von Ozbourne

Well, I had originally started this a while back ans set a goal for myself to see if I could complete a set of games before the Olympics started. Then stuff happened, bla bla bla... You know what they say about best laid plans... So since the actual rosters version of this idea is in a bit of development hell, [The fact that some countries waited until very late to announce their rosters didn't help matters either] I figured I might as well pull a AAA move of releasing what I have now, and just patch it later. </caveat> With the development Orpheus-ian journey finally over, I figure the best option is to just post the complete series in one place. Updates to be spliced in, like for starters, the complete array of title screens. Hey, games take a while to make, the idea for this one started back when NHL players were still supposed to be going, in spite of you-know-who's smarmiest efforts. Wait... three game? Yeah, why not. So there are differences. Like these: Splash screen is even more a bit cluttered with all of the groups that were needed to sign off on this. Default to last Olympic finalists, Non-Russia gets a new logo which fits in well enough with the ISO-3 Code/flag team selection icons. Small changes here. Most notable is the inclusion of new Qualification Round countries as playable teams. Replay the final qualifying round and re-write history. Speaking of history, figure I would mention that in light of contemporary world events, despite being someone whose great-grandparents emigrated from Ukraine to Canada, I do prefer historical accuracy over revisionism. I did however change the reference to the ROC team as only ROC. I did decide that Qualification round team Belarus was expendable, so I dropped the Group D team in favour of Group H Ukraine because screw it, I can. The women's side didn't enter a team, but being currently ranked 40th means that they wouldn't have fared very well or really be playable anyway. In lieu of being able to figure out how to hide some sections of the playoff bracket, bye-round teams get the double-up effect. Luckily, having enough spots for playable and non-playable versions of the same teams means that there are no first round mirror games. Playoff mode is expanded to allow for regular 12 team [men's] or 10 team [women's] bye-round infused format, or take one of the lower ranked teams straight from the Qualifying Round to the Medal Round and win it all. Like in PyeongChang, the three major sports networks in Canada are sharing a small team of presenters and announcers comprised of members of CBC, TSN and Sportsnet. Former CBC and TSN, now with Sportsnet, commentator Chris Cuthbert was selected to be the play-by-play guy. Not much change on the men's side [other than lower overall ratings] but to make things equal, Olympic pre-game presenter Kate Bierness is present as the Olympic pre-game presenter. You will likely notice the crowd. I had originally intended on an empty area look, but was unable to come up with an empty seat sprite that I was happy with for the sides of the area. So, since this is just a prototype, we'll just say that the dev team figured that we'd be able to have people in the stands by now. I'll just figure out something else for the real-rosters version. Still couldn't do much with the crowd that I was happy with, so we'll just ignore that. It was nice that the default arena palette worked so well with the Beijing 2022 logo. And in spite of the gobs of money the inferior Sportsnet was attempting to throw around, broadcast branding went to the classier CBC Sports. You even get to have a game end in a stupid shootout like the IIHF if you like. ....and go back to the main menu screen. Another in lieu of, being able to figure out a formula to select the single best player of the game from each team, we have five rings for the three stars. Nothing really different to point out with this screen, so I'll just mention that teams now have an as-accurate-as-possible-to-Nike's-craptacular-unfit-for-hockey-uniforms-design-aesthetic sprite colouring. Sadly, some of the player sprites don't look that great, but then neither did the real life players! Similar to how in my 1920 Olympic game, when I inadvertently predicted the official name change of Czecho-slovakia/Republic to Czechia, [I just used the traditional shortened name for the sake of fitting less letters] the prototype China team was based on the KHL's HC Kunlun Red Star roster. Including a Chinese guy named Jake? [who yes, is a relation] It does kind of show the mockery of the IOC's "passport=nationality" rulings as well as highlight how the IIHF had to make concessions to avoid embarrassing a hockey program that is about 20 ranks and three and a half divisions out of their element. Oh well, play as these guys [or one of the Qualification Round teams] for "extra challenge mode". One benefit to the "official releases" is that unlike the prototype, IIHF.com had 99% of the player photos right there. Automated image editing for the win. And for the teams that didn't qualify, I just used the default man/woman graphic like they did. While the Women's side was actually quite straight forward, I feel that ratings may be contentious in the men's side. This is mainly due the the difficulty in comparing player stats with either tiny sample sizes, or from vastly different quality of teams and leagues. I'm happy with the disparity though, so maybe I'll just call it the "Dark Souls" of Hockey games. Olympic Hockey - 2022 Beijing-N.bin Olympic Hockey - 2022 Beijing-M.bin Olympic Hockey - 2022 Beijing-W.bin

