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Wanted to wait for the dust to settle a bit and give myself a little time to reflect on the event before I offered my thoughts. First and foremost, to the man, the myth. the legend, @halifax: I tried my best to arrive a little early on Saturday to help out in the event that you needed any of the CRTs' I brought, or the consoles and controllers. But when I arrived, everything was already well in hand. That's a testament to how well everything was laid out and planned for. Even with all the moving parts you had to deal with, it never seemed stressful. I know I thanked you profusely for setting everything up and hosting a great event and I meant it. Everyone here really appreciates you and the amount of effort and dedication it took to pull everything together. The fact that we couldn't drink and the food truck didn't come through is unfortunate, but that's just life. Can't expect everything to be perfect. Really enjoyed our series as well, though it's tough to lose on a penalty shot like that. I felt like the '94 gods were smiling on me after you had 3 penalty shots in game 2. I think I spent all my beginners luck on our series as @Fed tuned me up pretty good in the next round. I can't say I'd do nearly as well if saddled with the same task of running this tournament. We are all fortunate to have you as a leader of this community. Great job; you have a lot to be proud of. To the current belt holder and Genesis NHL'94 champion, @kingraph, congrats on your first of what will probably be many titles! I know there's a lot of pressure and expectations coming in with you being one of the most feared and revered players and you rose to the occasion big time. It was a treat to watch you play on the big screen in the greatest NHL'94 series I've ever had the pleasure of watching. You're a great guy and I enjoyed chatting with you as well. @angryjay93 getting that 3-peat would have been epic, but you're a legendary player nonetheless and it was great to watch you in the finals and pick your brain a bit on the game. I've had a chance to see the final game 7 a few times from the stream as well. Bit of a bad break in OT with the mass of humanity that was right inside the blue line above the left face-off circle. Looked like you were going to get a break out of the zone but the puck squirted free and Sakic got that one-timer off from the high in the slot; it's a 50/50 chance of being a goal. Didn't want to see either of you lose but we could't ask for anything more than a game 7 in OT with you two. The 2on2 marathon session till 5am was a blast and I was in stitches. I probably would have needed a doctor had I laughed any harder. Great to finally meet you as well. Great guy. @smozoma it was great to play against you in our series and finally meet you after all of the help you've given me over the years. I don't think we've played in a playoff-type scenario since 2009 in the NHL91.com playoffs. Really felt like I had you dead to rights after our first game, but you battled back and overcame a two goal deficit to send me to the losers bracket. Yuuuuge upset against Raph as well. I know all of us were pulling for you to go deep and maybe even into the finals. It felt like it was your day at one point in the tournament and you were gonna be the cinderella story of KO94-4. Great job with the brackets and taking care of all the hardware related issues, too. You're a pillar in the community and I can't imagine what it would be like without you here and all that you've contributed to this game. @IAmFleury'sHipCheck one of the big highlights of KO94-4 was finally meeting you and being able to hang out. It's easy to see why you're so well liked. The, 'EA special' was in full effect in our series and I didn't have an answer for it! At least I got a pass shot by you from center ice, which is somewhat redeeming. I never play well with Calgary for some strange reason. Have to think that having all of those exis with AJ played some part in that. Awesome personality, awesome guy. Can't wait to see you in the next one. @Coffey excellent job with the stream. Hiccups always happen during these type of events but it turned out great and it really added to the atmosphere. Helping you get that big CRT in your car it really hit me how much you had to do for this. Thanks so much. Seeing you rotate jerseys throughout the event was really cool, too. Would love to have the chance to do a little color commentary on the stream next time around. @jer_33 @aqualizard @AtomicRaven @stantanator great to meet you guys and chat a bit. Everyone was really laid back and easy to talk to. Hope to see you in the next one! Also, Stanton better have his legal name change to Stantonator complete by KO94-5. @Mikail, whose forum handle I can't remember. What a stone cold killer! I remember talking to some of the SNES buds and how everyone was saying that the field was pretty wide open during the tournament. Apparently not! Watching him chilln-like-a-villain leading up to the finals with @DAF he was on his own, eerily silent. I just gave him a wide berth so he could focus on getting ready. And even with his hand cramping up he still swept a great player like DAF. I chatted with him for about 10 mins after the final since I really don't know the guy at all and was curious as to how he picked up the game and got so good at it. He told me, growing up, he played his brother and his brothers friend every time he played. So, it was actually two-on-one every game! He said that, "they would just screen the goalie and I had to find a way to win." If that isn't a proving ground for getting great at NHL'94, I don't know what is. He also said on stage that he, "has the bug and wants to play online." If there's anyway I can talk you into partaking in the Genesis side, I'd be happy to . Super nice guy, well deserved win on your second title. Congrats. @Bob Kudelski @Fed @annatar really enjoyed chatting and playing with the SNES buds. I have a lot to learn but I did enjoy the games I played. I will work on my game in hopes of being more than cannon fodder for top level players on Super next time around. @Slapshotsean @Mort @DPS great to hang with you guys. Congrats on winning the Jam title. You guys are absolute gamers, balls to the wall. The 2on2 session till 5am was worth the trip alone for me. You guys have to be there next time. @CamKneely always a brides maid never a bride no more. Congrats on being the inaugural and reigning Duke of 94 champ! Even if it did feel kinda like I was watching you play quarterback for playground kids on both teams. Sorry I could't get some 2on2 games in with the two time 2on2 champs. We didn't get going until after midnight and you had to be at work the next day. Great to finally meet you and we gotta have you back at the next one. @segathon it's not too late to join us. There is still good in you. I can feel it. As far as the venue goes, I thought the stage and broadcast/stream booth really added to the gravitas of the games, and being able to sit back and watch the tournament unfold on the big screen was awesome. It really felt like a legit eSporting event. I'm not sure where the next one will be held but it will be tough to top that aspect after playing on a big stage. Big props to Waves, they were very accommodating and I hope they have big success with their facility into the future. I'd really like to help out more next time around. If it's more hardware, or whatever, you can count on me. I'm great with design and can design t-shirts, promo vids, logos or whatever need be. I just want to make sure this keeps rolling along. Will definitely contribute more to the raffle next time as well. Would have liked to get some 2on2 going for Genesis and SNES during KO94-4, though there really wasn't any time for it. Please delegate the task to me for managing a 2on2 tournament if it's too much to handle in addition to the classic tournament. It could be interspersed during classic games in bracket play if we want to add it. I'll bring all necessary hardware so that 8 players can play at a time. To all the great guys I've played and chatted with over the years that I didn't get to meet: @donnybrook @HABS @Freydey @Zalex @IceStorm70 @CoachMac @Evan @Brutus @Uncle Seth @kgman @chaos @McMikey @The Russian Rocket @hokkeefan @skip @slapshot67 @mack and others that I haven't mentioned because this post is entirely too long.You guys are sorely missed and I really hope you can make it out to the next one. Also, I will spare no blood or treasure to get @wboy to one of these. I'll wrap up by mentioning that some of the community members said they were eager to finally meet me and have me as a part of KO94-4. It was a bit humbling and overwhelming for sure. I hope I didn't disappoint anyone. All I can really say is, I'm just a big kid who hasn't outgrown his love for this game and I hope I never do. ggs

