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I'm bored waiting on something to hit my inbox for work so I've been bouncing around the forums and ended up here. I think the constructive posts on this topic are f**king excellent, and since I'm also a rookie (new here as of April 2020) I'll focus primarily on the stuff that @kidswastedand @Decadent, all of which I think is great. 1. I don't know how hard it used to be get setup for online play, but i agree that the RA setup/links on the homepage is f**king dynamite now and it is suuuuuper welcoming for new guys to get up and running playing games, in my opinion. I'm a complete computer imbecile, but to address Decadent's customer service point, I felt really warmly welcomed here right off the bat. Guys like @halifax, @smozoma, @chaos, @kingraph and @danTML7 (just to name a few) were really helpful with any tech issues I had whatsoever, and even went out of their way to reach out and make sure I had my s**t together (s**t together re: '94, that is. I def DON'T have my real-life s**t together...). I try to always remember that and to pay that forward now when new guys continue to show up around here. Guys like that are what builds community and what keep it together. 2. Agree that # of games in a season should have an upper limit, generally, and 30-40 sounds f**king great to me. If there's guys who want to play in a league with a full 82-game season, god bless 'em, and I hope they can find the numbers to fill it. But I started playing this game when I was like 12 or 13 (the OG EA hockey and '93 on gens were my first taste) and I feel as though, at 41 years old now, I'm in the average age cohort for most people around here. I have kids and a wife, as do a lot of us, so scheduling is just always gonna be a thing. I don't, however, feel that that's anything to lose sleep over. We're here b/c we love the game. It is what it is. COVID and mandatory work-from-home has allowed for more opportunity to play online, but guys who really want to play will always find a way. Don't get me wrong, I'm not pooh-pooh'ing the idea of a "Game Night", i just think that's something that's better instituted organically through the community, as opposed to mandated by the mods or league runners. Hopefully I'm not strawmanning this point, as that's certainly not my intention. 3. I think Decadent makes a really nice point re: having a centralized "communication hub", be it forums, discord, etc., but I don't know what the best solution is. Identifying problems is always easier than finding solutions, and so I'm absolutely sympathetic to having to solve this one. But I do agree that multiple avenues of communication just naturally increases the chances of people missing out on opportunities for leagues or whatever that they'd otherwise have jumped at. 4. Unrelated to Kidswasteds' and Decadent's points, reading back a bit further it would appear that some people don't understand what "chirping" is really all about. It's a f**king art form, and it is VERY important for maintaining a strong community, especially in f**king ice hockey (just my opinion). We're not 12-yr old kids around here, talking s**t about headshots in Call of Duty and owning noobs. Chirping isn't calling someone you've not acquainted with a "little b***h" when you're up by 7 goals in the 2nd period. Chirping is about making friends and about being humbled yourself, as much as it is hanging s**t on other people. Just like good comedy, you f**king chirp upwards towards power, not downwards to belittle someone. And you do your goddamn research. When I asked "is @angryjay93 good at this game?" on one of @danTML7's twitch streams, it wouldn't be funny (and still maybe it wasn't) if I hadn't done my research and watched videos/clips/youtube of AJ beating the f**k out of people by playing like an actual God of Olympus. When I talk s**t about how Hartford (The WHALE) is god's gift to '94 hockey, i know damn well what their team rating is, and that they'd likely never be used in top-level play in an actual tournament around here. But I also know that Brass Bonanza is a banger of a goal song, and if i can make @annatarhave to listen to it even ONE time, while he's en route to f**king curb-stomping me by a touchdown or more, then I'll die happy in Valhalla. And I know it's annoying to @legowhen I try to remember back to all the French i learned in 8th grade so i can ask where is the library after a sick one-timer (it's "Ou est la bibliothèque", btw), but Lego is a f**king awesome guy, and he knows I'm just a loudmouthed asshat. And he'll also probably still win the game. Be cool, talk s**t, but do it in that order. This is BY FAR my longest bullet point so I guess it's pretty obvious where my priorities lie, lol. I'll shut my f**king yapper now and go eat lunch, but thank you to so many of you guys for the really thoughtful posts here on this topic. This place f**king rules, and we should treat it as our responsibility to keep it that way, and to make it even better wherever/however we can. Cheers, motherfuckers! DanK

Before anyone asks, I will be updating this in the post-season to reflect whoever wins the cup. Matthews is featured just because he is on the 2019-20 box art for the current gen console versions of the game.