I like it. Always cool to dig into some of the lesser hyped leagues.

I suppose that does leave the door open for a Denis Godla-like 2015 World Junior like performance. Getting the fan chanted unanimous first star nod in a 39 save, 5-1 loss.

I guess this is more of a "Well here's one for ya" kind of thing, but I tend to test the playoffs as well, so I use 10 second periods, with two players, and pull the goalies because of that infinite overtime thing. Usually end the game by winning the face off straight back into the net. The weird part about that is it ends up giving the three stars to: 1st. The guy that lost the face off, but was given credit for the resulting own-goal. 2nd. The winning goaltender with a 0-save shutout. 3rd. The winning team's backup goaltender, who I suppose did just as much as the rest of the team.

Hey thanks man. Although I have to admit that I only had one original female player photo to work with after I captured them all from Baseball Stars Professional. And it only seemed logical that Venus would be it. Only added the second female [and filling out the Baseball Stars 2 teams] by playing up the mix-n-match nature of the various facial features. I was going to say that the title screen was meant to play up the NES version. Yes it seems a bit odd to have the right to left orientation, but I guessed that it was to have a right-handed pitcher. And you know, It was developed in a country that reads right to left, so they may not of thought much of it. Although given that the downloads of your picture exactly matches the downloads of my game, I wonder if the masses have spoken...

In light of the variation of the 32-team glitch fix posted by @AdamCatalyst , I figured it was a good fit for the presentation in my IIHF rom. So now the only drawback is that Ukraine and USA won't crash the game. Updated in the original post list. IIHF 94 CE F2.bin

Yeah for my purpose it was testing to see if I can align the team overall ratings while maintaining an alphabetized order. But it seems that that information is tied to the selection order and doesn't care in the slightest what team is in a given slot. And since I would be changing all of the art assets anyway, reordering them would comically end up being extra work. Like you said, it just comes down to the results you are looking for.

Just figured I'd give the heads up to anyone looking into this. I was curious as to what this actually reordered and was disappointed to find that, as far as NHL98 goes [and given the similarities, I might guess '96 and '97], it seems that in addition to the team graphics, it also doesn't reorder the team ratings, divisional alignment, default matchup, or well, anything that isn't the roster data basically. I was hoping this would do something similar to how Carolina's data is still in the Hartford spot, but given that that change also applies to the logos and stuff, there is clearly something else at work here and more digging would be required. Unfortunately for my purposes, this edit doesn't do anything different than simply copy/pasting the player data in NOSE. Oh well.

This was something I thought about, and it is why I removed the eyes, [to better match the SNK plain face style] But the downside is that EA only made the one player model, unlike the different batting stances, or gender options, you can find in the SNK games. And going by how much time and effort the guys that have done the helmet colour mods put in, and how the sprites are arranged already, it seems like it would be a lot of work for what quite possibly would only be a slight change in the art style.