I always say my favorite part of these tournaments is hanging out with my '94 community buds and meeting new '94 fans. That stays true for this year - @IAmFleury'sHipCheck, @angryjay93, @jer_33 @aqualizard, @AtomicRaven, @smozoma, @corbettkb, @annatar, @Bob Kudelski, @halifax, @Coffey, @CamKneely, and @clockwise to name those I can remember. Always good times hanging out with you all, and never enough time. Other familiar faces from these events were BigE and KB who I've met the last few times, they are the Boston crew. Kevin Federline from the SNES side The Chicago boys, DPS (Deeeeetroit Basketball), Slapshot Sean and the legendary Tecmo Mort are always having a good time and represent a larger piece of the retro gaming community. (Apparently I really suck at NBA Jam) New buds like "who the f is Nick" (TK reference from stream) who played awesome and was fun to talk with. The Stantonator, who put a good run in SNES! Sean from the Duke of 94 was funny, Trent, Jamie T and everyone else who I got a chance to play, chat and talk '94 with! I really had a blast, and of course wish that more good buds could have made the event. Other feedback: Venue: A-. Waves EGaming was literally built for this kind of event. I thought it was fantastic. As mentioned, CRT TVs, projector screens, gaming chairs, PA system, drinks, snacks. More than enough setups! Nothing missing from this venue. I give it a minus only because you can't have beer there. It doesn't matter much for me as I don't drink during these tournaments, but it would be a nice to have for those who do. Location: C. Similar to what people said already, Vaughan Ontario is parking lots and corporate offices. Pretty lousy area, with not much around. Hotels were all far away, and for whatever reason we had multiple hotel locations. Good part is it's only about 15 minutes from the Toronto Airport, and there's a way to get there with public transportation. Stream set up: A+. @Coffey did an AMAZING job. 3 microphones, two games captures, switchboard, multiple cameras, etc. This is probably as professional as it can get! I had a lot of fun hopping in to do commentary, and listening to others like Hali, AJ, Jer, EA, etc adds to the viewing fun. I would suggest some more thought to the stream format if possible. Again, I think it was A+ to have everything there, but there can be some thought ahead of time to figure out a schedule of what will be streamed. That would give clarity and keep things organized as well. - Streaming Round Robin group play - Player interviews after a loss/win - Bracket updates - More in-depth player discussion during breaks (maybe replays?) - Quarters/Semis/Finals Game Stream - Post game I'm not suggesting it all falls on Sroka or whoever is handling the stream. I am just thinking of ways to keep viewers informed throughout the day in an easier way. Maybe an overall schedule and progress bar-type thing. Tournament Format B. * I really liked the new rule where you have to use different team matches in your series. I didn't think of it much at the time, but it was pretty cool during the tournament. * I definitely prefer a swiss (or similar) style round robin vs. the pre-selected groups. I know it's harder to administer, but I think it's worth considering as the benefits are substantial. With a giant screen display, it's definitely easier as we did that in NYC and Green Bay. * I don't have any good suggestions as to HOW to do this yet, but the tournament is a few hours too long. There must be a way to shave 2-3 hours and still keep people happy. I'm just not sure if it's an organizational thing or just the double-elim format. Definitely wasn't due to lack of set ups! * I like the best of 3 each round. Maybe losers bracket only goes single game until the semis? * Coin flip with team selection seems to work well. * Would have liked to have the suggested matchups printed ahead of time for people who don't know at each setup. Other suggestions * Sprinkle raffles throughout the day vs getting 'em all out at once in the beginning. It's a bit awkward and people are antsy to start playing. * Food options listed ahead of time. * Using the microphone/speakers (if available) to announce the tournament status, next matches, etc. throughout the day may have helped. * Identifying admin roles and responsibilities clearly, and where there may be conflict (admin also participating) helps. - Tournament Director / MC - Scorekeepers / Bracket Managers - Referees - Stream technical support - Stream announcers / broadcasters I had a blast. It's hard to get something perfect, but this was pretty close. If this place existed in the Toronto area, had beer, and managed to shave 2-3 hours, that's about as good as a tournament can ever get!

