Evan

Hey Cyber, I play a game on Gens, to keep things as clear as possible. Then I take screenshots of the game and bring them into Photoshop. Duplicate the layer, and use the new layer (hide the background layer). Use the magic wand to remove all unwanted pixels, crop out the section I want to keep, and save the image out as a .gif with transparency. It works quite well because the game uses a small amount of color, the image is very easy to clean up. Let me know if this helps! If you make images and want to share them on the forum, just email me them and I'll add them into the Base Gallery of avatars. -Evan

Hey Wopap, Burning the ISO and music to a CD is relatively simple once you know the process. I guess the resources you've been referring to burn a cd aren't as clear as they should be. I'm going to do my best to be as clear as I can with tips and help: (I will eventually have the how-to on the editing page.) First, we are assuming that you have a cd burner, fireburner, the ISO and music tracks. Things to look for: 01 - Very Important: You have to make sure when you add the files into fireburner that they are in the correct track order. NHL94.iso should be track01, track02 should be next etc, and look all the way through track79. When I select all of my files I highlight them from the last file to the first file, so when it comes into fireburner its all correct. 02 - Some burners don't seem to work with fireburner. I've seen this before and it sucks, but it happens. Try using different burners if you have access to them. 03 - Have you tried loading the ISO in Gens to make sure that the ISO works properly? 04 - When I install and use fireburner, I don't change any of the program settings. The default settings work for most burners. 05 - If it seems like the disc is having problems spinning in the Sega CD, try using different blank cds, or try burning at a slower speed (maybe 8x or slower). The game supposedly runs at 1x. 06 - It's possible that the Sega CD is defective or needs cleaning. I have never cleaned the Sega CD or had a defective Sega CD, but it's worth looking into if nothing else helps. My Normal Process for burning NHL94 to CD 01 - Open fireburner (all default settings used). 02 - Add the ISO track. 03 - Add the music tracks by highlighting track79 in the list and then shift selecting track02. Make sure all 79 tracks are perfectly in order. 04 - Burn CD. 05 - Put CD in Sega CD and play. I hope some of this at least helps you figure out the problem, I know how frustrating it can be. Talk to you soon, -Evan

How many people on this forum play or want to play the Gens (Sega Genesis) version of NHL94 online against others on the forum? I can probably set something up on the site. -Evan

the BIN file offset (genesis version) for the white ice... 00059924

Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I've added some homemade nhl94 avatars in the base gallery of the avatar folders. Check them out, and feel free to make any requests! You can goto your profile area to see them. Also, I've put the Blacy emoticon set back in the list (the bigger black set of emoticons) in case you missed them. Blacy icon Homemade icon (i put this one in the emoticons, felt it could be fun to use)

I never mentioned how awesome this video is! I love to see wild and crazy things in the hockey games. It's why we play. -Evan

Soccer1, I downloaded all of the files from the nhl94 website to test out everything and make sure it was working correctly. Turns out, the bios file I had up there was no good. I have updated the downloads page with a new bios file that works great on my machine. Here's the direct link for the Sega CD bios file: http://www.nhl94.com/multimedia/apps/us_scd2_9306.zip Sorry for the inconvenience! -Evan

(i posted this in the other thread that you inquired about this) 01 - Download this file (you can also get this off of the downloads page of nhl94.com): http://www.nhl94.com/multimedia/apps/usasegacdbios.zip 02 - Unzip and extract this file into your Gens (genesis emulator) directory. 03 - Run Gens. 04 - Under the Option -> Bios/Misc Files... you'll see the directory for "Configure SEGA CD bios files". Next to the USA text field click the "Change" button and select that bios file you unzipped. MD-Pro Flash Card update: My cousin and I have the MD-Pro32 Flash Cart from Tototek. We also bought the parallel port and usb cables from them. We tried using their DreamWriter software and also uConn64 (another cart writing software), but to no luck yet. It seems this stuff is very sensitive, and the computer has to be 100% happy for everything to work. I'm trying to get help through Tototek's forums, and I'm waiting for a response. It seems like the hardware isn't being seen by the software. I'll keep you guys posted on it. -Evan

