von Ozbourne
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Posts posted by von Ozbourne
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14 hours ago, CoachMac said:
@E2A8 change 7814 to 7816
@E6C6 change 0013 to 0015
@E6CC change 7413 to 7415
Dude. Thanks!
Also, just in case anyone else is interested in future, I found that the offsets and values were slightly different for NHL Hockey.
To play as Team #23 & #24 [Campbell and Wales All Stars] in Playoffs:
@E68E change 7816 to 7818
@EAAC change 0015 to 0017
@EAB2 change 7415 to 7417
These are offsets for a clean ROM and I found that they move around after some roster edits have been made. Also important to note that those teams will need to be included in the playoff draws or else it will crash the game. [Found that out the hard way]
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6 hours ago, The Dopefish said:
Just curious to know if anyone has edited either of those ROMs.
If you're interested, the '91 and '92 editions of my World Championships series are based on NHL Hockey.
I also made a TRON based mod of EA Hockey that's posted here already, but I kind of want to go back and tweak a few things now that I'm more practiced.
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1 hour ago, CoachMac said:
Also on the EA Hockey does anyone know how to make USA and Yugoslavia selectable for Playoffs.I found this.
Also anyone know how to edit banners? Sim Data?
Oh? I'm actually doing something right now and would love to have the last two teams playable in the playoffs instead of just "Also participated". [I'd even like to go back and edit the other games I've done with this knowledge]
I'll trade you the info I have on editing banners?
Can't say I know about simming data though.
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15 hours ago, The Dopefish said:
I should clarify that I do know a cheesy way to score from NHL 96 onwards: skate into the zone at the corner points
with a shooter whose handedness matches the point (i.e. left-handed shooter in the left point, right-handed shooter in the right point)(after more experimenting it looks like backhanders work too) and take a slapshot aimed for the lower near corner of the goal. This works really well going downwards, and the goalie AI always seems to have a hard time with it. Going upwards it works less well but it still can do the trick. You want the shot to be off within the first two, maybe three segments of the wall. The more accurate and harder the shot, the better, but some goalies have a hard time with even slow backhanders!So what you're saying is; reenact every goal Gretzky scored in the '80s, and the goalie will act like he was trained in the '80s.
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Thanks everyone.
Admittedly the text was the only thing I wasn't sure about, [I eventually found out that the colour palette is shared by a few different assets so it was a compromise hoping to make it as legible as possible and not break something else.] but I reeeally wanted to use that background, so I hope it's fine?
On 6/18/2021 at 5:44 PM, EagleXIII said:The only thing that could make it absolutely perfect would be a 16-bit version of Jeff Van Dyke's original soundtrack.
Yeah. Sadly, figuring out the music is a whole next level. It would be amazing if I could get a 16-bit old-school Hockey Night in Canada theme in there, but I don't even know where to begin.
On 6/19/2021 at 1:55 PM, The Dopefish said:I usually only play '94, but I'm trying out some of these newer editions. I'm finding it hard to score goals in, for example, the IIHF 99 ROM. Does anyone have any gameplay videos or just goal-scoring tips?
Heh. When you find a technique, let me know too eh? I usually play great defence in any game I pick up, but post '95, figuring out scoring is not my strength. As evidenced by the final test match I played where I out shot my opponent 38-4 and won 2-1. [Both were one-timers if that helps]
...That's not entirely true. I was able to figure out some scoring plays in the 2K series, okay; in EA games, I'm usually not the guy that you want to count to score that big goal.-
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Might as well toss in the "10 minute misconduct for fighting" version of "Real Final Cut Edition" of 98 in here too.
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With the Final Cut editions out of the way, it seems it is time to release the next installment in the series. And it gives me the chance to make another retro review so I'm going to take it.
With EA outsourcing the development of the SEGA Genesis version of NHL 98 to THQ while they concentrated on the fancy new PlayStation and PC versions, Team 1920 still took care of the Genesis conversion for IIHF 98. However, when EA started work on the '99 installment of their hockey franchise, it would only see a release on the Playstaion, PC and N64. This would not normally have been an issue, however the team was unable to procure a dev kit for the new systems and EA seemed to have forgotten they were still around; as evidenced by the fact that EA had not yet attempted to buy 1920 out, before they started neglecting the small production company.
With nothing else going on at the time, the team decided to take matters into their own hands and do what they do best; make a Genesis game.
And 'cuz they say... 2000 zero zero, game over, oops, out of time. So tonight I'm gonna party and play...
After two years without a title screen athlete, the developer made the decision to feature eventual #2 overall scorer and #1 fan favourite, Finland's Teemu Selanne.