Sorry guys. Ringing in the New Year playing video games, as one should, it was brought to my attention that I seemed to have gaffed in not saving the few final stat fixes I had made before posting this mod. Had to fix it right away. And with that out of the way, we finished our playoff in peace. But I figure I might as well share the fixed version here too. Mostly the team rating numbers were way off and not representative of each team's actual abilities. Simple error of accidentally undoing my changes before I saved. Additionally, I had Dah Bears as a team of all Lefties except for the backup goalie. I've spread a few more Correct Handed players in there. Lastly, and apparently most important, the Canadian Dreams team, while technically just the old American Dreams team with the names changed from old baseball hall-of-famers to old hockey hall-of-famers, had a couple of number overlaps. These were resolved, but apparently I chose the wrong player to be Number 9. Originally I gave "Gordon" number 9, while "Robert" had 16 and "Maurice" had 15. I was reminded that despite the longevity, "Gordon" was not as concerned about the number on his back and would have said "Aw shucks, he should keep it". So I gave "Gordon" his rookie number of 17, while the elder "9" got keep the number that reminded him of his first child's birth weight. [Side note if anyone is interested. The American Dreams are still present, although they were included as one of the "created" teams which uses the name "Blasters"]

I've always wondered that myself. I just figured it must have something to do with online play [errors/not wanting to deal with conflicts from one player wanting to use them and the other not/whatever] I just edit it to read "User Records" again and don't worry about it.

Ironically following up with the bit of art that started this whole project: I recently bought myself a drawing tablet and decided that to try it out I would attempt to turn the iconic Baseball Stars NES cover into a Hockey Stars Genesis cover. Tried to stay as true to the original as I could while also making it distinctly hockey. Liked the goalie too much to just have that tiny little guy in net though, so figured I could do without a "Video Game Team" logo.

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

The weather outside is frightful, but the games are so delightful. And the hockey's great in retro, Score a goal. Score a goal. Score a goal. I'd been going back to this one off and on and figured I might as well post an update. Technically this one is build 1.8, but I'm renaming the ROM Olympic Hockey - 1920 Antwerp. Among a bunch of minor tweaks [most of which I don't even remember what they are anymore] the major and most noticeable differences will be: Slight rebranding of the title screen. With an assist from the indispensable @Jkline3, an updated helmet[less] patch for that authentic 1920's look. Goaltenders get some love with a set of heavy leather pads. ....wait. Hockey was a rough sport back in those days. Not sure how I forgot to use this patch until now, but we managed get the 3-stars sponsor back in there. Link will be placed in the main post as well, Barring any further developments, such as figuring out how to get the rover in there, this is probably the final form. Please enjoy responsibly. Olympic Hockey - 1920 Antwerp.bin

Been a bit out of the loop as of late, so I can't say I'm qualified to answer most of these, but on a personal level I would throw in for: 1. Bud of the year, @EagleXIII and @Jkline3 for the invaluable research and resources that helped me improve quite a few projects. 3. Best ROMs, Said by many others, but my reason for mentioning @UltraMagnus is for his extensive work with NHL95 and the many non-hockey related sports games.

Haven't played this one much as I missed it when it was new, but that Jets one kind of stings. [For some reason the only "debacle" I can think of from that season was the off-ice stuff]

Hah. I noticed that. [Although from my end it looked like you were the winner] Good to know we have each other's backs in a pinch anyway.

Downloaded these a couple years ago. Guess it would make sense to post them here if the links are indeed dead. Hope the file all still work. NHL'93classic.bin NHL'93classic_modano.bin NHL'94classic.bin NHLclassic+6.bin NHLclassic+69-73.bin NHLclassic+75-78.bin NHLclassic+81-85.bin NHLclassic+86-91.bin NHLclassic+usa.bin 2v2'Slapshot.bin

