kind enough to drop a line informing me of a bug in Classic Jumpman that some people may have experienced. Some elements of the game - particularly the freezers in Freeze - run too fast on Pentium III computers with Windows 98. There is no bug fix planned and unfortunately the only workaround is to upgrade either your processor or Windows.

Greg has also pointed out that Grand Puzzle III can be solved in a way that is overlooked in Keir's excellent article. The Grand Puzzle III Solution has been updated accordingly. Contributions like Greg's are always appreciated here at the Jumpman Lounge, so don't be shy and drop me an email at matty@classicgaming.com.

13 March 2002 - New Stuff, Jumpman Lives! High Score

I've added a new section to the Jumpman Lounge - a guide to getting Jumpman up and running. It is mostly geared towards those who wish to play Jumpman on a Windows PC, but I haven't neglected other platforms. Check it out here.

I'm happy to report that there is a new record holder on the Jumpman Lives! high score competition on the Epyx Shrine. The new mark is about 40,000.

Finally, ClassicGaming.com has been a little flaky in recent weeks. My apologies if this site has been hard to reach at times. If you have any problems at all, please let me know at matty@classicgaming.com. Cheers.

21 February 2002 - Grand Puzzle III Solution

Keir of the Ultimate Wizard Website has kindly provided a comprehensive Grand Puzzle III Solution. That's great news for clowns like me who can't work it out for themselves.

12 February 2002 - Jumpman: 2049 T-Shirts and Progress, New C64 Link

Jumpman: 2049 development is back at full throttle at MidnightRyder. Hopefully I will have some pictures of Jumpman himself to show off in the near future. In the meantime, Jumpman: 2049 "bomb technician" T-shirts are for sale at MidnightRyder.com. Check them out here.

I stumbled across a great Commodore 64 website called Lemon64 recently. Just about everything C64 related imaginable is there, including this scan of the original C64 Jumpman cover. Icky! Like Retro-Remakes (the site I mentioned a couple of weeks ago), it is basically just an information database but there is all sorts of cool stuff like the original Jumpman music and an option for you to rate games like Jumpman and Jumpman Jr.

If you know of any other Jumpman-related websites out there (like Lemon64) that I do not have listed on my Resources page, please drop me a line at matty@classicgaming.com and let me know. Cheers.

30 January 2002 - I forgot to mention in my last update that the Jumpman Project has been updated for the first time in a while. Jeff has fixed a couple of bugs in this ongoing extended PC port of the original Jumpman. For those of you who are unaware of the Jumpman Project, Jeff's ultimate goal is produce a PC playable version of Jumpman with a few funky extensions (such as a level editor). It's well worth a look and the current version is always available for download.

24 January 2002 - Retro-Remakes is a fairly comprehensive database of classic game remakes, including Jumpman. There are also a lot of ROMs of the original games themselves, including Jumpman C64. It's not a fan site like this one - there is no narration about the games but it is a great resource if you are just chasing the files.

MidnightRyder.com have released Tile Panic!, another puzzle game in their Panic! series. They are selling it for all of US$10 and a demo is avaiable on their website. At this stage, they are planning to release a game of great promise called Gremlin Panic! before Jumpman: 2049 sees the light of day.

Below is another screenshot of one of the levels from Khaine's great Jumpman Lives! level packs. I know I said it last time but these levels packs are just excellent. Get them from the new-and-improved Jumpman Lounge Resources page.

18 December 2001 - Khaine has been kind enough to allow the Jumpman Lounge to host a copy of his fantastic Jumpman Lives! level packs. These have been on Lon Matero's Apogee Page for a little while and are well worth downloading. There are a total of 18 level packs (10 levels each) - download them on the Resources page or just click here (174 K). They are all top quality - some of them are complete genius. The screenshot below is Grand Maze 2, from Level Pack 5.

Many of you who played Jumpman on the trusty rusty C64 will know all about the delights of Ultimate Wizard - a Jumpman clone with lots of extra features and stacks of levels. Lucky you - Keir has opened the Ultimate Wizard Website - the very first Wizard webpage (that I know of). There is heaps of stuff and it's all good.

Shaun Mead has a Jumpman Lives! webpage that had somehow passed me by. There's not much here but there are a couple of level packs that aren't available elsewhere. If there are any other Jumpman (or Wizard) webpages that I don't have on the Resources page, please let me know.

5 November 2001 - There is a couple of Jumpman auctions on at eBay at the moment..., Jumpman C64 and Jumpman Junior C64. Both auctions close sometime later this week. Various Jumpman games appear on eBay from time to time - just search for "Jumpman" and ignore all the Jordan stuff.

