NHL 94 for PC?

[naples39]

Hey guys. New to the forum, but have checked the site before and played the updated roms. Let me say it is great to see people so committed to keeping the greatest hockey game ever alive!!

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried "NHL Hockey" for PC, released in 1993. I found it on the net the other day, and have been fooling around with it a bit. It has a horrid mouse interface, apparently no goalie control (as far as I can tell), and extended rosters with more options (4 lines as requested in the edit forum the other day). Besides all that though, the actual gameplay seems to be based on NHL 94, if not identical.

It runs pretty well in DosBox after turning up the CPU cycles, although trying to edit lines makes the game crash in DosBox. My first thought is that this version of the game holds promise as you would think it would be much easier to edit than the genesis hex, but it seems wboy's impending editor will make that moot. (I did look through the game files, and on first glance I didn't see obvious ways to edit the rosters anyways, which is what I care about). Also, I assume you can't do netplay with it, so that's two strikes against it. Strike 3 would be lack of manual goalie, assuming that is the case. Regardless, I was just curious if anyone has ever tried or seen this before. Sorry if this all old news to you guys, just thought it would be worth asking.

Info from Abandonia

Download from bestoldgames.net

EDIT: Okay, I've played it more tonight and done more poking around on the web. Game seems to be kind of it's own thing--going for a sim effect. You set up to four lines and have decide who to dress and scratch, features a full 82 game schedule (includes real NHL schedule from 93), has speech for intros and goals, ref skating around on the ice who always gets in the way....

Anyway, the gameplay is mix of 93 and 94 on the consoles. Pretty sure no manual goalies, and goalies seem to play much more like 93. One-timers are in the game, but come off the stick like a wrister instead of super-slapper. Gameplay is also slower than console versions.

The only bright side is their is an editor out there that makes it extremely easy to change just about everything. Player names, attributes, numbers, default lines, team names, what division they should be in...etc. Guess it's kinda moot though because it is not the same exact gameplay we all treasure. Interesting game to have in the collection though...

[mack]

grab nhl 95 from nhl95.com

lots of addons and an editor for it there. It's everything the previous one was plus more.

[naples39]

grab nhl 95 from nhl95.com

lots of addons and an editor for it there. It's everything the previous one was plus more.

Thanks for the tip. Should've known you guys would've seen this before. All a little dissapointing though because it doesn't have that perfect 94 play. You know if there's manual goalies in this version?

[Aggroman]

NHL Hockey for the PC is probably my favorite all-time game. I agree that the gameplay in NHL 94 is a BIT better, but being able to edit my roster with NHLinfo and keep track of your stats over the season with an EXCELLENT stats generator for the other teams tips the balance.

NHL 95 is not bad either. Sadly, however, the geniuses behind the game were of the school of thought that if you set the game to 5 minute periods, that the sim stats should churn out only 1/4 of the points that should otherwise be earned in the average game. So at the end of the season, your entire team will occupy the top 18 scoring positions with the rest of the league struggling to score 20 goals. A horrible defect and if anyone knows how to fix it I'd love to know.

If you have the version of the game that crashes with DOSbox, I'd be more than happy to send you the one the works...

marshallbeggs@hotmail.com

[naples39]

If you have the version of the game that crashes with DOSbox, I'd be more than happy to send you the one the works...

marshallbeggs@hotmail.com

Yeah, I have the version that crashes when trying to edit lines in DOSbox. Could you email the one that works to captplug@yahoo.com? Thanks!

[bcrt2000]

NHL Hockey for the PC is probably my favorite all-time game.  I agree that the gameplay in NHL 94 is a BIT better, but being able to edit my roster with NHLinfo and keep track of your stats over the season with an EXCELLENT stats generator for the other teams tips the balance.

NHL 95 is not bad either.  Sadly, however, the geniuses behind the game were of the school of thought that if you set the game to 5 minute periods, that the sim stats should churn out only 1/4 of the points that should otherwise be earned in the average game.  So at the end of the season, your entire team will occupy the top 18 scoring positions with the rest of the league struggling to score 20 goals.  A horrible defect and if anyone knows how to fix it I'd love to know.

