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smozoma

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Posts posted by smozoma

  1. On 3/24/2024 at 4:06 AM, LadyScorpion said:

    Hello,

    NHL 94: 2024 Edition is too hard for me so I'm looking for a good modded NHL game with latest rosters. I have a preference for PCSX2, Xemu, Dolphin, Xenia, RPCS3 or PPSSPP for NHL games. Please note that I'm not a hardcore gamer. No PC version please.

    Thanks in advance.

    Did you try the other 2024 mod? Apparently the "2024 Edition" one is harder than normal, so this one might be a better introduction to NHL'94 mods:

     

  2. I'm not sure there's going to be a game any easier than an NHL'94 mod. You just need to learn the "crease-cut" move and then go from there.

    See the following video.

    "crease cut" at 4:10. The key is to hold the shoot button until it automatically shoots (don't tap it. hold it until it shoots.). Sometimes it's tough to get past the D, but this is the easiest way to score of probably any NHL game in history. Skate to the boards, then skate across the net and hold the shoot button. Goalie automatically falls to the ice when you wind up the slapshot.

    "slot slapshot" at 1:55. You need to be careful of when you begin the shot, don't be too early or late. Make sure to use a player with a shot power of at least 70 in order to overpower the goalie. A shot accuracy >60 will help it not miss the net too often. Again, hold the shot button until it shoots, don't tap it.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNaViT01WcE

     

  3. 19 hours ago, MattP271983 said:

    This forum SUCKS!!! No one answers a damn thing. MORONS!!!!!

    Come on, that's unnecessary.

    Plus it's an NHL'94 forum and you're asking questions about other games.

    And also I answered your other question the same day you posted it, so you were 50/50 on answers.

  4. The most common way to go 5-hole is to pass the puck straight up (or down) from a distance. Often from a centre-ice faceoff. or when your goalie for some reason fires a pass 200mph straight at the other goalie.

    Also if you take a player with high shot power (like a Hull or Iafrate) and do a slapshot while holding down (when shooting up) (or vice versa), you can sometimes sneak it through. hokkeefan has also invented an off-angle 5-hole shot from the faceoff circle, but I have only seen it done a handful of times.

  5. 32 minutes ago, MattP271983 said:

    Question, I started playing this a little bit ago and what I want to know is before I continue the season, has the season point bug been fixed? I'm not sure if this has been answered yet.

     

    No, the season bug fix was discovered in April 2023, but this ROM was last updated in 2022.

    For the time being:

    If you're using an emulator, you should be able to apply the GameGenie codes.

    Or you can use a Hex Editor and make the changes manually. (i.e. do what I do in the video between 2m00s-2m45s)

     

  6. On 2/10/2024 at 9:55 AM, AdamCatalyst said:

    Me too. They killed it. But this year they brought it back, no judges, no showmanship, period. Only actual skills based competitions, in a more competitive format. They went from the worst ever last year, to arguably the best ever this year. Players were visibly gassed competing for the million dollars. Stamina actually came into it. 
     

    p.s. I was also pleased to see that the finalists were 1. McDavid, 2. Makar, and 3. Matthews, since that’s identical to the top three ratings in my ROM. Not exactly going out on a limb, I know. :)

    Yeah I liked this year's skills competition for the first time in ages. Back to basics. Would have liked a few more players in it, and maybe spread the prize money around more so guys don't give up if they know they can't win.

    • Like 1
  7. 15 minutes ago, NotJustGamesThisIsMyLife said:

    Right on Thank you! I assumed that was the case :)  I specialize in offline content more than online, I hope to share some things with the community that others will be able to enjoy and I feel like this patch is a big help to that! I got a lot to learn with hacking though. I'd love if somehow 95 could get the same stat usage but it's really not the end of the world. You'd think it would be possible though. Weirdly Stick Handing actually uses 0-9 and A-F but the same number is used for 3 in a row, like 6 7 and 8 all being 47-62

    This is just a side question but, you clearly know way more than me so Id love to see if you know. So all of the stats in NOSE actually go behind 99, except they simply say !!!! Hex 7, !!!! Hex 8, etc all the way up to !!!! Hex F. BUT you can see they raise the player's overall when you use 1 of these. But my question is, what would happen if you actually used these? Would it simply break the game and it wouldn't run, would it make the player's abilities extremely overpowered, or would it do absolutely nothing? If you put everything to F, the player overall is 273 lmao!