25 October 2001 - Thought I'd do a quick round-up today of the various Jumpman games in development...

Randy Glover's Jumpman 2 - no recorded progress since April 2001. Jumpman 2's development has always been a bit stop-start, which is simply because it is Randy's hobby, not his job. In his own words - "Progress will be dictated by time, energy and resources I have available (read: slow).".

MidnightRyder's Jumpman: 2049 - most definitely still progressing but delayed to meet other commitments. My guess is that the finished product will be for sale early 2002.

Dave Campbell's Jumpman Zero - this new, freeware version for the PalmOS is completed (with possible small updates to come). It has recently been given a glowing review at this Japanese Palm website (you will need a translation to read it in any approximation of English). Dave is always updating the Jumpman Zero website with the latest high scores.

The Jumpman Project - no recorded progress since December 2000.

8 October 2001 - I've whipped up a convenient Jumpman PC Installer which will install Jumpman Lives! and Classic Jumpman on a Windows machine with a click of a button. Just download, unzip, rick click on JUMP.INF and select "Install". It's only 380K and won't make any registry changes. It's the ultimate free Windows Jumpman experience!

Jumpman Zero has been downloaded over 2500 times on palmgear.com at the time of writing. There are a couple of short but very positive reviews as well - the link is here.

A bit of less positive news - MidnightRyder, Jumpman: 2049 developers are delaying the development of the game to concentrate on a couple of other upcoming games. MidnightRyder have a history of creating top quality puzzle games - notably the Boulder Panic! series - and these releases should be no different. Jumpman: 2049 is unlikely to see the light of day before Christmas, but you never know.

28 September 2001 - Thanks to all those that have sent me email over the past few months and I apologise for the delay in responding. I'm back and Jumpman Lounge updates will resume their normal frequency of every few weeks. Now, time to catch up on everything that's been going on...

Jumpman Zero now has its own webpage at www.integraclaims.com/jmzero. Go there for the latest version of Jumpman Zero for the Palm IIIc and black & white Palms. The current version has 10 levels, an ending and other stuff. I haven't played it personally but the reports I have been emailed are all incredibly positive.

The latest Jumpman: 2049 developer diary from Davis Sickmon contains a whole stack of information about the game's progress into beta. Davis also mentions that he may use the Jumpman: 2049 engine to create an update for Wizard / Ultimate Wizard (an excellent Jumpman-style game) sometime in the future. Those interested in playing the original version of Wizard will need to look in the ClassicGaming.com Vault.

Lon Matero's Apogee page, which has a stack of Jumpman Lives! info as well as user-made levels to download has changed URL to apogeegames.com.

Emulator guru and Jumpman fan Kevin has tracked down another version of Jumpman, this time for the TI-99/4A (!). Junkman (sic) Junior seems to be a pretty good version and has all or most of the levels. For more information and the ROM itself, visit www.uwm.edu/~foxmj/ti994a/system.htm.

If anyone has any questions or comments or (even better) any contributions, then please email me at matty@classicgaming.com. I love email. Oh, and finally, I'd like to point out that I still hold the high score record for Jumpman Lives! over on The Epyx Shrine. Shame on you all.

23 April 2001 - Just like last year, I'll be spending the next few months in another country and away from my computer and as a result updates of this page will be less frequent. Normal service will be resumed in September.

10 April 2001 - Davis Sickmon of MidnightRyder is calling for Jumpman: 2049 beta testers. No experience required, just enthusiasm. Click here to go straight to the article on MidnightRyder.com. There has actually been quite a bit of activity on the MidnightRyder Jumpman forum and Developer Diaries in recent days, particularly with regard to Jumpman: 2049. So go visit!

Also, Jumpman2.com is finally back online! Randy Glover has updated it with a fair stack of new information on Jumpman 2 as well as a few other bits and pieces. He's also included a contact email address.

27 March 2001 - New today, a review of Jumpman Deluxe for the Amiga, kindly supplied by Kevin Anderson. Jumpman Deluxe is a 1996 clone of Jumpman by a bloke called Ralf Buchtmann. Read the review here or go straight to the Resources page to get the files (an Amiga version of Jumpman Jr. is also included but is not reviewed). Thanks also to Manuel Polik of The Epyx Shrine fame.

23 March 2001 - Dave Campbell has released the black and white compatible version of Palm Jumpman 0.07. The game has also been renamed and is now called Jumpman Zero. Get both the black and white, and colour versions at the Resources page.

21 March 2001 - Palm Jumpman is here and available for download! The current version is 0.07. Note that the game currently only works on colour machines. Palm Jumpman doesn't have a web page, but there is more information and a bunch of screenshots here.

7 March 2001 - About a million things to update this time around, including new Jumpman ports on the PC, Amiga and PalmOS. I'll go through them one at a time. Oh, and there is no truth to the rumor that the Jumpman Lounge will soon be known as "The Other J.Lo".

