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Custom EIHL (GB) ROM - plan of action (and call for help!)


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Hi all

Off the bat, I should mention that I am a newbie to editing NHL94.  I have waded through the forum and have collated a lot of (really useful) information in relation to editing the BIN for the Megadrive / Genesis version of the game but could do with some advice before cracking on.

As a starting point, I plan on create a version of NHL94 that is tailored to the Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL) in Great Britain.   Whilst a pretty modest league compared to other European leagues (both in fan base and quality), the league has its fanatics (including myself) and I figure that it is worth taking some time to get a working BIN in order that can be updated each season.  Who knows, it might even lead to the odd local tournament, given how close knit the supporters tend to be.

(My username comes from my local team – Manchester Storm.)

The EIHL features 10 teams, each with a roster of around 20 players.  The 2019/20 season starts in September and the final kits and rosters for many of the teams are still to be finalised but, up to now, I have undertaken the following preparatory work:

Rosters

I have collated the roster details that are currently available for each team in Excel (ranging from 70% to 100% complete, depending on the team) (i.e. name, position, jersey number, dominant hand and weight).

I am planning on using NOSE to input these into the BIN.

Weight brackets

I have prepared a basic formula in Excel that converts the kg weights I have to lbs and then places them into the NHL94 brackets (rounding down or up to the closest weight bracket as appropriate).

I am planning on using NOSE to input these into the BIN.
 
Player attributes

I have prepared a (basic) formula in Excel for randomising attributes for each player based on the league position of their team during the 2018/19 season and by reference to the range of attributes for the Cardiff Devils team in NHL19 (as the sole EIHL team in the game).

This is because rosters in the EIHL routinely change completely in the off-season and the players can be unknown quantities, so this seems a pretty good / fair way of ensuring that the top teams are of a higher standard than the lower ones within certain pre-defined ranges.

I am planning on exporting the attributes from the BIN using the NHL Hockey Roster Tool, replacing them wholesale with the new ones and then importing them back into the BIN.

Logos and player cards

I have collecting PNG versions of the 10 team logos ready for conversion to useable 16 bit images.

I will collate images for certain players (to replace the NHL player cards) as things progress.

In terms of what I would like to do to the game (in an ideal world), the plan would be to (in order of processing):

  1. reduce the selectable teams to 10 (using EARE);
  2. change the name of the ROM (using EARE);
  3. update the rosters for the teams, deleting any unused players in each roster (or adding new ones as required) (using NOSE);
  4. update the attributes for the (new) players (using the NHL Hockey Roster Tool);
  5. change the kit colours for each team;
  6. change the ice logos for each team (or use a generic EIHL logo for the time being, as long as it does not interfere with the kit colours) (using a combination of Genesis Image Ditherer and Tile Molester, if I can figure it out!);
  7. update the kit colours to reflect the 2019/20 kits (using NOSE?);
  8. update the team banners to reflect the update kits and team names (using Tile Molester);
  9. update the Ron Barr text so that Aaron Murphy is referred to as the commentator (a Freesports commentator that covers EIHL games in GB) (in Hex Workshop);
  10. replace Barr’s photo with one of Murphy  (using Genesis Image Ditherer and Tile Molester);
  11. update the game text generally so that references to the NHL and Stanley Cup are replaced with EIHL and EIHL Play-Off Trophy (instead of referring to the PredictorBet Play-Off Trophy) (in Hex Workshop); and
  12. replace the opening splash screen with an EIHL image and some EIHL-related text under the NHL text (i.e. “NHL 94 (EIHL Edition)”) (using Genesis Image Ditherer and Tile Molester).

My knowledge of hexadecimal is pretty much zero, so I suspect that a lot of this is going to be very much trial-and-error, although there is a wealth of information on these forums that I can work with as a starting point (thanks!).

I suppose that my main questions at this (early) stage, which are probably pretty basic compared to many questions that get asked here, are:

  • is the order above sensible or is it going to cause me any issues when editing (e.g. will changing the rosters first cause problems when updating the player cards); and
  • does anyone have any practical recommendations about how to go about updating the BIN (e.g. in terms of preparation and workflow order).

