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Fall '20 Classic League Registration! Register HERE For those of you who have registered on the NHL94Online site before, then registration will be easy. You just need to choose "Yes" for the question "Have you registered for a league before?", type in your site user name and password (NOTE: This is different than your forum password and user name, unless you made it the same), and choose the league you will be joining (right now, you can select Genesis or SNES). Then, hit "Submit" and you will be placed on the waiting list. It's that easy. For those of you who have not registered on the NHL94Online site before, then there is a little more info needed to complete registration. You need to choose "No" for the question "Have you registered for a league before?" and enter a user name and password (it's common to use the same user name as your forum name or Discord user name). You will also be asked to fill out some more information about yourself (email, location, timezone, Discord user name, system preference). Then choose the league you will be joining (GENS or SNES). Then hit "Submit" and you will be placed on the waiting list. You will then need to play a test game to make sure your connection is set up properly. This does not affect your place on the waiting list, but you cannot play in the league without playing the test game. If you have played in other online leagues before, you are technically confirmed already. Please PM or email me (chaos[at]nhl94[dot]com) and I will change you to Confirmed status. Registration deadline will be Sunday, November 15th. The day after, we will hold a Team Selection Draft. The draft order will be randomized. After the draft is completed for each league, the schedules will be released and the league will begin. If everything goes smoothly, the league will start the following Monday after the draft. Schedules may be posted before that time, which means you can start playing, but officially the league would start on that Monday. Stay tuned on Discord leading up to November 15th for more information on the Team Selection Draft. NOTE: This season, we will be using RetroArch version 1.8.8 for playing online games. Everyone who is playing in the league needs to make sure they have this set up. I suggest everyone play a test game to make sure it is working. Some of you already have experienced Netplay via RetroArch, so please help the others who have yet to try it out. While the relay server (previously used over the last year) has become unreliable connection-wise, I suggest learning how to set up direct connect (IP reservation and port forwarding on your router). Please feel free to contact me if there are any questions/problems! (either via PM here, email, or Discord). For more info on setting up direct connect using IP reservation and port forwarding, please check out this guide. Note: If you are having trouble/issues with setting up direct connect, please post in the #retroarch-help channel on Discord. I would suggest giving it a shot yourself first, before requesting help, so at least you will be familiar with certain things when those helping are asking you questions. There may also be situations where you cannot do port forwarding on your router (don't have access to it, ISP prevents it, etc). This will be handled on a case by case basis. LEAGUE INFO The season is 40 games. There will be no limit on registration this season; as long as you register and played a successful test game, you will play. We will divide the registrants up into different League Levels based on skill and experience in online leagues. The different League Levels will be decided after registration is over. If you register after the registration period is over, you will be placed on the Waiting List for the league. Don't worry if you end up on the Waiting List, there is a strong chance you will end up taking over a team during the season! 40 game leagues will have the same 6 games/wk checkpoints as the past few seasons. You CAN NOT sign up for multiple league levels (i.e. GENS and SNES). Only those who are reliable will be allowed to do so, at the discretion of us admins. This will allow you to concentrate on one league. For those coaches that are new, I suggest practicing and becoming familiar with a few teams. This way, you will have multiple teams on your "Draft Board" to select from during the Team Selection Draft. Note, there will not be more than 14 teams in a league level, so with at most 14 teams drafting, you will have a good shot at a Tier A or B team. You can contact any veteran coach to play some exhibition games, or practice against the computer. You must join our Discord Server (link at end of post). Whenever you are available, you can post in the #testgame channel on the server and request a test game, or use the #exhibition-games channel for practice. Good luck! If there are any questions or problems, feel free to PM us or email us at chaos[at]nhl94[dot]com, or halifax[at]nhl94[dot]com. INFORMATION FOR NEW GUYS Read This - Guide for New Members If you are new to the league, welcome! We are a big friendly community here, and there are a number of guys who are always around willing to help the new guys out. First things first, you need to register for NHL94.com (this site), as well as on the nhl94online.com site (registration link at the beginning of this post). It is also required to have a Discord screen name, since that is the main method of communication for scheduling games. Once you are registered, the next step is to set up a test game. You can use the forum links below and post your availability. You can also post on the Discord server, in the #test-games channel and request a game (this is recommended, since there are more active users checking in on Discord). One of the veterans will send you a PM or a message on Discord (or feel free to add some veterans onto your Discord Friend List and message them yourselves). A test game needs to be played in order to make sure your emulator/network settings are correct. Once the test game is played, the veteran will confirm you on the nhl94online site. Once this is done, you are set until the season starts. A few days before the season starts, usually the day after registration ends, we will be holding a Team Selection Draft to choose teams. The draft will be held in the forums, so please make sure you register! An email will be sent out to all registrants before the draft, so it is important to register using an email you commonly check (also check your Spam or Junk folder). Once teams are selected, the schedules will be put up on the site and you can start playing your games. There will be another post announcing the start of the season, with information on how to log games, contact other coaches, and how to make the playoffs. Also, keep an eye on the Discord, as information is usually posted there first. Everything you need to play can be downloaded in one package from the nhl94online.com site. On the main page of the site, the Downloads section is located bottom right. This contains the ROMs used for the league, along with the emulator cores and the current RetroArch frontend. I hope we get some new guys who recently participated in some of our live tournaments!! Again, if you have any questions, please email me (chaos[at]nhl94[dot]com) or PM me via the forums. Discord Server (You can register for a new account via the link) - NHL '94 Server Getting Started Online - RetroArch setup and link to Netplay Guide- Getting Started Rules - Rules Genesis Test Games - Post Here or #test-games on Discord SNES Test Games - Post Here or #test-games on Discord View the Waiting List here

