Comeback's dumb '94 computer questions

[Comeback_King]

Hello Everyone, even you Wags,

I wanted to make a thread of problems I run into while using the computer and/or internet to play online or everything else that goes with it. I think this would be the easiest way instead of PM'ng people with my dumb questions.

I never really was any good with this stuff but over the course of 5 years I've gotten a hell of a lot better. Hell, it's my first season playing on-line. I always wanted to but I was timid about doing it. Now, I'm having a blast.

By dumb questions I mean I didn't even know what a PM was or all this other computer lingo like "ttyl" "brb" etc.

I'm 32, some guys my age went this route and understand, others like me went into the working field where the only computer we had to deal with was the punch clock in a factory. There are some guys on here who are 20! and were 4 YEARS OLD when the game came out! Christ.

I do my research a lot myself. I don't want to bother people and plus you sound like an idiot. But that takes a lot of time going through threads (finding them, reading them, and not understanding them fully) or surfing online. I want to thank everyone who helped me in the past too.

Here are some that pop in my head:

1) How do you use the quote, multiquote system when you reply to a topic? I never could figure that out. It's the same system I noticed on other forums. Do I right click and highlight what I want to respond to and hit a button? For instance sometimes I only want to respond to a specific part of someone's comment, but when I respond, the whole quote shows up.

2) AIM settings. What is the difference between IM and CHAT? Instant message I know that. I've been using that. When would you use chat? I don't need to worry about that for '94?

3) I always wondered about this one. Will this effect gameplay: recently I figured out by I think going into control panel somewhere, how to fix my issue with the game starting up and automatically going into full screen mode. It was a PIA. People would message me and I would never know because the display wasn't windowed. Now, when I play online, it's windowed and when someone messages me, it'll flash at the bottom. I think I might of right clicked the desktop and went to properties? My question is, wherever I was, it gave me options of changing my screen resolution. It was saying 1020x 450 , along those lines. What should I keep my screen resolution at for best graphics? Will this effect gameplay?

4) what the fudge is VSYNC, render, sprite limit? What is a sprite?

5) NETPLAY- Basically all servers are client and hamachi is P2P? When p2p isn't working use server to play. But server isn't as good as hamachi? connection setting good 20 packets (not excellent) (why not excellent? if both parties use excellent- do you get an advantage?) what is a packet? what is LAN 60 packets?

6) Can you think of any other settings on Gens to mess around with for better sound, graphics, smoother gameplay that you guys use? thanks

7) Who is the biggest sore loser on this forum? Past or present lol

8) How the fudge do you win faceoffs? That is my biggest drawback. i don't even care, I'll tell you all. I suck. I average like 3-5 wins per game. I keep jamming the B button so there's got to be something else. Do I need to buy a controller with turbo button? The guys who use turbo, does it help? Cause I need it. Is it cheating?

9) more to come?..........

thanks

Edited March 10, 2011 by Comeback_King

[halifax]

I can answer a couple of them.

1) How do you use the quote, multiquote system when you reply to a topic? I never could figure that out. It's the same system I noticed on other forums. Do I right click and highlight what I want to respond to and hit a button? For instance sometimes I only want to respond to a specific part of someone's comment, but when I respond, the whole quote shows up.

click on each multiquote link for each post you want to copy. then use "add reply" (not fast reply)....and then edit their posts for the info you want to use.

2) AIM settings. What is the difference between IM and CHAT? Instant message I know that. I've been using that. When would you use chat? I don't need to worry about that for '94?

To me IM and chat are interrelated for the most part. sometimes people say both but mean the same thing.

8) How the fudge do you win faceoffs? That is my biggest drawback. i don't even care, I'll tell you all. I suck. I average like 3-5 wins per game. I keep jamming the B button so there's got to be something else. Do I need to buy a controller with turbo button? The guys who use turbo, does it help? Cause I need it. Is it cheating?

I don't have a turbo, I always wondered if some guys use it. There's no way to prevent it, so I wouldn't call it cheating....cheap perhaps.

[shaftman]

5) NETPLAY- Basically all servers are client and hamachi is P2P? When p2p isn't working use server to play. But server isn't as good as hamachi? connection setting good 20 packets (not excellent) (why not excellent? if both parties use excellent- do you get an advantage?) what is a packet? what is LAN 60 packets?

maybe someone else can chim in a little better than i can here but ill try..

1. yes. hamachi isnt the only way to p2p, but its the best option.

2. server can be as good if not better than hamachi, depending who you ask.

3. not sure, why not excellent? try it.