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks

Si

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First of all, this is a great and well-researched project.  Thanks for putting in all the work ahead of time, I'm confident you'll be able to get this completed.  

I'll share my own preference in creating a ROM:

* Use the base 30 team ROM (you can use 32, but since you have 10 teams, not needed)
* Change the team names, locations, and abbreviations in NOSE
 - so you'll have the first 10 teams in alphabetical order as you wish
* Update the team strips (use NOSE)
 - remember, the home ice strips will be the same color as your center ice logo.  So EITHER you create the center ice logo first and know which colors you have to work with in the strips, OR create the strips first and recolor your center ice logo into the home ice palette.  Hope that makes sense, happy to explain further
* Update the center ice logos (palette should not change after strips have been completed...otherwise you will have to redo them again).
* Update the team selection logos
* Update the team selection home/away banner colors
* Update the in game team banners (first 10)
* Update rest of graphics in any order you want (splash screens, titles, logos, timers, ron barr, proset, etc)
* Update rosters in NOSE, limit selectable teams in EARE
* Update playoff matchups in NOSE  (optional) to keep matchups to the 10 selectable teams.
* Last step would be player card photos, once the entire ROM is complete.
 

You may also consider renaming the unused teams in the ROM as the "other scores" and "highlights" in between periods will reference those hidden teams.

Also, you may consider adjusting the music for each team if you have preferences, or just can't stand the Sabre Dance :lol:  

Good luck! Keep us informed of your progress!

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Amazing prep

Don't hesitate to ask questions if you get stuck on anything.

#1 tip: keep multiple backups as you go, so if ever you realize you made a mistake, you can go back to an earlier ROM.

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8 hours ago, smozoma said:

#1 tip: keep multiple backups as you go, so if ever you realize you made a mistake, you can go back to an earlier ROM.

Actually, it's the most important thing to remember, and yet, so easy to forget.  So good call...  I learned this the hard way when I started creating custom roms.

Good luck @LaTormenta!  There are lot of good resources/instructional posts within this site as well as folks who are happy to address questions.  

I'll add another helpful tip... if you do run into an error or whatnot (so, you "hit a wall" as it were), when asking your question to the community, give as much detail as to what you were doing when it happened and perhaps, include screenshots.  Having seen this play out here, over and over, as well as the fact that I work for a software development company, I can tell you that it's a challenge to help troubleshoot without details.  :)

Again, good luck!  Looking forward to the end result!

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On 8/7/2019 at 12:24 AM, smozoma said:

Amazing prep

Don't hesitate to ask questions if you get stuck on anything.

#1 tip: keep multiple backups as you go, so if ever you realize you made a mistake, you can go back to an earlier ROM.

THIS - a million times over, in bold and 72-point font. Nothing more dejecting than realizing you flubbed something along the way and have to start from scratch.

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@kingraph @smozoma @Jkline3 @clockwise @The Sauce - Thanks for all of your comments / suggestions.  Apologies for the tardy response - work has been getting in the way of play, as always...

It is just under a month until the beginning of the EIHL season, so (now that most rosters are pretty much complete in time for pre-season friendlies etc.), I am going to start cracking on with the donkey work over this week.  Christ knows how long it is going to take but at least it sounds as if I am starting from a pretty decent starting point thanks to all of the resources on this forum.

Watch this space...  And apologies in advance for any stupid questions!

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  • 10 months later...

Right, so this has taken a little longer to start than I anticipated when I first created this thread almost a year ago.  Blame work and having absolutely no spare time for anything "fun" (if that is what you can realistically call slaving over hex files for hours on end!). 

Anyway, given that I have a bit more time on my hands at the moment due to working from home instead of being in the office 12+ hours a day (although, ironically, this damn pandemic is actually creating work for me...), I have finally gotten around to starting this project (or, at least, the important part in terms of editing the game).  For context, there is a real risk that the EIHL in the UK will not go ahead this year, due to the fact that we only have 10 teams and finances are really tight at the best of times, let alone where social distancing rules at sporting events are going to hammer our (essentially beer money) teams.  To put it into context, our most successful coach, Andrew Lord (3 titles and 2 cups in 6 seasons with Cardiff Devils) has just signed for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, as this is considered a huge step up from coaching the (arguably) best hockey team in our top league over here.  Not to diss the Rabbits, but it is does not feel the same as, say, a coach leaving the Seattle Sounders to coach Manchester City or Liverpool, if any of you guys follow football (so help me God if you call it soccer! :lol:).