Annoyingly, I have a day of work ahead of me before I can get sink my teeth into the game properly (it's 8am here), but my first thoughts are "Good job, buds, but isn't it a little quick?" That said, it might just be me. And the fact that I was half-asleep when I booted up my PS4 to download the game before breakfast. Anyway, I thought a few of you might like to see this... The developers give special thanks to the "NHL94.com community" and @smozoma (for the weight bug fix?) in particular, along with a few others (feel free to tag them if they are on the forum):

This thread just became magical. @DanK there is an awesome group of guys who play in Chicago, both versions that meet at DMen Tap on Belmong Monday nights. Some of them attend my NHL94 tournaments. You should lock it down with them and have an amazing time.

So there's a player 0 sighting?

There seems to be something weird in the Edit Lines. I had 2 Mitch Marners in my lineup at one point.

Not yet, but I've only played a few games. I'll try and replicate it in a bit. Given that EA has suggested this evening (UK) that the game may be more widely available in December (with someone from here suggesting that is when an online mode should be added!), it it might be worth us logging any crashes etc. in the hope that EA (or Arsenal / Empty Clip) pick them up in future updates, given that they are clearly scouring the board for ideas!

Growing up, I had NHL Hockey for DOS, but never owned NHL94 on console until later on in life. It was and still is a great game, albeit not the easiest to fire up like a Genesis or SNES. Scoring methods weren't as plentiful/repeatable as the console versions of 94, but I enjoyed the challenge, and the full season mode _ digitized narration was a major plus over consoles. Once I got my first Playstation, I was drawn to the 97, 98, versions, and I eventually started getting PC version of EA NHL in 2000. I also enjoyed the 2K series on Dreamcast. While these games weren't perfect, they didn't take very long before you could find the cheaper ways of getting goals, and control schemes were all digital, meaning simple. In retrospect, with the exception of the 2K series, and maybe NHL98's presentation, everything was more about the tech advances, and added features, enough to distract us from games past. After the Dreamcast, I didn't buy another console for 6 years, gaming exclusively on the PC. I was turned off by the short shelf life of the Dreamcast, and refused to get another console to replace it, in fear that the same thing would happen again. I instead poured into the PC gaming universe. For me, sports games ended up taking back seats to the wonders of LAN party games like Starcraft, Quake and Unreal Tournament, Battlefield 1942, and other big hits around 20 years ago. Sports games to me belonged in the living room with a friend. I don't claim to be a hockey video game historian, but it's my understanding that analog controls took over in a big way during the PS2/Xbox generation. The focus towards online play, and continued simulation feel is evident. I don't know when the digital control schemes of hockey games for shooting were replaced with "skill sticks", and countless jukes. However, when I finally returned to try a NHL game by EA Sports for NHL 14, I saw they had the NHL94 controls. Sadly, it didn't seem to help me control the players, and was more of a handicap by reducing what the players could do. In short, I didn't have much fun with it, and the countless hours needed to get comfortable with everything really turned me off to it. Even my son who is pretty decent at video games was never that proficient with it. He could certainly function, but he didn't grow up playing 3 or 4 button hockey games like we did. While I give credit to the "3's" mode that was added to recent versions of EA Sports NHL hockey games(fun novelty), I could never truly be converted. I had a glimmer of hope that our "friends" at EA Sports would do us right with this NHL94 Rewind announcement. Having a true living room experience from an official source on a timeless game engine was just what I wanted. Don't get my wrong, I love the modding community, just turning on the PS4 and going without emulators, computers attached to PCs, or using flash carts is immediately appealing. Unfortunately, at least for now it doesn't appear to be a stand alone product. In addition, we've wanted an official source to play this classic game in a stable online setting. I like many others have unfortunate technical issues with our current online solution that have kept me from doing the exis and league thing(This is no slight to anyone, as the support here is amazing). In any other year, I may have been more forgiving about this exclusion, but given the ongoing Covid isolation that is killing the local tournament scene, not having a way to compete online is unforgivable. I'm interested in when the people of this community bounced away from the annual EA cash grab releases, and bounced back to NHL94. My return was based on the suggestion to run a tournament for this great game. Very few sports games hold a special place in my heart. Tecmo Bowl/Tecmo Super Bowl, the NBA Jam series of games, and NHL94 are the big three. NHL94 just felt right for me. The players perform on the ice as you'd expect them to, scoring isn't too difficult to figure out, and likewise, there seems to be a counter to most things. When you lose, most of the time it's because you were outplayed. I'm also a big fan of having two different mainstream versions that have their own +/- that = double the fun. Thanks for letting me vent. It's been a long year. -Trojan

