[Player Photos: An Tale of Discovering a Dead End, or, Help Wanted: Apply Within]

Just realized that while I was looking into something else, I seem to have stumbled onto something tangentially related, if possibly no more helpful.
I was playing around with transparent team banners on the Game Setup screen with a net result of trying to get more colours into the banners. Then I noticed this happening.

For context, what we're looking at here is a screen that is using four colour palettes. #1 [0xxx] is the default rink colours and the one used by the overlaying bits. [Also the background in the default game, but in this example I'm using the @Drezz background hack] #2 [2xxx] is The Home Team colours. Which is the most interesting, so more on that later. #3 [4000] is the Away Team colours and basically consists of the nine colours, plus black and white, used by the Away team logo. The remaining first five are basically unused. And #4 [6000] is an extra palette not used in the original game, but I use it with the background image to allow for the greatest option of colours that don't conflict with any other assets.

Now, in the above image, I made the middle portion of the Home/Away banners fully transparent and put a gradient banner directly on to the background image that will peak through allowing for essentially four colour gradient banners not including the anti-aliased text. By changing the background hex code for those areas to 4000 [away] and 2000] [home] this allows me to borrow from the team logos' colours to create this effect. I tried this with the Banners themselves, but I recall this not working out so well. Turns out, it doesn't completely work this way either. [unless you disable player photos... hmm...] Anyway, finally getting around to testing it, I had to check all of the colours and I noticed that the 2000 palette on this screen it a real hodge podge of colours. Of the 16 colours used in that palette, #1 is the default background, #2&3 are taken from the Home Team banner colours, [the tutorial for such is included in wboy's original modding reference] #4&5 are what the Away team's banner uses, despite being a separate palette [in the same tutorial] #9-16 are taken from the Home Team's logo, but only when the logo is on the screen. Turns out that when the player photos are being displayed on this screen, those final eleven colours are replaced by the eight player photo colours and the blank black spaces that follow it. I haven't tried setting those extra black shades to something brighter, but seeing as they would be universal to every team, it doesn't really address the thing I was attempting to do anyway.

Going to abandon the banners at this stage, but it did make me think about how the colours may be available to the player photos [once the 3 vs 4 bpp issue is taken care of and they can access those extra colours]

[Hack help. No. Don't help.]

While pretty gross, I have to admit that I am neither as saddened or disgusted by this practice as I should be. Probably just numbness from seeing how things progressed to this point or due to the fact that, as someone who basically doesn't engage in online play anymore, it doesn't actually affect me beyond having some dumb thing cluttering up my menu screens.

And as someone who is admittedly "behind the times" on these yearly instalment games anyway, I can just skip one if it looks like the publishers had more input than the developers, if you catch my meaning.

[Hack help. No. Don't help.]

2 hours ago, Sean said:

I always forget to place my television network mandated same game parlay

The first step is admitting your shame. The NHL board of governors is ready to return your "Valuable Fan" card once you have proven that you can rectify your oversight.

Ew... now my cynical brain is imagining a meeting somewhere where a bunch of suits are complaining that the developers should totally be able to code a live score feed into the game and use the credit card attached to your Xbox Live account to allows you to buy a "Loot Box" that will unlock an "Ovi Celly" if the Bruins can beat the Red Wings by 3 or more.

[Hack help. No. Don't help.]

Figured I'd see what EA was doing for 2024 and saw this.

While I accept no responsibility for any influence taken from this post, I would just like to go on record that while I executed the idea first, I also executed the idea.

[How do I do tape?]

I could probably hook you up with something that should be easy to follow at some point this weekend. I'll have to reinterpret my notes away from my particular brand of shorthand, but should have something in the step-by-step style that shouldn't be too hard to follow [as long as the program is working well enough to open correctly I suppose]

I guess the other question is: What type of sprite style are you looking for? I have a couple of different stripe styles and helmet patches that I use depending on the look, but if you prefer to have something that just looks like the original game sprites, but with tape, I just checked and it looks like I have a version of that too.

[How do I do tape?]

I suppose that would depend on what your intention is for the ROM.

There is a patch for it, [don't know offhand, but it's in the forum] but the caveat is that it also updates the ice surface to modern standards. All well and good, but doesn't exactly fit a game that is meant to look like it is from the 1994 era.

Another option [and the one that I mainly use for period accurate ROMs] is to open your ROM in your sprite editor of choice and import a copy of the taped sticks from another ROM or from a set of image files.
I can hook you up with a set of images if you are interested in going that route.

[CFM 2023 (Copa Fin del Mundo)]

Have to second what Sean said. Especially interesting when it's about a league that I don't know anything about, So I get to learn about it from someone who obviously has enough passion to have put together a game about it.

