Leaderboard

Starting with playoffs in the leagues coming up (as of 2/14/22), I would like everyone to start using the RA 1.10 package. This can be downloaded from the nhl94online.com front page as of today. To update, download the package, then set your name in Settings-User, restart RA. Copy over your ROMs folder from 1.8.8 to the RA 1.10 folder, and choose "Replace" if asked. DO NOT copy over your retroarch.cfg file from 1.8.8! There are a lot of changes made between config files from 1.8.8 and 1.10. Improvements Controllers - 1.10 should have less fussing with controller binds. It should recognize more controllers out of the box, without the need to manually configure. There were bugs in 1.8.8 for some of the controller config stuff. Relay Server - The relay server is back, for those of you who can't host, or if there is framerate drops when you host. The relay server code is re-built from the ground up, and I believe (?) should be a smoother experience than it was in the past. Also, we have the ability to set up a custom relay server, which we can use for the 94 community only. This will be looked at in the future. Netplay Room List Cleanup - Rooms that are not joinable will be removed from the list, so it should be easier to find the person you are looking to connect to Netplay Code Revamped - I'm not guaranteeing that you will have a better experience, but a lot of things have been streamlined when it comes to netplay. For example, the host's latency settings will be used for the game (before you had to make sure the host and the person joining had the same settings). Some changes I made - RA will now open in fullscreen by default. I removed some of the menu categories to make it less confusing. Tons of bug fixes; it's been 2 years since we updated! Switched to the 64-bit version on Windows - We had been using the 32-bit version since we started 4 years ago using RA. Which limits the amount of RAM that can be used to 4GB. At this point, everyone should have a 64-bit CPU, if your PC was made in the last 10 years. New Features Host Settings There's a few new settings when it comes to hosting. "Max Simultaneous Connections" - limits how many people can connect to you. I have this default to 2 right now (2 people can connect, like a person playing and a streamer). Change this when you want more people to connect to you (like for 2v2, set it to 3). This only affects when you are hosting. "Ping Limiter" - Now when someone connects to your host, it will display their ping on connection. This value will limit that ping (it's in ms). So if it is set to 200, and someone tries connecting to you that has a ping of 240, it won't let them connect. I changed this value to 250 in the final config file. You can change this whenever you wish. It only affects when you are hosting. "Use Relay Server" - Turn this on when you have problems hosting a game. This will use the relay server to set up the host. Ping Display For those of you who are clients (you are connecting to a host), you will see your ping to the host in the bottom right corner of the RA window. This gives you a decent idea on how well the network connection is. The host will only see the ping during the moment the client connects to them, in a notification window. Chat RA has finally added an in-game chat. To chat with your opponent, or whoever is connected to you, hit the Tab key on your keyboard. This will open up the on-screen keyboard window (like when you enter a netplay password). You can type using your keyboard (or if you wish to click on the on-screen keyboard with a mouse), hit Enter, and the message will show in the bottom left of the screen. It will fade away after a little bit. This is more useful than you would think; instead of having to chat in Discord, you can use the in-game chat now.

While it has been quite a while since we have had a live tournament, the art of running a successful one has clearly not been lost. I understand a lot of people, especially international travelers had various concerns with a live event but please put this event on your to do list for next year. Getting to the event is pretty easy as Minneapolis has a good size airport that serves both America and Canada relatively well. I got in on a Thursday night and was able to easily get an Uber to the Moxy Uptown, about a 10 mile drive that cost $25 each way. Bring a bud and that price gets whittled away even further as you split the costs. On top of that, the Moxy provides a deal for 94 players providing a room at a very reasonable rate. I believe my room ran $89 a night for a stay in a part of town that is easily walkable and has plenty of food/entertainment in the immediate vicinity. The rooms are fairly modern and comfortable as well, not exactly great for multi person meet ups within a single room but they certainly get the job done for a 2-3 night stay at a reasonable rate. As for the tournament itself, the setup was spot on with their being several setups of original hardware and CRTs. @LeifEriksonand his company AV For You brought in a lot of CRTs, lighting, audio, and other accoutrements early on Friday well before the majority of people rolled in for exhibitions. They made this process look so easy and it helped to provide a classic and hassle free experience to the tournament. @Edge of '94 Midwest during this time also was able to set up his streaming and announcing station along with all of the original Sega Genesis hardware. It was set up so that anyone, if they desired could walk up to the mic start and spitting hot fire live on stream. On top of this all, there was plenty of space to move around and a bar literally steps away from all of the game stations. Wait times to get a drink we're minimal as the Moxy staff were attentive and from what I heard, generous with their drinks from an alcohol content standpoint. Friday night consisted of a several exhibitions including a fully functional 2 on 2 setup on the big screen CRT. It allowed guys to spread out a bit consume their drinks, and take in the 2 on 2 experience that gets ratcheted up several notches with it being live. The tournament started on Saturday at 11 am which allowed plenty of time for people to make it to the venue and of course, the BAR WAS OPEN! The tournament itself, went along seamlessly from my perspective, Round Robin wrapped up within 3-4 hours which is a comfortable pace in which to get your games in, socialize a bit with everyone who arrived and get a good drink or two under your belt. For the lunch break, there are ample restaurants in which to choose from with varying types of food, it might have been the best food setup aside in terms of variety and only second to those with food on site for convenience. After the lunch break, there was a raffle that was flooded with prizes consisting of vintage hockey trading card sets, classic starting lineup figures from the 90's, classic video gaming accessories and a wide selection of autographed jerseys. Everyone received 3 complimentary tickets and additional tickets could be purchased as well. There must have been at least 30 different prizes available which meant that just about everyone went home with some sort of souvenir in which to remember the event by. Once the excitement of the raffle quieted down, we entered the bracket stage of the even which can be found below. There are a lot of great games included with commentary provided from a range of individuals like Trojan1979, TecmoJon and the completely off the grid Dan K. Again, this portion of the tournament went very smooth as there was little waiting around and we were able to wrap up the tournament with plenty of time afterwards to socialize some more while grabbing a few post game drinks. I thoroughly enjoyed my entire experience at this event and am looking forward to going to the next one in Minneapolis sometime next year. I know a lot of people were on the fence this year but I think you will be very happy if you jumped off that fence and joined us. This is an excellent event and it can be even better if we get more buds to come in from out of town as the grass roots scene materializes in Minneapolis.