Palm Jumpman! This is either the best idea ever or about 3 weeks early for April Fools Day. Dave Campbell has been working on Palm Jumpman for a while and it is apparently playable if still at a very early stage of development. It will not be a genuine port - more of a rewrite containing mostly new levels. The screenshot on the right shown Easy Does It. I don't have a download or a link (yet) - watch this space.

The Classic Jumpman port for the PC has been updated to include Freeze, which was missing in the original release. This near-perfect port is a quality package and I highly recommend it. The website is here.

The Epyx Shrine has added a great section on Jumpman with heaps of stuff, including interviews with Randy Glover and the programmers of the original 1983 port to the PCjr and a strategy guide for Jumpman. It's a great site.

Jumpman has been ported to the Amiga, called Jumpman Deluxe! Unfortunately the site hosting it, retro-remakes.com, has been terminated under a barrage of abuse from its founder. I hope to have a local copy and a review on the Jumpman Lounge soon.

Davis Sickmon has a new Developer Diary online, talking about the Jumpman: 2049 schedule. Davis has now released Boulder Panic! 2 DX and is onto new projects, including J:2049. For the record, Boulder Panic! 2 DX is a great puzzle game - you can download the demo (2.4 MB) if you're interested.

Jumpman2.com is still offline - I'll make a note when it comes back.

31 January 2001 - Oops! It turns out that this site has had a couple of broken links since debuting on ClassicGaming.com, including the download link for Jumpman Lives!. It's fixed now - if you want to download anything, just go to the resources page and choose away.

You may have noticed that jumpman2.com is down at the moment - turns out that our hero Randy Glover has run into some internet fraud problems. His latest Developer Diary explains all. Jumpman2.com should be back up soon.

Jumpman: 2049 developer Davis Sickmon also has a new(ish) developer diary online.

23 January 2001 - We've moved to ClassicGaming.com! Hooray!

There's been a couple of Jumpman-related updates on MidnightRyder.com recently, including a new developer diary by Randy Glover. At the time of writing there were a couple of problems with some of the MidnightRyder.com webpages - hopefully they will be sorted out by the time you read this.

By the way, if you have anything Jumpman-related to add to this webpage, please let me know. I'm always interested in hearing from fellow Jumpman fans. - Matty

9 January 2001 - New Jumpman Lounge Logo! Purty. Also, Randy has updated Jumpman2.com again with a whole stack of information related to the development of Jumpman 2. The more I read about J2, the more ambitious it seems. Randy's notes are very detailed and worthwhile.

26 December 2000 - Randy Glover has updated Jumpman2.com, including a detailed and rather clever back story to Jumpman 2 (click on "What's new") and the opening of his "Links" section.

18 December 2000 - More updates around the traps this week. Before I get onto them, I might just plug the Jumpman Games discussion area on MidnightRyder.com again. It's great and there's heaps of things to see and do.

The Jumpman 2 website has been updated for the first time in a long time. Sensational! There is very little info, but Randy Glover has written a short welcome note and a contact email address.

The Jumpman Project have now got a Jumpman level builder. Stupendous! It's in Beta 2 as I write this and it's more than usable. 17 years on, and you can now create and play brand new Jumpman levels.

Davis Sickmon has posted a couple of new Developer Diaries. Scintillating! It includes a whole stack of information on Jumpman: 2049 and also some background on the inner workings of MidnightRyder.com. It's well worth a read.

4 December 2000 - MidnightRyder.com have opened their Jumpman Games discussion area, open to all comers. Not only will Jumpman: 2049 stuff appear here, but Randy Glover will be posting on Jumpman 2. Plus, there is a Developer Diaries section. Wow. So take a look and interact!

I just noticed that Randy Glover has posted his first Developer Diary, titled Jumpman II - The Vision. Here's a direct link to the Developer Diaries section on the Jumpman Games discussion area.

3 December 2000 - Great news today - it seems that Jumpman: 2049 will be develeped sooner rather than later because it is generating a lot of interest. MidnightRyder.com would like everyone interested in J:2049 to send a quick email (to midryder@midnightryder.com) - this will help keep his investment company happy.

Also, the Jumpman Project have released a new version - Jeff has managed to screw around with one of the levels, which is the first step toward a level editor.

9 November 2000 - A huge exclusive preview of MidnightRyder.com's Jumpman: 2049 is now online! Including screenshots!

1 October 2000 - Well, this page seems to be getting a few hits now... happy to see that others love Jumpman just as much as I do. I'll try to update this page with something every couple of weeks - and you try to tune in. This update, the original Jumpman manual (in text format).

10 January 2000 - Jumpman creator Randy Glover has given permission for MidnightRyder.com to create their own Jumpman game title - Jumpman: 2049. Looks like two Jumpman sequels are in the works although details of MidnightRyder's game are scant.

16 August 1999 - Added Jumpman 2 section