I'm kind of sad because I know I had tried compiling a list like this myself, but now I can't find it. Would have been interesting to compare notes. Also know that it would have taken a while to make so, yay... lost effort... If it helps with some of those question marks, I think the issue is that the rosters were compiled during the off season and many of the player numbers represent the rosters at the end of 1990-91 season more so than the beginning of the 1991-92 season. Case in point: Pittsburgh #9, when Francis had transitioned back to #10 by this season. Or Quebec having a #37 on D [probably Shawn Anderson who actually spent 1991-92 in Germany] since F Martin Rucinsky at the trade deadline wouldn't make any sense. This is also what I think San Jose's issue is. Most of the players were drafted but likely are still using the numbers from their old teams. And similar to '94, where Anaheim and Florida were added late so you get Guy Hebert as the Ducks' starter and the Blues' backup or the Panthers' Beezer and Fitzpatrick splitting time on the New York teams, I think all of the numbers represents a player that is still on both teams as well. [I noticed you went that route with San Jose's goalies as well] I also seem to recall figuring #19 on the Rangers as well as the Sharks be Brian Mullen [although the stats don't match], making #12 on the Rangers become Kris King, making Tim Kerr still #12 on Philly [he's on the "4th" line ie: PP/PK.] The weird thing with the first NHL Hockey's rosters is that you can't edit the lines unless you actually go into NOSE and switch them up. Otherwise if you play with line changes, you're just stuck with whatever the programmer decided to give you.

Oh! Yes that is a good question. Are you playing a regular game and seeing this roster issue or just looking at season mode? For context, I had made a custom NHL95 ROM <for reasons> and copy/pasted all the players onto different teams. [was easier than manually trading everyone] BUT, when I went into a season, the rosters were a right mess. Eventually realized that as I had started a season already, they players were considered "traded" to their teams, despite the edits in NOSE. Turns out that not saving as a copy was the problem. When I closed the game, GENS saves the game settings data to an .srm file in the same folder as gens.exe. So despite my changes, every time I opened the game, it was referencing that .srm file. Saving as a copy, or deleting the .srm file that has the same filename as the ROM you are using will give you a clean slate and might resolve your roster problem.

First, Hey welcome. Second, figured since I have made some mods in '98 I might have some helpful info. While taking the wonderful expanded teams mods for '93, '94 and '95 into consideration, it theoretically *could* be possible to add another team to '98, it's easier said than done. I know there was a '97 based mod that tried to add the All-Star teams to the playoff format, but using them was a bit glitchy. That said, including the All-Star/National Teams, you would have 31 total teams to work with already in the game, [yes 33 if you count the EA and THQ teams, but they just end up taking the place of the East/West teams] just that the last five would not be included in season or playoff mode. The other thing that you may have noted is that on the team selection screens, the team names are entirely sprite based, meaning that in addition to changing the text in NOSE, you would also need to edit the team name sprites along with the logos in Tile Molester. The unfortunate side effect of that is that some of the teams [like Team USA] have a limited number of sprites to work with so fitting the new names in there sometimes takes some creative hex editing as well. Not sure if international hockey is your thing, but here's a thread with a pair of mods I made using '98 if it helps in dissecting the game. Also have some notes, not sure how easy it is to follow [I got rather lazy in making them], but I can lend some of those as well. https://forum.nhl94.com/index.php?/topic/20403-the-world-championships-series/

Well, I don't know about him, but if I had one of those, I wouldn't let you know until I've collected on the rather large wager I'd have placed on the Finals.

Guess you liked that documentary eh? Actually I have a question, as the banners are all sprite based and the information is located in different places and the process would be a bit different depending on which version of NHLPA 93 you might be trying to mod. Are you using wboy's 30-Team mod as your base? [with this splash screen] This is probably the easiest to work with if you are just starting. Or Slapshot's 32-Team mod? [with this splash screen] This is good to work with too, but will require some extra steps. or hopefully not trying something silly like using the original NHLPA'93 ROM. [with this splash screen] [I tried doing stuff with this one before and man, it's a lot of extra work]

Maybe he means Cardiff?

Don't know if the player types are possible. I hear that music might be possible. [but really really hard to execute] Otherwise this is something I was already interested in taking a stab at although I didn't really want to make a competing version. On the note of artistic vision, I did make a TRON hockey game from the older PAL EA Hockey [1991] ROM. Curious about how much influence this could have on perhaps a TRON 2.0 sequel in the '94 engine.