4. Packets are just.. transfering internet data

and always remember there are no dumb questions!

( just dumb answeres )

[donnybrook]

i used to use turbo for faceoffs but it (probably) doesnt make a difference. the technique i use is i dont jam the B button (unless im wing for 2v2, then i mash), instead i wait till the ref drops the puck and hit b and a directional at the same time. everyone has their own technique on faceoffs, this is just mine. doesnt work much better than button mash but i just do it out of habbit. there is no way i know of that works better than any other, correct me if im wrong

also, to answer more. you can download render plugins witch will filter the emulation making it look smoother or add scanlines so it looks like how it looked on old TVs

Edited March 10, 2011 by donnybrook

[smozoma]

3) I always wondered about this one. Will this effect gameplay: recently I figured out by I think going into control panel somewhere, how to fix my issue with the game starting up and automatically going into full screen mode. It was a PIA. People would message me and I would never know because the display wasn't windowed. Now, when I play online, it's windowed and when someone messages me, it'll flash at the bottom. I think I might of right clicked the desktop and went to properties? My question is, wherever I was, it gave me options of changing my screen resolution. It was saying 1020x 450 , along those lines. What should I keep my screen resolution at for best graphics? Will this effect gameplay?

If you have an LCD, then the best resolution to use is the native resolution of the monitor, otherwise it will be blurry. In the control panel, it'll be the highest available resolution, so use that.

You dont have to go full-screen. You go can into the Video menu in the Gens emulator and put a checkmark next to "stretch", and then you can use the mouse to grab the edge of the window and stretch it to the size you want.

[Guest Wags13]

I love you too :0

I honestly think there is some randomization programming in the game that just gives the faceoff randomly to the user hitting the B button..

[hokkeefan]

I love you too :0

I honestly think there is some randomization programming in the game that just gives the faceoff randomly to the user hitting the B button..

How are you able to post from prison wags?

[smozoma]

Are you using Gens or Kega as your emulator?

4)

-- I don't think VSYNCH matters on an LCD.

-- A sprite is a picture in a game that moves (the players are sprites.. mario is a sprite, the goombas (his enemies) are sprites, the mushroom is a sprite, etc)

-- Render means to draw a picture on the screen. it's the mode it uses to draw it. try them out. the way it enlarges the screen is different. they are built into Gens. I think with Kega you have to download them somehow.

5)

-- When you connect to a server, you are a client of the server, which is why it's called that -- the netplay thingie is working in client mode.

-- Hamachi is NOT p2p. Hamachi is a TOOL you use to make it possible to play over a p2p connection. "p2p" means "peer to peer" -- this means you connect directly with your opponent, rather than through a server. You need Hamachi because it makes it possible to connect directly to the other player. The reason people need Hamachi for this is that their router would normally block the connection between the players (for security reasons), but Hamachi does some tunneling through the router. You don't strictly need hamachi -- "real men" set up their router to allow p2p connections without needing Hamachi. When people just say "hamachi?" they mean, "let's play p2p, but I need to use hamachi because I don't know how to set up my router"

-- Server is not as good as p2p because the packets have to go from you, to the server, then to your opponent. p2p cuts out the middle man.

-- a packet is a chunk of data sent over the network. in the case of the emulators, it contains basically what buttons you pressed and at what time (but if you are using 20/sec, then it'll only allow 20 different times per second). more packets transmitted per second will create more responsive gameplay, but will require more bandwidth -- however, this concept was created back in the day of phone-line modem internet (10-100 times slower than cable/DSL broadband), so come to think of it, maybe we should all switch to 60 (but maybe this will make games desynch more, i don't know).

8)

I button mash like crazy. i don't know if turbo helps, but i would consider it cheating (or trying to cheat, since it seems almost random). If neither player presses B, the puck will fire off on its own in some random direction.

[Comeback_King]

also, to answer more. you can download render plugins witch will filter the emulation making it look smoother or add scanlines so it looks like how it looked on old TVs

and where can I go about looking into that? render plugins

Are render plugins or scanlines similar to this story I'm about to tell you: Around 5 years ago, my friends and I played sega cd '94 at my house one day for honestly like 8 hours straight. For whatever reason, I forgot why, we plugged in the cartridge game. Holy shite is all I gotta say! We were laughing so hard. Our eyes were trained to see how smooth the sega cd version is and when we went to play the cartridge, the game looked choppy! The skaters and the flow of the game was real choppy is the only way I can explain it. But after an hour, our eyes were used to it and we couldn't tell the difference. Why is that? What happened? Frames rate?