Don't mean to take any thunder away from @skip & @slapshot67 NHL20 rom (seriously, go download it), but I'm going through my old files and forgot about some of this stuff. All the skaters from the league on the site had their own stat pages with their ratings, which can't be displayed here, but I can share the hockey card scans. I cut out every skater and stylized them in the theme of the site. Some samples below: Anderson Whitmore Roy Hextall Sakic Olcyzk Roenick Yzerman Bure (Super Series - Moscow Central Red Army) Each team had it's own stylized login screen as well. The blog would rotate background images, too. North Stars login Blues login One of the random blog backgrounds that would rotate (half of Hulls' missing foot would have been covered by content) Also made a jacket insert for a Genesis box, and cart sticker for the game Have a bunch of stuff that I want to post, like the sprite patch so that this stuff is on the forums. As an aside, I just noticed that Wboys' hexaddicts.com was available for registration so I picked it up. Should be able to get the old pages back from archive.orgs' Wayback machine.

Looks like I might be getting last crack here but that's what I get for being in Canada an extra week. I think I might do a video recap instead of a written one to alleviate the wall of text I feel coming on from my pen. Maybe it will get me going on the whole video creation thing again...

Another King of 94 in the books! I can't believe it's been 4 years since the first one. I'm lucky enough that I've been able to attend all of them, not to mention heading out to Saskatoon in November of 2016 to play. Some amazing memories from this game and I hope it continues. Have to agree with everyone else and give the first shout out to @halifax for putting everything into this and basically being an all around super bud. Great guy, great organizer, great commentator. Pretty good player too. Even a great roommate for the three nights I was there. We're a small community and there are guys who naturally have drifted away from the game. Without you doing these events there's a good chance I never would have met any of the great people from the community. I get pessimistic sometimes about online play and its future but if we can keep doing live events it makes up for it, for me. Nothing like playing live. Even though I never win these. Speaking of winning... amazing showing by @kingraph for a much deserved title. I didn't want anyone to lose that final so I'm glad it went the distance. Congrats bud!! And congrats to Mikail for dominating another SNES tournament. Guy is legit and super humble. He'll be in the mix for a 3rd one next year if we come back. Much respect to @smozoma, @CanadianDennis for great work organizing and logging games and @Coffey for the amazing streaming setup and just generally being a boss. Each time I'm amazed by how everyone who shows up to these things is just a good bud. Have to agree with Raph that hanging out with the buds I've met from the site is the best part of the weekend. Shout out to him and the other vets from previous events like Bob Kudelski, AJ, smoz, and EA that have made it out to multiple tournaments now. You guys are legends. @Bob Kudelski I think you and me would both agree that we wanted to play better. Last 8 isn't awful but we could have done a lot better if some things had gone our way. You were 1-0 up on the champ though and that says something. One of these days either you or me is gonna beat Mikail. The funny thing is I probably match up better against him than I do against Daf, and who knows maybe you would have been able to take down Daf. That's the way she goes bud. @angryjay93 real tough loss in your final, but what a show you put on. I'm sure you'll bounce back. I was worried about you in SNES too, it wasn't your day but you would have given any of the guys who finished in the money a hard time. It's that tight. And @IAmFleury'sHipCheck , thanks for the shout out, it was awesome to be able to hang out with you and the GENS guys and watch the games. Don't forget to try the green Red Bull! Also it was great to talk to some other forum vets like @McMarkis! Plus guys on the GENS side like @jer_33 (who plays some SNES too), @aqualizard, @AtomicRaven, and Vocally Caged. More super solid buds. And@clockwise who I had never talked to before but is a super nice guy and played both systems. Nice! As for the local peeps, it was great to meet not only Jason T(@ILive4NHL94 if he ever checks the forum) but his son who was a great kid as well as a really good player. No joke. Jason also knocked me out, so it runs in the family. Phil aka Skankhunt who has been really active on the discord is also a great guy and should be a good ally going forward in terms of driving local attendance. Some general thoughts on the event: Pros: The venue as a whole. Lots of TVs and systems, nice chairs, nobody was in each other's way, easy to watch games, nice people running the show. It wasn't 100% perfect but overall it's a win. Having the event span two days. I initially thought this would be a negative, but I was wrong. So much easier to organize this way, plus you could watch the other games. I wish more guys had been able to hang out both days. The format as a whole. No it also wasn't perfect but best of 3s throughout was great and the best of 7 final was a knockout. The combination of the stream, the TV showing the live bracket, and the big projection screen to watch the games made it by far the best event so far from the perspective of watching what was going on around you. Great mix of attendees especially on the SNES side including me, @etevans101, @OmegaRed and at least one other bud from Quebec (great to see you 2 again btw, and Omega gave me a run for my money in the elimination bracket), plus some strong Toronto players and the Vancouver power trio of Fed, Daf and the inimitable Stantonator. Finally, those ice cold green Red Bulls really hit the spot. Cons: The location was definitely tough, but I get why we were there. I think it probably did limit local attendance though compared to being in a bar right downtown, and it was difficult to get to and from the hotels without a car. No kitchen or liquor license. Already covered by others, but I think this combined with being out in Vaughan meant some guys just took off once they got eliminated instead of sticking around to watch the rest of the event. I agree that the whole thing took too long. I do think the number of games played is great, so if we can figure out a way to streamline the whole process and get it done a couple hours faster, that would be amazing. Attendance was probably less than what we were hoping for. It didn't end up diminishing the quality of the event (IMO) but it would be great to get closer to the number of attendees we had 4 years ago. On the same note, I hope we can get some more forum buds to come out to the next one. On the SNES side we definitely missed @stheds2000, @The90Jacket, @tylerdeanhill, @schwartz not to mention others who have never made it out to an event. In my fantasy land, one day we have a tournament with all the legends from the site including @Oilers442, @Grayto, @c4outlaws and people who were tearing it up before I was even playing here. Selfishly, the SNES tourney being on Sunday wasn't ideal. I think some more guys might have made the trip from Montreal if it was the Saturday. But I get the logic here too. Overall: The pros definitely outweigh the cons for me. Super great weekend, can't wait for the next one. And I hope we can get some buds from the event to play classic league too! I need the practice.