    It's ok if the in-NOSE rating goes over 100. That formula is built into NOSE and doesn't work right with the 0-15 rating scheme. But it will work fine in the game.  (This is assuming you're using the 0-15 rating scheme mod)

    Stick handling is likely doubled up with handedness. Odd values = left handed, even values = right handed (or maybe I have that backwards). So 0-1 is the lowest score. 2-3 is the 2nd lowest score. 4-5 the next...

  8. 1 hour ago, NotJustGamesThisIsMyLife said:

    Gotcha TY for the reply, I just wondered cause I was working on a 'legends teams' hack for 95 to do a special season with and figured if it did work, I could use the stats from that, then port it to 94. But it's taking FOREVER to individually do like 625 or so players stats to be realistic lol. So I'll likely have to use the normal game.

    Question though, what would happen if I had a NHL 94 rom with all edited player rosters/stats/lines and used this hack applicator? I assume it would still work to apply the patches if I'm only making simple changes in NOSE right?

    Yes, you can edit the rosters in NOSE and this will still work. None of these hacks touch the team/player data in the ROM.

  9. 3 hours ago, NotJustGamesThisIsMyLife said:

    Hi there, so I realize this is a very old post and this might not get seen but, Could someone explain what the weight bug is? And is it JUST for NHL 94? Or other games too? I could take a few guesses as what the weight bug is but, I really am not sure, could anyone explain it?

    And also couldn't someone just use NOSE to make all the players in the game have the same weight so they all can check eachother equally? That might be boring but, IDK. Maybe make all of them close? Instead of say, 1-10 skill, make everyone between 4 and 6 so even the lower ones still have a good chance to check? Or is that not how it works. Please explain lol!

    In NHL'94 on the Genesis (i'm not sure if this exists in 92 or 93. But it's not on SNES 94, or either 95 game), they mixed up the player weights in the checking calculation, so that the lighter a player is than who they are trying to check, the greater the chance of the check succeeding. So light players can check heavy players, instead of the other way around.

    Originally I tried simply reversing the player weights (make Lindros light, make Fleury heavy), but since weight also affects acceleration, the game felt weird, with players who should be quick (e.g. Gretzky) accelerating really slowly, while Marty McSorley was now super quick. So I bit the bullet and learned how to hack the game in order to fix the actual code.

    If you set all the players to be the same weight, the game is kind of boring because few checks work. You normally need a 16 pound difference in weight (or 2 units of weight in the under-the-hood rating system) for a check to succeed. So if they're all the same weight, checks usually don't work.

    This weight bug fix, well, fixes the bug. It re-reverses the weight comparison, so lighter players can check heavy players. So it's the best way to fix the problem.

  10. 27 minutes ago, NotJustGamesThisIsMyLife said:

    Is there a way to use any of this on games besides NHL 95? Specifically the 0-15 ratings? That would be amazing to have for other NHL games! Im assuming even if you update NOSE to have 0-15 ratings, it won't just automatically work with NHL 95?

    Sorry, no, this is tailored specifically to NHL'94's compiled assembly code.

  11. Summary:

    Sega Genesis: September, maybe the 23rd

    Super Nintendo: November, announced for the 15th, but was late, probably 26th

    Sega CD: January

    The Genesis and SNES months match with the magazine scan hnfoo provided

    image.png Genesis

    image.png SNES

    Sega Genesis

    Posting records of the Genesis version being on sale as early as September 23rd:

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/Zh35ZFAxXG4/m/s-Sg-t8ogrcJ

    Sep 23, 1993, 3:26:04 PM

    "Last night I went and picked up my long awaited copy of
    NHL '94, and I haven't stopped playing it since. "

    ^ He says "last night", so I am making the assumption that he picked it up at midnight, or the store gave him his pre-order copy early, because I can't find any messages on Sept 22nd.

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/zLFQ5RLtyVQ/m/ui7Lz10qSJgJ

    Sep 23, 1993, 2:43:57 PM

    "Hey gang, just bought NHL '94 for the Genesis. I'll play it in about 4 hours
    when I get out of work. Looks pretty good just from the demo and the
    manual."

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/_qN5O4EyA4M/m/6BgjeHTb7LMJ

    Sep 23, 1993, 8:25:49 PM

    "It's in! Picked it up today and ran to my friends dorm to try it out!"

    And one from Sept 24 that seems to be from a store employee:

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/jpAw4gRhhv0/m/isnBctjcTRAJ

    Sep 24, 1993, 2:08:49 PM

    "Alright I'll run down the list of new features found on
    NHL'94 as pointed out in the manual"

    (list of new features)

    "Okay, that's all there is in this new game retailing here
    in Calgary, Canada at $66 Cdn."