ECHL is here to stay!!!! This is a NHL95 version of the ECHL (East Coast Hockey League). 26 Teams in the league - Just like in real life. Rosters updated as of September 4th, but will need a quick once over. 8 additional teams from previous years (folded) Alaska Aces Chicago Express Dayton Bombers Greensboro Generals Knoxville Cherokees Peoria Rivermen Elmira Jackals Quad City Mallards If there is anything else you would like to see in NHL95. Let me know of PM me. ECHL21.bin

This is the last one of the alternate roms before submerging myself into my custom Europe Rom (Europa Hockey League). After that, its on to prep for NHL21 and other sports. NFL Prime time World Series NBA Live Triple Play

Evening all I have been tidying up my Genesis Mini cover art today and figured that I would plough through some of the "classic" ROMs on the forum. This thread includes all of the covers that I have prepared for myself and some of you might be interested in them. Due to the way in which some of the ROMs are named here, I was not sure whether, for instance, an "NHL '71" ROM covers (a) the 1970-71 season or (b) the 1971-72 season. I have opted for (a) and included an extra cover either side of the 1980 and 1990 decades to cover off (b) if my hunch was wrong. The images used (save for the Slap Show, 2-on-2 and 2019-20 ROMs) are from the Stanley Cup celebrations for the relevant season. I have tried to ensure that the correct photos are used for the relevant year (i.e. for the 1971-72 season, the photo is from the 1972 SC Final not the 1970-71 SCF that preceded the season) but let me know if you spot any howlers. These 1970s and 1980s covers are for the ROMs that @slapshot67 prepared ages ago and that can be found here. The 2-on-2 ROM covers are for the ROMs referenced in @kingraph's thread here. The 2019-20 season ROM cover is for @Sauce's ROM, which can be found here. Apologies if I have missed anyone out. I know that the feathering is not entirely consistent across the covers. This is a by-product (mostly) of the quality of the images and the space between the top of the section of the image that I wanted to use and the top of the image itself (to avoid straight lines showing on the image). That said, I am happy with how everything looks as it is but might tweak them slightly in the future if I find myself bored senseless in the house! UPDATE 14.09.29 - I found a quick way to redo the covers with a broadly consistent approach to feathering. The updated versions are below. I have included the original images and have not resized them, as I appreciate that people use different emulator builds etc. Anyway, hope some of you manage to find a use for the covers. As I get around to sorting covers for other ROMs, I will add them to this thread.

Appreciate all you do. Thanks. If I can help in anyway please let me know. Don't want to be a pest either.

love your stuff, thanks as always. looking forward to this

i noticed it happens when i do the trade player option it happens after. see the screenshots. also i noticed Vegas is not part of the season in start season. i am sure they were probably omitted after seeing the polls recently for next year but wasnt sure

THANK YOU!!! A legend is a legend.!!!

Might just have to give Lordo's Swamp Rabbits a whirl agaibst his olf team from Wheeling... Working lovley on RetroArch. One minor text issue where the "na" from the end of "arena" doesn't scroll with the rest of the text when at the extreme end of a long row of text, but that's a incredibly minor issue. Enjoyed my first game, getting Pelech (ex EIHL player who I intensely dislike) deliberately binned repeatedly for the Swamp Rabbits against the Nailers. Lost 0-1, but being 3 on 5 for 85% of the game hardly helped, lol.

This is awesome. Great work!

This is perhaps the most constructive and helpful feedback received! Thanks for taking the time to share, this is good advice and something we need to consider.