I pretty much agree with everything that @kingraph said. So instead of providing all the same feedback and suggestions, I'll just comment on a few different aspects of my experience. 1) Thanks I just want to reiterate how much I appreciate those of you that put this thing together every year. From the head honcho and organizer, @halifax to the bracketologist and data guru @smozoma and his assistant @CanadianDennis, to the awesome streaming set-up by @Coffey. Also, the countless others who contributed in various ways to make this event a success. Thanks guys! 2) Forum buds It was great to meet some more forum buds in person! Unfortunately I didn't make all the links between real world person and online forum bud. For example, there are guys that post a lot on here, that were at the tournament apparently, like @AtomicRaven, @aqualizard, and @CamKneely. I'm not sure if I even met them or not? I would have like to at least say “hey”. 3) SNES Competition Personally, I had a brutal showing. My KO94 performances are 3rd, 2nd, 8th... I don't like where this is trending. That said, I know where things went off the rails, and with a couple small adjustments, I'm very confident I will have a better finish in the next tourney. Unlike KO94 (2015), I was actually quite happy to see Mikail win. He is a super nice guy, and to see him win again just validates all the hype he got for winning the first one. That being said, it’s pretty clear that, unlike with Sega, there are more than a few different SNES players capable of winning the King of 94 title. Mikail has proven himself as probably the best live SNES player around. And Daf proved that Vancouver was no fluke, securing his second consecutive second place finish. But, in my opinion, SNES is still pretty much a toss-up between a number of guys. Which makes it pretty damn exciting, and nerve-wracking. Another interesting fact: for the second year in a row, no online player finished in the top three! (not counting Mikail and Jason as online players even though they may have dabbled in the past). I was trying to rationalize this in my head. I wonder if there are benefits to playing more games live, on the actual console, rather than online, on the emulator. The emulator might change timing, smoothness of motions, framerates, etc. I’m not sure the correct terminology. But going forward, I’m going to try and get some more live console games going. There aren’t many SNES guys around Ottawa, but @annatar is a short drive away, and @smozoma could probably be convinced to play some SNES (He’s actually pretty good from what I’ve seen). 4) The Stantonator! (Mike Stanton?) He was awesome! I chatted with this guy Saturday night and he mentioned he came all the way from BC, on his own, just to participate in both tourneys, Sega and SNES, even though he wasn’t all that successful at KO94 III. I was impressed by his enthusiasm, but never did I think he was an actual threat. Boy, was I wrong! I ended up commentating his series with Kevin and he took the first game in OT, then lost game two in OT, before falling to the defending KO94 champ. Like I said on the stream, The Stantonator really made a name for himself. Later on, after I lost a tough three game series to Mikail, I had to face The Stantonator! He squeaked out a one goal victory in game three, to knock me out of the tournament, and he went on to finish 4th! What a great showing. I’m happy for the guy, because it was clear that he loves the game and the tourneys. One last thing I learned about him - he plays live with Daf sometimes. So I guess there’s something to be said for playing live games with great players. 4) NBA Jam (SNES) I participated in the NBA Jam tourney. Although I like the game in principle, I don’t really play it. In fact, I didn’t even know how to pass when my first game started. But somehow I won my first five games. I guess I just figured you have to find a guy that hits the three point shot consistently. For me, it was Muggsy Bogues and John Stockton. In the end though, I lost to the finalists, @DPS, and @etevans101. I couldn’t even compete with them. They are great at shoving the player without the ball, so they get super-injured and ineffective. I wasn’t so good at that. I probably won’t enter a Jam tourney again, so I can focus on ‘94. But I did enjoy the success while it lasted. 5) Commentary At one point, I jumped on the mic and tried some commentary. I hope I wasn't stepping on any toes. For anyone that witnessed that, I apologize. I had the mic tucked under my chin so it sounded terrible, I have a monotone voice, and my humour does not translate so well to a live stream. But it was fun. If the opportunity is still available to me at future events, I'll think of a couple catch phrases, and make some improvements to my style.

