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I'm making a NHL '94 Documentary


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Hey Guys,

I’m in the process of laying the ground work for a full feature length Documentary on NHL ’94. I'm calling it Pixelated Heroes. I want to cover as many aspects as possible. I'm the guy that made the NHL '94 quiz that was posted on this forum last month. Those questions and a lot more are the kind of things I'm looking at covering. My vision is basically a travel doc in search of Mark Lesser and a show down with Jeremy Roenick.
I probably don’t have to explain why this would be awesome project to you guys... but to the people that fund and produce projects like this, they have to be convinced. So i’m working hard to make sure my pitch is air tight. They have to have a good mental picture of what a documentary will look like before they put money into it.
By now you are asking yourselves who is writing this… My Name is Mikey McBryan and I’m from a little town in the Northwest Territories (Northern Canada) called Hay River. I grew up like all of you loving this game! I’m a Genesis guy and still to this day, I play at least twice a week with my buddies and drink beer. What puts me in a position to make a documentary?? The last 7 years I have worked behind the scenes and stared in the Television show "Ice Pilots NWT", I wrote and consulted on the CBC show "Arctic Air" for 3 years and last season was the Executive Producer on Wild TV’s "Fur Harvesters NWT”. Now that I’m done with those projects I’m working on a few more. My pet project is to make this Documentary on NHL’94.
For the last year I have been collecting information and hashing out a plan. NHL94.com has been a huge resource for me. I didn’t want to mention this earlier because my plan wasn’t fully layed out. I still have some holes in the project that I’m hoping this NHL94.com forum can help me out with. As a thank you to this community I’ll have a special "NHL ’94 Expert Consulting" credits for the guys that help contribute to the project. I'm also looking for a main Consultant that can be apart of the creative process. I will also will be looking for on camera personalities to interview and I’m hoping to maybe to host a live tournament in the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. I know that this a lot to digest and i’ll have a lot more posts as I need help fact checking and getting more info, but for know the big question I have to you is…
WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE IN A DOCUMENTARY ABOUT NHL ’94????
I’m Starting the Social media on the doc and you can follow along.

Website www.PixelatedHeroes.net

FB www.facebook.com/pixelatedheroes

Twitter @PixelatedHeroes

Instagram @PixelatedHeroes

post-8301-0-99677200-1419700080_thumb.jp

Edited by McMikey
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SNES!

great project concept, duder. if I can be of any help from far away, I would love to participate. I'm not sure what I'd offer, but -- with or without weed, whites and wine -- I'm willin'. here's an idea: have yourself or your hero character play against as many of the guys that were "in the game" as possible, offering a prize to the first to beat you. you'd probably pick and stick with a good team that's not elite, leaving each opponent able to choose Captain Roenick. not sure what the prize would be, but something cool enough that rich dudes would appreciate it. maybe a 3d statue of their player from the game or something like that. I'd love to be a consultant in any way that works for you.

holler.

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2v2 should definitely get a mention. 2on2 is the brainchild of clockwise (jesusplaysnhl94), it is a edited rom that features only the center, one winger and the goalie. 4 people will join the game so there isnt any computer controlled skaters and the games can be crazy. its the most fun you can have without breaking the law. we have a small but intensely dedicated group of people who play religiously.

what we've done here since the birth of nhl94.com truly has breathed a whole new life into the game. if it wasnt for this community, 94 would still be in the dark ages. so many advancements have been made that it would be too time consuming to list them all but just a few are: the ability to extract stats from a save file and instantly upload those to a database for stat keeping and leagues, the ability to edit the game in almost every way possible and of course 2on2.

aside from what we do here what id really like to see is more information on the development 94 back in the day, maybe some interviews of mark lesser or anybody with inside knowledge that was part of the development team back then.

oh and also one question you may want to tackle is how come NHL 95?? that game is terrible.

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You can check out Pixelpuck.com. Current roster updates I've created are hosted there.

