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I was reading the NHL'94 Sega Genesis manual (I have a goal to read books this summer), and came across a few "clues" that can help us understand parts of the game we don't fully grasp yet. I found these to be of particular interest: During use (p.2) "Rest for at least 10 minutes per hour while playing a video game" Ummmm, this was before the 2v2 ROM was created, so they didn't know resting 10 minutes per hour was going to be impossible. The Face Off (p.18) "As you learn the game you will find that certain centers are tougher than others, and that some are more skillful with the stick. You will want to be aware of your center's particular strengths and weaknesses if you want to make full use of him on face offs" I feel like this suggests a players attributes (stick handling, awareness?) will lead to more faceoff wins. I think we generally believe button smashing is not key to winning and it's random, but perhaps not! The manual also doesn't say smash B to win. It says when the puck hits the ice it's live and you can "Hold the D-Pad in the directions you want to pass, then press B". Passing (p.20) "The best passing method is to press the B button, then press down on the D-Pad, then release the B button. The pass is launched when the D-Pad is pressed while the B button is down." What? I THINK I press the direction before a pass, not after. However, I did learn from @PlabaxV2 that if you hold the b button the player just holds the puck in a frozen motion until you release the button. Change/Remove Goalies (p.35) "In NHL Hockey '94, the goalie is chosen randomly for computer controlled teams in regular season games, when line changes are ON. Otherwise, the first string goalie starts" ORLY? Didn't know that. Hot and Cold Streaks (p.39) "The player ratings will vary hot and cold (+/- 10-30% in each category) depending on what kind of streaks the players happen to be on" We know this, but I like that the manual puts in a percentage range for us to verify Goalies / Def. Awareness (p.47) "Goalie's sense of what's going on around his net." Interesting, I think this attribute may help auto goalies position themselves better....just a hunch. Line Players (p.48) "Off. Awareness Player's offensive instinct Def. Awareness Player's defensive instinct Pass Accuracy Player's accuracy in passing the puck Stick Handling Player's overall skill with the stick Aggressiveness Player's likelihood of being penalized" Passing (what is called in-game) is categorized as pass accuracy. That's always been somewhat of a mystery. I also think the language around Stick Handling is related to the faceoff notes from earlier as well (skill with the stick). Crowd Meter (p.49-50) "The Crowd Analysis screen displays the statistics on decibels recorded from the crowd's cheering. These include the current decibel level, the average decibel level recorded over teh course of the game, and the highest, or "peak", decibel since the opening face off. Analysis of the crowd is based on readings of the Crowd Meter throughout a game. Don't just blow the Crowd Meter off - the higher the reading, the BETTER the teams play! If you break the Arena record, gameplay for both teams speeds up (about 10%)." Ok, clearly this Crowd Meter has some effect on players given the BOLD statement made at the end of the manual! I have done initial investigations on what moves the crowd meter, I have to check my notes, but I know winning a faceoff at home is an instant boost vs losing, etc. Now, we just have to figure out how it affects the teams. According to the manual, "gameplay" speeds up 10%. Timeout (p.50) "When playing with line changes off, the players do not lose vitality, and so the timeout has no real function." Still...momentum man. I will call timeout damn it.

Just want to talk real quick about the self pass, and to a lesser extent, the flip pass. The former is somewhat misunderstood, the latter is something from the occult, black magic book of NHL'94. I wanted to make a video to narrate and demonstrate exactly what I'm referring to, but I don't have a decent mic so I'll just post a few videos and try to explain. Flip pass origins The Fins, namely @swos and @Mahavishnu, were the first to use the flip pass or "keg toss," that I'm aware of. A keg toss being Nordic strongman-parlance for an event when a keg is hurled backwards over a bar. The puck is flipped with the (A) button behind the net in an attempt to get an odd bounce or setup a forward for an easy goal. Seeing videos of the Fins scoring these goals with frequency led me to experiment with how the puck behaves when it's 'flipped' or rolling. One thing I noticed is that it's easier to score goals in some respects when the puck is like this and you can get some wild bounces in your favor that make it a dangerous play. Here's an old video with some self passes and two flip pass goals: The play is more of a parlor trick but does have a place in a 5on5 game, even in match-play once you learn that you can 'poke-stab' a rolling puck out of mid-air with your skater and shoot it in one motion. E.G. flip to self poke-stab rolling puck to gain possession flick a wrister with the rolling puck half-slap the rolling puck flick a pass for a one-timer while the puck is rolling @HABS doesn't demonstrate the poke-stab here, but he does show a good example of a flip pass goal: It's also, basically, a giant neon middle finger to your opponent who would love nothing more than to bury you into the boards and shove that puck back into your net for showboating. Self pass usefulness It actually does have a place in 5on5 for a few reasons, but first for anyone who doesn't understand how to do it: Get close to the boards pass the puck by holding the d-pad directly left or right right side is more effective going 'up' ice, or home. left side is more effective gong 'down' ice, or away. Try to angle your skater to retrieve the puck in stride. You can also do it at a standstill in the attacking zone. As a general rule, never ever do this in your own zone, unless you want to get burned badly or light a fire under your opponents ass. Disregarding the goal, here's a quick example of how to do it in stride. When the pass is made the skaters stick is pointing directly, to the right, at the boards. This is the most consistent way to pass the puck to yourself while moving up ice: So what, right? How is this anything more than hot-dogging, and what would ever be the point of trying this type of stunt when you can just try to capitalize on quality scoring chances? Well, it has a bit to do with how the CPU AI behaves in the game. I'll try my best to explain without a video or commentary. Computer controlled skaters behave as if offsides are enabled even if they're not. When you enter the attacking zone, if you have to drop the pass back to your D because you have no options or are about to get nailed, and the puck goes out to the neutral zone, then the rest of your team that is setup in the offensive zone will leave the zone to get onsides again. Once your team is setup in the attacking zone, and all 10 skaters are on that side of the ice, the computer controlled skaters, yours and the oppositions, will get into their "spots," for lack of a better term. They will basically stay here unless the puck comes near them by the puck carrier, whereby their attributes will basically determine how they will behave. If you want to try it out, play keep away in the attacking zone with a skater and just skate around and observe the behavior of the computer controlled skaters. Passing the puck to yourself plays a roll because when you release it for half a second to yourself, the computer controlled skaters behave as if there's a loose puck, and will get out of position by beginning to move. They "reset," so to speak. This may be all the space you need to generate a chance if your opponent had you locked down and has taken away the primary passing lane, or that one-timer lane that is most likely to result in a goal. This fraction-of-a-second, personal-pan-pizza-pass can open up clogged lanes. It can also let you sacrifice your forward by doing this quickly and then getting rid of a hot potato before getting crunched that can result in a fast goal. I plan to make a detailed video later, at some point, but I hope some of that made sense.