If you have the version of the game that crashes with DOSbox, I'd be more than happy to send you the one the works...

marshallbeggs@hotmail.com

wow, I can't believe someone put down NHL '95 PC over NHL '94 PC . Everything about '95 was better imo, hi res menus, hi quality digital sound effects and soundtrack, better AI, and the "genesis" silky smooth frame rate ('94's frame rate was like half of '95 on my 486-33SX-- even today with dosbox, running it in dynamic mode with 12000 CPU cycles, '95's frame rate is perfect but '94 still has a bit of chop).

I also preferred '95 PC over all of the console versions (92-94, I never really played 95-98 console versions because the PC ones were getting better every year and the console versions were going backwards in some aspects); in the console versions I almost never lost a game unless I was playing with the worst team against the best team. In '95 PC if I'm playing a team with a good goalie (BUF), or a team with good defense (VAN) its not easy to go in and try money goals, either the D will knock you off the puck, intercept any one timers, or the goalie will be able to make a great save. At one time I even boosted the goalie and other roster attributes to make the game tougher using NHLInfo, and I found I had a really hard time winning with those rosters. The PC versions were also the first to have a full league mode which was great, especially when you are growing up with friends and family who are big hockey fans and video gamers, we played the heck out of '95, up till the '98-99 expansion. The PC versions let you roll 4 lines, and the gameplay in general was a bit more sim style, the pace of the game was a bit slower than '94 Genesis/Sega CD, and the goalies had a few more desperation saves that they'd use.

I guess theres one thing you could say that '95 didn't have which the Sega CD version had was digital music, although if you play '95 on dosbox with ULTRASOUND enabled, it comes pretty darn close.

The other thing is that sticks out like a sore thumb is that to date we can't play NHL '95 PC online. Its a shame no one has attempted to develop Kaillera for dosbox; hopefully it comes eventually (Although i'm not sure how much lag would be incurred by synchronizing loading files on either side, and having to synch keyboard input & controller input at the same time). The same goes for the Sega CD version-- hopefully the Gens author eventually gets around to this.

On a related note: There was actually a discussion here about trying to get games without netplay support to be played online here: http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?...hlight=kaillera

I was just wondering if anyone has used UltraVNC before and think it can pull off that kind of frame rate.

[wboy]

I was just wondering if anyone has used UltraVNC before and think it can pull off that kind of frame rate.

Sending screen data (VNC like) versus keyframe data (Kaillera), is a lot more intense. While it would work okay on an internal LAN, I wouldn't give it much hope over the net with a 40ms ping between the two players.

I personally haven't yet tried UltraVNC, as I didn't know if it. Of all the VNC's I've tried for work based situations, nothing beats Remote Desktop (XP native). The next best product is Remote Administrator though it is not free, and as good as it is, trust me it could not do what you're asking acceptability. Games thru VNC software have too many complex updates to often to work.

[bcrt2000]

Sending screen data (VNC like) versus keyframe data (Kaillera),  is a lot more intense.  While it would work okay on an internal LAN, I wouldn't give it much hope over the net with a 40ms ping between the two players.

I personally haven't yet tried UltraVNC, as I didn't know if it.  Of all the VNC's I've tried for work based situations, nothing beats Remote Desktop (XP native).  The next best product is Remote Administrator though it is not free, and as good as it is, trust me it could not do what you're asking acceptability.  Games thru VNC software have too many complex updates to often to work.

Thats what i figured too, but aparently ultravnc has some sort of fast video hook driver. I figured it would be worth a shot in asking anyways.

Have you ever taken a look at the kaillera sdk by the way? I can't find the last version that was made (aparently 0.9) but it looks a little too simple to be able to synch the loading of files. I guess you could preload all files into memory beforehand, it doesn't look like its flexible enough to allow for the synching of loading files on each machine. I know that emulators have been made using kaillera which emulate PCs (Amiga, C64).

[don16086]

I think most guys here would play NHL 95 (aka NHL 94) for PC but there is no manual goalie. As we all know, the goalie AI is less than perfect so manual goalie is the only way to go.

[bcrt2000]

I think most guys here would play NHL 95 (aka NHL 94) for PC but there is no manual goalie.  As we all know, the goalie AI is less than perfect so manual goalie is the only way to go.

