[NHL 2022 Rom by Naples39]

On 10/13/2021 at 9:33 AM, kingraph said:

I always enjoy your ROM updates, but I'm surprised about that Seattle logo.  Looks like something got messed up on a few pixels.  That normally doesn't pass the Naples QC check!

FYI I think I might know how you can fix it. This sort of graphical hiccup happens when the palette colour used for transparency and another palette colour used in the bitmap share the exact same colour values definition. Some of Tile Molester’s tools aren’t smart enough to differentiate, and end up substituting all instances of the opaque colour in your graphic for the first palette colour with those same specified colour values (which is transparent). I have seen this issue on virtually every ROM with Seattle, for obvious reason to anyone who has hacked one of these ROMs. Easy solution is to change the colour of your transparent pixels to bright pink or something else that you don't use, so that you do not have two colours in your palette with the exact same colour values. Once you are done making modification to the Seattle logo (or whatever) can you safely change back the transparent colour definition if you like.

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

OK, Beta for version 5 (actually 4.9) has been sent to testers. I hope to release it to everyone in a day or two. Thank-you everyone for your patience. An even more immense amount of work has gone into this one, and I think it makes it just that little bit more an enjoyable experience. Looking forward to hearing what you think!

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

Random update: I have been sick with the virus, and it has knocked me off my feet for over a week. While I have been able to get some more sprite work done, progress has mostly stalled, and I am concerned that I don't have the mental acuity to do end of season rating & lineup work with my foggy COVID brain right now. I'm not sure what to do, as I don't want to delay this release, nor do I want to release something that is sub-par. As always, if anyone wants to step in to do some beta testing, it can help me save a bit of time. All you need to do is send me a PM to express interest, and I will send you pre-release builds as they are ready. You in turn just send me any feedback. That's it, not exactly rocket science.

I hope everyone is keeping well. Seems to be a lot of folks sick right now in my neck of the woods. All the best to you and yours.

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

16 hours ago, Jpark said:

Hey @AdamCatalyst, sorry for the late response. It's been a bit busy and stressful for me lately. 

"As you know, the blue shoulders are, well, wrong. But that being said, I feel like, in play, the blue shoulders end up balancing out the uniform to give a closer impression to the real deal, despite being technically less correct."  - I completely agree! Although it's "wrong" and everything, I think it looks good! It looks good in motion too. I've noticed the new face-off animation frames and composite sticks as well and it's looking great. I'm not sure if you could have the colors look any better than they do now with the 4.2 revision. I appreciate it again that you gave my suggestion another look. I think in terms of how the jersey colors are laid out for NHL 94, that's as accurate as I think it'll get. Great job!

Thanks man, I appreciate it, along with the constructive suggestions. Good call sir! I'm sorry to hear things have been stressful lately, I hope life is treating you fairly.

[Finding Tiles the EASY way?]

@kingraph That actually looks really helpful, thank-you for sharing! I'll try it out as soon as I get this CV19 cloudiness to clear my head.

BTW, your mutant league screen look awesome. I spend so much time obsessed with “realism,” I really need to take a broader look around and try out some of these fun looking creative mods!

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

6 minutes ago, George said:

I have no idea about ASM or hex editing. I would suggest simply the most popular broadcaster. Even modern sports games the commentators aren't going to be regional for most people. But it's no big deal, anyways, your rom is looking to be on another level! And yes I will update the rom with the latest version. Oh, a question. Is it possible at all to have season mode in NHL 94 like in NHL 95? Maybe somehow port the season mode ASM from 95 to 94. I guess that requires a lot of knowledge and work.

That particular sprite can be changed with nothing more than Tile Molester, a piece of free Windows software. If you want to give it a try, I'll even send you the resource file that will give you a bookmark and colour palette entry for that image so you can play around with it. But be forewarned, that's how all this madness started for me, just wanting to change one single image.

[Finding Tiles the EASY way?]

Did you ever figure this out? I’m stuck on the exact same thing, trying to track down a few sprites that elude my eyes when I review the whole binary. 

[HOW TO: Find a Palette Using GENS Shell Mod VDP RAM]

I found this to be brilliantly fast and efficient! Thank-you so much.

 

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

15 hours ago, George said:

Wow, this is amazing work. Thanks for this. But, can you replace Ron Barr like the other hacks?

Thanks @George! I hope you'll come back for the big update coming out after the end of the season. As for Ron Barr, I decided to leave him as-is. No matter who I choose for him, it will be out of region for some users. Heck, I can't even figure out which single broadcaster I would put there!

If you want to replace Mr. Barr yourself, it's not an insurmountable amount of work. 

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

On 4/1/2022 at 4:18 AM, Jpark said:

No problem! And I'm glad to hear that. I'm sure when you get to Seattle, you'll do what looks best and do what is most accurate. The more I look at the jerseys, but more I see that the only thing that may "need" to be added is just a deep sea blue stripe in-between the ice blue of the away jerseys. But, you can change it to what you think looks the most accurate when you get to it. I just want to make sure it's accurate, but I can tell you're trying to be as accurate as possible with jersey colors, ratings, pictures, and many other things in your list. I'm sure what you decide on will look the best. Keep up the good work!

OK @Jpark , it's Seattle review time!

I've attached a bunch of images from version 4.1 and a beta of version 4.2, where I tried messing with the Seattle colours as you suggested. As you know, the blue shoulders are, well, wrong. But that being said, I feel like, in play, the blue shoulders end up balancing out the uniform to give a closer impression to the real deal, despite being technically less correct. I could really go either way on this. You are the Seattle fan, let me know which you think give a more authentic sense in motion. PM me if you want me to send you the Beta so you can play with it yourself.

cheers,

-a

 

p.s. look closely, and you can also see the new face-off animation frames, composite sticks, and more.

 

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

Quick update… Been making huge progress lately. Currently beta testing…

- composite sticks for everyone, giving the game a more modern look.

- revised face-off sticks and shadows and linesman graphics.

- slightly revised goalie masks.

- revised scorekeepers graphics.

- new and improved center ice logos.

- refined puck sprite and shadows.

…and a myriad of other minor sprite tweaks & fixes.

Meanwhile, gameplay refinements for checking and penalties, are at an alpha stage. I’ll wrap up graphic work soon, and spend the rest of my time on gameplay, and seeing if I can quash any more bugs.

I won’t have any more time to work on this project after April, so I’m trying to pour as much as I can into this potentially final version.

cheers,

-Adam

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

11 hours ago, Jpark said:

I understand where you're coming from when you mentioned the colors are set to look accurate in motion. The red stripe may stand out too much like you said. It is barely visible with players in real life. Maybe for the away jersey, the stripe in the middle should be the same color as the home jersey is. I think it already is? And the stripe on the legs should also be the same color as well vs it being white. I think Seattle is the only team where their away jersey has white on their collar, which is how it is in real life. I thought the shade of the blue from the home jersey might look good with it being on the collar of the away jersey, but I think it looks good either way. The home jersey honestly looks good at is it. I think the away jersey could use some more blue on the stripes on the sleeves and legs, and the stripe on the pants. The collar looks fine either way if it was white or blue. 

I appreciate you giving my suggestion another look. I can tell you put a lot of love and care into this rom, especially with the trade deadline version. Thank you so much for all that you've done with this rom and it's current revision. 

Cheers!

Thanks for your kind words. I promise when I get to my final Seattle tweek, and I will review everything you wrote here.

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

Hi @Jpark!

I will be doing a final review of uniform colours as I re-do the on-ice logos (as the two are forced to share the exact same colour palette), and will test your suggestion with Seattle when I get to doing their end of season review. That being said, the uniform colours were set to look accurate in motion, not necessarily in still, and if I recall correctly, the red stripe stood out way too much when I tested it previously, as this colour is barely visible at all while the players play in real life. That being said, I will take another look, and I will give your suggestion another look for the final version.

cheers,

-a

 

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

@Bobr9988 The fix for Prosvetov has been posted. Thank-you for catching that for me! I am going to leave Melnichuk out of the game for now, as I am only keeping three goalies per team, based on minutes played this season. Melnichuk might still get added in if he can pass Lagace for minutes played by the end of season.

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

1 minute ago, Bobr9988 said:

everything is cool, each rum is just a bomb, but in Arizona the Russian goalkeeper Ivan prosvetov is correct and you have prosvotov .