I only realised after writing, I could have written it as "c**t." I'm not used to censoring my cursing. So far, I have realised, I can get away with Motherfucker, tittyfucking and, now, cunty... Without the use of the last one, my vocabulary would literally be halved, so I owe you an enormous thank you for that one! Oh yes, I've met one or two Aussies, and if there was ever a nation that values this, oh so sacred word, it's them. I've read posts on here that are censored and I didn't realise it was done automatically... Really, it's a good thing, I'll just have to get more creative with my cursing and expletives. Aussie rules, I am positive, isn't even a sport, it's just a way for Aussies to beat up people they don't like, under the guise of a sport... It's like they have looked at rugby and American football and thought, "yeah, they're both good, but unless someone dies on the field, then it isn't a real sport." I'm in England, by the way... I absolutely love your spelling of Northern Ireland, the only flaw I can point out is, it's actually legible... From my experience with the Irish, legibility is not at the top on their list of priorities. I know my post went on, (as my ol' man would say, 'you're a f**king wordy c**t, m'boy'), and I did intend to put a thank you at the bottom of it - "well done, if you read all of this, I wouldn't have bothered m'self" -, y'know, that sort of thing. But I forgot due to incapability... No, I wasn't drunk, you racist bad C-word, I was actually as high as a motherfucking-tittyfucking-bastard! So there! I had no idea if my explanation, for my edit, would be understandable to people, (**** = The naughty C-word), or whether folks would just think I was drunk. As I say, I wasn't, but having mentioned the Irish thing, I knew it was a safe (and fair) assumption.

Ive already started on the jersey changes and some of the logos. Trying to prep for the new season to come. Hard thing is the rosters. But that will come with time once free agency starts and the draft. There is going to be alot of changes in the game graphically as well.

This worked for me. Thanks @chaos @kidswastedand @McMarkis

Jesus tittyfucking christ, @illegalsmileIV:XX, between you and James Joyce you Irish sure are pithy with your storytelling yeah? Just f**king with you buddy. Based on your usage of the pound sign for money, i gather you're either in "naarthern eyerland" or in great britain, and based on your implied love of weed, booze and GoldenEye, once us f**king yanks are allowed to travel again i'm gonna have to stop by and challenge you to a weekend of "IS THAT ALL YA GOT?!?!?" where the first one to tap-out loses. Your story was f**king hilarious man, thank you for sharing. And i played australian rules football here in the states for about 13 years, so i am WELL aware of the word to which you are referring, but that which gets censored here on the boards. I believe it's spelled very similary to the word CUNTY but without the Y, yeah? Haha cheers buddy! DanK

I'm eagerly waiting for this!