I just found this site yesterday and spent a good amount of time trying to understand what was going on which led me here. As someone less than 24 hours into this foray, I'd like to give my perspective as an outsider. Documenting it now is better than waiting a few months and forgetting what it was like to be an outside. First, I just want to say the only reason I'm taking the time to give this feedback is because I appreciate what you have all done so far, I hope to be a part of the community, and I give this feedback with good intentions so that the community might be better off for it. I'm in no way a troll just spewing criticisms from a dark corner of the internet because it makes me feel better. I simply don't have the inclination or time. To start, I'll preface that I'll parallel this little diatribe to that of a business trying to obtain and retain customers. If you all want to increase the number of people in the community and thus the amount of people playing this game, ask yourself what you would do as a business if you were trying to charge people for this experience. Simplifying that approach for the benefit of this post, a business should: Sell the experience, Reduce the friction for the prospect to be a customer, Provide great customer support. So, the specifics... A. The homepage is busy. Actually, both are. After a couple of hours of bouncing around and reading everything I'm still not sure why there are two homepages. It's all too much information for someone new. A business would create one homepage, sell the experience, and make it very clear what the visitor to the site was supposed to do next (the "call to action")...which is download the software to play. Everything else is a distraction for a new user. If you need all that other information later, great...bury it out of sight in the menu and funnel the new users there once they're up and running. B. I downloaded the software for my mac to install it and was a little confused. I know what an emulator and ROM is which gives me a bit of a leg up on other newbies, but I'm in no way up to date on what all the technologies are -- I haven't used an emulator in 10 years. So, there were some little nuances like the unusual interface and getting past Apple's security that made it a bit confusing. The site's instructions helped a bit, a simple Youtube tutorial would have been much more helpful. Those two roadblocks are probably enough to keep most people away. I kept going because my brother and I used to play this game for hours a day as kids and we're looking to recreate the experience remotely so we're a little extra motivated. We ordered controllers and will be able to figure out how to start playing against one another, but I'm honestly not even sure what to do to get into some pickup games or register for upcoming leagues/tournaments. C. I'm sure you're all busy and being a full-time customer service rep is not on your bucket list. That being said, it'd be nice if I knew that to go for help I should consult this message board, go to the Discord channel, go to the facebook group, or click one of the email links to ask for help. Again, too many options, too much friction. Funnel everyone to the most active place and consider killing the rest. Again, I don't want to sound like an angry, ungrateful person who showed up to spit vile. That's not my intention. It seems like this community has been active for a long time and everything has been piecemealed together as technology has progressed, with no major revamp to refresh the groundwork. I'm sure I'll figure it out eventually and hope to see you all in some games at some point in the future.

I wanted to give my feedback as I've really just started getting into this site after lurking for a few years thanks to the SoChel tourney. I know this thread is a few years old so I apologize if some of this stuff has already been implemented. As @smozoma mentioned, a weekly/monthly newsletter of upcoming leagues registering or ROM hacks being released would be beneficial. Having a dedicated registration button for each league would be great too in case you don't proactively check on it often. Once the league is officially registering maybe you get an email notification letting you know. If you decide to register then you can do so. If you decide not to maybe there's a way to notify the league admin. Otherwise if you do not respond after X number of days you will be removed from the league's list of pending coaches. I happened to see a league registering a few weeks ago through Discord for Gens even though I mainly play SNES. I just wanted to get my foot in the door and join a league. Coming back to the newsletter it would be nice to get notified of any leagues registering. An even better option would be to opt in/out for Gens vs. SNES or both! I think the Retroarch installation package was really easy to configure and setup a USB controller. Having a dedicated game night is key, especially being married and having kids. I already have one with my online poker buddies so it seems to work well. This keeps a dedicated time to always meet up and play league or exhibition games. I'm not sure how many regular season games are typically played in a given league but I would think any more than 30-40 could deter rookies from investing consistently. For larger leagues (20+ teams) maybe play each team twice or only teams in your conference 3 times so each matchup is essentially a best of 3. Smaller leagues(under 20 teams) could play more games and try to keep it under 30-40 games. With leagues there could be a rookie conference vs a veteran conference so the rookies can beat each other up while the vets still have fun beating each other up all season. The only issue with this is whoever wins the vet bracket will almost be guaranteed the cup. Otherwise there could be leagues for A/B or C/D similar to pickup ice hockey. I know I've seen some of these on this site and I think it's a great idea. Another thing with rookies is the learning curve with tips and tricks such as D control(SNES), manual goalie, pass shots, hitting Y to get your guy up from being knocked down(SNES). I know someone started the nhl94strategy.com site which is great but is incomplete. Obviously we all have lives and not a lot of time to focus on such things like updating. I'd love to help anyway I can but I'm still learning a lot about the game myself. I never used D control or manual growing up lol. Anyways let me know what you think and if any of this has already been implemented. I love this site and I'm just cruising through threads all day at work. Just don't tell my boss!