Tickenest

A somewhat related Genesis post: http://www.nhl94.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=157

Not I. White jerseys blend into it too easily.

And the Google Video link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=85...aseball&pl=true

So basically your point is that you've seen fewer penalties on the SNES version? Well, ok.

You've never seen that before? You just don't play with penalties often. No, the game handled things exactly right. According to NHL rules, a team can never have fewer than 3 skaters on the ice due to penalties. If a third penalty is called on that team, that player's penalty does not start to expire until he is "number 2 in line" (the net effect being that the duration of the other team's advantage increases). So if you had 5 guys in the penalty box, only the first two in would have their penalties counted down, and once the first guy's penalty, the third guy would have his penalty start to expire, and so on. Note that if there are 3 or more guys in the box, the first guy isn't let out right away, because his team still has to play with 3 skaters because of the other two guys still in the box. What I don't know is how it's handled when all of those penalties expire. Obviously, someone would have to be let back onto the ice during play, but I don't know how it's decided who goes.

In fairness, the $20 Nintendo version won't be all sticky and disgusting.

You guys are both right because Daemon's description of applications needing port forwarding is correct, and you're correct because Gens + Kaillera + connection to a Kaillera server on the internet involves no listening on either player's part, while one player connecting directly to the other involves listening, and therefore can require port forwarding.

Both of you should open the NHL '94 ROM in single player (offline) at least once to make sure it works. Then, File Menu -> Netplay. The Kaillera client should come up and a list of servers should slowly fill the white box. Give yourself a name in the box in the lower left, and let the list of servers finish refreshing. Pick a server (preferably one that has a low ping for both of you) and connect to it by double-clicking on it or single-clicking and then clicking the Connect box. Assuming you can make the connection, another Kaillera window should pop up for the server itself, and you'll see chat going on in the upper left, the list of everyone connected to the server (and you should see yourselves there) in the upper right, and a list of ongoing and waiting games at the bottom. Decide who'll be player 1, and have him click the New Game button, and then choose the NHL '94 ROM from the list that comes up. The other player should then click on the room the first player created (which should appear in the list at the bottom of the window) and click the Join button. If you both find yourself in a small chat room at the bottom of the window where the list of games had been, then everything's working right. Once you're both ready, Player 1 should click the Start Game button, and, with a little luck, the game will start on both of your screens. Hopefully it'll work, and if it does and you guys decide you like playing online, consider joining my league over at http://www.nhl94.com/nhl94cup/ or Evan's over at http://www.nhl94online.com/. And yes, I answered your question solely to advertise my league.

In order for the format of my league to work at all, there have to be at least 8 people so that you can have 4 people each week in the Title and Contender matches, and 4 in the Regular matches. Any fewer and it just doesn't work (try it sometime ). In any case, even just 8 people doesn't make for much of a competition. We've got close to 20 now, which is a pretty good number, but if I tried to split it into 2 divisions now, there'd only be 8-10 people in each, and as I said, I don't think that's suitable for competition. Maybe if we make it above 30. Of course, the other problem with having more than one division in my league is that it's possible that in a given week there would be an odd number of players in each division, meaning that someone (besides me, of course) would be forced into a bye, which I'd like to avoid. It's not a problem with the current setup because I can always give myself a bye, but with divisions that's not entirely possible. Oh well, maybe it'll happen someday.

I think you're asking an awful lot for people to have to play so many games each month and possibly against a whole new set of people each month. Honestly, promotion/relegation is something I'd like to incorporate into my own league, but I figure I'd need about 40 people minimum in it to keep things interesting. I do find the idea of a cap on talent used on the ice intriguing, though. And what does everyone have against one-timers all of a sudden? They're the single greatest innovation of the 16-bit era (in hockey games, at least). Move the puck quickly and get rewarded when the keeper can't react fast enough. Fighting is seriously overrated, too. Let's stop the game while two guys wail on each other for a while and then they both skate over to the penalty box and get 5 minute penalties. Yeah, that doesn't get boring after the 4th time. Oh, and it's the worst when a fight starts while you were skating up ice on a breakaway.

I'll assume you're talking about playing a human, because we all get frustrated when we clear out of the CPU keeper's way and he still won't pass the puck. I try and stay in front of the opposing keeper when he has the puck as much as possible, because I know that it's rare for the guy to hold on to the puck and force a stoppage no matter how bad his passing prospects are, and if I stay close I might poach his pass and score.

Genesis, BSDaemon. So your league is non-profit? That's interesting, because my league is decidely for-profit. Oh, that reminds me. cr0ssbar, you owe me a check for $30. Payment in GP will not be accepted.

You and Korpraali V might want to check out nhlgamer.com and #nhl94 on IRCNet as well as this site, just because both that site and that IRC channel are populated mostly by Fins, so at the very least they're more on your schedule. But don't get me wrong, this site's great, too.

Ask the best Fins which goalkeepers are the best and they won't say the highest-rated guys. Reason? They move too fast. (The best Fins excel at goalkeeper control.)

WRONG SWOS @#JK$@G$#J^T# <-----that's my long, exotic tie I tried it once and it didn't work. Therefore, it could never ever ever ever ever possibly work for anyone else in the world ever.

The commissioner wrote a script of some sort which takes alphas (online save states produced by the Gens32 emulator the league uses) and processes them for stats. It's pretty nifty, actually, the only problem being that desynchs have to be restarted from the beginning.

?????????? And in case I haven't made myself clear... ????????????????????

- Thou shalt update thy league webpage with frequency and aplomb.

I will now argue that this technique is a good thing. I used to think that it was cheap, but then I saw the error of my ways. Essentially, when a player holds the puck in the opposing zone and it's crowded, does he have *any* other way to score without a one-timer? In this case, it'd be nearly impossible to skate in on the goalkeeper like on a breakaway because of all the traffic. A regular slapshot that you might see in a game (such as a slapshot from the blue line or the side) will always be saved. What choice does the player have? He can either try to skate across the goal, or try to set up a one-timer, but that pretty much involves skating the player around the zone hoping for an opening (which doesn't happen too often). Without the threat of a goal from skating across the crease, the opposing player can just sit on a one-timer pass and almost completely snuff those out. It's important for players to be able to score when the offensive zone is crowded so that he doesn't have to back out, pull out the D, and try again.

Or you anticipate the move and position your player on defense to intercept the attacker as he tries to score.

Can we get a little spam armor on our email addresses on the team pages, please?

Microsoft Sidewinder. No fancy analog sticks, just a layout very similar to the Genesis but with better handles for gripping.

I am terrified beyond all belief to click on that link. I fear that terrible, terrible things will happen to my computer if I do so. The fear is paralysing. My hands are shaking (which is ironic, given the paralysis thing I just mentioned.)

Oh, I'm not going to take matters into my own hand. I just know that the recently-discovered Law of Internet Attrition states that not everyone will stick with the league. Want some Twix while I drive us to the lake?

You will.