View From the Booth v.1
Oct 31, 2017
Welcome to the inaugural edition of the official NHL94.com newsletter. We hope to keep everyone informed of all that is happening in our gaming scene, with a top-down look at events, leagues, forum happenings and Discord chatter. The view from the broadcast booth is often worse than some cheap seats in the arena, but journalists require a sweeping vantage point to see everything that is happening in the game. It seemed a suitable name for a newsletter that hopes to provide a bird's eye view of NHL94 and all of it's retro hockey siblings, so take a minute to get caught up with this edition of View From the Booth .
If you were lucky enough to attend the King of 94 II tournament in Las Vegas, then you likely already know the outcomes. If not, let me just say that it was an incredible display of Sega/Genesis mastery. On the Sega-side, the most probable finals outcome played out with @kingraph and @angryjay93 meeting in the final game, with Jay pulling out a 5-3 win with Detroit over Raph's Buffalo squad. On the Super Nintendo bracket, we again witnessed the ascension of a relative unknown (at least to NHL94.com community). @Jammer - KO94IIsnes was able to punch his ticket to the finals versus @Bob Kudelski and win it all with an incredible 4-3 OT victory. If you wish to relive the final hours of the tournament, including some great commentating and celebratory laps you can watch the replay on Twin Galaxies Twitch stream here.
With the build-up and successful staging of King of 94 II in Las Vegas NV now behind us, Fall leagues are starting to fill-up as player interest returns. Along with interest in preseason hockey and the eventual puck-drop on the NHL season, NHL94 players are returning to the site with hopes of building on last seasons successes and again proving themselves on the ice. Now is the time to get your name in for Classic, whether a seasoned veteran, a site lurker, or new to the site. If you're tired to playing against the CPU, take the next step and start playing some real competition.
ONLINE LEAGUES:
Fall Classic - The NHL94 Standard, for most this is their first taste of competitive online play. Sign-up here.
VHL5 - A WBF draft league based on @skip's current NHL ratings played with the new 32-team NHL18 rom. Sign-up here, and/or check out the rom here.
NHL94 Ladder League - @smozoma has started a unique ladder league, with no defined schedule so you can play whoever, whenever. Check it out here.
Premium Retro (Season 2) - @CoachMac has dreamed up this beauty, a limited draft league with a retro twist. Possible expansion for Season 3.
LIVE EVENTS:
Nov 12, 2017 - EDMONTON, AB [NHL94 Sega/SNES]: Sign-up/details
Feb 24, 2018 - GREEN BAY, WI [NHL94 Sega/SNES]: Sign-up/details, Facebook Event/RSVP
Aug 11-12, 2018 - LONG ISLAND, NY [NHL94 Sega]: played during the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo
ROMS/HACKS:
NHL 2018 - by @naples39 - updated rosters/ratings/logos/uniforms, WBF (weight-bug fixed), speed-burst has been limited to 75%.
NHL18 by @skip - updated rosters/ratings/logos/uniforms, WBF (weight-bug fixed), 1 minute penalties, and will be used to play @skip's VHL5 league.
NHL18 rom [SNES] - Help needed to produce an SNES rom with current line-ups. @tru is looking for people who want to learn to hack/update SNES roms.
32-team NHL94 rom [GENS] - Thanks to the hard-work and dedication of @slapshot67 and @skip, the community is now ready for current and future NHL expansion.
34-team NHL95 rom [GENS] - @kingraph has been hard at work customizing the NHL95 rom to allow for current and future roster updates. A work in progress.
FROM THE STANDS:
Cast your vote for the possible location of King of 94 III. Forum thread.
Forum members are dreaming about an NHL94 clone that would be easier to customize. Forum thread.
TECH TALK:
AIM is DEAD, join us on Discord [invite link].
Find some great tournament footage on Twitch, Ko94II pt1, Ko94II pt2, Ko94II pt3. RWExpo pt1, RWExpo pt2, RWExpo World Record Attempt.
Thanks for reading folks, and as usual comments and criticisms are welcomed. If you have an idea for future stories, or links to anything related to the newsletter categories feel free to pass them along.
Keep mashing those buttons.
Bonus video for those of you who made it this far: