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Everything posted by Drezz
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The button on the controller might be the easiest since it would be more of a physical connection and less prone to bugs if you were hacking the ROM. You'd have to use a 6 button though.
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NHLInfo: Non-existent text file needed for a test
Drezz replied to Jlsegafan2001's topic in General Questions & Discussion
Don't bother. The NHL 2001 db was an oddball and by the time Artem (creator of NHLView) figured out how to recompile the segmented data, NHL 2002 came out - so efforts went into reading the 2002 database. From what I recall, I think you had to do a workaround by going backwards 2000 to 99 or something like that, and then going forward 99 to 2001. The problem was, some data gets dropped so it's not the best solution. Those converter scripts were also user created, so if there isn't one, it was never made. -
Old EA NHL Games on PC (2002 and older)
Drezz replied to Ziggy Stardust's topic in Post '98 Titles & Other Hockey Titles
I miss the days of hockey gaming when it was 2K vs EA. The biggest asset to EA was the PC game modding. The only reason the community was so much bigger was due to that. I honestly feel that if 2K sports made a PC port, that it would probably have forced EA to push the "next gen" version (in 2008) to PC. But they had no competition so they left PC gamers with a dead-ass version after 2005. I used to mod the crap out of those games. Sometimes when I feel the urge, I'll whip something up for NHL 2001 and throw it in for fun just to see if I've still got the skills. -
So I was able to add a team (Nashville) into the db as well as some fictional players to take up slots to get to 27 teams + the 2 all star teams. Only problem is, the game doesn't recognize the team. The players are all valid, have their own addresses in the db's and such, so if you put them on other teams they appear. My limited hacking ability has reached its end - I tried adding entries into the EXE but that buggers it up and causes it to crash before starting up. If anyone with better understanding of hex editing and EXE decompiling or reverse engineering wants to take a stab at it, all I did was copy/paste entries from the db in a hex editor, add them to the end of the file and renamed them using NHLINFO.
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I had heard about the whites being homes and roads being dark again this year. I hope thats the case, since thats how I was weaned when I first watched hockey. I always attributed to the "good guys wear white" when you're at home. I didn't have a chance to do any more work to this - this month is pretty hectic since I'm getting hitched in 3 weeks, so the bride and master chief has me running all over. I'm looking to have something before the fall. So any updates will be sporadic. I did find out why things weren't working earlier - I was using Mack's NHL07 hack as a start, and it did not respond well to change. Maybe that was the problem from the start - using wboy's fresh 30 team hack, it works fine. Anyhoo - more updates will come when I get the chance.
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Ok - here's what I've got so far. Its still WIP, so the next step is to add a strip to the bottom of the jersey, socks, and numbers. After that, a chest and shoulder logo and a few other tweaks.
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You know what I just realized as I was filling in stripes - the league will be switching to the edge jerseys, so a lot of the designs may not be relevant anymore, and as I was testing out the sprites minus the stripes, thats when I noticed how much they resemble the new look jerseys. Interesting. Screens to follow shortly.
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Ok - I managed to separate the shoulder trim color without any major hiccups. I guess doing too many changes at once isnt a good thing. The players look noticeably better without the additional stripe.
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Ok - what the hell am I doing wrong.
Drezz replied to Drezz's topic in General Questions & Discussion
Yeah - that was going to be my last ditch attempt. I was actually thinking of doing the changes in the pallette referenced one and pasting it over in the non referenced one and saving it. I'm pretty sure it is a pallette based problem, since all the other things load up - just not the player anims. I guess you can't save it with a new pallette loaded in or it gets all screwed up somehow. I'm just frustrated because I know it can be done. I dont know why I can't... -
Ok - what the hell am I doing wrong.
Drezz replied to Drezz's topic in General Questions & Discussion
Argh. This is ridiculous. If I edit the file in any way (alter pixels on the sprites) everything disappears. I can't make any changes this way, so it looks like my project = FAILED and over. -
Man, I haven't felt like such a noob since I first started editing textures for NHL 2000. Ok - here's what I've been doing. Maybe someone can point out what I'm doing wrong in this process. 1) Open the bin file in TM. 2) Set the codec to 4bpp linear. 3) Set the block size to 1 column, 4 rows. 4) Import an internal pallette (in this case Calgary 01955510) size 16, set the byte order to Motorola, 9 bgr Genesis. 5) Start editing my files. 6) Save file (edit.bin) 7) Load bin in Gens. And the players disappear. I spent a whole wack of time editing players and it makes the players disappear. Is it a palette error? Or what have I done wrong in the process. Any help would be appreciated, as I'm really getting tired of this happening in both TM and TLP. Thanks.
