Brutus

Hoping to be done very soon, as holidays & traveling plans are around to corner. Aqua vs Atomic is scheduled today or tomorrow. Mom hoping to find Zep Saturday night. waiting on word from skip/flatcrusher.

Thanks Skip

RD 1 NYI @ Winn Tor @ Chi Minn @ TB Best of 7, 2-2-1-1-1 format. Good luck to those in Rd 1. Round 2 features the winners of these rounds vs Quebec, Hartford & Dallas. LA @ Ham is also Round 2, and can be played now if you two buds want to go at it!

HIGHER SEED IS HOME FOR ALL SERIES, NO RE-SEEDING

Ok, its PLAYOFF time. 11 teams have played enough games to qualify. So, that's an odd number, but I've got something interesting to make it work for all who qualified. Here are the teams in terms of seeding, but we will NOT re-seed. I'll draw up a tourney sheet and this way, if both sides finish their previous brackets, no need to wait for all games in that round to finish. #1 Dallas - Tex #2 Hartford - Zep #3 Quebec - Skip #4 Hamilton - Atomic #5 LA - Aqua #6 Winnipeg - Flatcrusher #7 Chicago - Brutus #8 TB - J&J #9 Minnesota - MikeGartner #10 Toronto - Jer #11 NYI - Spaceghost Bottom teams will have a play-in style round, top teams get bye in round 1. Single elimination, Best of 7 all rounds. I'll post pic shortly of hand drawn tourney. We will need a PLAYOFF version of the ROM and once that's up, games can start today, and I'll email Chaos to get the playoffs on the site. THANKS TO ALL for taking time to do a draft, play your games and enjoy some good old NHL94. As it turned out, not all were able to get their games in, and that's how it goes some seasons. It was a shorter run, and I chose to NOT replace them, as most were top level coaches and no great options to replace on even levels. Again, thanks. Brute

That's an update on the BOY in his mother's womb that started the name, Brutus Khan! LOL, 21 years later.

There are several versions of gamepads. Having tried almost ALL of them, I can tell you my skating/game play has varied greatly depending on which one I was using. This variance shows there exist advantages/disadvantages to WHATEVER you are using to play NHL94. So, I will rate out the joysticks I've used and then keyboard. GENS JOYSTICK Overall, Gens joysticks come with a loose D-pad and low, easy to use buttons. This makes sliding your thumb back and forth between A/B/C extremely easy. My C/B checking and one timers, especially in tight, are MUCH better when I use a Gens Pad because I can get to the button combos fast/easy. My ability to stop on a dime, make certain cuts seem to suffer using a Gens joystick, but I am still able to make some cuts and never feel my angle of passing or rare pass shot I try is "wild" or too difficult to aim, despite the looser Dpad control. While the buttons are "low" (not raised very high on the joystick level), they are also not the most responsive, so I find more "button mashing" on my end when using these. I'd rate the D-pad part of it as "middle", and the buttons as "low & loose". X1 or any similar analog Joystick Skating is dreamy with an analog stick. You almost feel like you are skating in real life, sliding all over the ice, smooth and a lack of pressure that you no longer feel on your formerly aching thumb is amazing. Fluid is how I suddenly describe my game. The buttons are superior to anything on other joystick and might even rival keyboard usage. They are low, but close together and with the modern technology pumped into them, is so easily responsive, you can roll your B/C one timer while not even thinking about it. IF you only played vs other ANALOG joystick users, you'd probably enjoy NHL94 even more. BUT alas, eventually you come across a keyboard user or someone with a really tight D-pad that can stop on dimes and make cuts that the analog joystick just can't keep up with, as a result, your defense performs too low to offset the advantages. I'd rate the D-pad (analog stick) as "loose", and the buttons as "low & tight" SNES generic D-pad, Ibuffalo knockoffs The D-pad comes in the separated directional arrows, and this results in skating the equivalent of keyboard buttons. Up is up, Down is down, left is left & right is right, except its set in perfect spacing and on the left side where your gaming thumb can slide over and control all skating flawlessly. To me, this D-pad setup might even be superior to keyboarders. HOWEVER, a major flaw comes into play on ALL versions, and I've bought them ALL just about. Either the buttons are set in extremely annoying locations, or they are considerably RAISED way HIGHER than any other joystick out there. Additionally, the A/B/C buttons tend to be less responsive on most brands, so 2 things result. One, you can no longer easily do a C/B check or a B/C roll one timer, both now require actually effort on actions that need to be effortless to be effective in a fast paced action game. Two, you end up mashing your buttons way too often, and that tends to wear them out faster. The raised button really does make a surprising impact on your one timer game. I'd rate the D-pad as "tight" and the buttons as "HIGH & loose". Keyboard Setting up with two sets of fingers, instead of one thumb and another set of fingers is polar opposite of what I've done for the past 20 years of video gaming. I have prior experience playing with keyboard, so I am not foreign to doing it, but it's LONG, LONG AGO. I find I'm trying to constantly re-map my instincts and hit the wrong buttons constantly. Similar to the RAISED button problem, in a fast paced, action game, THINKING about what you are trying to hit as a command does not lead to effective video game playing. The directional skating is of course flawless, but skating is definitely less smooth as I need to work much harder to get my players to slide to the left or right. However, the majority of the games most successful skating combos require much more of the stop, crease cut straight left, skate straight backwards, passing shots at exact angles, etc, so I feel keyboard's tight but wonky skating oddly almost works a little better in this game than smooth skating would in say a modern hockey game. I could not imagine trying to keyboard play say Madden 2019. The BUTTONs for A/B/C are now controlled by multiple fingers, and can have instant response of A/B/C in any combo, not requiring a thumb to slide back and forth or "roll" (when I actually HIT the correct button), is superior to anything a joystick can offer. I'd rate the D-pad as "tight but limited" and the buttons as "flawless". SO, to summarize, for those that read my analysis, IF you could give me a D-pad with X1 buttons, I think I'd have the advantage OVER keyboard. Otherwise, I feel keyboard (when mastered at the same level we've mastered our joystick usage over the years), is greater than most controllers. **While there is a D-pad on my X1 joystick, I CANNOT get it to work in conjunction with the buttons, as when I map the D-pad instead of the analog sticks, for some reason, you can no longer skate on angles. Perhaps, one day/night, we could spend time trying to go through this and see if we could solve the mystery!