[Comeback_King]

Are you using Gens or Kega as your emulator?

4)

-- I don't think VSYNCH matters on an LCD.

-- A sprite is a picture in a game that moves (the players are sprites.. mario is a sprite, the goombas (his enemies) are sprites, the mushroom is a sprite, etc)

-- Render means to draw a picture on the screen. it's the mode it uses to draw it. try them out. the way it enlarges the screen is different. they are built into Gens. I think with Kega you have to download them somehow.

I'm using Gens and I have a new flat screen monitor, probably LCD, it's a nice one. Ok, so when I open up Gens, next to File (where I open up the Rom) there is GRAPHIC. I currently have Vsync unchecked. I just didn't know what it does or if I should check it. I'll leave it unchecked like you said.

I now understand what I sprite is: It's my hockey player raising his arms after a goal when I play Wags after his shite talking. And at the same place under GRAPHICS it says sprite limit, that IS currently checked. I started the game up and while I played I kept unchecking / checking sprite limit but I didn't notice anything.

thanks

[Comeback_King]

I don't have a turbo, I always wondered if some guys use it. There's no way to prevent it, so I wouldn't call it cheating....cheap perhaps.

well I just got the retrousb in the mail. And I plugged in my only sega controller that has turbo. I used it for 4 games and my faceoff percentage skyrocketed! It definitely helps. But the controller is my crappiest one I own and I don't like using it. It would actually be a hindrance than do more good since the buttons don't have good respnse time. I'll pass to Tony Twist in the slot for a for sure one timer press the 'C' button and all he does is catch it and stare at the goalie. Man I hate that.

I'm at a moral dilemma now. Do I use it to compete with the "A" players and not be able to sleep at night? Will I be able to look at myself in the mirror and say "I'm good enough, smart enough, and God dammit people like me?"

It's like steroids, not that I'd know lol. It wouldn't be too hard to notice if someone uses turbo I think. I got to think about this. I do lose A LOT of games only winning 25% faceoffs a game. And I'm not even kidding. I check the game stats all the time.

[Comeback_King]

Are you using Gens or Kega as your emulator?

more packets transmitted per second will create more responsive gameplay, but will require more bandwidth -- however, this concept was created back in the day of phone-line modem internet (10-100 times slower than cable/DSL broadband), so come to think of it, maybe we should all switch to 60 (but maybe this will make games desynch more, i don't know).

In theory, that makes sense. I'll try playing my buddy online using more packets and see what happens? he is also from chicago so it might be a good "control" experiment.

sorry for the multiple posts, I still don't understand the multiquote button/

[smozoma]

I'm using Gens and I have a new flat screen monitor, probably LCD, it's a nice one. Ok, so when I open up Gens, next to File (where I open up the Rom) there is GRAPHIC. I currently have Vsync unchecked. I just didn't know what it does or if I should check it. I'll leave it unchecked like you said.

I now understand what I sprite is: It's my hockey player raising his arms after a goal when I play Wags after his shite talking. And at the same place under GRAPHICS it says sprite limit, that IS currently checked. I started the game up and while I played I kept unchecking / checking sprite limit but I didn't notice anything.

thanks

I doubt sprite limit matters on a modern computer. a modern computer will be fast enough to put as many sprites as needed on the screen at once. back in the day, in the 90's when these emulators were first created, they were really slow so you would want options to make the graphics take less CPU.

[Comeback_King]

thanks everyone

I now understand multiquote

#9 why can't I upload a picture? I was able to once before. I click browse, find the pic, attach file to upload and then nothing. I get this:

Used 0bytes of your Unlimited global upload quota (Max. single file size: 20MB)

I'll even preview post to see if it's there and somehow worked but nope.

Geeze, now this / Would this have something to do with firefox? But it works with my yahoo email. I can send pics all day. Only this forum.

[smozoma]

thanks everyone

I now understand multiquote

#9 why can't I upload a picture? I was able to once before. I click browse, find the pic, attach file to upload and then nothing. I get this:

Used 0bytes of your Unlimited global upload quota (Max. single file size: 20MB)

I'll even preview post to see if it's there and somehow worked but nope.

Geeze, now this / Would this have something to do with firefox? But it works with my yahoo email. I can send pics all day. Only this forum.

after you select the file, you have to click the navy blue "Attach This File" button. it gets me all the time, too.

[OneTimer]

Im gunning for you comeback. You have nightmares about dino ciccarelli.