Congrats kingraph on your first kof94 title ....mario the penguin is proud of you! ......and Ya im still alive lol

I have to think that this weekend's King of 94 tournament can only be labelled a great success, congrats to @kingraph and Mikail on the championships (Mikail's 2nd) , and @halifax and @smozoma for organizing another great event. This was my 2nd King of 94 tournament (attended the 1st in Toronto 2015), and my 3rd competitive tournament overall. Without question, this one was stacked both days with incredible talent. As they were announcing our group of 8, it seemed like I knew them all from the forums... @corbettkb, @smozoma, @aqualizard, @Coffey, myself and 3 guys unknown to us. As it turns out, Nick (Thrillhouse) was the best of the bunch and took 3rd overall, with @corbettkb, @smozoma, @aqualizard and myself slotting in the top 10. Both finalists came out of different groups, but our group of 8 accounted for 50% of the top 10 finishers. We played 6 randomized round robin games (*randomly excluding 1 player from your group), 3 home and 3 away so there were no coin flips. You needed to finish with a .500 record to advance to the bracket play (top 16). I managed my 3 wins in 4 games, and was lined up against @corbettkb in game 5. We had played a couple of exis pre-tournament, and there is a lot of history here with online leagues and tournament games played in Green Bay in 2018. I picked the match-up HFD/NYI and he won by a 5-2 margin using NYI. My last game of the RR was versus Nick, who wanted to play on the stream. He picked the CHI/BUF match-up and I grabbed CHI as the home team. The game went to overtime, with Nick scoring the winner. Looking back, I guess things may have gone different if I had managed to squeak out that OT winner, because I was matched up against Nick again once the bracket play opened up. I was pretty thrilled to have made the top 16, given that I'd just missed the cut in the first Ko94. At this point, I knew Nick was pretty good - but maybe didn't peg him for a guy that could make the run that he did. Our first game, I picked a WPG/QUE match-up and we played a close 5-2 game with Nick coming out on top. Second game was an 8-3 blowout, TOR over LAK. That put me in the "loser bracket" and I waited for my next series opponent. I wandered over to chat with @AtomicRaven, who I had yet to actually meet in person. He'd lost his opening series as well, so we were busy commiserating when it was determined that we were matched up against each other in the next series. Double elimination here, so one of us was going to knock the other out of the tournament. We grabbed a set-up, were joined by @aqualizard, and proceeded to hammer out 2 games CGY/VAN and BOS/LAK which I managed to eke out by 4-2 and 3-1 scores. We shook hands and I awaited my next series in the bracket. Looking at the remaining players in the "losers bracket" was a real wake-up call, @kingraph got knocked down by @smozoma, @aqualizard was fighting to stay alive after getting knocked down by @IAmFleury'sHipCheck (who had just been knocked down by @angryjay93). My opponent ended up being Kevin B, who I'd never met - but was ranked #6 in the field. I managed a single win against Kevin, who ousted me in 3 games. Kevin went on to face @IAmFleury'sHipCheck in the next round, losing in what turned out to be an excellent run of games by the forum veteran who also goes by "EA". A quick note about "EA", if @halifax is the visionary that pulls this all together, and @smozoma is the brains that puts it all in a spreadsheet and brackets - then "EA" is the heart. Don't get me wrong, the guy is a great competitor, and played some incredible NHL94 this weekend. But he also goes out of his way to make everyone feel welcome, draw people into conversations, and introduce them to others. Whether intentional or not, that is what builds great communities, and that's what I witnessed for two full days this weekend. Guys smiling/laughing and having a generally good time during the early match-ups, and hanging around together to witness the excellent games played at the finish. If you haven't watched the finals for either Sega (Twitch link) or SNES (Twitch link), do yourself a favour and hit the links. Halifax's call in both series was on par with anything I've witnessed in a televised championship event. The good: Venue was obviously a dream for hosting (didn't need find/bring TVs), and streaming (place literally had it's own production room) The return of a lot of top players from the previous Toronto tournament, PLUS a good number who competed in Vancouver The "could be better": Better co-ordination of hotels - somehow ended up with players in 4-5 different hotels in the area A limited number of eating options - basically pizza/subs nearby The bad: No beer (but I didn't hear many complaining) Venue is a trek from the airport AND downtown, making travel difficult without a rental car

Hi guys! I just want to say how I appreciated the tournament! @halifax, you've been so great, well organized! I particularly appreciated that you welcomed me, and talked to me to break the ice. I can't wait to play in an other tournament! I installed nhl94 on my computer and can't wait to play online!

