Leaderboard

Hi, I'm Tickenest. You may remember me from such threads as "Classic Fall 2020 GENS-A Season Report" and "The Truth". Well I have decided that I want to try and answer some lingering questions that we have about this game. We don't know exactly what some player attributes mean. We don't know what causes some players to commit more penalties than others. We don't know why our teams take fewer shots in the Down direction than the Up direction, but we shoot a higher percentage in the Down direction. Well, we can't directly answer these questions, but we can do the next best thing, which is to generate a ton of game statistics from CPU simulation and analyze those stats. My goal is to generate a large master dataset for detailed analysis. I would like to have lots of statistics from lots of CPU simulations of NHL '94 games. Specifically, I'm looking to pair up each of the 26 non-All Star teams against each other for 6 games, 3 home and 3 away. 20 minute periods (for reasons that I'll explain below), Penalties ON, no Offsides, Line Changes AUTO. I'm using the GENS version of the ROM because we can track player ice team and player checks on that version but not the SNES version. If the GENS side proves to be a successful effort, then I could see a SNES version happening down the line. You see, I've analyzed the player data from many seasons of Classic, but player statistics from Classic or any other league that we run will always have the major flaw that they depend heavily on the human who is controlling the players. By doing CPU vs. CPU simulations, we can at least eliminate that factor. Now this will take a while because simming all of these games is not a fast process. The good news is that there are two main ways that I can speed up the simulations: Increase the speed at which RetroArch runs Get help from the community! I'm asking for help to make this dataset happen. Specifically, I would be grateful for volunteers who would be willing to help, at least briefly, with the data collection. If you'd like to help, here's how you do it. This is the spreadsheet that I'm using to track the progress: NHL '94 Save State Collection Tracker - Google Sheets I've listed all 26 teams and assign them 3 games against each opponent (including themselves), 78 games per team (at home.) That's 2028 games to simulate. When a game is successfully simmed and submitted to me, I mark it in the spreadsheet with an x. If you would like to help, here are the exact steps to do so: 1) Setting up RetroArch Settings -> Frame Throttle -> Maximum Run Speed - set this to 10.0x (this allows the emulator to run in Fast Forward mode up to 10x speed) Settings -> Input -> Hotkey Binds -> Fast-Forward Toggle - assign this to any key on your keyboard that you're not already using. This is the Fast Forward toggle key. Press it, and the emulator will run as fast as it can, up to 10.0x speed as set above. I strongly suggest that you make a copy of your nhl94.bin file in the ROMs folder and rename it to nhl94_Stats.bin. This way, any save states that you create won't get confused with your normal nhl94.bin save states. 2) Doing the simulations Go to the spreadsheet linked above, and pick out a matchup that hasn't been simmed yet. In RA, open the renamed ROM and set up a new game. Use these exact settings: Demo (CPU vs. CPU) 20 Minute Periods Home Team - The team listed in BOLD at the top of the column in the spreadsheet. Away Team - The team that you've chosen to use as the Away Team for the simulation you're going to do. So if you chose the NJD column and NYI as the games you want to sim, make NJD the home team and NYI the away team. Penalties ON, Offsides OFF Line Changes Auto Press Start to get to the matchup screen, and then the pre-game menu. Press your Fast Forward Toggle key to start the speedup, and then press Start to start the game. Now just let it go. We're doing 20 minute periods because I believe that we'll get similar statistics for 3 20-minute period games as we would from 12 5-minute period games, but it's just easier to babysit a longer game. You don't actually have to press anything to get the game to resume between periods. If you wait long enough (and it doesn't take long when Fast Forward is on), the game will resume on its own. The only thing you have to do is capture the save state at the end of the game. Make sure that you take it at the 3 Stars screen or in the menu after the game. Definitely do not do it during a highlight because the statistics get lost during highlights. Once you've got the save state, end the game and start another one if you feel like it. Please make sure that you set Penalties to ON, no Offsides. Penalty frequency is probably going to be one of the easiest things to study once we have the data. Also, don't melt your computer on my behalf. You can always slow down the Fast Forward speed if necessary. 3) Submitting results You can upload save states that you've captured for the project to me directly on Discord. An alternative is to upload them to this Google Drive folder: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19uRvJHy8WDw2mqe8RbTLoeW1FWtSz65E?usp=sharing. You'll need to be logged into Google in order to upload that way. I would like it if you follow this naming convention for each save state: nhl94_Stats_ANHBOS1.state3. It helps me keep track of things. So that's home team's 3-letter abbreviation, and then away team's 3-letter abbreviation. The number after "state" does not matter. And if you don't feel like renaming the save states, that's okay, I can still use them. Just please mention which matchups you did and then update the spreadsheet or allow me to do it. Even if you only bang out a few, it's still a few that I or someone else didn't have to do. Feel free to comment below or ask me questions in Discord. Thanks, and I'll be sure to share some results when I have them!