Right, I don't play online and I know f**k all about modding, but I can, at least, get in on this... My first experience with video games came with Super Mario Bros, on the NES, way back in 1987. It was my Christmas present for that year. Despite being a kid who was into comics, sci-fi, Planet of the Apes and Godzilla films, (an expected natural video game addict), it wouldn't be until a few years later, with Duck Tales, that I came to appreciate just how fantastic the NES was/still is. I later received Chip 'n Dale the following year and, (as a SNES was out of the price range of my parents, at the time), TaleSpin, in 1992. These three are still my favourite games on the NES, a console I still own (not my O.G. one though), and play a fair bit. The following year, however, I did receive the prestigious SNES, although, certainly in the U.K., the Megadrive/Genesis was infinitely more popular... It was also cheaper. I went through the entire life span of the SNES, NEVER ONCE playing a sports game, on it. Instead favouring games such as Super Mario World, Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country, Mario Kart and Street Fighter II - which every kid, whether a SNES or Megadrive owner, played, when I was growing up. My first sports game came with the N64 console, which, by the time it came out, I'd bought for myself, as I was working at this time. Once again Super Mario dominated the time that I spent playing - remember I would have been around 16/17 at this point, when you're making your own money and can pass for eighteen in pubs and an eager weed smoker, video games get put on the back-burner. (Nowadays, I would say they go together like whiskey and impotence, but I was young and still had to learn.) A game which came to overtake SM64 was GoldenEye 007. I worked with a Canadian guy, a year or two older than I was, who also owned an N64. One day, following some ribbing and friendly banter over GoldenEye times... 'I can finish "Frigate," on double-O agent, in less than three minutes, you f**king Canuck ****.' (Forgive me, I'm Irish. That word is religious to my people.) 'Yeah, well I've got it down to two and a half, you f**king thick-Mick Irish ****.' (And, as I said, he was Canadian, so it was also pretty close to his heart too.) That sort of thing. He invited me round to his, for a beer and smoke and to settle our dispute. Without wishing to brag, I beat him like a ginger stepchild, most times, out of however many games we played. We started to drink heavier and smoke more, as you'd imagine, both of us suffered greatly with our aim. I suggested he put on Mario Kart, as drunk-kart-driving, is not only big and clever, but it was also damn fun to boot. Instead, he put on Wayne Gretzky's 3D Hockey and I whinged like a bastard, lit a joint and watched him play. 'Stupid American team names... Redwings, sounds like a panty-liner. Blackhawks, that's racist! Maple Leafs? Is that a f**king joke, Maple... Leafs? Seriously?' 'The last one is a Canadian team, you stupid (*guess what came next*)' I got stoned enough to want to have a go and I was awful at it, I mean, seriously bad. He set it to "play game" mode for me and the first team I played was Hartford and I was beaten, something like, 9-0. I got pissy about it and said if he didn't put Mario Kart on, then I was going to tell everyone in work, that he tried to touch my winky when I was drunk. The following week, I was reminded about just how bad I was and, I know this probably says more about me than it does him, I went out after work and picked up a copy of the game for myself. I was pleased by the fact of how cheap it was, I believe I paid around £25 brand new, (hockey isn't big in Britain, then or now.) I didn't mention it to him and came to learn the basics of the game over the next few nights, playing into the early hours of the morning. At the end of the week, I said I wanted a rematch, he laughed and said okay... When I started playing, right away he asked, when I'd bought it for myself, I said, I didn't know what he was talking about and he pretended that he believed me. On the wall, in his living room, he had a large Edmonton Oilers flag, from first playing the game, at home, I chose to play as the Oilers because I wanted to beat him with his own team and I was happy to choose any team that Satan was on. While we were playing, my pal said something to the effect of, "Yeah, this is good, but it's no 94." I asked him what he was talking about and he went on to explain how fantastic NHL'94 was. I balked at the idea of a game from a previous console being better than the 3D graphics of the one we were currently playing, he told me, the graphics don't matter, the game play was awesome on 94 and he was thinking of buying a SNES and a copy of the game again. I have no idea if he ever did, as not long after, he'd decided he'd had enough of Britain and moved back to Canada. Without the competition of it, I stopped playing Gretzky's 3D and went back to playing my usual type of game, mainly GoldenEye. Every now and again, I would give 3D another go, still playing as the Oilers, for old time's sake. The first NHL game I ever played was 99, still a favourite on the N64, I bought it mainly due to remembering being told how good NHL'94 was. My logic being, well if 94 was good, 99 should be fantastic. In my opinion, it was good and, overall, better than 3D. The N64 I have today is still my original console, I kept it purely for GoldenEye and Perfect Dark, I never bought another games console after it and a few years later, 5-6, I repurchased an NES and SNES. I bought back all my old games and a few (hundred) that I never had the chance to play first time round, one of which was NHL'94. The game was outstandingly brilliant, I mean, I, to this day, do not feel as though my friend did it justice, when he explained how good it was. It was/is far superior to both 3D an 99, (as well as every other hockey game of the 16 and 64-bit era's, although NHLPA'93 is definitely up there as a favourite too.) I quickly developed a passion for, both, the game and the sport itself. I watched hockey games on cable television and adopted the Edmonton Oilers as my team. I've been playing 94 for fifteen years and have loved hockey and my Oilers, for nearly as long. My Missus of seven years is an Oilers fan, because I said she can sleep in the shed if she even dreams about cheering for anyone else, and she is f**king good at 94 too... Even if she does have a tendency to beat me with Hartford. As well as that one time with the Sharks, THAT WE DEFINITELY DON'T TALK ABOUT!! I only found this forum and (cult) community, earlier on this month, but I have already realised, I am in the presence of (sad old men like myself) like minded aficionados of the greatest video game on the planet. Half of whom seem to have more talent for programming games than EA themselves. - IV:XX **** = The naughty C-word, just in case you're curious.