This has been asked a bunch, so here it is. This Google Sheet has all of the NHL'94 players, duplicates removed, and their ratings. This is useful for draft leagues or anyone interested in the player attributes. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Vr9sVwLbLhpp3baIKDvk-VaA2aom2IonjEB84u5wgqc/edit?usp=sharing I added the ability to customize the player overall scores as compared to the original version. For reference, here is how the overall calculation works in NHL'94 (thanks @smozoma! - original reference) OVERALL CALCULATION Wayne Gretzky is 87 overall! But what does that mean? The default overall calculation that the game uses for Forwards and Defensemen is as follows. Take the attributes values (0-6) and multiply them by the following factors: Agility x 2 Speed x 3 Offensive Awareness x 3 Defensive Awareness x 2 Shot Power x 1 Checking x 2 Stickhandling x 3 Shot Accuracy x 2 Endurance x 1 Passing x 1 Add all of those numbers together to get the “overall” number. There are two caveats: If the total is less than 50, divide the total number by 2 and add 25. the total is above 99, the overall will display 99. So for Wayne Gretzky, his calculation would be as follows. Agility: 6 x 2 = 12 Speed: 4 x 3 = 12 Offensive Awareness: 5 x 3 = 15 Defensive Awareness 4 x 2 = 8 Shot Power: 2 x 1 = 2 Checking: 2 x 2 = 4 Stickhandling: 6 x 3 = 18 Shot Accuracy: 2 x 2 = 4 Endurance: 6 x 1 = 6 Passing: 6 x 1 = 6 12+12+15+8+2+4+18+6+6 = 87! For Goalies Agility x 4.5 (round down) Defensive Awareness x 4.5 (round down) Puck Control x 4.5 (round down) Stick Right x 1 Stick Left x 1 Glove Right x 1 Glove Left x 1 The same two caveats apply. Note that the game has given the most importance to speed, offensive awareness and stickhandling for both forwards and defensemen by weighing those attributes by 3, but this is not likely what you value most in a player. The sheet that I provided allows you to value the attributes to your OWN preference to come up with new calculated ratings: On this page you can change the values in the "custom" ratings and the sheet that says "new ratings" will update automatically. The automatic scale will make sure the top rated F/D/G are the same as the original game so the data makes sense. The sheet is defaulting to be equal to the original. I'll show you an example for forwards. Let's say I value Speed, Shot Power, Stick Handling and Agility a bunch, while I don't really care about Endurance, or the Awareness. And so I put in my new custom attributes as follows: When I go to my Forwards on the "New Ratings" sheet, you can see the updated overall calculations as compared to the original: Mario isn't the top rated player anymore, but Mogilny, Yzerman, Bure, etc. If you want lighter players, put a negative value on weight. Really, you can customize your ratings however you prefer. This is very helpful for draft leagues, or in general. Note that the automatic scale won't work in Excel unless you have the Excel 365 version because it uses the function MAXIFS. If you have an older version of Excel, you'll need to manually adjust the scale.

You can now use these on the forum by typing :abbreviation or selecting them from the emoji list