    On the other hand, you have this guy on Sept 24 saying it's "Coming soon"

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.nintendo/c/msSiv313HLc/m/UI1AH9Rd2W0J

    Sep 24, 1993, 6:35:33 PM

    "Well, its coming soon for the Genesis, but have yet to hear
    word of it for the SNES. Is it coming? "

    Sega CD

    Someone called EA and was told it would be out in January or February. Then this guy posts that it's among newly released games in January:

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/duLKvA3uQz4/m/fyrCfWTQ7NEJ

    Jan 24, 1994, 1:56:02 PM

    "List of new games for Gameboy, Game Gear, SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, and 3D0."

    (lots of games...)

    "Sega CD:
    [...] NHL '94"

    And someone had it (and had returned it for a refund) by Jan 27:

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.sega/c/MRokeFVCOxk/m/5VYRGjJ0lQ4J

    Jan 27, 1994, 5:28:03 PM

    "For those interested, here are my impressions of NHL 94 for the Sega CD.
    First off a little background, I own the NHL 94 Genesis cart and even with its
    flaws I love it. Cut to the chase...I no longer have NHL 94 CD, I returned it."

    Super Nintendo

    A lot less usenet activity for this one...

    It was scheduled to come out Nov 15th:

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.nintendo/c/daUxhpkIdAI/m/MA3Rssmm4zUJ

    Sep 29, 1993, 2:44:57 AM

    "For those of you who have savoured the Genesis version, and are eagerly
    awaiting the Super NES translation, the SNES game is scheduled to be
    released on November 15th, so you'll have to wait a little longer."

    However, it may have been delayed until Nov 26th?

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.nintendo/c/ZuvXL2Ptos0/m/XPHKkbfviv8J

    Nov 15, 1993, 1:54:02 PM

    "You can play NHL'94 for the SNES at the Hockey Hall of Fame.
    It is part of the exhibit (I guess).
    The Toronto Sun has a picture of Pat Burns (coach of the Maple Leafs) playing the game against a small kid (and losing :))
    When does it come out for the public?
    Nov. 25th?"

    Quote

    https://groups.google.com/g/rec.games.video.nintendo/c/S0vMCT_ef_w/m/6T9gKfmHAiYJ

    Oct 13, 1993, 6:22:23 PM

    "I have seen some reviews for NHL 94 on the SNES, but when I called
    Software Etc. they told me it was not going to be released until Nov. 26. "

     

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  12. Pull CPU Goalie when losing by 1 to N goals

    Triple-team job (McMarkis, chaos, and me) on Discord to solve the number of goals bug.

    I ran a trace in the emulator tonight and I think this should work:

    ROM Offset: 0000 F758
    Change:     6B to 63  (BMI to BLS)
    
    ROM Offset: 0000 F760
    Change:     66 to 62  (BNE to BHI)
      
    ROM Offset: 0000 F75F
    Change:     02 to 0N
    Note:       N is the max number of goals to pull the goalie on. 
                Example: Set to 03 for the goalie to be pulled when down 1,2, or 3 goals.

    For how it works, here is the code:

    ================================================================================
    OLD - Only pulls goalie if goal differential is exactly 2.
          The code is run twice, swapping the teams the second time.
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    00:F750  30 29  MOVE.W  $000C(A1),D0       ; D0 = "Score of one of the teams"
    00:F754  90 6A  SUB.W   $000C(A2),D0       ; D0 = D0 - "Score of the other team"
    00:F758  6B 00  BMI     #$5D0A [01:5464]   ; Abort if D0 < 0 (don't pull goalie)
                                               ; Continue if D0 >=0
    00:F75C  B0 7C  CMP.W   #$0002,D0          ; Bits = D0 minus 2
    00:F760  66 00  BNE     #$5D02 [01:5464]   ; Abort if D0 != 2 (don't pull goalie)
                                               ; Continue if D0 == 2
    ================================================================================
    
    ================================================================================
    NEW - Pull goalie if goal differential is >0 and <=2.
          (Still runs twice with the teams swapped)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    00:F750  30 29  MOVE.W  $000C(A1),D0       ; D0 = "Score of one of the teams"
    00:F754  90 6A  SUB.W   $000C(A2),D0       ; D0 = D0 - "Score of the other team"
    00:F758  63 00  BLS     #$5D0A [01:5464]   ; Abort if D0 <= 0 (don't pull goalie)
                                               ; Continue if D0 >0
    00:F75C  B0 7C  CMP.W   #$0002,D0          ; Bits = D0 minus 2
    00:F760  62 00  BHI     #$5D02 [01:5464]   ; Abort if D0 > 2 (don't pull goalie)
                                               ; Continue if D0 <= 2
    ================================================================================
                                                                  