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Funny you mention that - I was just talking with mack about this earlier. If you would have used Tile Molester when you did your hack, you would have been done in about half the time. I found a method that works pretty good following wboys instructions on rearranging the block size columns and rows. I opened the working bin, set the codec, set the block size to 1 column and 4 rows, then applied my palette from a 3 color team (Calgary is good due to the contrast). When you scroll down to the players you can see that a majority of them already have their tiles in order. The others are there but they're in sequence and not easy to edit - so you create a new file in TM (about 2000 in size), create a custom palette and then cut and paste from your working file onto the new file you created to assemble the pieces to your players. It acts just like the Tile Assembler in TLP. After the edits, cut and paste them back into the master working file and there you go. Right now I'm just working in a test mode to make sure the animations don't look all wonky with the sprite edits. But its going pretty good so far.
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Ok - then off to work I go.
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So I've been thinking about this since like.... 1994. This thing sorta sat on the backburner, and after realizing ROM hacks are possible I decided to try it out. Being creative by nature, I always wanted to maximize the "real" factor by adding details. Its tough when you've only got a small block to work with though. We all know you've got a limited number of pixels per sprite and a palette of 16 colors. If you follow the guide set up in NOSE, here's what each color in the palette does: (humor me - there is a point to this...) Starting from the top left: 1 - Ice Color 2 - Skate Blade 3 - Eyes, Gloves and Skates 4 - Pants Shadow 5 - Pants Base Color 6 - Pants Highlight Color 7 - Skin Highlight 8 - Skin Color 9 - Strip Shadow 10 - Strip 1 Color 11 - Shoulder/Strip 2 Color 12 - Jersey/Helmet/Sock Color Shadow 13 - Jersey/Helmet/Sock Color 14 - Jersey/Helmet/Sock Color Shadow 2 15 - Stick 16 - Player Shadow on Ice Now you guys have worked with this for years and altered the colors and tweaked it and for the most part, its worked fine. Next year, with the introduction of these new-fangled jerseys, a lot of these designs are going to go to the pooper. So I'm trying a little experiment to see if I can separate more of the items on the list and combine a few of the common colors more efficiently, so you don't have to have a stripe around the shoulder just to get a stripe on the pants, etc. It sounds like a bit of a waste, but its something I've been tinkering with and I think I have a formula that works. The drawback is it won't be easy to switch colors in NOSE until I can firm something up with wboy to display the changes properly (similar to the SWOS hack). Getting back to my overall idea, what I need your input on is this. I was thinking of adding numbers, logos and shoulder patches to the jersey. They wont be anything detailed like in NHL95 for the PC, but a couple of off color pixels as a representation just to add to the realism. Thing is, the players all share textures so the number may just end up being a blob or two (like an 11 or a 22) that acts as a representation - and the same with the logo. Before I go and modify all those sprites, would anyone think thats a cool idea? Just throwing it out there. And for the color changes, here's what I'm proposing. I will make the edits to the sprites by hand myself and show you the sheet once I get enough of them done. 1 - Ice Color 2 - Skate Blade 3 - Eyes, Glove Outline, Skates, Dark Shadows 4 - Pants Shadow 5 - Pants Base Color 6 - Pants Strip 7 - Skin Highlight 8 - Skin Color 9 - Strip 1 Color 10 - Strip 2 Color 11 - Shoulder Color 12 - Jersey/Helmet/Sock/Glove Color Shadow 13 - Jersey/Helmet/Sock/Glove Color 14 - Logo/Number/Shoulder Logo Color 15 - Stick 16 - Player Shadow on Ice You'll see the changes aren't too extensive. They're just slight alterations, but you'll be able to have separate entries for stripe colors and shoulders. Now the OTHER thing I was going to do was the sprite edits themselves. I tried pasting some of the sprites from 98 into 94, but the main problem is the sprites in 98 are 3 columns wide and the ones in 94 are 2 columns wide. There are some sprites that are 2 wide in 98, but they're transition sprites in the animation so there aren't enough of them to place into 94 to make skating look natural. So I think I'm going to try something different. The sprites in 94 as cute as they may be, bug me. Our boys are too fat. So instead of having 10 Keith Tkachubs rolin around on the ice, I'm going to slim down some of the player sprites so they're not all a bunch of tubs on the rink. I figure, since I'm doing the color swaps I may as well edit the bodies slightly. I did a few frames and it looked pretty decent. I'll let you be the judge when I get further. So there's my windbag post. Any comments? Questions?