The game was again based on the '96-'98 game engine and would feature the improvements that appeared in the '98 version like switching team controllers, line coaching, goalie changes/injuries and less predictable AI. Also, after a year of forgetting to do so, Fighting majors are again assessed a 10 minute misconduct.
As the dev team was not a fan of the dark, and in some cases quite ugly, graphics style they were constrained to in '97 and '98, they took the opportunity to go for a much lighter scheme, while taking every opportunity to change as many assets as possible.
Not wanting to reuse the team selection "Flag in a circle" logos for yet a fourth year in a row, and to emphasize their full licensing agreement, National Team sweater logos are now featured in place. The new team name font that debuted in IIHF 98 does make a return, while the menu titles get a new jumbotron dot matrix light styling.
While the top 26 ranked teams did not change from the previous year, the five unranked teams were switched out in favour of some less highlighted teams from the bottom five in 36th placed South Africa [making a return for the first time since IIHF '93], 37th ranked New Zealand, 38th place - 2nd year participant - Turkey, 39th overall Greece and 40th place rookie Iceland.
To spruce up the playoff bracket, a rink style background was added, reminiscent of the ice surface in IIHF '94.
For uniformity [and limitations] of the season mode logos, a clean new set of flag logos were added similar to what the IIHF would use on their website 20 years later! The full contingent of uniform logos would be carried over to the center ice area.
The "Champion is you!" picture and winning team photo were carried over from the previous year however because the dev's art director was already going quite batty and just couldn't be asked to spend any more time on those things. The team selection rankings also still posed a challenge that was only overcome with mockery, but it's funny to wonder if perhaps Canada is ranked 6th in tape usage because their 26th ranked stick boy has been eating it.
That said, I'd give it a perfect 5 out of 7.
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The final of the Final Cuts is finally ready for the finale.
IIHF 98 [Final Cut Edition]
- Most teams already had national program center ice logos, but they all do and they are actually period accurate.
- Uniform colours are also more period accurate now.
- A couple player names that slipped through the cracks were shortened for formatting constraints.
- Fixed Team Austria's "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" Championship banner.
- A couple other minor fixes that I can't remember right now.
Note that still unresolved are:
- Team selection ratings thing.
- ISO team name thing.
- Simmed season performance not matching player ratings thing.
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I used to work with the guy that scored the first goal in modern Ottawa Senators history.
That was kind of cool at the time. -
1 hour ago, LaTormenta said:
Whilst I doubt that EA has source code from this far back stored anywhere, it'd be kinda cool if it showed up during, say, a basement clearance by Lesser or Simmons on a 5.25" floppy disc and it was put online.
Lesser and/or Simmons might turn out to be the best chance. Similar to the story a couple years ago of former Team17 programmer Chris Blyth finding the original source code for Worms on an old Amiga that was sitting in his shed since the '90s.
Here's hoping anyway.-
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I guess the story would be that the double dipping wore thin, [and lacking an extra-teams mod] so there was no "Championship Edition" for '96, meaning fans had to wait for the new year.
Still not a fan of this one, but at least it's better now.IIHF 97 [Final Cut Edition]
- Following the new licensing trend, center ice logos are modeled after sweater crests.
- Some uniform colours also corrected to period correct styles.
- Again most names were already modified for display. Fixed a few that didn't quite work.
- Fixed Team Austria's "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" Championship banner.
Some things that are still not quite ideal, but are above my pay grade coding-wise.
- Team Select still has weird rankings because I can't figure out how to edit the rating numbers.
- The team "city" name being a three letter ISO code due to how it's integrated in various places in the game. Not a horrible workaround, but could have been better.
[Not quite] a perfect ten.
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The reconning is taking over now as we see the release of:
IIHF 96 [Final Cut Edition]
- Full licensing is in full effect with the change over to center ice sweater logos.
- Uni colours are adjusted for period correctness.
- Most player names were already fixed by this point, but I think there were a few I missed so those are good now too.
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Speaking of missed, fixed the part where Team Austria used to say "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" on their team photo when you win the championship with them.
[I get the backwards name of the Ducks, but oddly the Avs and Coyotes had a separate bits for their names too. Found the Avs before, they are all fixed now]
Wollen sie mit mir spielen? Nein?
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For the third year in a row, its the late special edition. Kind of foreshadowing for the days to come of buying day one [and needing a day one patch] or waiting for the inevitable "Game of the Year" edition to come out.
IIHF 95 World Championship Edition [Final Cut Edition]
- This edition sees the return to full IIHF licensing including all national team logos.
- Teams are increased from 28 to 34 as compared to the original IIHF 95.
- In most cases sweater logos are featured at center ice.