So, I figured that getting the custom EIHL mod in circulation might be a good gift to some of the fans to tide them over.  Plus, if the league actually starts later this year, maybe it could be used for a few fan tournaments here and there.  Thankfully, all it needs is a hacked Megadrive (Genesis) Mini and a couple of joypads nowadays!

To get to my query, I have (as mentioned above) everything that I need to get going but I am a little concerned that I might have an issue with the logos in the league.  Let me explain...

I found what looks to be a useful idiots guide to hacking NHL 94 a while back (https://pucktheory.com/community/threads/bihl-graphics-mods-and-roms.1382/), which I suspect most of you will have seen at some point (and I have no idea if Ken posts on here - if so, thanks for the awesome guide!).

I have spent a chunk of today trying to get my ice logos in order (in advance of using TM to insert them into the game) and, frankly, they look awful.  I have followed the steps in the guide (i.e. change the colour palette and then downscale / downsize to 48 x 32 pixels (resolution: 100)) but I am concerned that I am going to get to the end of the process and the logos will look so rubbish that I would be better off not using them at all.

For example, here are a couple of the EIHL logos for reference (sorry, I do not know how to resize them):

 

Teams - Belfast Giants - Logo (530x530) (PNG) (EDIT).pngTeams - Manchester Storm - Logo (530x530) (PNG) (EDIT).png

When I follow the steps in the above-mentioned guide, the logos look like follows (albeit, for the purposes of this post, made significantly larger so you can see them!):

 

Teams - Belfast Giants - Logo (530x530) (PNG) (EDIT 01).pngTeams - Manchester Storm - Logo (530x530) (PNG) (EDIT 01).png

These are the original (downscaled) PNGs (and yup, I know they need to be converted to BMP in due course):

Teams - Belfast Giants - Logo (530x530) (PNG) (OG EDIT).pngTeams - Manchester Storm - Logo (530x530) (PNG) (OG EDIT).png

I appreciate that, due to the limitations of the game, the logos are never going to be perfect (far from it) but I am not sure whether the issue is because:

(a) I am an idiot and missing something glaringly obvious; or

(b) the logos contain too much detail and would benefit from a lot of Photoshop TLC to simplify them for downscaling purposes.

I have had a look on the forum for something that might help, but am struggling a bit.  It might be that they look awesome when imported into the game, but I was (being a sucker for following a guide) going to import them much later into the process and am worried that they might be unusable and that I might be better off just using a simplified version of the EIHL logo:

League - EIHL - Logo (561x506) (PNG) (EDIT).png

(Yes, I know that it is an awful logo.  That said, us Brits are not known for being particularly "out there", are we?!)

I just wanted to check if anyone has a preferred (and ideally idiot-proof) way to convert logos into files that can then be imported into TM in due course?  As much as I would like to claim that I could draw the logos in TM or an equivalent app, the sad reality is that I am absolutely terrible with that sort of thing!

Again, apologies for the huge gap between my initial posts and this one.  I have spent more time playing NHL 94 than actually editing it (and have been making good use of the updated files here, so thanks everyone for sharing them).  My old Mega Drive (Genesis) is also presently gathering dust, as I have bought and hacked a Mini and feel like I have been transported to the future being able to use Bluetooth controllers with the game for the first time!!!  (No, I am not that old, but I am that behind the times when it comes to hacked consoles etc.).

Cheers all.

Si

 

 

Edited by LaTormenta
Inclusion of additional logo that is not needed.
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For center ice logos your hands are really tied. First, there's only so much detail you can fit into 32x48 pixels. Sadly, most of the more modern logos have a lot going on and it's nearly impossible to capture at such a small scale. Second, you are limited to whatever colors are part of your team home uniforms (along with the common colors for ice, stick, face, gloves and shadows). For your Giants logo in particular you would be looking for colors that likely wouldn't be available to use.