                                                                  
    How to read an instruction:
    00:F750  30 29  MOVE.W  $000C(A1),D0       ; D0 = "Score of one of the teams"
                                               ; stuff after a semicolon is a "comment" not code
    ^^:^^^^                                    ; address in ROM file
             ^^ ^^                             ; instruction hex code
                    ^^^^^^                     ; instruction human-readable name
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^      ; instruction parameters
                                               ; "D0" is "Data Register 0" (a place to store temporary calulation values)

     

    • Love 3
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  13. 1 hour ago, kingraph said:

     

    The nasty part is if your photo doesn't split into somewhat identifiable tiles you're gonna have a helluva time figuring out the right mix of palettes to make it work.  Like if your picture is a generic mix of 24 colors, I don't know how you figure out a code that can not only dither the image to 24 colors, but do the math to figure out what mix of colors goes into what palette such that you can apply tile by tile for the full image.  I hope that makes sense. 

     

    @von Ozbourne's examples above (awesome btw) had somewhat identifiable chunks to work with separate palettes and the overlap was manageable.  If it was all mixed up, I imagine you'll run into the issue where a single tile will need colors that exists on two separate pallets.  And if you then configure a palette to satisfy that tile, another one may pop up...etc.  

    The way I was kind of thinking of simplifying it was to have 2 palettes with 8 common colours and 8 unique colours. Split the image into tiles and find which palette is better for each tile. Then calculate the entire picture "fitness". But even with this "simplification", smozDither will take sooo much longer to generate quality sample images, though... for a program that is already quite slow (although some of that is due to me making a terrible coding decision that adds a lot of overhead on each pixel access, which I intend to address at some point this year).

    1 hour ago, AdamCatalyst said:

    @smozoma Have you played with the Retro Graphics Toolkit? It does something like that.

     

    I have not! I'll check it out. No point reinventing the wheel.

  14. 32 minutes ago, kingraph said:

    I touch upon it here: 

    For graphics, the code generally follows a format as follows:

    * Graphic Header (10 bytes)
    * Graphic data (best viewed in TM)
    * Palette (128 bytes, sometimes not included/pre-defined)
    * Size of image (4 bytes)
    * Tile layout (this is the last part)

    Having said that, I'll breakdown the original Hi Score splash in a separate thread.  

    Ah I get it now, thanks :)

    I could probably whip up something in excel for visualizing the tile/palette map... similar to the NHLPA93 SNES excel editor for the city name banners.

    This would be an interesting thing to get working Ditherer... (which will be renamed smozDither in the next version since there are a ton of github projects called Ditherer out there already). It'd have to split the input image up into tiles and then optimize several palettes at the same time... finding the optimal set of tiles to apply each palette to...

  15. 1 hour ago, kingraph said:

    Yes!

    It's not specifically laid out in a "how to" thread, but remember when you're putting in the layout for a graphic, the first byte dictates the palette that is being used for that tile.  They don't all have to be the same palette!  Each tile can reference one of the 4 palettes. 

    On a full screen image, you can use two or three palettes (I think it doesn't always work with all 4) which can both have some colors be the same between the palettes so the switching in tiles isn't completely different in an image.   

    Imagine you had an image that was mostly blue on the left half and mostly red on the right, and to make it easy let's say it was split right down the middle.  You can create a palette of blues/black/grey for palette 1 and red/black/grey on palette 2.  When you're laying out the tiles, make the left side reference palette 1 and the right reference palette 2.  

    Even in wboys original ROM I remember one of his splash screens used 3 palletes!  He made a top and bottom bar.  I wonder if he was just experimenting.

    I should have some time this weekend and I can make a more thorough post on this particular original splash screen and use multiple palettes in one image.  

    Thanks! yes I'm curious about "laying out the tiles"

    I do recall the 3-palette intro screen! I had figured it was part of the game, not a customization.

    I have plans to upgrade the Ditherer program, and would like to include a multi-palette option.

  16. 8 minutes ago, kingraph said:

    You can replicate the original splash screen, but you'd have to use two palettes for the picture, which is what the original splash does IIRC. 

    So while this is technically feasible for people who understand how to change palettes on specific tiles, it would not make for a good "template ROM".  It's much simpler when most of the graphics use one palette for the whole picture (WYSIWYG in TM) method.  

    Oh interesting.. so it's not like 2 separate images with separate palettes? It's a single image pasted in, and somehow certain tiles are specified to have a different palette? Is there a guide on this somewhere on here?

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