- As usual, team unis are adjusted for period accurate colours.
- Some player names still needed to be adjusted for formatting issues.
- This is the last time Belarus' flag will need to be fixed.
- Some minor tweaks like menu banner colours and what not.
They say, 8-bit is enough.
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It's 1995. Brad Pitt is the sexiest man alive, Michael Jordan ends his budding baseball career to try to win some more championships with the Bulls, Bill Gates releases a new operating system, Quebec decides to not split from Canada and EA releases it's fifth annual installment [seventh overall] in the IIHF hockey franchise.
IIHF 95 [Final Cut Edition]
- In this edition, the one year licensing agreement for the Championship Edition of '94 is not held over, meaning a return to Coat of Arms based logos.
- Team uniforms are edited to match period accurate colours. [although the new player sprites added a layer of difficulty]
- Name are edited to fit formatting where needed.
- Belarus again with their white-red-white flag and Lithuanian like crest as the government will not decide to change their flag until this June.
- A couple other minor fixes. Like Hungary's flag is no longer upside-down. [seriously disappointed in myself for missing that one]
Playing for the Silver Seven.
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13 hours ago, The Dopefish said:
EA has pretty much given up on Nintendo in case you didn't notice. You go to EA's "library" page for the Switch and they list eleven games: four are the awful FIFA games they ported from two generations ago, and two are remakes of older games (Burnout and Need For Speed). Kind of ridiculous considering how well the Switch has sold but they know where they make their money and they want to exploit that.
Kind of the unfortunate self-fulfilling prophecy wrapped in a feedback loop that one eh.
EA wigs: Nintendo fans only spend their money on first party games anyway, so why should we bother putting any effort into porting our games?"
Nintendo fans: EA doesn't bother putting any effort into porting their games anyway, so I should spend my money on this first party game."-
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Alright, this is where things get interesting, because for this game I've started the retcon of the series.
IIHF 94 - Championship Edition [Final Cut Edition]
- In this special edition game, the rosters are again expanded from 30 to 32.
- Team uniforms are again changed to better match their period correct styles.
- Player names are again modified where applicable to fit within formatting limitations.
- Extra branding for the World's which were held in Italy.
- For the first time ever, full league licensing! Center ice logos are now reflective of each team's uniform crest.
- Player cards were a bit of a debate. I originally used a freeze bug fix, but that also ended up breaking the playoff mode. And is seemed silly to have a "Championship" edition where you can't, you know, win the Championship? So I settled for the freeze bug, but this was well after I already committed to not having any photos past the starting lineups. I tried to see if I could paste in the full roster of photos as I had done for the "regular" 30 team version of '94 and reset the pointers in EARE, but my initial tests did not provide the desired results aaaand I realized that I couldn't be asked to figure it out. Or spend the rest of the evening trying to find player photos for the rest of the Australian and Spanish rosters. To accommodate something most people don't even look at. And even I don't that often. So here we are I guess. That ended on a sour note...
It's IIHF '94 Special 32-team Championship Edition featuring licensed logos and packing a Six-pack!
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The one that started this journey is back upon us. Fitting that it also starts seeing the most drastic changes.
IIHF 94 [Final Cut Edition]
- Starting with team uniform colours, quite a few ended up being changed yet still managed to accommodate the center ice logos.
- More fixing of some player names to accommodate formatting.
- Belarus. Dammit. Completely forgot about the four years they used their historic pre-Soviet era flag before adopting their current, kinda-like-the-Soviet-one flag in June of 1995. All markings have been corrected to reflect period accuracy.
- Center Ice logos still reflect previous licensing agreement. [IIHF itself and players, but not yet individual National teams]
- A few other minor tweaks that don't quite come to mind right now.
This one gets Five for fighting.
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Up next, the "licensed" version that was released later that same year:
IIHF 93 [Final Cut Edition]
- Starting off again with more period accurate team uniform colours.
- Again, some names were condensed to fit.
- While accurate team logos could possibly have been employed for the first time, this game also happens to feature an expanded team list to accommodate all 32 member nations as of 1993. The compromise was that those two additional teams ended up using up the free bytes that previously belonged to center ice logos.
- This results in more branding for the IIHF, with a standard center ice logo and all games being held in the location of the Pool A Championships, the Olympiahalle in Munich, Germany.
- While the controversial fighting is still in the game, the penalty for engaging in fisticuffs is now a 10 minute misconduct. [As opposed to 5 and a game]
This one for par. Fore!
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5 hours ago, I got the puck said:
Great work!! Quiz time!!! if you would have to do a 2021 iihf wc rom, which version are you gonna use? which one is your fav? and the other question I have is of course, are you planning to do a 2021 WC rom? btw, any version will do...just thought I ask. It would be cool if someone does a 2021 rom.