For those missing guys like: Icestorm, Dcicion, & Chaos, you are probably f&cked. These guys dragging everyone down with them! For those needing Chef, he's at 23 games and normally gets to bed early. For those needing Angryjay, he's GREAT at setting a time to play, but it's normally later. Reach out to him. For those needing me (Brutus), I will be around after 11 pm central, and Sunday/Tuesday for those not able to make the late night. DM me in discord. For those needing Lupz, he's normally good about setting up games as long as they are LATE at night. Zep has been on Discord randomly asking for games. Maybe actually reply to those requests or try to set a fixed time. J&J always been good with scheduling games, so I'd be surprised to not see him finish up here. AGAIN, for those needing BRUTUS, send me a DM via Discord on any night you will be on AFTER 11 pm central, and I will make sure to look for you. OTHERWISE, I'll be reaching out myself to try to get games in Sunday/Tuesday. Stuck working late all week aside from those 2 day/nights.

OK, SEASON ENDS 12/3 at 10 AM central. There will be no extensions. It was slated for 12/1, but as season ending on a Monday morning is tradition on my leagues, I'm setting it for 12/3. ANY GAMES NOT LOADED PRIOR to this time will not count. You need 31 games or MORE to qualify for playoff eligibility. Currently: @corbettkb & @aqualizard & @MikeGartner22 have all 42 games played. Thank you for being great buds. @skip has played 38 games, and only needs his 4 games vs @kylewat @AtomicRaven has 36 games, and only needs @kylewat , @IceStorm70 & @dcicon5148 to finish his season. @flatcrusher is playoff eligible at 36 games, and only needs @chaos @IceStorm70 @dcicon5148 @spaceGhost9 has 31 games and is playoff eligible, needing @IceStorm70 & @dcicon5148 & @chaos & @jackandjose to finish his season. The following coaches are CLOSE to being playoff eligible. @jer_33 sits at 30 games, and needs 1 game to get in. @Lupz27 @angryjay93 @dcicon5148@chaos @chefsuperstar88 currently holding this bud back from playoff contention. @jackandjose is CLOSE at 28 games. He needs 3 more games to get in. @spaceGhost9 @Brutus @IceStorm70 @chaos are all keeping J&J OUT. @Lupz27 is pretty far away but next closest to getting in at 26 games. I've frequently seen BOTH @kylewat & @angryjay93 on discord trying to get games, however they both are still not playoff eligible at 20 & 24 games played, respectively. At this point in the season, it might be best to try to PM each other in the forum, or I will post a SCHEDULE games thread as well. The following coaches are not looking good to qualify & are set for the WALK OF SHAME: @jer_33 30 games played. @jackandjose 28 games played. @Lupz27 26 games played. @Brutus 24 games played. @angryjay93 24 games played. @kylewat 20 games played. @IceStorm7013 games played. @dcicon5148 12 games played. @chaos19 games played. @chefsuperstar88 23 games played.

As with any great breakfast place just about anywhere you go. Seems like once word spreads of a great breakfast, especially on the weekends, and a long wait.

I don't have time to read through all the points and counter points right now, but I'll try to get to them some time this weekend. In leagues where we created an A & B playoff format, even when we were all in the same league/conference, the B coaches LOVED it, it required extra setup and follow up for me, but seemed worth it for them. Anyone who is not strong enough to have a 1 in 100 chance at beating an opponent KNOWS they cannot win on the big stage for sure. Traveling and spending money to just get your brains beat in is NOT as appealing for those who fall into that category of I can't win. I think if you had something like the Round Robin style play-in, with that used to set up A & B tourney finals, would be a little of "best of both" ideas, but that's extra games/extra work for those running it. I do not think that SNES & Gens is even the same game. I think some video games lead more to upsets than others. If playing the new Madden,, I'd probably beat almost about anyone on this site, something like 70-0 (I've backed this up with a few guys). IF you played it long enough, most games would be like 35-7, but at some point and time, EA's built in goofy code allows for the games to have a lot more random things happen. EA owns a patent on this actual game code design to "rig" the game, so it's not some mythical thing. Google that on your own time, but it's out there. My point being, it doesn't seem to exist in Gens as much, so the best players don't lose. In Madden, I see it at the higher levels. In SNES, I felt it was there WAY more than Gens. So, IMO, using "what works in SNES" as an argument doesn't hold water. I know there are guys here who would argue against it but to me, setting up a Gens tourney should be based on what works for a Gens tourney.

Ok, since we are going to 1 minute penalties, we need a new ROM and site set to take uploads on that ROM, no?

So, if we could reset the counter we changed to try to fix TOI for guys in the box, and that fixes the Attack Zone issue, but leaves us 45 second penalty, I'd still prefer that, but again, at this stage, if you guys are done "f-ing with it", and just want it set to 1 minute penalty, that's fine. Let's get whatever is done so we can have the site/ROM fixed heading into Friday night.