[Player Photos: An Tale of Discovering a Dead End, or, Help Wanted: Apply Within]

11 hours ago, kingraph said:

I think the number of colors will be okay as the game displays 64 colors (4 palettes of 16).  The trick, as you mention will be that the cards would have to share at least 8 colors with another part of the screen.  And since the cards are displayed in multiple areas (start screen, matchups, player profile), I haven't even checked if those areas also have the same palette that can be used.  

Hold up, if this were to work, is it possible that the 6000 palette might help out here?

On 8/11/2023 at 7:14 PM, von Ozbourne said:

Top third is "2000", middle is "4000" bottom is "6000".

I'm wondering if even if the photos still reference the different palettes in the three different locations, could that just not be changed to the same colours? The menu doesn't have a third palette, so it's referencing a blank one. Might just be a matter of checking which instance of the "default rink colours" that the screen uses. i should really search that out later... But on the pre-game screen, it's just a matter of making your Ron Barr or replacement announcer image use the same colours as the players. As for the Player Cards screen, since the logos use that 3rd palette, and since the first palette has grey shades anyway, they can just share the first or second one with the rest of the background. Just need to remember which one dictates what parts change colours with the switch in teams. Have that in notes somewhere...

This is all based on the premise that the photos can be converted to 4bpp of course, but if RAM limitations does pose an issue, wonder if commandeering the 3rd [or possibly even 4th] palette might be a possible workaround.

[Player Photos: An Tale of Discovering a Dead End, or, Help Wanted: Apply Within]

On 8/16/2023 at 4:37 PM, kingraph said:

It's be 33% more data for each player photo.  So a 3bpp player photo takes up 864 bytes of data (36 tiles x 24 bytes/tile) whereas a 4bpp would be 36x32 or 1,152.  

There would still be room for the player cards, but I'm not sure if enough for 700+ or whatever some of the modern roster ROMs did.

This is cool though...if I tinker around this more I'll post here to share.

This could still be interesting actually. Quick math would indicate that even if there is no additional space allocated for player photos, once converting from 3bpp to 4bpp, that would still leave enough space for 17.3333 photos per team as opposed to the full 26. But that just happens to be exactly the same number as the starting lineup when counting the three full strength lines and starting goaltender with one spare for a logo or "generic shadow" to represent the rest of the team.

16 hours ago, Drezz said:

The other big issue you may encounter is limitations in RAM. The pics probably won't render in 16 colours as there's too much going on. I had this issue when working on the background tiles. I was hoping to make it full screen, but it would crash. The shared palettes thing is very tricky indeed.

Based on the assumption that this is also not going to be a problem.

[Hockey Stars 1 [the proper one]]

On 8/17/2023 at 11:50 AM, AdamCatalyst said:

FALSE. The superiority of Baseball Stars as the best NES baseball game is inarguable.

Well fine, I suppose if I wanted to get pedantic about it, I could say that I am in fact capable of making a series of statements on the many aspects about the game that profess its superiority.

What I would not be capable of however, is credibly refuting these assertions.

[Player Photos: An Tale of Discovering a Dead End, or, Help Wanted: Apply Within]

5 hours ago, kingraph said:

* The last 2 bytes represent the number of tiles in the graphic.  In this case, I believe it's 22, which means the number of tiles used in the graphic is 34.

Ah yes. I should have clarified that since (6x6)-2 is obviously 34 and not 22, but it either slipped my mind or I've spent so much time counting in base-16 that it's second nature.

I'll just edit that in.

5 hours ago, kingraph said:

if you wanted to increase the number of colors in player portraits you will first have to change the coding from 3bpp to 4bpp. 

This was also a concern given that the player photos would end up taking up a lot more space. [guessing rather than a "4 is 25% more than 3" thing its a "2³ vs 2⁴" thing] My initial thought was that instead of increasing the bit depth of each photo to use 16 colours, [which would admittedly make things look a lot nicer and be a lot cooler once all the potential heavy lifting is out of the way] but perhaps relocating only the used palette to another location so as to free up the mandatory white and and black used by the other menu assets or allow for the use of multiple palettes. Which in light of the Doug Weight thing, would be pretty inefficient and take a lot of time and extra effort to set up and work with, which is why I wasn't married to the idea beyond general curiosity... I think I'm talking myself out of pursuing this matter any further.

[Player Photos: An Tale of Discovering a Dead End, or, Help Wanted: Apply Within]

Okay. After spending some time on this, I appear to be at the end of my capabilities. I don't know if this is even an question that can be answered in the affirmative, but I figured I would purge my notes and see if this might prove helpful to others or just be an interesting story about how to listen to the clues that you may be wasting your time.

