trudatman

was there supposed to be a ROM in the first post?

so... pausing kills the crowd, right? does crowd noise correlate with an advantage like player skill boosts or puck luck? we've discussed it before, but I don't think we concluded anything. what percentage of games would y'all say you -- or your opponents -- use the time out?

well, I do enjoy a good twenty-minute period. I can't say it's an admirable tactic, but it is fair. "come at me bro," I believe the kids say.

oh, and I don't think I've employed the hide move more than once or twice in thousands of games, but if I do it, it's probably because I'm ahead and I feel like you are the better player. I like losing because it shows a good challenge, but I will try to win. hiding is very much fair.

I strongly feel that skating anywhere on the ice is fair game and that repeated pausing is not. I understand that you guys don't care what I think, but hiding behind a screen is very different than playing in person. if I'm hiding behind the net and you chase me from one side, I'll break to the other and try to score. that happens in the real sport. if you keep hitting pause to break my flow, I'm giving you a controller with a broken start button and calling you out for being a cheater. maybe we should play a cooperative game instead.

how is playing keep away -- while winning or losing -- worse than hitting start repeatedly during play? one is an action taken during the game that can be overcome by the other player and the other is an interruption of action, likely out of frustration and/or anger. you want to hide behind the net, winning or losing? it's cool. I'm coming for you if you are winning and you can stay there if you are losing; these are acceptable actions in actual hockey, too. you want to hit start a lot to break the flow? you must be addicted to drama. there is no equivalent in the real sport and nobody would tolerate it. you clowns make online play look really, uh... uninviting. you'd never get away with that in person.

working on a playoffs update. anything I need to address?

somebody should find us somebody to run this deal again.

excellent. keep us posted.

shorten some names to free up the space to add more players. then try it again.

add the player back, go to edit lines, make sure he isn't used, remove him again.

35 passes a lot and 85 shoots a lot.

agreed. I would do that if this was a job and not a hobby.

yeah. word. I play with penalties, line changes and fatigue (manual) on and I've never noticed a backup getting a start in SNES '94 games. where in the string of goalie data bytes is this part written in? is it the start of the code for each netminder or is it in the team data? I'd love to find it on SNES and see if it is possible to get a backup to start for the computer. that television isn't mine, but I thought it fit the theme of hacked classics that my page runs with. my big issue with '93 is in overall playability. it's clunky and awkward and unbalanced and I think if '94 never happened I'd go with the original iteration. yeah, the fighting is cool, but I find the rest of the game to be very much lacking. I get why people like it, much like I get why people like '95 and others that followed, but '94 will always be my favorite. this goalie thing is quite a topic and I'd love for somebody to prove that there is a way to make backups start for the computer in SNES '94. I had no idea it was a thing in the Genesis version.

I dig what you are saying about the Bettman era. I also really dig the '92 version, but I think they took a huge step back for '93. (the SNES version of '93 is absolutely unplayable.) I don't think the '94 games do anything with the goalie bytes in question. chasing out the starting goalie was one of the very few redeeming aspects of the later versions of the series. do you think they'll get rid of the trapezoid when Brodeur retires? which version of the fighting engine do you prefer? man, this post is all over the place.

I have made my own Genesis ROM, but it just didn't hold my interest. I found it much harder to do, much easier to screw up. even with all of the physics hacks that made it play better than the original, I still couldn't get into it enough to stick with it. for me it's not about creating a ROM with all of the features that I might like, it's about making a game I love reflect current rosters and implementing little tweaks. it's like "give up your tofu and eat a cow; it's what most people do so there are more awesome ways to prepare it." I still don't want to do it. how about you come over to our side and help us find the stuff that Genesis hackers have had access to for years? so, the percentage that leads to the likelihood of the goalie being used by the computer... that's in '93 only, right? there's nothing that would make this work in '94, right? that's how I understand it. I didn't know there was a (vestigial) carryover of the bytes for that in '94. so much left to learn.

what?! I had no idea this was a thing. please expound.

multiple? AAARGH! wow. you are at least twice the man I am. good luck with that! your free time is limited. get those games in over the next few months! congratulations!

probably. there is a whole section of the ROM devoted to songs and sound effects, but I have yet to attempt tackling any of that. I don't recall if it is covered in the ROM mapping thread. it isn't even something I have given more than a passing thought to. if anybody knows more about that, I'd give it a try. seems like the consensus is that both sounds should be changed. it's low priority for me, but I'd give it a go if somebody can help. by the way, what's up with those Leafs? I'd say they were playing for a high draft pick, but that's not right. suck, suck, suck your way out of the playoffs, boys!

oh.

okay, got the whole speed revision thing figured out. the next few weeks are going to involve some serious work in order to prepare a playoffs update. if anybody want to get involved by offering advice/assistance, let me know.

