LaTormenta

It sounds like I might be in the minority here (so please don't bite my head off!) but I am not too angry about the fact that it seems to be a straight port. I would have bought (and did buy) NHL '21 anyway and pre-ordered it well before Rewind was announced, so I just saw this as a welcome bonus, especially given that it actually includes proper rosters (albeit crystallised a little too early for my liking) and the organ music, unlike the stripped-down version that featured on the PS2 version of NHL '06 (with its made-up rosters!). I made the mistake of booting up my PS2 yesterday to play it and is is dreadful. Due to the target audidence for Remind being (unfortunately) so small, I can understand why EA did not look to make some more extensive changes, such as adding a "play a season" option, but I agree that it does grate that there is no online play option, especially given what the world is looking like at the moment and the fact that EA damn well knows about the existence of NHL94online.com. It would have been a nice gesture of goodwill, if nothing else, for a generation of NHLers that have (mostly) stuck with the franchise during its ups and downs. Then again, it is a freebie of sorts (I doubt EA will have spent that much on the porting exercise) and bear in mind that pre-orders for EA games normally involve, well, a few HUT cards and maybe some coins. I would, however, be annoyed if EA were charging, say, £15 for the game separately. Then, I would expect some bells and whistles to be included, like (pretty please) a fighting option, to better mirror the original pre-release version of the game (even if it just uses the mechanism from NHLPA Hockey '93, assuming that Lesser's original code is nowhere to be found). What I am hoping for is that Rewind gets the nostalgia flowing and some positive press, following which people who did not pre-order the game start asking for it as a paid option. That might prompt EA to commission its sub-contractor (whoever it is, I have not been able to find their details) to add the extra features if they have already been working on the code, with the pre-order version being updated in due course to mirror the "paid" version. Or EA could just never speak about it again (until the 30th anniversary in a couple of years...) and we will just have to make do with the awesome work done on these here forums. For me, the ROMs here are the "go to" games and Rewind is a nice novelty when I cannot be bothered to move from my couch to manually turn on my Mega Drive Mini and then constantly bollock the cats when they try and chew through the controller wire!

I've just watched (and enjoyed) it. The Jágr segment was actually pretty gut-wrenching! And seeing that 1st edition copy gathering dust in Lesser's basement, geez... It was certainly the shot of positivity that I needed before watching Belgium inevitably give England a kicking in an absolutely pointless international (football) tournament that is going on over here at the moment.

@Jkline3 - Glad you like them. I am going to do the "noughties" covers over the next few days and will add them to the thread. I am also going to slightly update the 2019-20 cover above later today for consistency purposes. And yes, I am fully aware that I need to get out more!

Before anyone asks, I will be updating this in the post-season to reflect whoever wins the cup. Matthews is featured just because he is on the 2019-20 box art for the current gen console versions of the game.

Evening all I have been tidying up my Genesis Mini cover art today and figured that I would plough through some of the "classic" ROMs on the forum. This thread includes all of the covers that I have prepared for myself and some of you might be interested in them. Due to the way in which some of the ROMs are named here, I was not sure whether, for instance, an "NHL '71" ROM covers (a) the 1970-71 season or (b) the 1971-72 season. I have opted for (a) and included an extra cover either side of the 1980 and 1990 decades to cover off (b) if my hunch was wrong. The images used (save for the Slap Show, 2-on-2 and 2019-20 ROMs) are from the Stanley Cup celebrations for the relevant season. I have tried to ensure that the correct photos are used for the relevant year (i.e. for the 1971-72 season, the photo is from the 1972 SC Final not the 1970-71 SCF that preceded the season) but let me know if you spot any howlers. These 1970s and 1980s covers are for the ROMs that @slapshot67 prepared ages ago and that can be found here. The 2-on-2 ROM covers are for the ROMs referenced in @kingraph's thread here. The 2019-20 season ROM cover is for @Sauce's ROM, which can be found here. Apologies if I have missed anyone out. I know that the feathering is not entirely consistent across the covers. This is a by-product (mostly) of the quality of the images and the space between the top of the section of the image that I wanted to use and the top of the image itself (to avoid straight lines showing on the image). That said, I am happy with how everything looks as it is but might tweak them slightly in the future if I find myself bored senseless in the house! UPDATE 14.09.29 - I found a quick way to redo the covers with a broadly consistent approach to feathering. The updated versions are below. I have included the original images and have not resized them, as I appreciate that people use different emulator builds etc. Anyway, hope some of you manage to find a use for the covers. As I get around to sorting covers for other ROMs, I will add them to this thread.

I have updated my Hakchi / Retroarch build today and decided to cobble together a generic cover for the original 2-on-2 ROM. If anyone is interested in this sort of thing, here you go - original size (the first one) and a resized one (the second one) for a Genesis Mini Retroarch build:

Noted, Ripley!

@MonkeyHead - You can buy 2.4ghz wireless adapters for the PC that might do the trick, which work like Bluetooth dongles. The main issue is, as you mention, likely to be whether there is some sort of proprietary issue that means that you need an ATGames-specific adapter to use the controllers with anything other than at ATGames console. This is an issue for certain retro pads generally, where the manufacturers really rinse consumers by having proprietary dongles and the like. A quick look on Google suggests that there is little cross-compatibility between receivers and controllers but who knows if that applies to everything. You could always ask ATGames directly and see if they have a stock response - info@atgames.net (for console queries). Otherwise, you might have to take a punt on a cheap 2.4ghz dongle from Amazon and see if you can get it to talk to the controller. If it works, setting it up in RetroArch and/or Gens will be easy enough as the system will already recognise the pad. If not, you should be able to send it back. Alternatively (and this is a bit more expensive, granted), the controller I have commented upon above is good value for money for use with a PC, as the PC should already have a Bluetooth receiver built-in.