The quest? Can player photos be adapted in some way to use more than the per-requisite 8 colours.

It's already been established that as long as the first white and black photo palette colours aren't changed, the remaining six colours can be changed to anything you want in order to introduce colour to the photos.

First player card photo offset is at:
30 & 32 Team  = 120294

OG game = C6402 [default unused guy]
            or = C6838 [default players]
            or = C75E0 [first starting lineup player photo]

Colour palette offset = 120294 [decimal]
Uses same #1 white and #2 black as menu screen assets and #3 to #8 are grey-scale colours by default, but can be changed to any colours as they are independent of any other asset.
This is part of a larger colour palette that starts at offset C6762
Space is allotted for standard arrangement of 4 x 16 colour palettes
Photos actually use colours #6 to #14 of palette #2.

If using 120294 [decimal] on 3bpp linear as a basis, Palette #1 is the default colours,
#2 is blank, #3 is a copy of #1, #4 is blank, #5 is a copy of #1 & #3.
Using these settings, there is actually space for two preceding palettes, starting at colour #6 on palette #1, but it is not known if these can be incorporated.

Every player photo, in both the default and 30 team version, is preceded by the hex code: 0000 0000 0000 0000 0024
Not sure why the four groups of 0s are required, but best guess on the "0024" is that each player photo is 6x6=36 tiles in decimal, aka 24 tiles in hex
This appears confirmed by the fact that the first default player photo to reuse tiles was Doug Weight [offset CE9F4] whose photo leader code is:
0000 033A 0000 03BA 0022
Not sure about the "0000 033A 0000 03BA" yet, but clearly the "0022" points to the fact that Weight's image only uses 22 hex [34 dec] tiles instead of the normal 24 hex [36 dec].
I am guessing that "033A" and "03BA" are overrides for the new colour palette and tile ordering offsets respectively because...

Following Weight's image tiles it appears that the "saved" space is just used threefold by additional colour and tile arrangement data anyway. [wonder why they bothered...]
At offset CED24:
0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6
0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EEE 0000 0CCC 0AAA 0888 0666 0444 0222 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6
0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6
0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6 0EE6
Colour data follows previous pattern of using latter half of 2nd palette, although 3rd and 4th are left blank

Immediately followed by:
0006 0006
Photos are six across by six down

Immediately followed by:
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
2006 2007 2008 2009 200A 200B
200C 200D 200E 200F 2010 2011
2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
2018 2019 201A 201B 201C 201D
201E 201E 201F 2020 2021 201E
Normal image tile numbered ordering with colour instruction [2000 meaning 2nd palette as noted above]
[Unfortunately my copy of the original unedited game doesn't load up when I make edits, probably something to do with checksum info or something... whatever]

Used SmozROM tool to make a new "OG - checksum" version. That was the problem. Yay.
Changed top half of Weight's image to use "4000" colour option and it came up with the top half using different colours.

It appears that palettes might stick to the 8-colour model though so rather than jump to #6 to #14 of #3 palette, possibly they use the colours directly after the adapted "#2" palette and uses colours #1 to #8 of #3 palette. Although now I think they are referencing a palette in a completely different location.
It is possible that "0000" colour will be #14 of palette #1 to #5 of palette #2.
Or, in testing Winnipeg's Teppo Numminen, who uses 23 instead of 24 tiles, changing the tiles from colour "2000" to colours "4000" and "6000" appear to shift the colours in the image to instead use the colour palettes attached to the background on which the image is viewed [main menu, pre-game screen, player card screen]

Top third is "2000", middle is "4000" bottom is "6000".
From previous notes, I know that the main menu has no 3rd [6000] palette, for the Pre-Game screen, its 3rd palette is used for Ron Barr's colour photo and the Player Card screen, has a 3rd palette for the NHL and NHLPA logos

Final image, default, Winnipeg's Alexei Zhamnov, offset E62D2
image is followed by hex code:
0000 2B0A 0000 2B8A
The fact that the difference between the two offsets being "0080", matching that of the Weight example is not a coincidence
On further investigation, jumping ahead an offset of 2B0A from this point arrives at the colour palette and tile arrangement data for the Player Cards screen background. Makes sense.

30 Team not as helpful as immediately after the final player image [offset 1C6622] [32 Team = 1D17AA] is the colour palette data for the main menu team banners

Tried changing the "0000 0000" on the last couple players to "0000 033A" but it seems that whatever control override for colours was allowed in the original, is not accommodated when the additional teams and photos were programmed in.