I see your point I guess. I just found that the console versions were a little shallow compared to the PC version due to no season mode. And overall the AI was still tougher in the PC version. I haven't really tried roster editing or anything, I've been sniffing around the boards and sounds as though there will be an editor released soon though, so maybe if certain values are boosted for goalies/defensemen it will make the console versions a bit tougher

[wboy]

Thats what i figured too, but aparently ultravnc has some sort of fast video hook driver. I figured it would be worth a shot in asking anyways.

Have you ever taken a look at the kaillera sdk by the way? I can't find the last version that was made (aparently 0.9) but it looks a little too simple to be able to synch the loading of files. I guess you could preload all files into memory beforehand, it doesn't look like its flexible enough to allow for the synching of loading files on each machine. I know that emulators have been made using kaillera which emulate PCs (Amiga, C64).

I'll check UltraVNC out soon... looks like an interesting development... though I still would hold much hope for it in the scenario you're after.

As for kaillera, no, never have looked at it. You're better of now focusing on EmuLinker now anyway... kaillera compatible, and still being developed on!

Re: Loading the files, yeah, I don't see it working. The ROM is an loaded as a complete image in RAM, so the unless you could load a dosbox save state or something as an alternative, I don't think you'll have much luck making it work (not to say that would work either, as it would reference the harddrive again to load file at some point later game)... but then again, I dont the the complete ins and outs of kaillera, so who knows...? well, the dude developing emulinker might

[bcrt2000]

I'll check UltraVNC out soon... looks like an interesting development... though I still would hold much hope for it in the scenario you're after.

As for kaillera, no, never have looked at it.  You're better of now focusing on EmuLinker now anyway... kaillera compatible, and still being developed on!

Re: Loading the files, yeah, I don't see it working.  The ROM is an loaded as a complete image in RAM, so the unless you could load a dosbox save state or something as an alternative, I don't think you'll have much luck making it work (not to say that would work either, as it would reference the harddrive again to load file at some point later game)... but then again, I dont the the complete ins and outs of kaillera, so who knows...? well,  the dude developing emulinker might

I was reading up about emulinker and the thing that made me cringe is that it is coded in java. Now, I love java to death because theres no fuss in setting up stuff to compile and no pointers and other garbage that I hate, but its relatively slow compared to C/C++. I wonder if Java is still fast enough to handle something like this though.

[bcrt2000]

Re: Loading the files, yeah, I don't see it working.  The ROM is an loaded as a complete image in RAM, so the unless you could load a dosbox save state or something as an alternative, I don't think you'll have much luck making it work (not to say that would work either, as it would reference the harddrive again to load file at some point later game)... but then again, I dont the the complete ins and outs of kaillera, so who knows...? well,  the dude developing emulinker might

Hey, have you ever heard of CyberPad? It supposedly allows you to play PSX games online using PSemu Pro/EPSXE compatible emulators, with absolutely no synching problems, which means there must be a way to do Sega CD & Dosbox. I'll try to contact the authors if they can give me any insight on how it was achieved. I also learned that kaillera is used to some extent in cyberpad.

[wboy]

Well I'm sure the author of emulinker assessed that Java would be enough for the job. Time will tell I guess. Still haven't got around to testing it. Tried connecting to his test server then, but my ping is too high from downunderland.

re: cyberpad. I messed with the first release some time ago... I guess such support for CD loading etc have give you some hope with dosbox! interesting what you say about cyberpad/kaillera.... considering the code was never officially release even after all the requests.

Also, isn't cyberpad p2p like, and not a sync server design like kaillera? unless things changed (or I have a real bad memory).

[-Jap]

If you have the version of the game that crashes with DOSbox, I'd be more than happy to send you the one the works...

marshallbeggs@hotmail.com

Yeah, I have the version that crashes when trying to edit lines in DOSbox. Could you email the one that works to captplug@yahoo.com? Thanks!

Hellou you all NHL Hockey games fanatics As you can see I am newbie here. EA NHL hockey 93 was my favourite game in my teenage days and now I have found it again, it is still so lovely!

The problem I am having is the same as Naples39 has written in above. So I have been desperately seeking the version that wouldn't crash when trying to edit lines and looking statistics. I play this game via DOSbox. I would be very happy if someone from here could email me (jarkkosihvola@gmail.com) the working version or tell me where could I download it from internet??

Thanks..