I dont think Coach is too far off base. Though I thought Vegas & Vancouver were fun, each also having their own plus & minuses. First, all the people that put work into the event were amazing. As to the venue, yes it is setup very well to assist the organizers and there is a big benefit in that however the location of the venue leads to seeking as quick of an exit as possible from that location. There is nothing around there. Did suck with people at 5-6 different hotels as there was no hotel close to the venue (or food options). Will be interesting to see, will this event now only just be in Vaughan Ontario moving forward? With that said, of all the trips I took this summer, this one was easily the most fun.

This patch, from 2011, has all of the sprites redrawn and updated to allow you to update the helmet and shoulder colors for more accurate uniforms. In the original, unedited sprites, the helmet color was shared with the jersey. Classic NHL'94 teams such as San Jose, Montreal, Chicago, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and other teams look inauthentic before this update, to me. There are 2 colors for the helmets and 1 for the shoulder. NOTE: make sure to replace the, '92 Strip.bmp,' used in the NOSE directory or the colors for the strips won't appear accurately. Here are some sample pics, from pixelpuck.com; 2011, of teams that benefit from the patch. sprite_patch.zip Bonus for downloading, 1 free, rotating Stanley Cup and Sprite voxel animation:

Yes, I'd like to make it within a month.

Here's an early leak of the awards I found for Segathong 2020 when I cracked his ftp password

Trying to clean up and finish some of the random projects that I started and never got around to completing... 1952 was the last Canadian gold medal before a 50-year drought and was also the last Olympic games before the appearance of the USSR on ice in '56. Represented by the Edmonton Mercurys, a team sponsored by a local car dealership, the Canadians dominated the tournament. The US and Canadian teams were lambasted by the international media for their physical style of play with local newspapers predicting that relations between the US and the Europeans would suffer due to a fight between American defenseman Joe Czarnota and Swiss forward Gian Bazzi. The Norwegian crowds littered the ice with orange peels and labeled the US team "Chicago gangsters". After securing the gold medal the Canadian team was accused of colluding with their North American brethren in order to earn the silver medal for the US squad. Norway's Dagbladet newspaper described the game as a "friendly" and accused the Canadians of "making such mistakes that even the Norwegian hockey players would not have made". The biggest controversy of the Games was the award of the bronze medal. Czechoslovakia defeated Sweden 4-0 on the final day of the tournament, both teams finishing with identical 6-2 records and equal goal differentials. The Czechoslavaks believed that they had won the bronze based on their shutout of the Swedes, however it was determined that the two teams should play again the following day in order to break the tie. Tre Kronor overcame a 3-0 deficit and won the impromptu "playoff" by a score of 5-3 and sent Czechoslovakia home empty handed. Take mercy on the quality of the player photos - in a lot of cases it's the only known picture of a player... 1952 Olympics.bin

Thanks for this. As a kid growing up I used to deliver the Lethbridge Herald newspaper to Billy Gibson, who played on the Canadian team that won gold in 1952 and was the top scorer in the tournament, and the Lethbridge Maple Leafs who won the World Championship the year before in 1951. He was a neat old guy and it will be fun to tickle the twine with him on this mod.

coming soon....

Well, I promised myself I would step up and make an account here. Now here we are. My name is Nick Tobolski, known online as Chilli or Chillivend, and while I have formerly attempted to develop games for a living, I've decided to do something else... celebrate and support the greatest sport in the world... HOCKEY. From my local NHL team the Boston Bruins, to witnessing the birth (and death), of the Worcester IceCats, and Worcester Sharks (where I saw my very first hockey game in person), and the birth of the ECHL Worcester Railers, Ive lived almost my whole life in a little town called Webster, passively enjoying this great sport, but never really actively keeping up on it. That is... until now. I love hockey video games, especially the EA Genesis to PS2 games. Now picking up as many games as I can, I want to spend every day living, breathing, and feeling the thrills, spills, and chills of a good game of hockey. I picked up NHL 94 a year or two ago, and thought it was quite fun, not knowing a huge community existed for the game. Now, I wanna jump in. I'll pop in at least once a day, and along the way, I hope to play a few matches, make a few friends, and cherish a few memories. I hope I am welcomed here with relatively open arms, and can't wait to get out on the ice again. -Chillivend

I don't really think that playing online hurts, but I think more live, console gaming could help a lot. At least, I'm hoping it will! Thanks man. I would love to do some colour commentary with the legendary @halifax. We would be like Bob Cole and Harry Neale, but minus the Leafs bias.

thanks bud. I'm leaning to having it in Vaughn at ewaves gaming again next year. The venue is perfect for the tournament. Having access to all those CRTS (like 20 or 30) is a very big deal to me. Complaints I've gotten from previous venues (dont like playing on the newer tvs, don't like that it was so squished and no room to move around, don't like that they couldn't watch the finals on a small TV). This solves all those issues, but I recognize it creates new ones. New ones that I think can be addressed. Certainly the hotel situation was less than ideal. The consultant I dealt with was a nice guy but in hindsight I think giving three options just made things more spread out. Smoz and I talked earlier and he suggested perhaps finding an Air BNB somewhere between the venue and downtown to a bunch of guys could go in on. I know clock attempted this as well. But now that we know the situation and what we are dealing with, we know how to improve on it.

Here is a playlist of the videos in order for Saturday. I will work on Sunday soon. I will be uploading the individual matched on youtube. at some point.

WARNING: SWITCH TO WIFI!

