Chris

Gentlemen, I have figured out how to make both top and bottom trapezoids. I have included screen shots which I will try my best to explain. Please note that the offsets shown only apply to the Sega CD version. First, lets concentrate on the top trapezoid. The first thing you need to do is find 2 tiles that you do not need and change them to a diagonal line (first red arrow in the tile editor screen shot). The tile screen shot isn't lined up properly, but the first arrow corresponds to the coordinate of A0. The diagonal line next to it is A1 (ignore that for now, that was used for the bottom trapezoid). Next to that is an unused tile, next to the unused tile is A3 which is used for when the line of the trapezoid touches the boards. Turn your attention to the hex screenshot. Counting backwards 39 4-digit groupings from the 00B9 brings you to 00A0 which points to the diagonal line "A0" in the tile editor as explained above. The rink is 48 tiles wide, but since we need to make a diagonal line, we're going to count 49 tiles which brings you to the next instance of "00A0". Repeat this again and you reach the next circled "00A0". Repeat it one more time and you have reached the endboards, as I explained above, I used tile "A3" for when the trapezoid comes in contact with the endboards which is why "00A3" is used. We are now done with the right line. Doing the left line is very similar. Going back to the first B9, this time we count backwards by 28 4-digit groupings. Instead of "00A0", we need to use "08A0". Using a "00" in front of the coordinate will display the tile "as-is" while using a "08" in front of it will mirror it horizontally. Simply repeat the same steps as above but make sure you put a "08" instead of a "00". (EDIT: I neglected to mention that for the left line, you have to count back 47 tiles in order to compensate for the line going in the opposite direction.) I know this is extremely confusing but hopefully the diagrams help somewhat. I will explain how to do the bottom trapezoid at a later time.

Yes the AI is too easy but its really not that bad as far as 16-bit standards go. I think the problem is that they made the players too fast and too good when it comes to shot power and accuracy. You could pretty much score at will with even the worst player in the game. I think that the players who scored less than 10 goals a season should have been rated accordingly for shot power/accuracy, but I guess thats why Hex Workshop was invented.

The reason I recommended that type of notebook is because I've always hated spiral notebooks. The pages rip out way too easily, the black and white notebook stays bound, although you could rip pages out of you wanted to, which I usually do once I've typed the important info and printed it out for my 3 ring binder.

I don't know if you are aware of this or not, but if you burn the game to a CD with the intention of playing it on a Sega CD, place it into your primary CD rom drive and go to File => Boot CD in Gens, you can play the game with the audio tracks.

The following is some advice I have geared towards both newbies and experienced 94 hackers. Make sure that the desk you are working at is reasonably organized and uncluttered. Invest in a marble black and white notebook and a very small 3 ring binder. The notebook is good for taking notes and jotting things down such as offsets and/or hex code when you are testing something. My notebook essentially acts as scrap paper. In the past I have used real scrap paper but that gets lost easily and its unorganized. Every so often, I'll go through this notebook and circle any useful info I've jotted down and type it up into a word document and print it out. This is where the 3 ring binder comes in. This absolutely goes without saying but I'll say it anyway since its the most important thing. MAKE BACKUPS AND MAKE THEM OFTEN. A good rule of thumb is to have an ISO and a backup ISO and alternate saving between them. Example: you change something, then save it to your ISO file. Once you test it and verify that it works and the game doesn't crash, save your next changes to the backup ISO and so on. I strongly suggest backups if you don't want to see all your hard work go down the drain. Once again, this is CRUCIAL. This site is an excellent resource and has a lot of good info under the file editing section. By all means, utilize it, but use it as a guide, not as a crutch. Don't directly copy it without even thinking about what you are doing... use it to help you UNDERSTAND how to do something, then go about it in your own way and apply your own theories. It might lead you to a new find. If you are tired and burned out, TAKE A BREAK. If you are hungry, STOP AND EAT. I've often found that my most productive stretches of hacking occurred right after a break. It also doesn't hurt to take a few days or even a week off. This works both ways as well. If you are finding a lot of things and making a lot of progress, keep at it for as long as you can. Don't give up. If you are trying to figure something out, keep at it and you'll eventually get it. As Evan can attest to, I believe it took us almost 6 months to find out how to change the ice color back in the early days of our hacking. Don't be afraid to question things. At one point back in the early days, where the only thing we knew how to do was change the player names and jersey numbers. If I remember correctly, I was in an AIM chat with Donny and a few other people trying to figure things out and I said "what is all that crap between the player names?" I zeroed them out and it led to the discovery of how to change the player attributes. If you find something new, post it here and let everybody know about it, no matter how small or insignificant it may be. Someone else might already know how to do this and will be able to help you figure out more. Also, someone else might explore it further and It may also lead to a find. If anyone else has anything further to add, feel free to do so.

Do you have a program such as Photoshop which shows you the RGB value of the colors? If so, you can write your own hex codes for your colors which would probably allow you more versatility when creating your colors. Once you obtain an RGB value, do the following: 1. Simply take each RGB value and divide it by 16 and round that up or down to the closest whole number. The way the Genesis reads colors, it will read them as BGR so simply reverse the first and last digits. 2. Take each of those numbers and convert them to Hex (0-9 = face value, 10=A, 11=B, 12=C, 13=D, 14=E, 15=F) 3. Place a zero in front of those and that is your new color code.

Hello, I am the guy you are referring to that made NHL 94: 10th Anniversary Edition. Sorry for the very delayed response, but I just came across your post now. I will be more than happy to send you the ROM if you haven't already found it.

Well with the excitement of the new NHL season coming up, I've been thinking about making a new version (more for the amusement of my friends than anything else). Anyway, I remember a long time ago, SWOS tried explaining to me how to do the new style goalie crease, which I was having difficulty with because manipulating the tile mirroring was something that I had a hard time mastering to the point of making a good crease. Anyway, I'm obviously looking to do this so would anyone be kind enough to give me some pointers or procedures? Specifically which tiles to mirror and whatnot. Also, now that the NHL is putting restrictions on goalies playing the puck, would anyone have any idea as to how to make the trapezoid areas behind the nets which will be appearing on NHL ice this season? Sorry guys but I'm really rusty at this...its been quite a few years

Been through quite a lot in the past year...my life has drastically changed for the better. I have completely different priorities right now and the internet plays MUCH less of a role in my "new" life. I must say that I am extremely impressed with the advances that have been made in editing the game. I understand that someone is working on an editor...damn I remember long sleepless nights fiddling with every little aspect of the hex codes trying to figure out which is now the most basic stuff such as changing the player ratings...the idea of this being done easily through an editor just blows my mind and it makes me wonder if this would even be possible without all those countless hours put in by myself, Ben, Evan and Mack and others. It truly is amazing how far everyone's efforts have gone. Geez, I remember this whole thing started with me, Donny and Ben in a chat room knowing very little about what the hell a hex editor was as we were discussing the possibility of editing the players names having no idea at the time how far this thing could have actually gone. I remember for the longest time how we couldn't even figure out how to change the ice color. I plan on thoroughly browsing this site and try to learn as much as I can about any new advances that have been made in editing the game because this is one hell of a hobby. By the way, has anyone figured out how to hack the SNES version of NHL 95? In my opinion, that was the poorest game of the series and I would look forward to editing that game because trying to make that game good would be a great challenge that I would enjoy taking on.

haha that reminds me of the time you complained about the white ice in my version so I "fixed" the problem by making the ice a hideous shade of pink, then in retaliation, you made a version with a HUGE puck...that was some funny stuff

Whats up everyone? Long time no talk...