smozoma

ok i found something.. you need to look at 2 values (8-bit each) ($ffb8ec) is -1 during most play stoppages, but not goals or when the puck leaves the rink. when the play is on, it's 0. Sometimes it's briefly -1 during gameplay, but this is very rare and only happens for a fraction of a second. ($ffc2ec) is 80 after a goal and when the puck is out of the rink. There is some other situation where it's 64 when the play is stopped. when the play is on, it's 0, 16, or 24. When you're in a menu screen or instant replay, it's usually a negative value. You never see ($ffb8ec)==-1 and ($ffc2ec)>=64 at the same time, which is important... so to know if the game is currently stopped for a whistle, goal, end of period, etc: if (($ffb8ec) == -1) XOR (($ffc2ec) >= 64) then the play is currently stopped if (($ffb8ec) == 0) AND (($ffc2ec) < 64) then the play is currently going In my checking stat hack, i checked to see if the game is running like so: (D0 is a general purpose CPU data register) D0 = value from ($ffc2ec) (which might be 0,16,24,64,80...) D0 = D0/32, discard remainder. if D0 was 0,16,or 24 it'll now be 0 (game on). if it was 64 or 80, it'll be 1 (game off). D0 = D0 + value from ($ffb8ec) If (D0 == 0) then the play is on, so record check stats since you never see ($ffb8ec)==-1 and ($ffc2ec)>=64 at the same time, you never get -1+1=0, which would be a false-positive. EDIT: found that 64 is also a 'game not on' value for ($ffc2ec). added a pseudo-code method to check for gameplay running.

I've been unable to figure this one out: How can you tell, in the RAM, if the game is 'on' or 'off'? By 'on' I mean the clock is running, by 'off' I mean a whistle has gone, or a goal has been scored, or the period is over etc... I want to prevent checks after the whistle from counting in the Game Stats. it'd be easy to do, if only I knew how to detect that the play was going or not!

It should work with any 94 rom, as long it has been through NOSE at some point. you can take, say, a GDL rom, and apply the patch to that.

The 93s etc? Nope, I haven't looked at them at all. Maybe some day...

I think this tells you how? http://nhl94.com/html/editing/edit_bin_playerstar.php

cool stuff

dumb microsoft. i'll recompile it next week with something non-microsoft! no time right now anyway, i've been working on an even better checking algorithm.. no time to get it done this weekend, though.

can you get me the actual error message? thanks (sighh i think this has to do with the new versions of microsoft visual studio.. they have some dumb new 'feature' that makes it hard to share programs..)

edit: patch program is now in original post above

NHL94 was the first NHL game to have a writable memory chip in it, I think. 93, you'll have to make a save-state with the emulator, then reload that later.

was about to upload it, but then noticed, whoops, i'm not setting the checksum so the rom doesn't load if you apply the checking fix. i'll fix it tomorrow..

i think this would crash the ron barr hot/cold screen, not the main menu screen? not sure, though.

the game itself doesn't support names.. what do you expect? :/

I think he took the 'JUST' in your comment of "And we are looking for a SNES update not JUST a gens update" to mean "a SNES update, not JUST a crumby dumb gens update"

I think this happens when you reduce the number of players on the team. It crashes when it gets to the defensemen, right? This is because it's looking for the player's name based on an index into the team's players, and there is no player there anymore. You need to fix the player cards. How to do that is explained in wboy's player card tutorial: http://forum.nhl94.com/index.php?showtopic=216 (direct download of the tutorial: http://www.hexaddicts.com/nose/plyrcrdt.zip

I'm writing a little program that will let you apply the weight bug fix to any nhl94-based ROM.. and it'll let you decide whether or not to include the checking rating in the calculation.

You mean like the Edmonton, AB Oilers and Calgary, AB Flames?

The game is the same. the weights of the players are different. there was a bug in the game that made it so light players could check better than heavy ones.. so this rom just changes the weights of the players so the checking makes more sense.................................

here are some hacks i am working on figuring out... 1. DONE! record number of checks per player in a game. there is a bunch of RAM that is not used, so i should be able to pick a spot and write stuff to it. i could record how many checks each player dished out in a game, then display that stat in the Blitz league website. 2. DONE! fix the assist bug where it doesn't remember the 2nd assist in a passing play goal if the scorer touches the puck twice (ie if it goes bourque, neely, oates, neely, scores -- bourque currently gets no assist). it must keep a record of who touched the puck, so i should be able to override the algorithm and make it not forget the 3rd guy.

well.. it's kinda like that anyway already..

Yeah, it definitely does that. Ray Bourque attacks everyone; it's hilarious (99 checking)

Yeah, I learn a bit every game, and I was definitely way better at the end of the season than at the start, but when you get less than 20 minutes of actual ice time per week, there are only so many mistakes you can make to learn from. Like I said, I just don't have much instinct for picking up strategy on my own, so a book works well for me. Our captain/coach last season gave us a few simple plays/tactics, and they worked great, so I want to find a book that'll teach me a bit more. Plus a book is good entertainment when on the can.

> Hockey is about talent not streategy > learn to know you're guys. that way you can create a strategy So just playing a lot is all you need to be good? Coaches are totally useless? A chess player can gain nothing from reading a chess book, he should just play more games? These teams don't practice; we just play one 45-minute game every week, and I get about 15 minutes of ice time -- and that's continuous clock time. There's only so much you can learn in 10 minutes a week.

of course, the two books i am most interested in appear to be out of print or at least currently unavailable