*** I updated the link in this post as of May 2nd, 2005*** Yea you probably have to configure the BIOS file. 01 - Download this file (this one works on my Gens emulator): http://www.nhl94.com/multimedia/apps/us_scd2_9306.zip 02 - Unzip and extract this file into your Gens (genesis emulator) directory. 03 - Run Gens. 04 - Under the Option -> Bios/Misc Files... you'll see the directory for "Configure SEGA CD bios files". Next to the USA text field click the "Change" button and select that bios file you unzipped. You should now be able to play the Sega CD file. Let me know if you still have any problems. -Evan

The player names offset for the ISO start around 00027910. The ISO has more junk to load in the beginning, thats why the player names are further in the code then the BIN file. And as far as the flash card to play edited genesis games on a cartridge, my cousin and I will absolutely be testing it out early next week. McRae - The software for burning games onto a cartridge is called DreamWriter, but you also need a piece of hardware that hooks up to your computer through Parallel and USB ports. -Evan

Hey guys, Just wanted to update you on the EA proposal. The sales guy where I work was unable to track the vice president down during the conference. He will be sending the proposal over to him very soon, and I will update more as soon as I know. Again, we're not expecting anything, so even a response is something. -Evan

Hey Soccer1, My cousin and I just got the tototek hardware, but we haven't had time to check it out yet. http://www.tototek.com/ is the website, thanks to Donny we learned about this. We have the MD-PRO 32M flash Card kit for Genesis/MegaDrive which was $70 and holds up to 15 roms. Before you buy it, let us test it out to make sure its cool. We'll try to test it sometime this week and let you know the results. (I would test it now but it's at his place.) Wopap, Yes, you can edit the .ISO from the Sega CD version of NHL94, burn it into a cd, and play it on the Sega CD. You can download the .ISO from the downloads section of nhl94.com. -Evan

Hey Deadmeow, Welcome back online!, hehe. I have a link to your online league page on the links section of the website. Also noticed that you have a classic genesis forum. If you would like that stuff included on my links page or taken off, just let me know. -Evan

Burning the Sega CD (ISO) version to a CD and playing on the Sega CD console works great. You can't burn a .BIN file and play it on a Sega CD. My cousin and I may switch over to editing the Genesis version of the game since we have that hardware/software that burns games on a cartridge that can be played on a Genesis. McRae - I haven't had much time lately to make any tutorials. Don's site should help for burning a cd though. If not, ask what you aren't understanding. -Evan

Maybe we could have an online league based either off nhl94.com or this forum. I'm a pretty busy person, but maybe I could just set it up for others to use or something.

I'm not sure about the hex ratings determining more or less rebounds. I would have to think a goalie with low control ratings will give up the puck more. The biggest factor for a goalie (like you were saying) controlled by the computer is the speed. If they can get across the net very quick, a lot of one-timers will be stopped. I would probably take Roy before Belfour, but they're pretty much as good as the other.