And if you know Coach, he literally will go crawl back in a cave... most likely that he dug out with a pick axe on the side of a mountain. haha Coach, not sure what to say about your response here. You were spoke about in the highest regard this weekend as your presence was definitely missed but that post is not a good look. Are you reading too much Nietzsche up in those mountains with all this " *fill in the blank* is dead" talk??? What''s going on here? Surprised to hear you say Kof94 III was horrible. You didn't have a good time when we went out to eat, you and Jill talked teacher stuff, I heard all about how you made it to Nevada with your wife, to hear all about your kids and their adventures, when we watched your Blue Angels video, the exis in the room, good laughs with even greater buds? I don't know man, to me, I can't thank @halifax enough... Kof94 is the reason to bring us all together but you know it's more than the event itself that makes just as many memories. I'll be back soon to post my recap.

Here is my feedback for the latest rendition: King of 94 IV in Toronto. Halifax and Smoz do an amazing job, of course. I figure these two must have to go into hibernation for two weeks after all of the effort that must go into putting this thing together. And Sroka was great with the stream. Some quick Pros and Cons: PROS 2 day event (with a dedicated day for Sega and one for SNES) Stream Facility itself (very modern and professional) * Those CRTs! They were great quality -- big, and in great condition for the most part. Organization (getting games in, and scores in, seems better/easier than ever) Got lots of games. Having a minimum of 6 games is cool. I think I had 12 games (made it to Round 3) CONS Location (so far outside of Toronto) * No beer! * * In short, the facility itself is amazing, but the location/alcohol sitch knocks it down considerably. Too few locals came out Wish more forum dudes made the trip, too Cost: $50 seems pricey. I wish it was like $15, just to cover expenses, and no (or little) prize $$ On a personal level, Atomic and I (who live in Toronto) got a hotel room for Friday night, thinking there would be some games happening, and to save travel time the next day. In retrospect, we should have booked a hotel for Saturday. After the Sega events Saturday, if we had a room, there would likely be more social games happening, plus we could have had place to relax after we got eliminated. I went home -- which took 90 minutes!! -- and was too burnt out to make it out again on Saturday. (I had the stream on from the comfort of my own home as soon as I got home, and it was awesome to watch! Especially the finals between AJ and Raph. Best finals ever, "in your life!", to quote Hali!) Note to self: Book hotel for day of the Sega event if it is in Toronto again. And I do selfishly hope the next one is in Toronto, too, but we need to get the beer sorted!

Brackets: https://challonge.com/events/ko94_4/tournaments Stream: https://twitch.tv/settleitonthescreen

This is coming from a guy who emails me CONSTANTLY to make the stupidest edits for him...to an NHL'94 game. @Engelby77 Don't ever email me again, bud. Good luck with NHL'95!

Plenty here to get a start running a tournament. Thought I'd post here before selling things Individually on E-bay. @halifax @Edge of '94 Midwest @McMikey @kingraph @chaos or anybody else. What is included? 1 Genesis Everdrive. 1 SNES Everdrive. 1 Sega Genesis 1 with 2 6 button controllers, power cord, and hook up. 2 Sega Genesis 2 each with 2 3 button controllers, power cord, and hook up. 1 SNES, 1 controller, power cord, and hook up. 1 Gamerz Tech Mini Gen HD with controllers and power cord. 1 Gamerz Tech NES HD System with controllers and power cord. 1 EA Sports 4 way play. 2 Genesis NHL 94 Carts 3 Genesis NHLPA 93 Carts 2 Genesis NHL 92 Carts 1 NES Tecmo Super Bowl Cart 1 SNES NHL 94 Cart 1 SNES Griffey Baseball Cart. Asking Price $200

So, time for an update pack: My "The Real" rom hack is simply put: fixed rosters (and jerseys) according to the actual 1993-94 season. I've fixed a few bugs but most prominently added this: Defense control is now ON by default! Huge thanks to @smozoma for this hack finding! Amazing! Menu defaults are: 5, 10, 20 minutes. Penalties: On, no offsides. Line changes: On. Goalie: Manual. I've also made and included new 1on1, 1on2 and 3on3 roms based on the "The Real" hack. These have: 3, 5 & 7 minute periods (instead of the default 5, 10, 20 which is retained in the 5on5 rom). An additional 3on3 rom that has 2 defenders and 1 forward (to make use of the defense controls) alongside the 3on3 with 3 forwards. Line changes off, but supported. Penalties off. Goalie control: manual. NHL94_xstioph's_'the_real'_roster_hack_pack-2019.7z

Now, I realize there is a growing concern over Kenny Albert’s appearance but, if you google his image, he’s not exactly a pumpkinhead. Lol It will be fixed in a future release (as I plan to post 4-5 versions/updates, for this season, just like last season).

