Jill of the Jungle
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| Jill of the Jungle | |
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| Developer(s) | Epic MegaGames |
| Publisher(s) | Epic MegaGames |
| Release date(s) | 1992 |
| Genre(s) | platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Platform(s) | DOS |
Jill of the Jungle is a trilogy of platformer computer games released in 1992 by Epic MegaGames. It was intended to rival computer games from other shareware companies such as id Software and Apogee Software, Ltd.. The three games in the series were:
- Jill of the Jungle
- Jill Goes Underground
- Jill Saves the Prince
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[edit] Gameplay
Jill of the Jungle is a platform sidescroller which was released during the same time as the Commander Keen and Duke Nukem series of games. You play as an Amazon woman who can use various types of weapons and enhancements as you progress through levels slaying monsters and finding keys. The first game in the series contains 16 levels, each of which can be entered from an overworld resembling another level. The second game uses sequential levels without an overworld.
Various puzzles include keys, transforming into different creatures, and proper jump height among others. The other games in the series use the same graphics and sounds, except that Jill's costume is recolored in each game (blue, green and red).
Between levels in the shareware version, the player encountered humorous messages that took a swipe at various popular game characters, such as Mario, Commander Keen and Duke Nukem. The messages usually described that they were retiring, supposedly due to being unable to compete with Jill.
"Jill of the Jungle" provided market recognition and allowed Epic Megagames to produce future titles, such as Jazz Jackrabbit, One Must Fall: 2097, and the very successful Unreal series of games.
[edit] Miscellaneous
The engine of Jill Saves the Prince was licensed to a company called ArK Multimedia Publishing and used for a Christian-themed game called "Onesimus: A Quest for Freedom". Most of the graphics from the original game were recycled into "Onesimus", which is also known as "Escape From Rome". The protagonist was a slave of Philemon who had to travel to Rome to find the apostle Paul and find true freedom as a Christian. Interestingly, while it seems to be that Jill Saves the Prince (along with the rest of the trilogy) was developed first, references to Onesimus can be found in the string section and level code of the Jill games. However, the credits for Onesimus include a "thanks" to the Epic MegaGames staff, which suggests that "Onesimus" was developed either simultaneously with Jill of the Jungle 3 or developed immediately after it. No other reasonable explanation exists for the presence of the "Onesimus" references in Jill 3's code.
