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NHL 94 Rewind


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25 minutes ago, slapshot67 said:

So you were ok releasing the nhl 06 94 for the ps2 on here? 

but not this one, why, is it because they gave you a free copy?

Wha?

  • The PS one was released here years afterwards wasn't it? Or I missed it, because I wasn't too involved here in 06.
  • I didn't get a free copy.
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1 hour ago, smozoma said:

Skin tones work during the play, too.

image.png

That's awesome.  I thought I was imagining it for a moment.  That's a nice (if long overdue) touch.

An update was also deployed today (PS4) but God knows what it changed, probably a minor tweak.

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1 hour ago, smozoma said:

If anyone is able to rip the Rewind game ROM, please don't share it on the forum. It's a new game, support it!

Even if it is not shared (which I agree with), I'd be curious to know why it is over 250MB in size!  That is some serious padding right there...

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3 minutes ago, Tabs3121 said:

How can you support it if it was only a preorder bonus?

 

It'll be available in December. Although I'm not sure what exactly "more opportunities" means. (https://twitter.com/EASPORTSNHL/status/1322207174756454401 "If you didn’t pre-order, stay tuned because we’ll have more opportunities to play NHL 94 Rewind in early December")

1322207174756454401EA's messaging on Rewind has been really confusing.

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5 minutes ago, Tabs3121 said:

How can you support it if it was only a preorder bonus?

 

It was an eleventh hour announcement.  I pre-ordered the game months ago (like I do every year) and it was a nice bonus.  Then again, I live in the UK and the game is pretty hard to get a month or so after it has been released, so I always pre-order for that reason.

Plus, there is a suggestion that it will have a wider release in December (keep an eye on EA's social media feeds).  Given that the game has been pretty well received, who knows, it might even come with an online option to help everyone get through a COVID Christmas.

Fingers crossed!

Edited by LaTormenta
Typo
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13 minutes ago, LaTormenta said:

Even if it is not shared (which I agree with), I'd be curious to know why it is over 250MB in size!  That is some serious padding right there...

Welcome to modern software :)

I had to jump through hoops to keep EARE's size down.

It's all layers of libraries/frameworks. It's using "fmod" for sound and "arsenal" as some kind of emulator wrapper. Storage and data transfer is considered cheap these days. When you update a modern xbox game it seems like it just replaces the whole damn 30GB game rather than the patched parts.

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15 hours ago, smozoma said:

If anyone is able to rip the Rewind game ROM, please don't share it on the forum. It's a new game, support it!

I don't condone piracy, but if it happens, you can blame our friends at EA for not making it available for stand alone purchase at launch.

If anyone tries sharing it on here, I hope admins will take it down.  Piracy through this platform on something people can actually buy new would be a  great way to get our beloved site taken down.  I know that for every NHL94 rom download for online play, dudes have a cart(or in my case about 25) and thus piracy isn't really a thing.  Hacks are a grey area.

If the game is $15 or less, I'll buy it just so that it helps the overall numbers.  If they want $20 or more for it, I don't see myself getting that value out of it.  Again, lack of online was a major factor.

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On 11/2/2020 at 11:07 PM, LaTormenta said:

Even if it is not shared (which I agree with), I'd be curious to know why it is over 250MB in size!  That is some serious padding right there...

This makes me think it isn't actually emulated 16 bit software, but actually a modern package made to look and sound retro. 

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22 minutes ago, MonkeyHead said:

This makes me think it isn't actually emulated 16 bit software, but actually a modern package made to look and sound retro. 

Emulator data sizes for Retroarch are pretty large, and it has to integrate with the existing PS4 structure/OS.  This isn't too bad honestly.

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  • 4 weeks later...

@McMikeyand I played tonight using Shareplay on PS4 and it proved to be a seamless experience. 

So if you have NHL94 rewind on PlayStation, you can invite someone else to play with you (they don’t need the game, just PlayStation plus.) 

I smell gigantic massive league / tournaments coming the near future. 

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15 hours ago, halifax said:

@McMikeyand I played tonight using Shareplay on PS4 and it proved to be a seamless experience. 