-- it's game 6 of the 1991 Stanley Cup FInals re-created with NHL94. Maybe you'll find it usefull.

Gold luck to you, and yes, NHL94 2on2 is distilled greatness. People who don't play with 4 players and two skaters per team would never understand how much fun it is when things get crazy, and they always do.

EDIT: be sure to check out the 'editing the game' section so you can see all of the ways that we can mod the game, now.

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Sounds like a great documentary.

Chasing down Mark Lesser and this long running legend of a game and of course, JR himself, who is always looking for some more camera time these days.

He was on the radio here in Chicago one day during an interview and actually tried to steer it towards a pyramid scheme to get people to join, so ANY camera action you can get JR in on, I'm CERTAIN would be gold. You probably gotta read his book to have enough points of interest to keep his attention on the initial phone call to get him to do anything more!!

But yeah, this is a quite a diverse community here, as you probably know if you've followed it this long. You'll have to disseminate on your own the advice we have for what will be useful to you.

I'd pay to see some of these clowns being interviewed alone, with or without a cool documentary to watch :)

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I love this game so much I would do just about anything to be interviewed or have a cameo or some mention in a documentary about it!

Let me know if I can help out in any way. I would love to give some perspective from the SNES side of things about how much this game means to me.

I also think a kickstarted could be a good idea.

I would also most definitely be in for a live tournament in Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

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A LIVE event is what we need.

Canada would be great.

Chicago is a nice central location and we know a bar who already has some interest.

I live near Lake Tahoe and that might be a good location where I have some contacts.

Anywhere we just need to do it.

Plan now.

Have it around the time Playoffs start in April.

I would be happy to help plan such an event

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A LIVE event is what we need.

Canada would be great.

Chicago is a nice central location and we know a bar who already has some interest.

I live near Lake Tahoe and that might be a good location where I have some contacts.

Anywhere we just need to do it.

Plan now.

Have it around the time Playoffs start in April.

I would be happy to help plan such an event

WOW! Thanks guys for the awesome response! I'll look into this 2on2 mod, it sounds like a perfect subject. I'm buddies with the guys that run the Hockey Hall of fame. But Chicago would be a sweet location. If i where to find sponsors and got some prize money available how many people for this forum would be able to make a Toronto or Chicago event????

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I love this game so much I would do just about anything to be interviewed or have a cameo or some mention in a documentary about it!

Let me know if I can help out in any way. I would love to give some perspective from the SNES side of things about how much this game means to me.

I also think a kickstarted could be a good idea.

I would also most definitely be in for a live tournament in Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

I have the SNES version and I also play it. But you are right there needs to be a voice for the SNES... Some rivalry (which I know is there) would be great to catch on film. One of the things I'll be looking for is a simplified list of the differences. I bet this forum has a past post on it. But it would be great to film to die hards (including a '92 or '93 guy) to go face to face and debate.

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Interview hokkee, hes our version of Mario Lemieux what with all the retirements and comebacks and such.

getting a hold of Evan would also be a key guy to get a hold of. He created the site. Guys like chaos, halifax, kingraph, smozoma, and icestorm have contributed so much over the years that would be great sources as well in terms of things they have done and their collective knowledge of the online history of nhl 94.

If youre interested in players, I would look towards carse and freydey in terms of success over the years. Backhandfloater for his style of play, EricAnthony for his quick ascension to the top of the pile many years ago. Habs and vocally caged have been around since the dawn of time. Kgman is always great for a quote and swos is the best of the Finnish bunch in my opinion if youd like a non north american voice. I'd also be willing to contribute myself if needed.

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Interview hokkee, hes our version of Mario Lemieux what with all the retirements and comebacks and such.

getting a hold of Evan would also be a key guy to get a hold of. He created the site. Guys like chaos, halifax, kingraph, smozoma, and icestorm have contributed so much over the years that would be great sources as well in terms of things they have done and their collective knowledge of the online history of nhl 94.