To do a common logo you would need to make some changes in a HEX editor to have all the teams use the rink palette instead of the uniform palette.

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@Jkline3 has created many (maybe the most?) original logos and I am a fan of how great they always look, so he'd be the best person to give advice in this area.  As mentioned, the more modern logos sometimes just have too much detail to scale down.  You may have to get creative.  For example, for the Giants, maybe crop out the person and do a custom logo with just the Giants and the triangle.

Dithering images down to pixel bits that are 32x48 or 48x48 comes down to more art than science.  You can get away with auto downscale, but the best logos come from a little more manual work.

 

 

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I was of a mind to try some quick tests on them myself since I'm fairly used to using Photoshop for pixel work but everything that's been said about the level of detail is true. They could use more tuning I think, but a storm rolled through as I was working on the Storm.

giants.png

storm.png

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7 hours ago, DeterminedApathy said:

I was of a mind to try some quick tests on them myself since I'm fairly used to using Photoshop for pixel work but everything that's been said about the level of detail is true. They could use more tuning I think, but a storm rolled through as I was working on the Storm.

giants.png

storm.png

Here's a recommendation...use https://www.sportslogos.net/teams/list_by_league/121/Elite_Ice_Hockey_League_UK/British_EIHL/logos/ for finding your logos.  It's a site that Jkline turned me onto a while back.  The site formats logos to be 150x100.  So, when you open them in MS Paint (for example) and resize them to be 48x32, it works out perfectly.  You don't need a Photoshop, or the like, to get good results.  Save them as a jpeg and paste into TM.  When you paste them into your rom, zoom at 100%, in TM, so you get a better idea of what the logo will look like in the game.  The smaller the zoom, the more "game accurate" it will look for you.  Then, zoom at 400 or 800% to make little tweaks here and there.  Or, simply look at it within the game by using/pausing instant replay, at the center ice location, and determine what you like or don't like, about each logo, compared to the original.  Then, go back and edit in TM.  I do that where I look at the logo in instant replay, while having it available online, to see what I need to try and change in TM.  Sometimes, it is several attempts of "trail and error" before it looks like something that I want to use.

If you think you'll get each logo to look perfect, you will be disappointed.  With the Fife Flyers, for example, you won't get TM to show the letters within the logo in a perfect way.  Some logos, you may have to "stretch", in your photo program, to get more detail.  That's what the original developers did, with many logos, so that they could get more detail from a 6x4 center ice image.  But, my thought is, if you can get the logo to look "close enough", it's a win.  It just needs to be recognizable in some cases.  The players skate past it, fast enough, that you brain won't process the little details anyway.  I had this problem with the current Maple Leafs logo.  There is a lot of little detail within with the stems plus the letters.  So, I focused on getting to a place where I could be satisfied as it looks recognizable and at times, my brain thinks it is seeing the little details in passing.  Same thing with the Panthers and Capitals logos (for examples).

@Jkline3 is spot on with the Giants logo as far as the colors.  We have the same problem with the Chicago Blackhawks logo as it has colors that the jersey does not.  So, in that case, I agree with @kingraph in that you may want to find an alt logo for that team that uses less colors or colors not in their jersey.  They do have one that they used back in 2007/08 that has less colors as it doesn't have the yellow.  Food for thought...

With the selection logos, it is a little easier to create them as they are 6x6 so "stretching" them won't be as necessary.

Edited by The Sauce
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save as PNG or BMP, which are 100% accurate. JPG is a "lossy" format, it will smudge some details, change some colours slightly...

I suppose the real issue is that the EIHL logos are, well, horrible, so some artistic license may be required to get them down to such a small size, and in only 16 colours.

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2 hours ago, smozoma said:

save as PNG or BMP, which are 100% accurate. JPG is a "lossy" format, it will smudge some details, change some colours slightly...

I suppose the real issue is that the EIHL logos are, well, horrible, so some artistic license may be required to get them down to such a small size, and in only 16 colours.