Thanks man. I'll be honest, 2021 is on the list, however it's a long list and it's nearer the bottom. [and that was before I realized I wanted to fix the ones I've already done] On the plus side, I've figured out a bit more that I can do in the 96-98 base games, but <reasons> progress has been slowed a bit.
I am curious though, I know '94 is obviously the most popular game to base mods on, [for good reason to be fair] but it's nice to play around with the other games once in a while too. Perhaps I need to take a poll to see the community would like to see.
And if I want to deviate, I suppose I could always just make base versions from '94 and "Championship Editions" using a different year's game...-
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Moving right along (doog-a-doon doog-a-doon), the black sheep that was:
International Hockey '93 [Final Cut Edition]
- This game still has the distinction of being the one that momentarily lost the IIHF licensing due to the new fighting features, but also being the first one where the various countries' player's associations agreed to lend their names to the game.
- Names which were occasionally truncated to fit into the allotted characters.
- Again, uniform colours were adjusted to better match the period correct look.
- Being unlicensed, the logos remain based on national coat-of-arms.
Thunderbird 3 is go
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7 hours ago, smozoma said:
In theory, yes. You can't just stick a recording/MP3 into the game, you need to write the musical notes & timings into the game data. Unfortunately no one here has really figured out all the details of how to write the music data.
Pity really. Aside from the old HNIC theme obviously, I thought it would be cool to have a version of the Blades of Steel theme.
I know the NES has Famitracker, but so far the 16 bit music makers I've heard of don't seem to have a feature for letting you import <Genesis version of .NSF> files back into a game.
So at least it's not just an "us" problem.-
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Next up:
IIHF Hockey '92 - Final Cut Edition.- This game was another that mainly just needed uniform corrections.
- The logos are still not licensed as of this stage in the series, [the vertical orientation, inconsistent/smaller logo sizes, and the single 16-colour palette shared amongst all 24 teams, with the U.S. and Yugoslavia sharing a logo.... all make that task a bit more complicated]
- And as there are no player names, this one didn't have anything to change there either.
Round Two - Fight
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In honour of the return of the World Championships with this year's tournament in Latvia, I'm going to start posting some updated ROMs for my World Championship series. Mostly these are intended to resolve some anachronisms that came about due to some difficulties in finding complete information regarding logos, uniforms , etc [or in the case of Belarus, completely forgetting a four year span of their history.]
- Most obvious fixes will be uniform colours, which have been adjusted to be more period accurate. [as possible within the limits of the sprite art]
- Some player names have also been truncated to fit into the "ten character last name/twenty overall" limits for cleaner player name displays.
- I've adjusted the timeline on licensing to allow for complete national team uniform logos to be used. This will be fully implemented into all teams' center ice logos by IIHF 96, with full licensing being negotiated for the "Championship Editions" of IIHF 94 and 95 only, prior to that. [Unfortunately, there is only the one communal center ice logo in the 32-team ROM for 93, or that could have been worked in as well. Oh well...]
- A few other minor tweaks like team name banners and logo colours [or in Belarus' case, changing their entire bloody flag <shakes head in shame>]
Many thanks to the indispensable @EagleXIII for his help in filling in the nagging gaps in my research.
So here we go again with the original IIHF Hockey released in 1991, now in "Final Cut" form.
IIHF Hockey (91) F.bin
Going forward, I will also be putting all of the "Final Cut" games into the original post for easier access.-
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On 5/11/2021 at 7:02 PM, I got the puck said:
So if you enjoy this fierce international scandinavian rivalry,
Uh oh.
Technically it's a "Nordic" rivalry as the region known as Scandinavia only refers to Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
While English speakers have used the terms interchangeably, the region including Finland, Iceland the Faroes and Aland are only meant to be part of the greater Nordic region and to refer to them as "Scandinavian" will cause true Scandinavians to jovially smile while silently judging you for being an unbeautiful, simpleton, ie: a non-Scandinavian.[What Scandinavians think of Finland]
Interested in trying this out by the way.
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The World Championships Series
in Genesis Roms
Posted · Edited by von Ozbourme
Alright, apparently this series is like a Junkion. It's not hard to knock 'em out, it's getting them to stay done that's the trick.
So special thanks to @CoachMac for showing me how to finally get the last two teams included in the Playoff selections in the original EA and NHL Hockey [92]. This means that now you can play as the United States or Yugoslavia in playoff mode.
So here we go again.
[also updated the original post]
IIHF Hockey (91) F2.bin IIHF Hockey 92 F2.bin