Ken

playing good defense also cuts down on breakaways. breakaways can also be largely neautralized with good manual goalie play. anywho, it's not b/c a lack of offside rule that causes 13-1 games, it's good players playing bad players that cause 13-1 games. in fact, if there is a rule/setting that lets good players gain an advantage over mediocre players, I'm all for it.

that is also an interesting idea...as long as we outlaw CHI

Tick, The original game didn't have a lot of stuff that is standard in video games now. This is for a variety of reasons. I think that if you can take some really cool stuff from todays games, and blend them into the 94 that we all love, you're only making the game better. An example: say this community eventually grows to the point where there are 30 or so dedicated, good players. There are going to be some players stuck w/ the Oilers and Islanders of the world, or even worse Ottawa/San Jose. No matter how good these guys are, they will be at a tremendous disadvantage to any good player with a "top-tier" team. If you and I are equally skilled, and I'm Montreal and you're Anaheim, I'm going to beat you 8 or 9 times out of 10. The draft - in theory - goes a long way towards eliminating these problems, and you should end up with much more balance. And if some people end up with 'better' teams than others, it's b/c they drafted better than everybody else and/or picked players that better suited their style of play. I don't see anything wrong with this, and in fact is a major improvement over the "luck of the draw" draft, or the "first come first serve" draft. I agree that you need a set of dedicated players to make this work. Also, it's not really a problem if you only have 10-12 teams, b/c then most people get a good team. As far as the time requirement goes, it's not that big a deal - similar to a fantasy football draft. The draft only takes a few hours, and can be scheduled a month or so in advance so everyone is free. Beforehand, the league puts together a ranked list of all the players (the ranking only needs to be approximate, and nobody even needs to agree on it) if a guy misses his turn or the whole draft, he is just automatically given the next player on the list. this way, even guys who miss the draft get a decent team, and the thing moves along at good speed

Bosto also has the best set (no line changes) of defenseman in the league. Bourque and Sweeney are awesome.

Hi Evan, I'm just posting the email I sent to you earlier, so others can see. This is a suggestion for future seasons: "I'’ve been reading about editing the game through NOSE, and a thought occurred to me - have you guys ever thought of doing a draft NHL 94 league? Allowing people to create their own teams would eliminate the inherent advantages some guys get from having better teams, and allow for a new ‘fun factor’. If you make the league rules “non-line changing”, then each team really only needs 1 Goalie, 3 or 4 defenseman, and 5 or 6 forwards. This 9-12 round draft would be reasonable to run & make the ROM reasonably easy to create - I think?"

it's how good all 6 Blackhhawks are. Roenick is the best overall player in the game, Belfour the best goalie, Chelios a top top defensemen, Larmer is a great wing, Ruutu are a great "3rd" forward, and Smith a great "2nd" defenseman. Roenick alone doesn't make them the best, but he sure hlps. with line changes on, their dominance decreases, and teams like Montreal and Calgary can put up better 2nd lines..

I think CHI is the only team head and shoulders above the others

until recently, I didn't realize this was a problem..time to rethink my strategies this is true, but isn't is also true that having to manage special units (pk, pp) makes it that much harder to keep your key guys fresh? you are more familiar with this than I am, so you're probably right. of all the options, this is prolly my least favorite. partly b/c the long "touchdown" pass has been part of my attack for years, since I never played w/ offsides. also b/c - as I mentioned before - offsides slows the game down, and I like keeping the tempo fast

what else factors into it? I'm trying to think of stats that would favor Sweeney over Bourque...can't think of any off hand. aggresiveness?

I think line changes do add a small strategic element - but I think that anybody who is a decent player, or anybody who can look at an energy meter and realize it's getting low - can incorporate a good line change strategy pretty quickly. Basically, I think it's very hard to "out line-change" your opponent if you are playing w/o penalties, and still difficult to do if you are playing w/ penalties. If this is true, then all line changes ultimately due is slow the game down w/ lesser players. I agree that there is something interesting about setting the optimal lines for a given team/opponent, but again, I'd rather just have my best players out there flying around scoring goals. So there are pro's and con's w/ each system, I just prefer the advantages/gameplay that come with playing with your "best 5". I'm new to line changes, so take this with a grain of salt.

It's kind of hard for new guys to get into playing NHL94 online. (I know, b/c I am new!). There are questions about emulators, controllers, Kaillera, and maybe most important, getting in touch with other players. I think it could be a good idea to add a "sticky" post to this forum with the AIM addresses of anyone who doesn't mind getting IM'ed to play a game. There are AIM lists scattered around different league sites, but having a master list of AIM addresses in a sticky/pinner post up on this site could be handy for new players getting started. Anywho, does anyone agree?

I "grew up" playing without them. For the most part, I agree with you. Penalties slow down the game (making it less fun), they add a mostly random factor to the game (hurting the better players), and they take away from the game in the same way that line changes do (by taking the best players off the ice). I like playing w/o line changes, w/o penalties, and w/o offsides, b/c that is the fastest game around, and it keep all the best players on the ice. Basically, it's the most fun. I can see why other guys like the strategic elements of line changes/penalty killing - but in reality these things aren't that hard to get used to, and all it really accomplishes is slowing the game down.

hey there, you can find the AIM names of a bunch of us at this site: http://www.nhl94.com/nhl94cup/ (I hope people don't mind me linking there). also, the Spring league is starting soon, you should sign up!

I've always suspected that something was a bit off in regards to the checking ability of these 2 defenseman. IMO, Sweeney is the most devasting body checker in the league - he'll take out basically anybody at will. Bourque is very good at body checking, but not as good as Sweeney. Yet, Bourque has a much higher checking rating. Is it possible that the original game programmers 'reversed' the checking ratings of these 2 guys?

I'm ok w/ computers - although this may be hard to believe from this post when I try to use netplay, I get an "error requesting servers list" I don't have norton turned on, but I do have AVG and Zone Alarm. but I don't think these had any affect, since Zone Alarm will always give me a "xxx program is trying to connect to the interent, do you want to allow it" message. what is the username box on the Netplay screen for? do I need a Kaillera password? re: the controller, it does work fine in the Control Panel test. so, how do I configure this in Gens? thanks!

Hi, I downloaded the emulator and ROM's, and this works fine with keyboard control. Now, I need to learn how to play online vs you guys. I click on "netplay" in the ROM, but that didn't work., I went to #nhl94 in mirc, but nobody was there. anyone help? also, I bought a USB converter foir a genesis converter, but that doesn't work out all on ym pc. my usb port recognized, but the controller is unresponsive during gameplay. anyone help out? tx

Hi there! New member here. I grew up on Genesis 94, and would love to play with you guys, especially in leagues. Looking forward to it, Makewayhomer