[Comeback_King]

after you select the file, you have to click the navy blue "Attach This File" button. it gets me all the time, too.

yeah I was doing that and nothing. It would show it processing and then nothing. But my buddy told me I might have to scale the pic down with a program so I did and it worked. I still don't understand why I had to scale it down if the forum says max single file size 20mb. I right clicked on the pic under properties and the pic was only 1.71 mb.

#10- yeah ten questions already but luckily they're running out. Apple computers. News to me. They're different. I thought a computer was a computer. I tried downloading the rom and emulator for my one buddy's computer so he could start playing online instead of the cartridge. No luck, not as easy at all compared to my computer. He was telling me Apple's are different and it won't work and something about Bill Gates and viruses, I don't know, he lost me after that. You mean to tell me nobody on here is using an Apple computer? The furthest I got was downloading the package and placing it in a folder we created but we could not open it. Apple won't allow us without doing something else. Any Apple users here? What else do I need to do? thanks.

[smozoma]

#10- yeah ten questions already but luckily they're running out. Apple computers. News to me. They're different. I thought a computer was a computer. I tried downloading the rom and emulator for my one buddy's computer so he could start playing online instead of the cartridge. No luck, not as easy at all compared to my computer. He was telling me Apple's are different and it won't work and something about Bill Gates and viruses, I don't know, he lost me after that. You mean to tell me nobody on here is using an Apple computer? The furthest I got was downloading the package and placing it in a folder we created but we could not open it. Apple won't allow us without doing something else. Any Apple users here? What else do I need to do? thanks.

Apples (aka Macs) need a different emulator. I don't have a mac, so I don't know what to suggest, but this one was updated in 2010 so should be decent: http://www.bannister.org/software/gplus.htm

Or, he could look into using Wine (a program that lets you run windows programs on your mac), and running Gens inside Wine.

As for viruses, now that Macs are getting more popular, people are starting to write viruses for them... there was no point writing viruses for a computer no one had!

As for Bill Gates, check out the philanthropic work done by Gates vs that done by Steve Jobs...

But Macs are good computers, anyway... just hard to use for the nhl94 world. I don't think anyone has ever gotten a netplay game between a Mac and a PC to work before.

[Comeback_King]

Drivers and NHL '94

What does a driver do? How does/can that affect your game play online as far as lag issues? If you really want to have some fun and get lost open up your control panel and start searching from there trying to find what kind of driver you have. Holy Christ! I went in circles and still don't know what version I have. I ended up on XP help/search screens and stuff. Good golly miss molly. Anyway, I'm not having issues with my computer but I was just curious. I'm always looking into how I can maybe make the game run smoother/better for online play, for other opponents who play me. What are RAMS? Does your computer automatically look for updated drivers and download them? I want the latest. What versions do you guys like? Are they free to download? What site do you recommend? thanks.

[kingraph]

Drivers and NHL '94

What does a driver do? How does/can that affect your game play online as far as lag issues? If you really want to have some fun and get lost open up your control panel and start searching from there trying to find what kind of driver you have. Holy Christ! I went in circles and still don't know what version I have. I ended up on XP help/search screens and stuff. Good golly miss molly. Anyway, I'm not having issues with my computer but I was just curious. I'm always looking into how I can maybe make the game run smoother/better for online play, for other opponents who play me. What are RAMS? Does your computer automatically look for updated drivers and download them? I want the latest. What versions do you guys like? Are they free to download? What site do you recommend? thanks.

A driver is just a set of instructions a computer uses to understand how to run a piece of hardware. For example, when you initially attach a printer to your computer, your computer won't know how it works until it gets instructions, a.k.a. the driver. Driver version updates are dependent on each piece of hardware. So, you have a driver for every piece of hardware attached to your computer, each with it's own version.

Having said that, I don't believe there is a specific driver for NHL'94, or the emulator as they are both software.

[smozoma]

Drivers are specific to your hardware devices (video card, sound card, network card...). They control the hardware. Usually you need to update these manually.

You get the drivers from the website of the manufacturer. They are free. Make sure it's the right one for your hardware and operating system.

If you have "on board" or "integrated" video, you may be out of luck, since sometimes these are totally crappy, regardless of the driver, especially on a high def monitor (more pixels = more power needed).

RAM (Random Access Memory) is how much your computer can think about at one time. If you don't have enough, then it's like your computer is always writing things down to remember them later, then referring to those notes when it needs to.. rather than just remember it all in it's 'head'. Obviously writing and reading are slower than just remembering.

If you are running XP, you should have at least 1.5GB (I have just 1GB and it means I need to be careful about how many programs I have open, or my computer will slow down).

Windows Vista or Windows 7, at least 2GB.