If youre interested in players, I would look towards carse and freydey in terms of success over the years. Backhandfloater for his style of play, EricAnthony for his quick ascension to the top of the pile many years ago. Habs and vocally caged have been around since the dawn of time. Kgman is always great for a quote and swos is the best of the Finnish bunch in my opinion if youd like a non north american voice. I'd also be willing to contribute myself if needed.

A non-North American voice would be great. Of course Evan the Creator would be key. Filming someone playing overseas against some one here in NA would be bad ass and would show how reaching the game goes!

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I would be there as long as we have a couple months lead time.

I am also your 92-93 guy.

Perfect! I played '92 when hit 1st came out and it was my 1st real hockey game (Blades of Steel is awesome, but there was lots of room for improvement)

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You can check out Pixelpuck.com. Current roster updates I've created are hosted there.

-- it's game 6 of the 1991 Stanley Cup FInals re-created with NHL94. Maybe you'll find it usefull.

Gold luck to you, and yes, NHL94 2on2 is distilled greatness. People who don't play with 4 players and two skaters per team would never understand how much fun it is when things get crazy, and they always do.

EDIT: be sure to check out the 'editing the game' section so you can see all of the ways that we can mod the game, now.

I watched your video bud, it was awesome! How the hell did you do that??? I love Mario's GF in the stands, but the best is "Look at Mario's face!"

Edited by McMikey
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Sounds like a great documentary.

Chasing down Mark Lesser and this long running legend of a game and of course, JR himself, who is always looking for some more camera time these days.

He was on the radio here in Chicago one day during an interview and actually tried to steer it towards a pyramid scheme to get people to join, so ANY camera action you can get JR in on, I'm CERTAIN would be gold. You probably gotta read his book to have enough points of interest to keep his attention on the initial phone call to get him to do anything more!!

But yeah, this is a quite a diverse community here, as you probably know if you've followed it this long. You'll have to disseminate on your own the advice we have for what will be useful to you.

I'd pay to see some of these clowns being interviewed alone, with or without a cool documentary to watch :)

Good tip on the JR's book. ill pick it up for a read!

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Great project.
Perhaps you can entice EA to release the source code for NHL94 for the Genesis?
I'm sure the brilliant hackers here, can actually fix problems in the game(like the offside one timer goal), and make complete customization possible(such as adding a 4 on 4 overtime period, followed by Shootout). Wishful thinking? probably, but life is too short, and why not go for something that will make so many people happy?

As far as a prize, I think this would be great:

http://www.stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-md-deluxe.html

It would allow custom ROMS to be played on orginal Genesis hardware.

Edited by NHL94PC
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Great project.

Perhaps you can entice EA to release the source code for NHL94 for the Genesis?

I'm sure the brilliant hackers here, can actually fix problems in the game(like the offside one timer goal), and make complete customization possible(such as adding a 4 on 4 overtime period, followed by Shootout). Wishful thinking? probably, but life is too short, and why not go for something that will make so many people happy?

As far as a prize, I think this would be great:

http://www.stoneagegamer.com/everdrive-md-deluxe.html

It would allow custom ROMS to be played on orginal Genesis hardware.

Get Idea about the source code! I will look into that. The only problem I could see would not being able to use any NHL or NHLPA legal stuff. But a custom game (Generic teams and names like Blades of Steel) from the source code would be possible and made to play on next gen systems to be played online through their network. I have one of those Mega drives on order right now to check them out!

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Yoooooooo

Mcmikey you are the man! This is very exciting. A Toronto tournament is perfect, I'd definitely be there (and I promise to win hehe). E-sports documentaries are becoming huge, this is a wonderful idea. I understand that this is about nhl 94 and not specifically nhl94.com, but it's close enough to call it E-sports imo

Best of luck man and I'd love to talk if you're looking for some interviews or something :)

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Get Idea about the source code! I will look into that. The only problem I could see would not being able to use any NHL or NHLPA legal stuff. But a custom game (Generic teams and names like Blades of Steel) from the source code would be possible and made to play on next gen systems to be played online through their network. I have one of those Mega drives on order right now to check them out!