Oh geeze, sorry about that! Will correct it, and re-upload it in just a minute…

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

v 4.0 finally released. A bazillion updates. Special thanks to everyone who sent me feedback on betas!

 

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

Hi folks! Getting some PMs about a trade-deadline version. Good news! It's already done. The last detail was awaiting the league's decision on Dadanov. However, it won't be released for at least a day or two or three, as this is the big 4.0 update, with all new, well, lots of things, and I am still wrapping up all new photos. If you want to play test the beta with all new rosters, ratings, lineups, etc., just send me a PM.

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

On 2/5/2022 at 1:18 PM, brianski71 said:

Hey, man!  Thanks for the thoughtful reply.  Sorry I missed it when you sent it.  I kind of pop in and out of here through the season and I missed what you sent back.  As most adults, I've always got something going on that keeps me away from old school games way more than I wish!  Sparing you my life story, I'm at home recovering from a surgery, so I fired up the NHL 94 ROMs for a few days here.  Your ROM still plays awesome.  The small graphical changes make a huge difference! 

As far as the Pens go, I think it's interesting that the "official" EA NHL Rewind game actually has the opposite of what you have.  Not that either of you are right or wrong, it's just interesting that it's opposite.  I guess it just goes to show how annoying it can be to jam a team with jerseys that don't fit the template at all into said template, even if their home and away jerseys are a simple black/white color swap.  

To me, the way you have it in the ROM reminds me much more of the new (old) third jerseys with Pittsburgh down the front.  Those jerseys are primarily black with just gold and white stripes at the bottom.  The home and away jerseys (to me, at least) are a pretty even black or white and gold split.  The problem is that the shoulders of the actual jerseys are black or white and the sleeve is gold, where the game makes the sleeve match the jersey body and gives you the option to change the shoulder color.  To me, I've always preferred the shoulder patches on the game being gold on both jerseys, since this pretty much splits the color of the jersey evenly between black or white and gold, which is essentially what you get with the real jerseys, even though the striping pattern is impossible to match.

At the end of the day, it's your ROM and your awesome project!  I'm just adding my two cents.  Either way, it's light years better than the original NHL 94 uniforms.  In the 93-94 season, the Pens white jerseys actually had gold shoulders and would have fit nearly perfectly into the template.  On the game, they left out the gold shoulders on the white jerseys and inexplicably added red(!?), while the black ones had gold shoulders on the game, but in real life the away jerseys were the current alternate jerseys, without any gold on the shoulders at all.  Stranger yet, the SNES version, which had a different jersey template, nailed the Pens jerseys with 100% accuracy, even with the different home and away jerseys.  

No worries, I totally get that. Just because I am obsessed with my project here, I don't expect you to be.

When I go to wrap up the new centre-ice logos, I will review what you wrote here. One of my concerns, that I didn't;t mention before, is making sure that Boston and Pittsburgh are adequately differentiated. I know it's not a real concern, since they never play eachother both wearing road jerseys, but an internal mandate of mine. Anyway, I will review what you wrote, and check out how they did it in Rewind before I finalize that element. Thanks again for sharing!

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

On 1/4/2022 at 12:48 AM, inthequantum said:

Hi Adam -

Thank you for the in-depth follow up here. I appreciate it! I will look at the dump you provided and dive in a bit more. 
 

I look forward to the new adjustments that you make with upcoming rom version releases. Keep up the great work!

FYI, I am looking forward to your feedback when version 4.0 come out. Switching to the new rating system has allowed be to better differentiate players, and McKinnon is one of the top players that I think has benefited from this. When I out out v4, I will also upload the ratings in a CSV for anyone who wants to review them, debate them, whatever.

[NHL 94: 2022 Edition by Adam Catalyst]

Thanks for all the kind words of support! I've been working on a major revision (4.0) for the past month, likely the biggest changes I will ever make to this thing. Here is what's coming down the pipeline…

1. Player rating system has been switch from a 1-6 scale to a 1-15 scale for more accurate differentiation of players.
2. Every, single, player, has been re-rated.
3. All rosters and lines have been re-done from scratch.
4. Gameplay rebalances: Reduced checking effectiveness & CPU hitting.
5. Gameplay rebalances: Improved CPU goaltending, slightly harder and more accurate shooting.
6. Custom the Stars of the Game formula.
7. All the Player Photos have been re-done with the official 2022 NHL images.
8. Numerous minor graphic tweaks.