I think I understand what he means, but I don't think I understand what you mean. how is it incorrect? a percentage is a percentage. if a goon scores on 19 out of 100 shots, that's 19% and I'd give him a great shooting rating. he's still going to have trouble scoring from the bench/pressbox/fourth line. if he can't skate and/or possess the puck well enough to get near the net, his great career/season shooting percentage means not much. if he's rated AGI 35 SPE 55 OFF 25 DEF 65 POW 65 CHE 85 ACC 100 CON 35 END 35 BIA 35 PAS 35 REP 100, he isn't going to lead the team in scoring even if you put him on the first line right wing unless you only attempt shots with that one goon. I doubt EA has too many people working stats, as you really only need one or two people to fully understand and implement the formulae. if I didn't have other commitments and it was my full-time job, I could rate the entire league in a week of five eight-hour shifts, easily. I really like my methods for creating stats, but I understand the issues with overrated scrubs. if it didn't make the process at least twice as hard, I'd implement a quality of opposition component to my overall ratings. as of right now, I use stats and fan feedback to come up with most of the ratings and plus/minus divided by total time on ice to generate overall ratings. if a player breaks a threshold of a certain number of minutes played in a season (about 25 players do), I give them an overall boost of about one. if they reach another level (maybe five do), I give them another overall point. I'll likely tweak that in the future to give most first-liners slightly bigger boosts and Chara/Karlsson/Kesler types of minute eaters even more, but I don't like the idea of punishing a dude who happens to play on a fourth line just because he rarely faces Toews/Stamkos; he is facing NHL players and if his team is scoring twenty more goals than they are letting in, per season, when he's out there, he's getting a pretty good rating from me, scrubby goon or not. I like that people want to further explore how ratings are created. as much as I believe in my system and would be willing to teach it, I understand that people don't like seeing Adam McQuaid rated better than Ovechkin in overall ratings. the thing is, when you take control of my Ovechkin, he has the skills needed to score much more frequently than McQuaid. when left to his own artificial intelligence devices, he'll skate lazily and defend poorly. I insist that it works, but I get why people don't like seeing jacked-up scrubs and muted (-looking) stars. when you are controlling Marty St. Louis, he's going to flow a lot better than these "overrated" goons. great conversation. I love this stuff. a dude around here wanted me to teach him my formulae, but he didn't want to talk on the phone to learn it, so it didn't happen. the gist is in the posts, but the details are available verbally to anybody willing to listen. there is a lot going on when ROMs are made. I don't like the shortcut of first-liners and 85, second 65, third 55, fourth 45. the personality of the player is lost. my guys very much seem to play like their real counterparts. I'd love to read more about how others handle this stuff. thanks, guys.

I have to disagree on the shooting percentage and passing skill ratings. the goon with a great shot is still a nearly useless goon. his great shot matters not from the bench or the defensive zone. I'm a stats guy.

I can't get my computers to do anything online within a second, never mind a fraction of a second. I guess I should clarify that I meant that I've played thousands of games of NHL '94 against humans. believe it or don't, but the hassle of trying to get the whole thing set up just to "reck" somebody else's day with my terrible cable connection doesn't seem worth the effort. y'all can have your drama and other frustrations. I live on the Mason-Dixon line right at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. drop by for a fair game any time.

because, Plabby, I have no interest in your drama and dealing with people acting like gradeschoolers from the comfort of their own living rooms. you want to throw controllers and pull plugs? you wouldn't dare do it in person. you want to get all dramatic about folks being online but avoiding you? wouldn't be a problem in person. you want to claim it's 5 to 2 on your screen while it's 4 to 3 on mine? couldn't be a problem in person. I've played thousands of games on '94 (on both major systems); I'm in no hurry to get onlag to see how much it sucks in comparison. I'm here to make the game better (for me), not worse. I've been playing the game for twenty years. playing some chump from far away isn't worth the hassles of figuring out getting connected only to be frustrated by the inherent delays of long-distance gaming. you will not convince me that it is the same as playing on one system. also, I don't give a quarter of a shit if you like my hack or not. I make it for myself and share it because I think it's the right thing to do. sharing it also leads to feedback and improvements and corrections. go get worked up about something else. don't you have a league to ruin?