This is what I will be giving the Vice President of EA. The sales guy where I work will be meeting up with him next week and handing this to him. Hopefully he will give it a few minutes and at least think about what was said. I will keep everyone updated if there's any response. -Evan *********************************************************************** Proposal to Release a Classic Hockey Game Proposal Objective: To give some insight into what could be the most successful hockey game on the market, creating a modern “old-style” hockey video game based on the game NHL94. Introduction There are plenty of unhappy videogame hockey fans who are tired of playing the same hockey games, year after year. Many hockey fans have given up on the new releases and continue to play the “classic” hockey games by Electronic Arts. These games include the following titles: NHL92, NHLPA93, NHL94, and NHL95. These games were released for the Sega Genesis, Sega CD, and Super Nintendo. There’s a reason why a huge number of people still play these games – because they were so much fun. The new games have too many control options, are too fast, and seem to do almost everything for you. In the same breath, the new games seem to be missing the fun factor the older hockey games possess where you could be more creative in making nice plays. My goal is to simply open your mind up to the possibility of selling a different style of EA Hockey. This game would be the combination of preferred options and game play from the above titles, mainly NHL94, with some new features added in. These new features are mentioned below in the game outline. Everyone I talk to regarding the EA Hockey series has the same feedback. The new games are “ok” or “not bad”, but the classic games were so much more fun. Many people feel the new hockey games don’t let the user be creative, and the game leads the buyer to return it. I manage a forum for the classic game NHL94. The members of this forum and I have been editing the game using hex and tile editors. In doing this, we have updated player names, player ratings, team names, team colors, ice color, and more. The reason we have took the time to figure this stuff out is because this game is so valuable, and so much fun that we’d rather find ways to update the old game than to play the new ones. But, there’s only so much you can edit with these types of programs before realizing that the only way to create the ultimate hockey game is though EA. EA Hockey Series History To briefly discuss the history of the EA Hockey games, here’s how the game play went. NHL92 was the first in the series to come out, and was a big hit. Key features were the ability to pick a fight after a whistle, the smooth skating, checking, and the overall realistic value to the game. It wasn’t perfect, but was a great start. A fight in NHL92 Then EA released NHLPA93. This game added in some new features like blood, faster skating, some new player animations, and more stats and options to keep track of. The speed of this game was mastered by EA. The game play is also smoother than NHL92, making it very realistic. The fighting aspect of NHLPA93 is better than NHL92, adding in movement during fighting, and making it difficult to always win a fight. This game’s overall improvements made this game more fun to play than NHL92. The only thing missing from NHLPA93 that is in NHL92 is the ability to pick a fight after a whistle. Next, NHL94 was released. Key features in this game are the one-timer, manual control of the goalie, some added checking animations and sounds, period stats, and user records. This game also possesses a unique artificial intelligence. The computer-controlled teams will never be the same game after game. This creates an unknown result every time, making the game even more exciting. The one important thing taken out of this game is the ability to fight. Besides the lack of fighting, most agree that this game is the most fun of the series to date. After NHL94, the games that came afterwards started a downward spiral. The game play became too fast, and the overall games became disappointing. These games lost the fun value of the hockey games EA was previously releasing. EA continues to add and remove features from the new games, but nothing comes close to the classic games. Below I have put together ideas for a release of a modern “old-style” hockey game. What I mean by that is a combination of the games NHL92, NHLPA93, and NHL94 with some added and updated features. The reason why I’m proposing to release this game is because by adding the features mentioned below, this new game would absolutely be the most popular hockey video game. It would include all of the best features of a hockey game with the best game play. Simply releasing NHL94 by itself again without adding and updating features wouldn’t work because it’s very easy to buy the original game or play it on an emulator. Game Outline Platform: PC, Xbox, and PS2. The reason for choosing these platforms is they all support multiplayer and online games. This release would have to support these features for it to be successful. Animation: Using NHLPA93 and NHL94 as a reference either recreate or copy all of the player animations from these games. Keeping the old style animations would keep the classic value to the game. The speed of the player’s skating should come from these games as well. User Interface: Based on NHL94. This user interface was very easy to understand. The main change to make to the user interface is making the in-game scoreboard and clock opaque so you can still see behind them. All screenshots above have been taken from the Sega Genesis version of NHL94. The above screenshot was taken from the Sega Genesis version of NHL95. Controls: A common criticism of the current EA Hockey releases is the controls are too complicated. Most people couldn’t tell you what all the buttons do in the modern hockey games. Keeping the controls to about 3-4 buttons plus the directional is the best medium, using NHL94’s controls as a reference. Artificial Intelligence: The AI from NHLPA93 and NHL94 was absolutely