The gameplay is noticeably different. Even more parity between the best and worst players. A touch slower skating on the high end, a touch faster puck movement on the bottom end, better goaltending across the board, and generally just a bit more realistic gameplay, IMHO. Most of this work is already done, and I should be reaching the first complete alpha release of this within days, followed by a beta for play testing in about a week. Because this will be the most dramatic change, I really want to be certain on the gameplay balance before I release it.

Do you have a favourite teams that you are super-opinionated about? If you are interested in reviewing what I have put together for that team, particularly its lines, please feel free to drop be a PM. I will share with you what I have (spreadsheet) for that team, along with the consideration parameters, and I will seriously consider any feedback you have.

Version 4.0 should be out within weeks. I hope that you will come back and try this out once it is ready!  Furthermore, I intend to put out a final version for the season somewhere between the trade deadline and the playoffs. 

cheers,

-Adam

 

p.s. Furthermore, beyond this, work has started on re-doing all the on-ice logos to better match the perspective of the ice, based on the Rewind version assets. That work won't be a part of the next release, but will almost certainly be released not too far behind. And then there will be at least one more round of refinements, bug fixes, etc…

[NHL94 2022 ROM by The Sauce]

Sorry, it seems like I struck a nerve… I was curious to see what you would do, as I look up to you and respect your work. And I would *never* promote my work in your thread. Never! In the past I have actively guided conversation in your ROM thread to stick to the subject of your superlative work, and refused to even mention my ROM when outright asked about other ROMs. If you honestly think I've been promoting my ROM in your thread, just let me know which posts, and I will delete those right away, no questions asked! Will start with the one you just quoted.

[NHL94 2022 ROM by The Sauce]

43 minutes ago, Sauce said:

Added Tuukka Rask to Boston and some new players on some other teams.  I haven't added Jack Eichel, yet.  Waiting until he is cleared to play to see the impact on the roster.

[TOOL: Hack Applicator (AKA smozROM)]

I wrapped up my experimenting with the Star Points formula from the original game, and the custom formula from the  script. I turned my findings into @smozoma, and will leave it to him to decide what to do with it. I somehow doubt this affects anyone, but you never know. I did want to share something else that might be useful to someone out there.

I noticed that with the Star Point variables in the original script, it could realistically produce scenarios where the goalie with the worse save percentage would end up taking first star, because of the seer volume of shots they faced. It seems to me, that the variables used for "goal against" and "shot against" end up creating a mandatory minimum save percentage floor in order for a goalie to earn star points. The ratio in the script is set to ~-3:1 ratio, which essentially means that a goalie is accumulating Star Points for every shot faced, as long as their save percentage is over ~.650 (I know… I'm irrationally superstitious with numbers.) If you wanted to enforce a higher minimum save percentage for your goalies to be accumulating Star Points, change this ratio in the variables. I personally found that an -8:1 ratio worked best for me (meaning that my goalies are only racking up star points when they have a save percentage above .875), but even a -4:1 ratio will make a dramatic difference by raising the floor to a .750 save percentage. And of course, you could go the other way, if you wanted to more heavily favour shot volume over save percentage.

 

[TOOL: Hack Applicator (AKA smozROM)]

@von Ozbourme That is weird!

I can confirm that in the original formula, skaters are assigned one Star Point for each second that they are on the ice. I've restored that in order to prevent crashes, and removed the logic for goalie periods played, instead only relying on the logic for goalie faced shots to determine eligibility. I'll share all my findings once I feel more certain about the effects from this change.

If you (or anyone) wants to beta test the modified script (or a pre-modded ROM), please send me a PM!

[TOOL: Hack Applicator (AKA smozROM)]

@smozoma May I ask you a favour… would you be willing to share a larger screen cap of your spreadsheet? I am trying to understand the original code that prevented the "no-event" three stars crash, and the excerpts of your notes on that spreadsheet have actually been helpful. I can't promise anything, other than that I will share any potentially useful findings.