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Well SD, you're right. The two line pass is pretty annoying. I know Tony had created a hack for 94 that eliminated all ref calls, but that wont help. If you check out NOSE and the rules window, there's a ROM address there but I think its primarily for the name only and not when the penalty is actually called. I havent started anything other than dabbling here and there, so I may just switch down a year and go with 97. From what I remember that had hidden teams as well I think. So long as the end result gives us at least 30 teams in exhbition/regular game thats fine with me. The major annoyance I have is the sprite editing. If I alter any of the sprites using Tile Molester, it effectively "runs to Children's Aid" and craps out on me. I've tried editing one or two pixels on one frame of animation and as soon as that particular sprite is used the game locks - I've also tried pasting and that doesn't work either. I think there's something that needs to be hex edited before you can make tile edits in 96-98. I haven't seen anyone else with any sprite hacks for those games post anything on these forums, so I'm SOL. I'll just stick to color swaps and logo imports and stuff.
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Dammit. My sprites don't work everytime I make edits to them using Tile Molester. I don't get it. I was trying to see if an additional stripe would work on the player jerseys, and now none of the sprites show. It goes to the game startup screen then locks up.
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Yeah. I'm not that smart. Save the false god worship... Tony, I noticed that the All Star teams get replaced by the EA Sports and THQ teams, rather than appending them to the list. Bummer. I was getting greedy and hoping they would all be there. No matter though - this still serves my purpose, as the AS teams share one rink if I'm not mistaken. As for season stuff, I tried looking into the RAM tracing and ROM reading and no luck. I can't seem to figure out where the set number of teams values reside mainly because I can't decipher it since my 68000 knowledge is virtually nil. I do have another idea I wouldn't mind passing by some of the brains around here. In the 3d series, there was a way of bypassing the intro screens and hopping into the main menu right off the bat. Is there anyway of doing that with the ROMS, or is it a necessary evil in order to load things into RAM? Just wondering.
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Well that just goes without saying. If you release your work for the masses, you at the very least should be happy with it. HAY GUYS THIS SUCKS, but you'll love it anyway.
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All right - Cowboy Cole is modding again. Thank goodness for kickin it old skool.
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The basis is pretty much the same. I figured out the NHL96-98 hacks the same sort of way - using NHL94 info as a base. Some of the stuff is trial and error though.
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Great work Tony. Works like a charm. Thanks for figuring it out. And now - its time to get to work. I wonder if theres any hope of getting these teams into a season mode. We'd have to alter the schedule to include them... so I don't know if its totally possible.
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All at the same time or A then B then C then Start?
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I couldn't get the cheat code to work either. Thanks for looking into it, guys.
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Okay, so I'm enthusiastically trying to get myself to a knowledgeable state where I can make my own edits and such so please bear with me. I'm trying to make a mod using NHL98 as a base. It has the most available teams, a season and playoff mode and other graphic improvements. I realize that the speed is ridiculous and a few other things, but I'm hoping to work on that. I don't know if its worth pursuing, but I'm going to give it a shot. I have a few questions I'm hoping the gang can enlighten me on. 1) I realize the battery backup that is created when you use the series from 96-98 possibly prevents you from adding or modifying the available teams in season mode. I searched around, but I'm not sure if wboy was able to make any breakthroughs on that. (if so, please point me in the right direction) If there's no hope in adding the teams to a season or playoffs, is there a way to "unlock" the two hidden teams for use within the regular exhibition games? (the Legion and the Blades) - The reason I'm wondering is that I'd like to have all 30 teams available, plus 2 all star teams for kicks. 2) I had a bit of a problem when I was dabbling with TM and the NHL96 sprites. I changed a few things around to the goalies (mask colour) and when I restarted the ROM (after deleting the SRM, of course) the players disappeared. Can someone tell me what I may have forgot to do in order for the players to show up? I followed wboys tute on importing the pallette and resizing the blocks etc so that wasnt a problem - it appears fine in TM, but there's nothing on the ice. 3) Has anyone tried using the sprites from the later versions of the series (98) and imported them in the place of the same ones in 94? Just curious - the sprites in 94 are bigger and less detailed, so I don't know if it would work exactly... Thanks for any help you can provide.
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I can sympathize with Mack on getting raked over the coals after spending a lot of time on a mod. It happens - a lot of users have this sense of entitlement, that everything should be done the way they expect. I learned very quickly that there's no point in getting angry, even when you're antagonized. The way I see it, if you make at least one person happy with the work you've produced, then you've accomplished your mission. Now if you release something and EVERYONE says its crap, then thats when you go back to the drawing board to find out what you did wrong. Its obvious that you can't please everybody, nor should you even attempt to try - because all you're doing is setting yourself up to fail. Mack isn't the only guy who makes mods, so if you don't like it there's others that may suit your particular needs. To get bent out of shape over something like that and then try to make the guy feel like crap for something he worked on is sort of ridiculous and petty. Mack - keep at it. I remember you being one of the guys telling me the exact same thing awhile back when I was getting frustrated.