TBH... I don't know why I said "jpeg" as I save mine as 24 color bitmaps before importing them into GIMP to do a full color swatch review (little trick I learned from JK) before going into TM.  Anywho... must have been a Freudian Slip as I often have clients who send me jpegs as a preferred format.  Or, the coffee hadn't kicked in?  lol

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On 6/20/2020 at 1:42 PM, LaTormenta said:

I found what looks to be a useful idiots guide to hacking NHL 94 a while back (https://pucktheory.com/community/threads/bihl-graphics-mods-and-roms.1382/), which I suspect most of you will have seen at some point (and I have no idea if Ken posts on here - if so, thanks for the awesome guide!).

wow we need to copy that guide over to here! I've never seen it before. (or rather we can link to it from relevant places  :) )

 

17 minutes ago, The Sauce said:

TBH... I don't know why I said "jpeg" as I save mine as 24 color bitmaps before importing them into GIMP to do a full color swatch review (little trick I learned from JK) before going into TM.  Anywho... must have been a Freudian Slip as I often have clients who send me jpegs as a preferred format.  Or, the coffee hadn't kicked in?  lol

Mondays, amirite? :D

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Thanks, @Jkline3, @smozoma, @The Sauce, @kingraph and @DeterminedApathy

All of the above is really helpful and gives me something to work with.  And yeah, I am not aiming for perfect, just mostly recognisable.  

I have 500x500 .PNG files of the 10 logos that I need (plus one for an extra team, MK Lightning, who might end up joining the league in 2021), so I think that I am going to have a stab at simplfying them first over the weekend and then downscale them after reducing the palette.  I might also do a bit more Googling to see if I can find any alternatives (Fife's old logo is not too different to the current one and the historic Manchester Storm logo can probably be jazzed up so it is fit for purpose) and higher resolution versions to start with, especially if I am going to start buggering around with text and simplifying details.

Rather than resizing from 500x500 (or whatever alternative sizes I find) to 48x32, I suppose that I can always zoom out and screengrab the smaller image, as (oddly) it seems to produce better results than resizing in Photoshop (at least, presumably due to the filters etc.).  That might help me replicate the sportslogos.net approach.  At the very least, I will have a cleaned-up version of the original logos that I can do something with.

@The Sauce - What is a full colour swatch review?  I could probably Google it but you did mention it...!

Also, odd question regarding the colours.  If a team's logo is pretty boring (see Dundee), can you add, say, a single coloured pixel somewhere in the logo order to use it as part of the kit?  I am not sure how it would look but it just crossed my mind as I was typing.

God knows why the logos are so horrible.  That said, you want to see the jerseys over here.  They look like something you would see in Nascar - a thousand sponsors and garish as hell!  The teams need the money but it means that they end up getting sponsored by random local businesses whose logos are equally crap. 

Also, you know what the most painful thing is going to be?  Capping everyone's ability at a maximum of 70!!!  Ok, that is a little harsh but yeah, it's going to be interesting.  And fun.  Mostly.

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9 minutes ago, LaTormenta said:

 

@The Sauce - What is a full colour swatch review?  I could probably Google it but you did mention it...!

 

It's basically an offering similar to what Photoshop has where you can review and color map an image and see each color that makes up the image.  With GIMP, you can see the hex value for each color.  I haven't used PS in a long time and no longer have it but, I remember there being something similar within that program.

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For doing the center ice logos, at least the method that I use, the first order of business is to make the uniforms (or strips, or kit :)) so that you know what colors you are going to end up with in order to create your logo. I like using the logos from sportslogos.net because they are 

I use GIMP - mostly because it is free and I've figured out how to do what I need to with it. I'll create a new palette only using the colors from the uniform palette and then force that palette to be used by the logo to create a new version. 

Belfast.jpg

I just slapped one together quickly, you could probably clean that up a little but it wouldn't get significantly better.

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Right...  I know I should be sorting the kit colours out first (it is on my "to do" list) but I have had a stab at simplifying the Belfast Giants logo to see how it might look with a bit of TLC.  It is one of the more detailed logos, so I figured that it would be a good place to start.

The next three images are as follows: (a) the origina (originally transparent)l; (b) edit 01 (retaining the flesh colouring); and (3) edit 02 (full Nosferatu skin!).