Hi everyone! It's that time again... As with past years, I am posting my NHL94 2022 edition ROM (various updates, to come, throughout the season). I'll start with Preseason and post additional versions as the season progresses. About the ROM: *32 teams. Seattle Kraken are included. *The ROM is based off of the Slapshot67 32-team template. *60 Min. OT. *The ROM has the "weight bug fix". *The ROM has Clockwise's sprite patch. *The rom has the WAS/WPG freeze bug. When corrected, it causes an issue for the playoff mode. If you use Kega Fusion, it will not freeze the player cards for those teams. *Uniforms have been updated for Arizona (both home and away). *Lines/d pairs may not accurate. Not all players will make the roster due to limits as well as some injured players will be back and that's why they are not removed. If you notice any mistakes, please let me know... enjoy! Season ROM - V1 (posted 10/13/21) NHL94 2022 v1.bin Season ROM - VPO (posted 5/1/22) - END OF REGULAR SEASON/PLAYOFF VERSION NHL94 2022 vPO.bin

UPDATE: Trade deadline update available in this post. The main purpose here was to get all the trade deadline moves applied, and update every team's starting lineup and player ratings to reflect how this season has actually gone. Comments and suggestions are welcome, although I will be unavailable for the next two weeks so fixes will have to wait until then. Yes, the annual classic is back! By now you know the drill. Up-to-date rosters, uniforms, logos, graphics, player pictures, etc.. Hacks: clockwise sprite hack, smoz 3-stars hack, weight bug fix, and speed burst set to 75% of original rom Graphic hacks: faceoff boxes, goalie crease, benches, goal light Post with any errors you find and I'll do a relatively quick 1.01 update. Enjoy! NHL 2022 by naples39.zip NHL 2022 by naples39 v101.bin

Half the playoff bracket programming is based on the 16 playoff teams from last season. The other half is based on the 16 teams that didn't make it. With them, I structured it based on how they finished in the standings as I have done with my previous season ROMs. I think I made Seattle an 8th seed because they had to be included and it made sense. Last season/playoffs was unique, to say the least. Thankfully, we get to return to a normal structure this season. I will update the playoff trees when I do a playoff version of this ROM, later this season. I'm not going to do it sooner unless you have a crystal ball.