the best for the human players’ teammates, and the opposing players. Replicating or somehow using this AI would be one of the most important aspects of keeping the classic value of the game. Game Features Features taken from previous EA Hockey games: From NHL92 - Fighting after a whistle stops play From NHLPA93 - Blood, but only for certain injuries - Animations and graphics for fighting and blood From NHL94 - User interface - Artificial Intelligence - One-timer code and animations - Manual goalie code and animations - Ratings system for players and teams - Checking and hits code and animation - Audio for in-game sounds, organ music - Period stats - Player stats - User records - Crowd Meter From NHL95 - A-button makes the player lay down to block a shot on defense - The opaque score and time menu boxes during the game New/Edited Features The features mentioned below are some ideas I have collected from myself and other classic EA Hockey fans. I don’t know the capabilities of the programming, so I’ve decided to include all of the game suggestions we could think of. Without adding the features listed below, there would be no reason to release this game, since it would just be something that’s been done before. - Change player's "star" to "ring" (better on the eye) – the newer games use the “ring” - Online play built into the game for all platforms chosen - Complete season mode with the possibility to save seasons over time - The ability to edit ANY team, the number of teams used in the league, players, player pictures, team logos, ratings, jersey colors, ice color, period lengths, number of players on the ice - The ability to create a certain number of players (additional to the current number of players) to be signed by a team - The ability to trade players, and have a free agent pool where players "sit" until they are signed by a team - Tracking all modern hockey stats (Goals, Assists, Points, Penalty Minutes, Power Play Goals, Short Handed Goals, etc.) - Injuries to be more descriptive (blood animations for only more severe injuries) - Fighting as common as NHL92, but with the fighting engine from NHLPA93 - The ability to add your own organ music, theme songs (uploading audio into the game) - Pressing A on defense would make a player lay down to block a shot (taken from NHL95), but only while the opposing team is taking a shot - A possible "re-direction" animation that would behave like the one-timer if a pass were given to the player in the slot - 3 levels of AI difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard) - A franchise mode where players have a salary and you "build" a team and play seasons with them - Add team logos onto the jerseys - Goalies should lay down less often than in NHL94, and more shots should result in rebounds - Use the modern penalty system (2 minutes for minors, 4 minutes for double minors, 5 minutes for majors, and 10 minutes for misconducts) - Coaches and goalies on or behind the bench as well as the players - Tapping the A button with the puck would clear the puck, while holding it down would produce a fake-shot - Player’s energy should decrease faster to create line changes more often, and having the scoring 1 line on the ice less - Having the ability to upload new player pictures - Having the ability to record video clips from a game played and save them as highlights - An occasional “brawl” where all of the computer-controlled players on the ice fight with each other during a user-controlled fight, with the corresponding penalties given out - The ability to export stats from the game as some form of text document - Having a website dedicated to leagues, updates, and information to this game Important Features for EA Hockey Players I understand that EA tries to please as many people as they can by adding and removing game features every year. Below is a list of features that are very important for hockey gamers to have in a hockey game. - The game play to replicate NHL94’s game play - One timers - Fighting - Online and multiplayer modes - The ability for the user to edit as many things as possible in the game (player names, numbers, ratings, team names, team colors, the number of players on a team, team logos, audio, period lengths, certain rules being on or off) - Trading players - Creating new players (additional to the current number of players) - Signing created players to teams, and having a free agent pool where unsigned players “sit” - Difficulty levels - Franchise mode - The ability to have as many stats tracked and saved as possible Conclusion So what I have described above is a release of a classic “old-style” hockey videogame, maintaining the classic graphics, game play, and simplicity of user controls. Keeping this in mind, simply adding the features mentioned above, because the main focus is how much fun the classic games are to play. I can’t stress enough how important this game’s game play is. There has not been a hockey game on the market with excellent game play since NHL94. I feel this game would be a huge part of the videogame world, and could start a “classic” game trend leading to a new game genre. Certain platforms like Game boy have been re-releasing older games, and sometimes adding new features into certain games. This gives people a reason to buy the game again. In the end, a videogame is a form of entertainment. The more fun people have playing a videogame, the more likely it will become popular and successful. If this game were to have all of the features mentioned above, it would become very popular and successful. I would also like to mention that I will not ask for anything in return for this idea. I will be happy to contribute to this game anyway I can. I’m sure there’s a lot of videogame fanatics who may send EA suggestions, so I understand if you’ve “heard this all before”. If anything, I hope this gives EA a little insight on what the videogame hockey fans are waiting for. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or would like to discuss any part of what was explained above further. Thank you for your time, I sincerely appreciate it. Evan Eldredge