 

 

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (PNG).png

 

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (EDIT 01) (PNG).png

 

 

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (EDIT 02) (PNG).png

The colour palette has not been sorted yet but the current scheme is generally in line with BG's home kit.  The colour tones are pretty much consistent in the original image, so downscaling the palette will be easy enough

This is what the "skin tone" version like quickly scaled down (with a high pass sharpen) and then zoomed in to 300%:

Small.png

Small (300pc zoom).png

Honest opinion, does this look any better / more workable?  Again, I am not after perfection but I am not sure how this will look in the game.  I could probably strip away more detail from the (Belfast) giant if needed, such as the bracelet and some facial details (such as the face paint and the headband).  I just wanted to check first before I go too OTT.

Don't worry, I am not going to (I think) be this needy throughout the whole process.  I just want to get the logos sorted to start with so that I can tick them off the list and get cracking with the fun stuff.

Thanks again.

Si

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You'll still need to downsize further, center ice logos are only 32 pixels vertical and that's where you really start to lose detail.

Your colors will also be pretty limited. For Belfast, you can use the stick color as your "yellow" and the face color for the skin. Skate color will give you a "white" and then a teal, black and red from the uniform. You don't get many colors to work with.

Giants small.jpg

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I would just go with this:
ac38ixv.png

Or this:

2mpN3YO.png

Obviously they need to be cleaned up and have pieces removed, but you need to compromise on center ice logs.

Also, before importing, make sure that you use the palette vales as they appear in TM, not as they appear in NOSE or the image editing software you use.

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Thanks everyone.  Apologies if the constant stream of questions is a bit grating.  Blame it on a combination of lockdown madness and the fact that the better half just rolls her eyes when I talk about this sort of stuff...  Also, this is a pretty steep learning curve for me, so it's probably making me a bit needy!

@clockwise - Good shout on the edited logos  I have (relatively) quickly knocked these together based on the edited versions I prepared yesterday and your comments above.  I think that they look pretty decent but I definitely prefer the "face" option than the text (although I could probably tidy up that one by replacing the triangle with an equilateral one with thicker lines).

Also, point taken on the paletter values.  Cheers.

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (EDIT 03A) (PNG).png

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (EDIT 03C) (PNG).png

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (EDIT 02) (PNG).png

Conscious that there is still a lot of detail here, I have had a quick go at downscaling one of the logos and then doing a quick-and-dirty "pixel clean-up" on it (keeping in mind that I am most certainly not gifted artisitically), which has resulted in the following:

(1) Initial downscale

Belfast Giants logo (1200x1163) (EDIT 03B) (EDIT) (PNG).png

(2) After clean-up / detail reduction

Belfast Giants (V1) (48x32) (PNG).png

Or, at 300%...

Belfast Giants (V1) (48x32) (300 pc) (PNG).png

(I know that the flesh colour needs to change to match the standard colour.)

I have to be honest, when I first opened the 300% one, I laughed aloud.  It might have been instinctive, as the difference between the original image and the rough final version is a bit jarring, plus the giant looks decidely more jolly than threatening.  That said, unless someone tells me otherwise, I am not sure that there is much else I can do?

If this looks workable, it might be a decent template approach for the other logos, as most look like they could be rejigged to fit inside the circle with a bit of effort.

Si

Edited by LaTormenta
Replaced the descaled images with slightly different versions.
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@clockwise - Aye, I know what you mean but I just want to have as good a stab at it as I can whilst I have the time.  Once I find something that works, I will be able to plough through the rest.

Plus, as stupid as this sounds, I actually find it quite relaxing!

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I think that @clockwise hit the nail in the head... gamers want the fun of gameplay and the competitiveness that comes with it.  They want to play as athletes/teams that they know/follow.  

The logos are a nice touch, and I get how one can get obsessed with tweaking them.  But, some logos are impossible to make perfect given their level of detail.  At the end of the day, just make it recognizable to where you know it’s a particular team(s) logo when you see it.

Edited by Sauce
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3 hours ago, LaTormenta said:

@clockwise - Aye, I know what you mean but I just want to have as good a stab at it as I can whilst I have the time.  Once I find something that works, I will be able to plough through the rest.