Hi everyone! I’m a long-time lurker but would like to now see if I can be a contributor (of sorts). I love NHL94…takes me way back to a fun time of sports video gaming. Plus, 1994 holds special memories for long time (suffering) Rangers fans like me. This is a wonderful site and appears to be a great community. I want to say thanks to everyone who contributes as it helps folks, like me, with no hacking skills, develop custom ROMs. Hat tip to Slapshot67/Skip and Naples39 for the awesome ROMs that they do for the current NHL seasons. Both versions are awesome for different reasons. That said, I have “lifted” Skip/Slapshot’s version and have been doing “tweaks” to it. In the end, it’s a hybrid concept of theirs as well as Naples39 as it pulls some inspiration from both. Here’s what to expect from this file: *31 NHL Teams. The “WPG freeze bug” doesn’t occur IF you use Kega Fusion. However, with Fusion, WSH, WPG and Team #32 all cycle player portraits but there is a weird error code that appears next to the image. While it’s not the end of the world, I hope to one day fix it. The “WPG freeze bug” does exist for some other emulators. *32nd Team is the 2018 NHL Prospects. So now, you can play as Dahlin, Svechnikov, Zadina, Tkachuk, Boqvist, Hayton, Hughes, etc. I added all of the top-rated prospects for this year’s June draft. I researched the prospects, online via multiple credible sources, to get some attribute insights. *Several player portraits have been updated/replaced. I may replace some more when time permits and my wife doesn’t get annoyed at me for putting in more time. LOL *Some NCL players have been updated/replaced, from how Skip/Slapshot67 had them. *Goalie speed has been set to zero. As such, they are significantly less likely to go into the trapezoid (while forwards are attacking) as they don’t have the speed to come back in time. They are less spaz-like/aggressive out of the crease now. Agility rating makes the goalies move quickly side to side (between the posts) and makes them more animated in the net. I tested this many times and it feels more natural. Well, as “natural” as the NHL 94 will allow. *I edited just about every player (between 700-800 edits). I did not base ratings on this year’s performance alone. However, this year influenced said ratings. The ratings are based on the last 3 years averaged out for players who played a minimum of 60 games/per. For those who didn’t, I had a different methodology. I used Hockey Forecaster, HockeyDB, Elite Prospects and HFBoards (each team’s page) for insight. Plus, I used stat and analytics sites for insight as well. *No goalies or Dmen in the 90s, for OVR rating, several in the 80s. Only 3 forwards in the 90s. You could probably guess who…again, no drop off in terms of production as it is more in line with the original game ratings. So, in this ROM, 80 is the new 90. 90 OVR just means that you are the best in the world. Using the scale of 0-6 I did avoid 6 for certain attributes like defense. No one is higher than a 5 as it allows for some "human error" on the part of the CPU. *Only 2 goalies per team (except for the prospects who have 3). I felt it was a better use of a roster spot to have an extra forward and/or dman. I wanted to get some noobs like Donato, Andersson, Gaudette, Middlestadt, etc. in the game. Not all made it in but maybe one day… *Lines are set using LeftWing Lock’s and Daily Faceoff’s websites. They are not the most current but rather, the average for the year of which lines/D pairings were used the most per team. *Some injured players are still active (Shattenkirk, Bouwmeester, Suter, Carlo, Thornton, Nash, etc.). More fun that way. Folks can change them if they want up-to-date. *All shot/pass tendencies have been updated and play (mostly) accurate. Same for checking tendency. *Playoffs are based on 4 rotating scenarios. I added the 2017 & 2018 brackets (as of 4/8/18). There are also two fake/custom brackets that allow for teams that weren’t in the playoffs the last couple of years (CAR, BUF and ARZ) to have some opportunity as well as for those who maybe showed up once in the last few years (EDM and FLA). Anywho, sorry for the long post. This is in no way meant to be competition to Naples39 or Slapshot67/Skip (or Coach Mac or any other folks). I’m not interested in any such thing as I have big respect for what each does for the game/community. I just wanted to add “another flavor to the menu.” If you download and notice any errors, please let me know. I look forward to any and all feedback! NHL94 2018 v3.1.zip

Welcome to the club

why hali.. whyyyyyyy SNES: better features (woo buttons) Genesis: better gameplay to most people even despite the feature mismatch "stand up button" is stupid and I assume mentioned sarcastically suck it SNES! SNES is like session musicians, very good at what they do, but kinda uninspired/uninspiring Genesis is like a band, not the cleanest delivery, but rocking your face and sleeping with your girlfriend and somehow you're ok with that

I think this debate could go on and on forever with good points for both sides. In the end, it comes down to personal preference (and sometimes which version of the game you played first). I'm one of the people that thinks the Genesis version is far superior because of the gameplay, like Wally said. But there's no right answer to this, and you always get about equal votes for either game. -Evan