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I posted a new version of my ROM tonight, with the following menu modification. Steps to reproduce… 1. Start with clean original code. 2. Go to 0xF8AB0 and 0xF8B2C. 3. Verify that they read 4EB9000F98C6 and 4EB9000F9AAC respectively. 4. Change them to 4E714E714E71 and 4E714E714E71. (thanks to @smozoma via @seamor!) 5. Go to 0xF8A8E, 0xF8B0C, and 0xF8B42 6. Verify that they read 4E at each of these three locations. 7. Change the value to 20 at each of these three locations. This will inject a space at the beginning of the first, third and fourth line of data display for the player in the menu. These lines will not show the data that is meant to be displayed there, and instead only the players number and name is displayed on the second line. Doing this means that your player preview can no longer show any stats or user records for any player on any team, it will only show names and numbers. EDIT: While this does seem to work, I misunderstood what I was doing and how it worked. Looking back at the code, here is what I recommend now… 6. Change 4EB9 to 4E71 at each of these three locations. 7. This will stop the first line of text from loading, getting rid of the double-name instances, and only showing the single vertically centred name instance. Has been tested with User Records turned on and populated with data, using emulation with memory errors and 68k errors simulated. That's as close as I can get without original Genesis/Mega Drive hardware.

Leaving this one up for the aversion to George Lucas-ing the thing, but if you happen to come across this one, please note that there is a better one out there. Back to the past... But first, since tis the season. Twas the night after Christmas, and all through the house, No more creatures were stirring, not even the mouse-r. The stockings were empty, the tree, it lay bare, In memory of loot that used to be there; The children were finally snug in their beds, No more talking of whatever popped in their heads; And mamma was snoring and I on my laptop, Thinking "just one more thing, then I will nap... pop" Recalling the games played throughout the day's chatter, Defeating the bosses like it was no matter. Now the finishing touch should be done in a flash, I pick the controller whose buttons we'll mash. Just a quick test of the new-finished show, Fire up the game by the monitor's glow, Then, what to my critical eyes should appear, But a miniature ref, and ten tiny players, With a flick of the thumb, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment I'd have a hat trick. More rapid than... something else fast, goals they came, And he whistled, that ref, and displayed their name; "Now, center now, wingers now, defence and goalie! Go, Shoot it! go, stupid! go, save it you... goalie! To them hit with a check! now into the wall! Now bash away! crash away! dash away all!" In the overtime frame, off a shot like a missile, The game it was over, and the ref gave a whistle, We'll play it tomorrow, the kids and I might, HAPPY GAMING TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD-NIGHT! Pardon the indulgence. Now for another with the retro game review. Back in 1988 SNK released arguably the best baseball game ever made for the Nintendo Entertainment System. You may remember it as: With the shift to licensed league based games, it has been mostly forgotten aside from retro-re-releases, but at the time it did spawn a series of games with both Baseball Stars and Baseball Stars 2, Legends of the Diamond and Little League Baseball: Championship Series all being released for the NES while being based on the same engine. Another Baseball Stars 2 was released for arcades via the NEO•GEO MVS, which wasn't a sequel to the NES game as much as it was of Baseball Stars Professsional , a launch title/pack in for the NEO•GEO MVS and AES systems. Two more ports were released for the NEO•GEO Pocket/Colour. That's a lot of bla bla bla about baseball, but wasn't this supposed to be about hockey? Yes. So what about that hockey game? Released in 1992 by Romstar [SNK's North American distribution arm in the late '80s/early '90s] on the Sega Genesis, the first Hockey Stars features many recognizable teams and player names from it's baseball contemporaries. Including the trademark stark white splash screen and "Be a Champ" words of encouragement. Teams are still divided up by league; You will find mention of the "Exciting", "Fighting", "Professional" and "Legends" leagues in the team intros. These are not exclusive in Versus play as in the NEO•GEO releases, but will determine what division you play in during the Playoff mode. Although not as sharp as you will find on AES hardware, full colour cartoony depictions of player photos are still present and take their art style from the previous "Professional" game. And just as in most other SNK games, the pre-match presenter has another SNK character making a cameo in Athena from Psycho Soldier. You will not have any trouble identifying the developer of this game. Team names are also on brand. Each player has an individual photo and stats you can look up. It can be considered lucky that this is the only screen that features this intense of a watermark treatment. In another similarity to the Baseball games, player stats seem to be directly imported as they are wildly different. Meaning that play-style can vary quite drastically even among line mates. Some may wish to play with line changes off and create a "super line" of each team's best players, but if you are looking for the added challenge of having to adapt to each player's varying abilities, you may want to keep line changes on. The Playoff Cup from Professional makes a return, only this time it is put on a pedestal as hockey deserves. The colour coding now makes sense as each "League" is contained to a divisional playoff format. You can play a traditional Best-of-7 or Single Elimination tournament. There's more of that branding... Finally the gameplay, it was described to me as simultaneously "perfect" and "clunky" so make of that as you will. It seems to be both reminiscent of the vintage hockey games of the era, while also adding that layer of challenge due to the wildly different character attributes typical to the SNK titles. At least the 3-stars icon isn't another SNK logo. I don't like to give number reviews, but I will rate this one as "Recommended" during this World Juniors season. Hockey Stars v1.1.bin

I like the ideas you think up, maybe we should also create a nhl 94 rom but it replaces the player models with the ones from kunio-kun hockey game or create a nes rom hack for the captain tsubasa (or tecmo cup soccer game) game that replaces soccer with hockey. Anyways, sometimes a total conversion hack rom always deserve a creative facelift make over.

Yeah it would be cool to have different player models. You did that box art so well, I spent some time daydreaming of a true Hockey Stars port. I guess if I had a magic wand, the Hockey Stars would probably look like jumbo versions of NES Ice Hockey Players but with the Baseball stars art. So many little tweaks you could do like having the goalie get the "sweating" animation like the pitchers get in baseball when tired. The guys going over the boards, would be similar to grabbing a home run. Probably would do fighting much more like blades of steal look.