This patch was originally created for pixelpuck.com ROMS. First released with my NHL11 ROM, with the help of kaneda of spritesmind.net, it allows for the use of goalie control by pressing the (Y) button. Controls must be configured to six buttons for both players. Plans for the use of the (X) and (Z) buttons for line changes and a pseudo fake shot button were scrapped when I stopped doing updates. This patch also works on real Genesis hardware if you have an Mega Everdrive or some other flash cart. We did get it going with multi tap, 4-way play, but 4-way play has been tested on actual Genesis hardware. Note: you can still control the goalie by depressing (B) for a second with this patch applied. goalie_control_patch.zip

Hey there! I just wanted to see if you were planning on releasing a 2020 rom this year. Your edits are my absolute favorite and something I look forward to every year. Cheers!

https://youtu.be/e1fh7ZpFn84

BUMP

lmao! Yeah, he kinda does. It's on my to-do list to update his photo. I updated all of the NLC photos, this year, after doing it last year (as well) so that took priority. Thanks for the kind words! I agree with you about the roms... Skip/Slapshot do a great job with their rom and because we have different approaches to ratings, it creates a rom buffet for folks.

It's my favorite time of year, and this ROM makes it even better!

Thanks bud! Slapshot does most of the cool work :-)

So you wanna waste your time on a forum about NHL 94 whining about how 94 isnt as good as 95, when you could just be playing 95, or doing something else in the real world that is actually productive? Well, I don't know what to tell you except to get off the computer and get some help. Let people enjoy things.

This is my favorite TED Talk.

Get that money, sonny. We'll be here when you're ready to rock.

Welcome bud!

Looking forward to another Edge of 94 event in what seems to be the great state of Minnesota. I'll be keeping the itenirary open!

It is set to One Player mode, and yet they do not realize. Also, they are horrible. (Well, the one that is actually playing is.) Still, thanks for the link.

Few thoughts on @Bob Kudelski 's post (I won't quote it to save space) -- I also was glad that Mikail won, and he did it in pretty dominating fashion (sweep over DAF). That's pretty damn impressive, and yes, re-validates his KO94-1 win. Dude is the best out there, no argument can be made. -- I don't think it's online vs live per se. SNES lends itself to being more competitive than GENS just from the gameplay, and perhaps if guys like @Grayto @Oilers442 and other top SNES online guys made it out, there would be more online players that made the finals/won. Right now it's you and @annatar each year representing. On the flip side, it would be amazing to see Mikail, DAF, Federline, Jamil, etc. play in SNES seasons online. It would lift the entire SNES community. Online GENS has had a way more active base over the last decade...so much information, strategy, players etc. that elevated the entire base of players. I think current "B" players would have likely won or been competitive with "A" a few years back for sure. So again, I think it's a combination of things, but I can't see how getting online experience would have a negative effect in live tournies. -- Your livestream commentary was making me laugh, and maybe that's because I know you enough, but the humor definitely came through to me. You'd probably do well to pair up with a loud play-by-play guy like @halifax and then add your color commentary/analysis/ on top. It'd be like yin-yang. Either way, it was enjoyable for me.

Appreciate the kind words. Play by Play hockey was my dream job. But I never stuck with it (my biggest regret in life).

That's unfortunate Coach, you were definitely missed this past weekend. I get your angle, but the fact is that NHL'94 IS a video game, and a venue that caters to video game players was actually perfect for this event. Granted, Waves may have been a Taj Mahal for our backyard BBQ, but it was still very, very nice! You know that @halifax, @Edge of '94 Midwest, @smozoma, myself and anyone who runs retro game tournaments appreciates constructive feedback to try and make these events better, more efficient, more fun for all, etc. Especially from guys like you who are good to the community. It's a team effort from all of us. Your post really just shit all over everything, and that doesn't do any good to anyone. I think we also hashed out why KO94-1 had many flaws, mainly triple elim format, so I won't go through that again. I have to gather my own thoughts as well to post later, but am just surprised to hear you be so upset at everything '94.

Bumping this post with Breaking news, WTG Bear Studios has recently re-emerged and is looking to re-release his xbox 360 indie game, Blockey on steam this September. Check the steam page for more information. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1145280/Blockey_Block_Yeah/ No word yet on the fate of the 3d sequel Blockey 'Rockin Hockey since its development from 2014 through 2017.

I like it! Would be at least interesting to try. Penalties are *sometimes* random and it sucks, but to me it's another part of the randomness of the game, which makes it so fun. If there was a way to have this game have a "tournament" setting, where all randomness, boosts, momentums were turned off, that would also be interesting for the guys who want competitive play.

I will bring: 2 genesis consoles 2 SNES consoles 1 retro trio console (dual system) 4 sega NHL94 carts 4 SNES NHL94 carts

95 sucks, anything with franchise mode is better, I don't know why anyone would play it

Maybe he's got a point? I mean, we do see quite a lot of tournaments across the country to celebrate and compete in NHL 96. I, personally, love NHL.com's coverage of the anniversary of NHL98. And, my god, who doesn't have found memories, as a child, of dominating NHL97 with Jeremy Roenick? I mean, it's always great to hear current NHL players reliving their foundest momeries of playing NHL 2001. To be honest, it's really a wonder that this site exists given how much the game sucks! SMH If you don't like a game, that's cool. There are other options. I just don't get the point of sh*tting on someting that so many folks love and have warm memories for just because you see a deficiency. Maybe I'm the minority in my opinion and response. But, NHL94 IS one of the greatest sports games ever released! Is it the greatest of all time, not likely given its age and the technology of the day. Would it have been cool to have season mode and fighting, sure. But, it doesn't hurt the game. Did it make it's mark on history more than the majority of sports games EVER released, you bet! There is no denying it and to crap all over it is silly. End rant. Cheers!