So if you have NHL94 rewind on PlayStation, you can invite someone else to play with you (they don’t need the game, just PlayStation plus.) 

I smell gigantic massive league / tournaments coming the near future. 

We'll have to figure out what causes the game to crash and avoid it. Seems to be connected to changing lines. Could have issues on injuries, too. Would have to select game rules to minimize the chances of a crash (NLC, no line edits, .. hope no one gets injured..)

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I think I found what caused the game to crash in the edit line PP screen.

I had a forward on the defense during the powerplay.  Edited to another defenseman and it did not crash.   So, EA either needs to fix the lines and make sure defensemen were on the defense during the powerplay or add both forwards and defensemen to each positions selection so we can put forwards on defensemen and defensemen as forwards.

 

 

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34 minutes ago, DSgamby said:

I think I found what caused the game to crash in the edit line PP screen.

I had a forward on the defense during the powerplay.  Edited to another defenseman and it did not crash.   So, EA either needs to fix the lines and make sure defensemen were on the defense during the powerplay or add both forwards and defensemen to each positions selection so we can put forwards on defensemen and defensemen as forwards.

 

 

I've also had 2 Mitch Marners on the ice at the same time. They definitely did something that screwed up line changes, thouhg I'm not sure what. I still haven't had it crash on me.

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  • 2 years later...
On 10/2/2020 at 3:42 PM, smozoma said:

It looks like it is exactly the same, they probably use an emulator and a customized ROM.

I know I'm late to this party, but just in case…

I cracked the PS4 version open today, and can confirm that it is running what appears to be a very slightly modified version of the original ROM. I can't tell exactly what the modification is doing, but it appears to inject some code at the end, and updates some references along the way. 

I can tell you that the images, players stats, etc. are not in the ROM, but are instead injected in realtime through the emulation layer. I am not sure what this method is called, but I believe it is the same method used by Nintendo, among others, for this kind of thing.

While the file size is ~250 megs, it ZIPs to ~10 megs. Most of the file size is some UI texture files, which I have not yet been able to decrypt, but seem to be in some kind of bitmap type encoding, as they compress with simple ZIP at a rate of ~99%. Player data, Line combinations, and even Team Jersey colours are stored in CSV files, and most graphics are stored as GNF files. The total injected data is only 2.5 megs uncompressed, to the original 1.0 meg ROM format.

I haven't been able to identify what Emulator they are using, but from what I can tell, I don't see any of our communities mods or code in here, but I can't be sure. FYI the executable boot.bin is ~7 megs.

OK, I'll stop now. I've tried to answer some unanswered questions tin this thread, but at this point I'm just geeking out. 

Will attach some reports in case anyone is interested in this kind of stuff. And again, my apologies if this is all old news, I haven't had the time to read everything Rewind related here, I just felt compelled to crack Rewind on the PS4 today, to see what I could see. 

Image0.csv

Side-by-Side.html Summary.html Interleaved.html

Edited by AdamCatalyst
Attached more data.
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1 hour ago, AdamCatalyst said:

I haven't been able to identify what Emulator they are using, but from what I can tell, I don't see any of our communities mods or code in here, but I can't be sure. FYI the executable boot.bin is ~7 megs.

 

From the Empty Clip website and my e-mail exchanges conversations with their CEO, it looks like they use something called Arsenal.  Haven't found any information on that software, or even if it's proprietary, but it does seem like something that allows you to run old ROMs on modern platforms with enhancements.  

 

Untitled.png

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6 hours ago, kingraph said:

From the Empty Clip website and my e-mail exchanges conversations with their CEO, it looks like they use something called Arsenal.  Haven't found any information on that software, or even if it's proprietary, but it does seem like something that allows you to run old ROMs on modern platforms with enhancements.  

 

Untitled.png

I wrote you a reply but it seemed to dissappear? My apologies if this is a double post…

thanks for letting me know! Might be useful in discerning what is what with this thing. it was so cool to crack it open and see a tiny 1 Meg Sega ROM sitting in the heart of a 250 mega PS4 payload. And the ROM works (in GenesisPlus)! I don’t see any differences from the stock ROM, but hope to find more time to poke and prod it soon.

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