I see there's a user named "greatatemi" who left single star reviews saying that they're "selling a freeware game" on both Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2. I guess they think of illegal pirated copies as freeware, then? The games have never been released for free, unless you count Holiday Hare, but those are just small freebies with only a couple levels.

I've reported him, it's pretty untrue.

Maybe this user confused it with the shareware version of Jazz Jackrabbit. As far as I recall it was shareware. Sure enough you can find the shareware version by a quick search on your preferred web search engine. If I am not mistaken the shareware version contained the first episode of the full game.

I love this game. Still own the original CD version. But I might buy it on gog anyway ... thinking about it.

Both games had a shareware release containing one episode. Still, I'd guess that the user is thinking about some “abandonware release”.

I've got almost everything on CD. I don't have “The Christmas Chronicles”. I spent a lot of time trying to get that release, but my efforts were in vain. I even pre-ordered it…

I was a fool way back and bought a spanish release off ebay. It turned out to be the shareware episode on a CD. "Version Completa" my butt.

Actually the shareware version of Jazz 2 had a small separate 3-level episode unique to it. It's bundled with the Secret Files release though :-).

They've been free for a long time. The reason they came out with a $ value attached again now is because someone who can earn from sales royalties from these decided to pull it out of freeware territory. I don't know why people think one can't exist with the other, I mean they've been free, they're going to continue to be free until those sites get letters from lawyers letting them know things have changed, and I don't know why it took them so long to start pushing out the free versions, either.

My best guess is people who thought they had to buy it and/or weren't aware of the legal free avenues are upset for some reason. Either way, you own it now, it's easier to launch this than it is a free version anyway.

Can you please point to the press release from when these were made free?

Don't make me get my belt.

Uh, no dude, they were never free.

There were shareware releases of the games, but they were never 100% free.

Perhaps you're confusing them for Tyrian 2000 or One Must Fall: 2097? Or perhaps you're one of those people who think that abandonware is an actual legal term that actually makes a game legally freeware?

Let's say like this: the original contents of Jazz Jackrabbit 1 and 2 was never released for free neither as source. There was a different but more lacking version titled as "shareware" but that do nothing with the original games except the engine.

no

Spouts bullshit, immediately resorts to threats when someone politely asks for a source. Unsurprising.

I'm not threatening anybody lol

The shareware version, which contained only the first 7 levels, was free. As was the holiday version, which contained 3 levels. The CD version, which contained 66 levels, including the 10 mentioned above, was never free. Sure, you could download it off abandonware sites, but "being able to unauthorizedly download it somewhere on the net" isn't the same thing as being free, since that would mean essentially all software is free.