@clockwise - Right, here goes... The joypad arrived at 2pm UK time and by the time it gets to 7pm, it will be on its way back to Amazon. This is not a reflection of how good / bad it is... The pad is great, really responsive and synced with Windows 10 within seconds. It worked with my standlone emulator (I do not use RetroArch on my laptop) and I could play NHL '94 and other titles (where more than three buttons are used) with no bother at all. The pad feels a little flimsy but only compared, I suppose, to the slabs that are PS4 and Xbox controllers, which can take a massive beating. If you have a Genesis Mini, the build quality is on par with one of the pads that comes with it. In this sense, it is a solid 7/8 out of 10 pad in my view. I cannot comment on the play time but charging it was easy enough (and quick). The main issue I had (and which caused me to start the return processis that I could not get the pad to work with RetroArch via my Genesis Mini. I managed to get the pad and the console to sync via Hakchi and the Genesis seemed to recognise the pad when it booted it (with a Bluetooth adapter plugged in) but RetroArch it did not recognise any of the button inputs, just the D-pad, once booted. I could not get to the RetroArch menu to try and configure the pad, as none of the buttons that would normally take me to the menu worked. If I plugged in a wired controller, I could get to the menu (as you would expect) but it would still not let me configure the buttons for the Bluetooth controller. Having had a look on the internet this afternoon (as I did not want to give up on it straight away!), I can see that other people have moaned about a similar issue and the paperwork that Retro-Bit provides is succinct to say the least. I suppose that a more techy solution might be to use it with RetroArch on a PC to start with, create an autoconfig file and then copy that onto the Genesis Mini via the Hakchi console but, even then, I am not sure if that will work. I had a similar problem with the 8BitDo 2.4Ghz wireless pad ages ago and, who knows, it might be better in Project Lunar-based systems. The stupid thing is that a PS4 pad syncs immediately once set-up, but it is a pain having to undo and redo the syncing if I want to use a pad with the PS4 itself. Given how much the pads cost (I bought two, in the hope that they would work out-of-the-box), I did not really have the appetite to starting buggering around in Hakchi and the like, especially as I can see online that some people have managed to get them working only to have to repeat what sounds like a rather laborious process fairly routinely. My wired pads do the job for the time being and I will just have to see if anything suitable lands on my radar in the future. (Apparently, the 2.4Ghz version, which also works with the original Genesis system, is meant to be pretty good. It is the same build lool but I want to check if it works with with a RetroArch build...) (Also, I should add that I did some research on the pad beforehand but info on whether it worked with a Genesis Mini was a bit scarce. The 2.4GHz version at least includes a reference to it in its instruction manual, available online, where the Bluetooth one does not. it was more of a punt on my part than anything else, as I wanted (if possible) the flexibility to use the Bluetooth device with other systems.)

This is awesome. Great work!

Ha! I am probably going to purchase a couple this week, so will report back on how they play.

Has anyone got any experience with this fella (even though it's an 8 button controller)? It is £30 / $39* and the bluetooth receiver has to be purchased separately for £15 / $19. I have a Mega Drive / Genesis Mini and had an awful experience with the 8Bit Do M30 above (which I had to return) due to compatiability issues with Hakchi and Retroarch but am interested in buying a couple of these to save have wires lying around in my sitting room. There is a 2.4ghz wireless version for around £35 / $53 but I would be able to use the BT on more systems, such as my PS4. Before stumping up the cash, as £90 / $112 for two controllers feels a bit excessive, I just want to canvass opinion. Cheers! * using XE.com exchanges rates, so I could be a couple of dollars off here.

@Jkline3 - You absolute legend. Thanks for taking the time to do this. It is really appreciated and I for one will be studying it for hours over the next couple of weeks!

Sure, no worries. I am a purist, so the main version will be warts and all, but a second version will be easy enough to sort.

I've just seen this (and the guide is awesome and looks idiot-proof!). Thanks. Any assistance on the ice logos would be appreciated, as I think I am over-complicating the process due to trying due to juggle too many programmes (Paint Shop Pro, Irfanview, GIMP, Paint etc.).

Thanks, @Jkline3 for posting this. You might have seen from my other thread (https://forum.nhl94.com/index.php?/topic/19286-custom-eihl-gb-rom-plan-of-action-and-call-for-help/&do=getNewComment) that I asked for some help on this (and on ice logos) yesterday, as I keep tying myself in knots when trying to process them. I will work on my team selection logos over the weekend and keep an eye out for any further hints on the ice logos (which are driving me nuts at the moment!).

I am hoping that the NIHL goes ahead, at least. I have season tickets (or normally have them) for both Storm and (Alty) Aces, as I live a few tram stops away from the rink. Aces tend to average about, er, twenty(!) fans a game, so social distancing will be easy enough... I would rather that than the EIHL scoop-up all of the "talent" from the lower leagues, as the average punter will baulk at the drop in standard and the increase in nasty fighting. Honestly, Deeside Dragons, despite being a pretty decent team, might as well have an MMA side hustle. Plus, what happens afterwards? Do all of the players just get jettisoned in favour of some 35 year old North American (no offence, guys!) who has played two games in the NHL? It'd knee-cap the lower leagues (if not managed very carefully). As daft as this may sound, I am currently (with the better half) checking out the KHL and other leagues around Europe, as there might be some mileage in flying out for a few long weekends here and there to check out games in, say, Sweden. It's a nice option to have, I guess. In terms of the play-offs, thanks for flagging it and I will have a think about it. I have a few ROMS where there are a similar number of teams, so will check those to see how it works (unless someone volunteers the answer here first). (Otherwise and FYI - the weight bug is staying in the game. This is for one reason only - Tyson Fawcett (5'7" and just shy of 12 stone) will be an absolute beast!)