Hey soccer1, On the downloads page, download the bios file and use that as your config file for the sega cd version. This should make the game play. Hope that helps, -Evan

Just wanted to give everyone an update. I have to have the proposal for EA ready by Thursday, April 7th, so I'm not going to have time to post drafts up here for critique. What I will do is post the document up here that I sent to EA Thursday. I will try to add in everyone's ideas and suggestions from this thread. Thanks for posting all the ideas. I've been thinking of another possibility lately. What if we found a few programmers that, with the help of this community, could actually recreate the game NHL94? This is absolutely a long shot and a ton of work, but I've started asking around about ideas for this. The game could even be our own, started from scratch, but modelled off of NHL94 (and parts of NHLPA93). Does anyone know of programmers who could enlighen us on the subject? Please give some thoughts to this... -Evan

McRae, I'm not sure if you realized but the polls on this forum are made to choose 1 out of however many you made. So you can't choose 2 options from your poll. Sorry, I'll see if this could be changed. -Evan

My cousin and I edited the ISO for Sega CD, so the file is about 170 megs. As far as the ratings, the reason Kirk Muller is 67, is the ratings are different every game depending if the player is hot or cold. If you look at his ratings in a hex editor, you'll probably notice he's a 4 agility. I do have 2 older BIN files of the more current NHL players that Swos and Mash made from a year or 2 ago. If you want, I can email those to you. Also, check their site here - Swos's Website, they usually have the latest BIN file up. You can email me at admin@nhl94.com -Evan

The "brawl" idea is interesting, that would def be fun if they ever implemented that into the game. A poll could be a good idea, though in the end, there's only a couple features everyone would agree on. (fighting and the ability to edit items in the game are probably the ones) Here's the list of features I have so far, I've been making a master list from everyone's suggestions. • Change player's "star" to "ring" (seems better on the eye) – the newer games use the “ring” • Online play built into the game for all platforms chosen • Complete season mode with the possibility to save seasons over time • The ability to edit ANY team, the number of teams used in the league, players, team logos, ratings, jersey colors, ice color, period lengths, 4on4 vs. 5on5 • The ability to create a certain number of players (additional to the current number of players) to be signed by a team • The ability to trade players, and have a free agent pool where players "sit" until they are signed by a team • Tracking all modern hockey stats (Goals, Assists, Points, Penalty Minutes, Power Play Goals, Short Handed Goals, etc.) • Injuries to be more descriptive (blood animations for only more severe injuries) • Fighting as common as NHL92, but with the fighting engine from NHLPA93 • The ability to add your own organ music, theme songs (uploading audio into the game) • Pressing A on defense would make a player lay down to block a shot (taken from NHL95) • A possible "re-direction" animation that would behave like the one-timer if a pass were given to the player in the slot • 3 levels of AI difficulty (Easy, Medium, Hard) • A franchise mode where players have a salary and you "build" a team and play seasons with them • Add team logos onto the jerseys (if possible) • Goalies should lay down less often than in NHL94, and more shots should result in rebounds • Use the modern penalty system (2min for minors, 4min double minors, 5min majors, and 10min misconducts) • Coaches and goalies on or behind the bench as well as the players • The ability to export stats from the game as some form of text document more to come along with a rough draft of the proposal will be posted here soon... it has to be ready by thursday, April 7th. Personally, I would love to see alot of these features in the game. My main concern would be that the in-game AI and graphics were the same, that's what makes the game so much fun. I would always keep an original NHL94 cartridge around and play it as well.

Hey Red, One suggestion I could make is, create a ratings system yourself. Most of the ratings go 0-6, and mostly 6's will make the player a 99 overall. With that in mind, start with the "best" players in the NHL and work it down. I don't know of any sites that provide the ratings from the latest NHL games, but I would guess they rate every player a little higher overall then they should be to give it that "arcade" feel. You can goto some of the NHL websites like nhl.com, espn.com, tsn.ca and get a general idea from what they say about the players. That's what my cousin and I did a couple years ago when we made the game with the nhl players. Hope that helps a little. -Evan

You may absolutely post results here, I always like seeing other people's stats and leagues. May the best team win! -Evan

I have noticed 1 thing with the A/V cable going from the Genesis to the PC.. it seems to sometimes get very bright almost where it looks like the brightness on the screen is all the way up. Strange, but still better than the RF connection to my PC.