Plus, as stupid as this sounds, I actually find it quite relaxing!

Believe me, I get it.
I did the roster updates here for years, and humbly say that my logos were the best ever. I'd agonize over a pixel here or there like a repressed perfectionist. This is coming from a guy that bought 20+ media guides from the 90-91 NHL season just so he could scan them to make player cards. 

Just try to keep in mind people play these edits to have fun and we all appreciate the hard work that goes into your edits.

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3 hours ago, clockwise said:

Believe me, I get it.
I did the roster updates here for years, and humbly say that my logos were the best ever. I'd agonize over a pixel here or there like a repressed perfectionist. This is coming from a guy that bought 20+ media guides from the 90-91 NHL season just so he could scan them to make player cards. 

Just try to keep in mind people play these edits to have fun and we all appreciate the hard work that goes into your edits.

Just wanted to let you know that your ROMs were always my favorite because of that meticulous detail.

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  • 1 month later...

Ok, as a fellow EIHL obsessive, I have signed up here simply to follow the progress of this rom as I need it in my life. Playing as my beloved Cardiff Devils being called by Murph in the Genesis NHL engine would be a dream. Not sure if I can be of any help, but willing to volunteer enthusiastically!

Edited by MonkeyHead
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Right, given that I have three weeks off work for the first time since forever (enforced - I was pretty much told to take some of my leave entitlement last week!), I am going to try and plough through some of the churn in terms of creating the ROM.

I have spent the past couple of days simplifying the logos for each of the teams (as best I can without completely redoing them) and currently have the following as a starter for ten:

EIHL logos (test).jpg

These might still look pretty "busy" but they are damn near minimalistic compared to the originals.

The next step is to try and get them to 8 colours and in 48x48 (selection screen) and 48x32 (ice logos) sizes for incorporation into the game.

I appreciate that the palettes for the ice logos are dictated by the jersey colouring, but I just want to ask a question about workflow...

How on earth do you guys process the images without them looking a complete mess?

For instance:

  • I am unfortunate enough to own a copy of Corel PaintShop Pro.  If I reduce the colours in PSP, the transparency in the PNGs vanishes.  If I resize in PSP,  the results are awful.
  • GIMP seems to do a better job of colour reduction (with dithering) but the resizing is still a bit so-so (and I appreciate that some of this is trying to fit a square peg (lots of pixels) into a round hole (limited W x H).
  • IrfanView seems to be epic at resizing but it buggers around with the colours again.

I do not currently own PhotoShop (but might end up starting a subscription for this and a number of other reasons) but I wanted to check if any of you have a tried-and-tested workflow that you wouldn't mind sharing?

Earlier, I managed to get this:

Belfast Giants (FINAL) (416x416).png

Looking like this:

Belfast Giants (FINAL) (416x416) (TEST 02).png

...But then I had issues with the transparency going, with the black using up one colour.  I am pretty happy with the result up to now but I just want to check that I am not missing something obvious (or some sort of wizardry that gets passed down from NHL '94er to NHL '94er...).

(And, as always, I am not looking for this to be perfect, just a respectful approximation of the original logo!)

Once I have nailed these, I have pretty much everything else together to put into the game.  It has just taken me a while to find the time to plough through the initial graphics without getting, well, harangued by my better half!  Whilst I have some time off work, she is still in every day (and out of the house, due to what she does), so I have plenty of time now to do the heavy lifting.

Cheers.

 

 

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On 8/3/2020 at 10:29 PM, MonkeyHead said:

Ok, as a fellow EIHL obsessive, I have signed up here simply to follow the progress of this rom as I need it in my life. Playing as my beloved Cardiff Devils being called by Murph in the Genesis NHL engine would be a dream. Not sure if I can be of any help, but willing to volunteer enthusiastically!

@MonkeyHead - Sorry, mate, I thought I had replied to this.  The plan is to include Murph in the game and essentially do a head swap with Ron Barr!  At this rate, it might be the only way to see the EIHL teams in action this season...  The rinks are still closed in Manchester, which is playing havoc with Storm's academy teams (and also teams like Altrincham Aces, who also play at our barn). 

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