I'd be a bit hesitant about bringing the attention of this site to EA. I would hate for us to get a Cease and Desist letter due to sharing the roms. They are probably aware of the site, but it might be better to play it safe. Releasing source code would probably get lawyers involved, who might be more strict about this sort of thing.

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Awesome! Good luck Mikey, I really hope your project pans out as we all love NHL'94 and a documentary would be great to see.

I remember reading that Mark Lesser wasn't the man responsible for creating the game engine, but Michael Knox? From a documentary perspective, I'd love to see the story of the NHL'94 progression from NHL'92 to NHLPA to '94, etc. I always liked this post - clicky - because in a succinct way EZE captured that time in the '90's and explained why '94 blew everyone away.

Obviously I'd love to see some mention of this community and how we continue to play '94 leagues 20+ years later with participants from US, Canada, Finland, Sweden, Mexico, France and more! Evan MUST be included, as he's the godfather of this community, lol.

Happy to provide any answers and/or input to questions you may have regarding the game, both GENS and SNES, as I've pretty much digested everything for the last few years. And I'm also the "world record holder" to your question #4 on your quiz :P. Feel free to e-mail me at kingraph@nhl94.com

I guess if I think of things, I'll just post here.

Oh, maybe touch base with Blake Harris, the author of Console Wars, who mentioned to me on Twitter a while back that he was writing a piece on '94. It's probably not a documentary, and I'm not sure how in depth he's going, but given the contacts he must have made writing that book (which is great, btw), he may be a valuable resource to you.

I keep thinking of things as I type...I'll stop for now.

Oh, and I'll do my best to make it to a live tourney in Toronto....if for anything just to beat TomKabs. :lol:

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Man this is brilliant. There is so much to mention. Clockwise & his nhl2014 mod with updated graphics, players & stats is a true masterpiece. That's no exageration. It's art. Has to be in. I actually ran a 2011 league with his first version of the mod.

The draft leagues in the community where players draft their own team from the original 94 players add a whole new dimension. My personal favourite of all the leagues is Blitz, invented by Smozoma with the "weight bug fix". Not sure if you've heard about the weight bug fix in Gens but you've probably noticed that great heavy players like Lemieux & Lindros are pants in the Gens version.............well Smozoma fixed that & the result is the most amazing league where those guys are as good as they should be.

Evan & Halifax have to be consultants as the founder of the community & the guy who runs it now respectively. I also think you need to speak to both Plabax & KingRaph. Plabax, in my opinion is the best 94 player there has ever been, having advanced the style of play but also discovering new little things in the game such as the CB check..................Thing is he's a young kid who seems to have some serious mental issues. lol. Guy is possibly the most irritating & difficult member to deal with, thus his current banned status from these forums haha. He has a real rivalry with KingRaph who has improved his game no end over the years through pure dedication to learning & mastering each & every skill, King is a moderator here in the community & has banned Plabax from at least 2 leagues which King has then subsequently gone on to win. It's a relationship reminisent of the guys in that Donkey Kong documentary & personally I think it would make a great angle for your documentary.

That aside I don't think I have too much to offer. I'm an average GENS player who has got to a couple of B league finals, nothing more. My angle is that i'm an Englishman who grew up playing this game with friends like everyone else here. I now live in Mexico. I guess it kinda shows how this game spanned nations & even touched cultures not immersed in hockey. I only know who guys like Roenick, Lindros, Yzerman, Cicarrelli & Neely etc are because of this game. Most I don't even know what they look like (I had no idea it was Neely in Dumb & Dumber) I just know they were in this game!

Edited by LA Robbie
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@ NHL94 PC: Giant, monolithic, multi-billion dollar, publicly traded companies don't do things out of altruism. If you knew

, and followed their recent history, you'd be acutely aware that this is not the EA that Trip Hawkins founded.

They had an real opportunity to do something special for the 20th Anniversary, but couldn't have cared less.