Soooo.... that's what I got. [sorry for the junk loads of bold, it just helped as I would skim along]
Absolutely no idea if there is even anywhere to go with this idea, but I figured why not put it here and see. And if anything, even a failed experiment can be informative, because that's just science.

[Heads in Asses / SOCKS!?]

On 1/16/2021 at 12:01 AM, superfan99 said:

Here's the "head up asses" fix for NHLPA 93:

OFFSET 76dd0: Change "0132" to "011e"
OFFSET 76dd8: Change "0142" to "012e"
OFFSET 76df0: Change "011e" to "0132"
OFFSET 76df8: Change "012e" to "0142"

Noticed that the version of 94 I was using still had this inverted head to ass relationship issue.
Using this '93 code and the sock colour offsets @Jkline3 posted, I found that pattern still held true to '94.
Figured I'd post here for anyone still needing this and so it's all together in the one post.

Here's the "head up asses" fix for NHL 94:

OFFSET A74E0: Change "0132" to "011e"
OFFSET A74E8: Change "0142" to "012e"
OFFSET A7500: Change "011e" to "0132"
OFFSET A7508: Change "012e" to "0142"

[Blades, of Steel, II *shink* [EA Hockey 91]]

23 hours ago, Jpark said:

I know this is an old thread, but I was wondering if you're going to add any updates to this rom like adding other cities/countries. It'd be cool to see Seattle, Las Vegas, Colorado, etc etc added. 

Probably not to this one since it was based on fictional teams and those cities didn't have teams in the 1980's anyway. Not to say I haven't thought about revisiting this franchise for a Part 3 at some point. Just might be a ways off on that though.

[IIHF '23 - World Championships Edition]

6 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

Well played sir. 

Hah. Thanks man.

Although I have to admit that my typical artistic direction is to try to pretend that it is a real, period correct, official released port and stay in character and see where that goes.

[NHL 2023 [94] by Jkline3 and von Ozbourne]

On 6/22/2023 at 12:27 AM, Jpark said:

This is very well done! Been having a blast playing it. Hope you can come back next season to make another one.

Thanks eh. It was certainly an interesting project to make. Will have to see how the next few months unfold, but it's a possibility.

[IIHF '23 - World Championships Edition]

10 hours ago, BlueJacketRebel said:

When I asked about The WCs, i'd have been happy with just a roster update.

Thanks eh. But come on, can't do half measures right?

Oh, and...

14 hours ago, BlueJacketRebel said:

So am I correct in saying the home team is the Men's team and the away team is the Women's team?

Why yes, you are.

Or the other way around. IIHF still lists the white uniforms as the home kit.

[IIHF '23 - World Championships Edition]

14 hours ago, smozoma said:

Is this not the right table, because it's CAN here as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ISO_3166_country_codes

This is actually why I doubled back and specified the alpha-3 codes, which differ slightly from the 3166-1 codes, 'cause if there's one thing I know about standardization, people love when things are standardized. Just as long as it's standardized to the way they like it.

However, you have brought to my attention that I for some inexplicable reason started using outdated information.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166-1_alpha-3#Indeterminate_reservations

I also seem to have combined Latvia [LVA] and Lithuania [LTU]. Maybe I was thinking of Lathuvania. II. Simon's Quest.

Guess I'll just stealthily update that...

[IIHF '23 - World Championships Edition]

22 hours ago, smozoma said:

Nice! But ah... CDN = Cadana?

Oh, yeah. I've actually done it like this for a while now, it derives from the ISO Aplha-3 country codes. [Canada:CDN, Germany:DEU, Latvia:LVA] The only one where I deviate is usually Switzerland, using SUI [for the French Suisse] rather than CHE [for the Latin Confoederatio Helvetica, because seriously, Latin?]

[IIHF '23 - World Championships Edition]

Okay, breaking kayfabe for a minute since this one is built on such a high number of community contributions, I figure the "you know who they are" level of thanks isn't good enough in this case. So in no particular order, shout outs to @wboy, @slapshot67 and @smozoma for their great work with ROM cracking and tools. @AdamCatalyst for his more recent breakthroughs like three-star code and seeing the distracted ref. @Drezz for his breakthrough on the menu and watermark backgrounds. @Jkline3 for his masochism in redrawing all of the player sprite striping patterns so I didn't have to. Guys like @Sean & @Sedge for putting out some interesting games to draw inspiration and perspective from. And anyone else I may have forgotten to mention, no slight intended.

[IIHF '23 - World Championships Edition]

Alright, Columbo has finally left the room, so it's time I put this one out before he comes back.