Now that the dust has settled, and I'm close to caught up from being gone, it's time for my recap. I have so many to thank, and as always, cross check me into the boards if I forget anything or anyone. #1 thanks to @LeifErikson and all of his company's contributions. As many of you know, I drive in over 4 hours away(in good weather) away from Green Bay, where we used to host this tournament. With everything that Leif and his crew contribute, it actually takes me less time to travel there and back than it would for me to setup everything on my own. The lighting helped the stream look better(brought my own stream setup this time), the holographic projector was awesome, as was the custom NHL94 projection in one of the gaming areas. His high end CRTs, many of them professional grade look tremendous, especially when he has the RGB cable hookups. Hopefully someday we can get enough of those so that every setup is either YpPbPr(component) or HDMI via systems like the Analogue Mega SG(more on that later). The PA setup was great for getting people's attention and for running the raffle. Seriously, A+ for all your contributions. Also thank you for the Reuben. I was starving and obviously wasting away. #2) Big props to @angryjay93for being the only person to make every single one of my annual Edge of 94 tournaments, myself excluded. That's six in a row now, and I think you have your fourth Sega title, and one SNES to your name from 2019. Your support has been unwavering, and I can't thank you enough for bringing legitimacy to our annual event. Your contributions in online streams and score entry have also been very helpful. #3) @Nelson94aka Nelson79 is the force behind the Modano Mo Problems flyers, as well as the Tecmo event flyers. He's just a great dude who gets what we're trying to do, even if NHL94 isn't his first love. He's been tremendous about helping out at all events I run, not just NHL94. He has a giant ass bug zapper that he'll bring should you ever wish to do some outdoor gaming in the Summertime. #4) @TecmoJonreally stepped up with the commentary, and the helping hands during the live event, and the online events leading up to the big day. I was suffering laryngitis upon arrival to the weekend, made worse from having to talk louder through masks most of the weekend. Jon has natural mic skills, and experience going back to the big Tecmo Madison streams. His knowledge is growing in NHL94, and he's applied that to his wit and charm on the mic. He's also getting really good at NHL94. Thanks for all you do. #5) Hank the Tank much like Nelson is not a big NHL94 guy, but he loves retro events, and he has attended in back to back events to be my helper. Whatever I'd need he was willing to help with. Someone please play this guy in Dr Mario. #6) @Scribe99has been a big online supporter of everything we do, and this was his 2nd time joining us live. He made the finals and AJ was on his game. Someday Scribe will earn a Lord Manly's Cup of his own. He also helped with online score entry for online tournaments leading up. #7) @SammieSmith33and @segathonare essentially the same spirit animal. Both guys are loud and energetic. Thanks for testing out the echo capabilities of the space. #8) Every newcomer who though it would be a good idea to play a game from 1993 away from family members, thanks for picking us. #9) Dan effing K, seriously, hilarious dude. He's unapologetically himself at all times. Thanks for offending everyone equally. #10) @DPS, between your consumption of Vodka, and my failure of setting Facebook events correctly, we had a moment of uncertainty, but somehow we powered through it all. Thanks for bringing Mel and for finding the strength to finish your games. #11) @corbettkbjust had this tremendously infectious positive attitude all weekend. Thanks for repping TX and joining us all weekend! #12) Redarmy tried his hardest to bring guys in, and tried to buy me a drink like 10 times. Unfortunately my throat was shot and I drank mostly water all weekend. Thanks for being a local guy we can count on. #13) Thanks to the Moxy for doing a great job for us. We addressed some minor concerns with them, but we feel like they earned a repeat visit next year. #14) While not present at the event, @chaos @kingraph both you guys were helpful with the online events leading up. Some things we identified that we hope will be resolved for next year: 1) A meal option inside the Moxy. Sending everyone away did cause a longer break than we wanted. If this isn't resolved, we may bring in some sort of catered option and build it into the price of entry next time. 2) Adjust the overall format to conclude everything 1-2 hours sooner. Group play games are awesome, as are playoffs, but for some local people, they just can't endure an event that spanned 10 hours total with all of the breaks. Most likely we will remain at a 3 game series and do the 5 game finals. We ended up switching to a 5 games finals because we were so far behind. Ideally we'll have a bit more players so we can get creative on group size. I think 5-6 games for group is perfect. Everyone had 9 in this tournament plus the bracket. 3) I saw exactly zero pimps and hoes this time. They are so stylish. It was too cold for street walking apparently. Onto the good : 1) Everyone got a couple of beers minimum. I purchased more than what we had raised, and found people who had a rough go at it and made sure to help them bounce back with an extra drink. 2) Our payout was more than 100% of collected entry fees thanks to the online tournaments, and we expanded our payout to 8 from 4 places, paying out $1,260.00 plus the beers. We'll continue to host them if people are willing to keep playing in them. It doesn't take long to raise a good chunk of funds this way. 3) I didn't lose money on the raffle, so thank you to all who kicked in. My new Porsche comes in Friday. Seriously though, there are expenses, so this helps offset some of that. I hope you all enjoyed the prizes. @DanKhad the best hall IMO. 4) Less than a week after the event, Minneapolis announced the redaction of the mandates we all dealt with. There were individuals that kept away because of the mandates, but we also had people came because of them. We just did whatever we're required to do. I'm thankful that no one who attended decided to become an infectious disease expert during the event. While the timing of the event next year could certainly be in a similar predicament, the Pro Bowl weekend itself is perfect for retro gaming. Who wants to deke indoors when it's 75 degrees and sunny outside? 5) I saw zero used needles, and no one missed the group photo due to alcohol poisoning. I also don't think anyone died from being at the event. Alright guys, I probably missed something important, but the moral of all of this is that we had a live event, had fun doing it, and we want to do it again, so we will. Consider Pro Bowl weekend 2023 to be the next tentative date for Modano Mo Problems III, our 7th "annual" event. Thanks Buds, Trojan