The source code to the game is probably worth seven figures because of it's instant name recognition, and is one of the few sports titles that has transcended sports fandom -- look at how many people love the game who know absolutely nothing about hockey.

It will never, ever happen.

@Skeletor: They have been aware of the site and it's happenings for years. We are harmless in their eyes. However, and it's a big however, if the game were to ever be released again, the team that is in charge of spearheading a digital marketing campaign would not be happy to find Evan's site as the first search result for the game on Google. That much I can assure you. I don't know if that would spell trouble for the community or not, but I think that Evan would probably hear from them.

@Kingraph Knox created the original game engine (EA / NHL Hockey & NHLPA93) along with Troy London, and the original John Madden Football, under Park Place Productions. Jim Simmonds joined the team for NHLPA'93. They didn't predict that the games would be released on a yearly basis and lost out on a fortune. Knox passed of colon cancer several years ago, and London was working on the 'Left Behind' series of games last time I checked.

Lesser was brought on as the lead programmer for NHL'94, but didn't have a hand in creating the original game engine. I wrote him a letter many years ago and he emailed Evan and thanked him for the memories. He did sign up on the forum, but he has never posted.

Mark gets a lot of credit, but his company is also responsible for the disaster that was NHL'95 -- I'm pretty sure that game engine they created was meant to last for a few years, instead of just one game.

We'd all be remiss if Wboy isn't mentioned in some way. I haven't contacted him in a very long time, but he's the reason why all of the leagues with custom rosters, and updated visuals are possible. He's also from Australia, so, I doubt you'd be able to meet him, but he belongs on the Mount Rushmore of this site and it's community.

His NOSE (NHL, Old School Editor) made it easy to edit and create players, teams, uniforms, and much, much more. In addition, he decompressed the visuals in the original game so that we could edit everything from the main screens, to ice logos, menu logos, team banners and player cards.

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King is a moderator here in the community & has banned Plabax from at least 2 leagues which King has then subsequently gone on to win. It's a relationship reminisent of the guys in that Donkey Kong documentary & personally I think it would make a great angle for your documentary.

This is completely wrong, lol.

First, "I" didn't ban Plabax from the forums or the Classic league. Banning Plabax from the forums was a decision the moderators made. For Classic, Halifax, Chaos and myself made the decision. The only other league was Blitz, which Plabax quit.

Though he may dislike me, I have no rivalry with Plabax. I just happen to be the more vocal admin on the forums and hence he focuses his nonsense towards me.

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Wow getting some more awesome information guys! I have been in contact with a couple of you through email and the help has been amazing!

I don't want to give to much about the Documentary away on the forum but i'm inviting 1 or 2 of you guys to become part of the research team and become more involved. I'm spending most of my time on the Finance and Pre-Production side and I need the most help on the Historical and making contact with the key people that are the original game markers (NHL Players, Current EA sports and pop culture personalities are already been taken care of). They are possible roles in the film and backend deals If the researchers are Successful. My email is MikeyMcBryan@Gmail.com send me an email if you are interested and I can explain your role and project more in-depth.

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Very cool idea! I think a Tourney is a great idea to film as well. My childhood friends and I do a tourney every year (but with NHL 95). And now in our mid 30's its the only time we all get together barring a major event like a wedding or funeral.

I would show them that ESPN did a documentary on Tecmo Super Bowl and the large Tourney they do.

As you already know, there is a lot of nostalgia for these games. Everyone has fond memories of them.

Here's my Finnish Buddy's Mockumentary on his NHL 95 Tourney in Finland for a laugh.

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Make sure you download and check out all the Roms here:

http://forum.nhl94.com/index.php?/topic/15534-master-list-of-gens-94-roms/

including both archives of Finnish and North American Roms from member "floating"

http://dl.dropboxuse.../f/fin94roms.7z

http://dl.dropboxuse...3/f/na94roms.7z

These have many of the "charcoal puck" roms.

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