I was newly married in the early 90's and me and 4 buddies played a lot of Madden, but when the OG, 93 and then <heavenly music> NHL '94 came out, it was OVER. We didn't play anything else. Then we got the 4-play adapter, and it got better. Then we got the CD version and it got even BETTER. The only thing that could have made it better, we said, was to be able to edit/move/create players. After a couple of years, the wives tired of it, we all moved apart, and we stopped playing. Fast-forward to 2015. I moved home to CA from Hawaii. I stumble upon this website and learn that you actually CAN edit/move/create players (and more). Me and one of my buddies re-draft the entire league and burn it to a CD and play on a SegaCD bought on Ebay. Brilliant. The only problem was trying to hook it up to modern TV's (nothing but HDMI inputs on the back of the TV, only coaxial outputs on the Sega). Then we learned of all the programs that people have created to edit players/teams/etc. It made re-drafting and creating a new league much easier. We kept a logbook of every game and stat. Played a whole season and playoffs. Then someone created the stat-extractor. Now we have literally every stat the game keeps and we keep it in a spreadsheet. We are on our 14th season of doing this. Covid hits, and we now play via Parsec. I'm 50 now, and haven't tired of this in the least.

@SauceI fully agree with the names I did not mention. Wasn't a slight or not mentioning, just couldn't think of the names while typing. They did offer me the ability to create the updates that I have. Since, this is a community of gamers and die hards, I just wanted to include their input for future roms. Even, if they don't contribute, their words of encouragement and positivity can help motivate and guide others to continue creating updates and revisions. Much appreciated support and to the guys I forgot @slapshot67 @clockwise @chaos @Evan and @halifax. Thank you for all the break throughs and enhancements.

Howdy! While I appreciate the compliment of inclusion, I'm not a "legend." And while, you included some good names, you left off wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy too many if you are going to toss around that word. We don't have a 32 team GENS rom without @slapshot67. We don't have the amazing sprite patch without @clockwise. Not to mention the online gaming tutorials (retroarch, in particular) done by @chaos and the social media presence maintained by @halifax. Hell, we don't have a site to share such discussions without @Evan. Also, I don't think wboy has been here in quite some time. There are a lot of "legends" here, I ain't one... anywho... end rant on the use of the word "legend." lol As for what I would want to see... I want to see what YOU come up with as YOU are the only one doing the work. Very generous of you to offer but I'm in the same mindset as Raph. Plus... "You can please some of the folks, some of the time. You cannot please all of them, all of the time." Words to live by. Keep up the great work!

Don't worry, I have been there lately myself. Take your time, what you have done already seems fantastic, I'm exited to see the project finished regardless of when it's done.

Was hoping they would have actually updated the game to include fighting and some new modes, like a season mode, trading/free agency, etc., but I don't want to set myself up for disappointment.

Much appreciated. I’ll do an updated roster for this since there is likely no NCAA season this year so far.