As I was literally just informed that Vegas beat Florida four games to one yesterday, I am compelled to think back on some recent playoff games that I was much more interested in and the game that was released to commemorate it.

Presenting:

While not involved in any current-gen release of the popular franchise, Team 1920 is back at it with another 16-bit, '94-esc retro replay edition. In keeping with the IIHF trend of not highlighting one particular cover athlete, unlike the NHL counterparts, this time around we get this guy? Who appears to be some amalgamation of celebratory player that was used in the promotional art for the World Championships prior to any country naming any player on their roster [which makes sense when you put it that way].

 

Extending the motif to the opening splash screens, I am curious what EA thinks of the Finnish-blue-to-Latvian-maroon gradient. Team 1920 continues the tradition of adapting their logo to the tournament artwork, this time with the motto to promote the first post-lockdown tournament.

 

Using this year's retro NHL menu screen as a base, the artwork is updated with the country flags and long time main sponsor Skoda's logo at center ice. The jersey logos and banners get a new look as well. If you are slow to pick your team, the main menu logos will make way for the roster names and photos, scrolling through the entire team to remind you who made the team and help you choose what country you'd like to play as.

 

TSN studio presenter Laura Daikin lends her likeness to this one with some fun pre-game commentary. It should be noted that Daikin was TSN's main studio presenter for both the Men's and Women's World Championships. [foreshadowing?] The pre-game menu reminds you that Skoda is the main sponsor and gets in there again, along with EA this time, as you get ready to start playing.

 

TSN gets their name out there too as the presentation continues to add up as we finally get to the first drop of the puck. And we catch our first glimpse of Skoda's giant green center ice logo from Tampere and Riga. Eagle eyed players might notice that the ref got a couple updates to his a puck dropping animation when compared to the original Genesis classic. The nets seemed to get a bit of a tweaking as well.

 

The IIHF logos get carried through to new player cards screens where all something-hundred-and-something players get their own individual player photos and no Skoda logos. I've heard of issues with crashing when using this feature, but I've not seen any problem with this in this game. From the game menu, you can also see scores from other games around the federation, presented by TSN's Sportscentre.

 

While the players are organized in numerical order and divided by traditional forward and defence roles, it should be noted that all players are available to be assigned any position. Use this feature for your 4-1 powerplay, or clog up the ice with four d-men to try to keep the score respectable for your outmatched Kazakhs or Hungarians. Just showing off some more team logos to balance the images out, but this is also a good example of the updated logo on the watermark.

 

The main draw on this game is the Tournament Playoff mode. Every team "should" be able to face off against every other team in the Top Division, although I've noticed some laziness with the RNG that determines the first round match-ups. Regardless of who you play as/against, winners are rewarded with hoisting the World Championship trophy and likely a star of the game or three.

Not much else to say about this one. The game play is pretty recognizable if you've played '94 before. You may notice that some of the lower ranked teams are a bit tougher to win with due to the lesser speed and skill to work with, but there is a notable gradient between the higher and lower rated players.

8-bits out of 10. Give it a try

IIHF 2023 V1.1.bin

 

Oh yeah. Just one more thing... Should mention the special edition feature. While this may look like the home and away logos show up differently, it's actually a matter of this game really being two in one.

[Olympic Hockey: Lillehammer '94]

Yeah I have them on my list of ideas. Been thinking for a while now that the 2002 Olympics would be the next one I'll try. Not sure how long it'll be until I get to it however.

[(NHLPA 93)Center Ice Logo?]

There is. Slapshot67 did the mod of wboy's 30 team ROM for 2015, but I don't know where to find it anymore.

So I guess I can just drop it here.

93 - NHL HOCKEY 2015 w banners.bin

[NHL 2023 [94] by Jkline3 and von Ozbourne]

Thanks man. Let us know if the Philadelphia uniforms look alright eh?

[NHL 2023 [94] by Jkline3 and von Ozbourne]

So we decided to make a final edition which is fittingly named the Finals Edition.

Not a lot to change in this version obviously. A couple new players, some switches in starting goaltenders and lines. Probably the most obvious change is that the default teams have been switched from last year's Finals teams to reflect this year's Game 1 match up.
 
Also, the jumbotron NHL logo has been changed to the new Stanley Cup Finals logo.
[Yes, if this were really the Finals, Minnesota and Buffalo would not also be playing a game, I just didn't feel like taking another screen cap when I realized this]

And of course, new title screens to set them apart.

NHL 2023 RR94 SC Finals Ed [v4].bin

NHL 2023 94 Edition SCF [v4].bin

Not going to promise a pre-season edition for next year or anything, but any feedback would of course be appreciated.

Added to the original post as well