NHL 94 Rewind

[jer_33]

Do we know any accredited gaming journalists that might be willing to reach out and get our questions asked?

[77]

im telling you, its just 94 with updated teams and rosters... same f**kin thing we've been doing here for 20 years only on a modern console

 

so DO NOT give EA your money

its just another EA cash grab

 

when it comes out... do a pixel by pixel analysis of the logos and we'll find out whos rom EA "borrowed" from this site =P 

Edited October 22, 2020 by 77

[smozoma]

3 hours ago, 77 said:

im telling you, its just 94 with updated teams and rosters... same f**kin thing we've been doing here for 20 years only on a modern console

 

so DO NOT give EA your money

its just another EA cash grab

 

when it comes out... do a pixel by pixel analysis of the logos and we'll find out whos rom EA "borrowed" from this site =P 

No we have seen and read in articles that they have made actual changes. It's possible they used a ROM from here as a base, but they still did some real work on it.

• They added an exit menu in the game (something I couldn't do trivially, so they put some real work into it)
• From a Twitter video: They added a controller assignment screen to the menu, like in SNES. We're not sure how they did that, if they actually changed the game, or the way it works is they added a custom front-end to the game that looks just like the normal game (which was my guess because the colours seemed slightly off). If they put a controller selection screen in the game, that's significant work.
• From a Twitter video: They added an extra team, so there are 33 (31 + 2 all stars). So we know they didn't just steal a ROM and sell it. Again that's significant work.
• They made their own player ratings, which was mentioned in an article (Arda's, I think)
• I only looked at 1 of the 2020 ROMs from here, and the pictures in their ROM are different. I didn't look at the other one. But I'm pretty sure they will have used their own pictures that they own. If they took a ROM from here with internet-sourced pictures, they could have trouble on their hands if someone noticed they used pictures from ESPN or TSN etc.
• Apparently they fixed only the weight bug.
• Since they added more teams, they needed to add more logos, so I would be surprised if they didn't redo all the logos.

[I got the puck]

if Ea made changes, I wonder if it is 3 on 3 OT hockey with possibility of a shootout?  If they did then I am impressed.

[naples39]

I would be interested to know if really just made a hacked rom, and if they are running it on an emulator. If so, I wonder if the rom can be extracted from the game. This was the case for Aladdin/Genesis re-release earlier this year on Switch and PC for their 'final cut' version of the old game.

Second, I'd be interested to see EA's player ratings and compare notes with my roms.

[smozoma]

On 10/22/2020 at 10:19 PM, I got the puck said:

if Ea made changes, I wonder if it is 3 on 3 OT hockey with possibility of a shootout?  If they did then I am impressed.

The only game-play change we've found out about (not counting menu and team/roster changes) is that the weight bug is fixed. I don't think they did anything with OT.

On 10/22/2020 at 11:51 PM, naples39 said:

I would be interested to know if really just made a hacked rom, and if they are running it on an emulator. If so, I wonder if the rom can be extracted from the game. This was the case for Aladdin/Genesis re-release earlier this year on Switch and PC for their 'final cut' version of the old game.

Second, I'd be interested to see EA's player ratings and compare notes with my roms.

It's an emulator+ROM, yes. The name of the 3rd-party company that created this for EA appears in one of the twitter post videos.

Someone on Discord said they have the xbox developer kit, so they will see if the ROM is on there somewhere. But it might be packaged up and hidden, rather than a loose .bin file, so fingers crossed...

[DEG3ORGE]

On 10/2/2020 at 3:34 PM, smozoma said:

...  

It creates interest in 94. People google it and find the community. They play in leagues and come to tournaments and make ROMs. Big win!  
...

That’s how I got here! Been playing 94 on console for that last 25 years and never knew there was an online community until someone mentioned it in EA’s Twitter announcement for Rewind. No need to buy 2021 when you can get it here!

[LaTormenta]

It sounds like I might be in the minority here (so please don't bite my head off!) but I am not too angry about the fact that it seems to be a straight port. 

I would have bought (and did buy) NHL '21 anyway and pre-ordered it well before Rewind was announced, so I just saw this as a welcome bonus, especially given that it actually includes proper rosters (albeit crystallised a little too early for my liking) and the organ music, unlike the stripped-down version that featured on the PS2 version of NHL '06 (with its made-up rosters!).  I made the mistake of booting up my PS2 yesterday to play it and is is dreadful.

Due to the target audidence for Remind being (unfortunately) so small, I can understand why EA did not look to make some more extensive changes, such as adding a "play a season" option, but I agree that it does grate that there is no online play option, especially given what the world is looking like at the moment and the fact that EA damn well knows about the existence of NHL94online.com.  It would have been a nice gesture of goodwill, if nothing else, for a generation of NHLers that have (mostly) stuck with the franchise during its ups and downs.  Then again, it is a freebie of sorts (I doubt EA will have spent that much on the porting exercise) and bear in mind that pre-orders for EA games normally involve, well, a few HUT cards and maybe some coins. 

I would, however, be annoyed if EA were charging, say, £15 for the game separately.  Then, I would expect some bells and whistles to be included, like (pretty please) a fighting option, to better mirror the original pre-release version of the game (even if it just uses the mechanism from NHLPA Hockey '93, assuming that Lesser's original code is nowhere to be found).  What I am hoping for is that Rewind gets the nostalgia flowing and some positive press, following which people who did not pre-order the game start asking for it as a paid option.  That might prompt EA to commission its sub-contractor (whoever it is, I have not been able to find their details) to add the extra features if they have already been working on the code, with the pre-order version being updated in due course to mirror the "paid" version.

Or EA could just never speak about it again (until the 30th anniversary in a couple of years...) and we will just have to make do with the awesome work done on these here forums. 

For me, the ROMs here are the "go to" games and Rewind is a nice novelty when I cannot be bothered to move from my couch to manually turn on my Mega Drive Mini and then constantly bollock the cats when they try and chew through the controller wire!

[LaTormenta]

On 10/24/2020 at 6:04 PM, smozoma said:

The only game-play change we've found out about (not counting menu and team/roster changes) is that the weight bug is fixed. I don't think they did anything with OT.

It's an emulator+ROM, yes. The name of the 3rd-party company that created this for EA appears in one of the twitter post videos.

Someone on Discord said they have the xbox developer kit, so they will see if the ROM is on there somewhere. But it might be packaged up and hidden, rather than a loose .bin file, so fingers crossed...

A lose .BIN file would be sweet.  If anyone is daft enough to include it, it will be EA!

[Woorik]

Trophy list

https://psnprofiles.com/trophies/11652-nhl-94-rewind

[LaTormenta]

Annoyingly, I have a day of work ahead of me before I can get sink my teeth into the game properly (it's 8am here), but my first thoughts are "Good job, buds, but isn't it a little quick?"  That said, it might just be me.  And the fact that I was half-asleep when I booted up my PS4 to download the game before breakfast.

Anyway, I thought a few of you might like to see this...

The developers give special thanks to the "NHL94.com community" and @smozoma (for the weight bug fix?) in particular, along with a few others (feel free to tag them if they are on the forum):

 

Edited October 30, 2020 by LaTormenta
Typo

[77]

MARKEYJESTER !!!???    the guy i badgered for the 94 disassembly.... 

Edited October 30, 2020 by 77

[bushhockeyfan]

Wow talking about showing some love to the community.

[DSgamby]

Anyone else have the game crash?  Either in edit line PP screen or after the unknown player scores.   This happened after I edited my lines.  

[LaTormenta]

21 minutes ago, DSgamby said:

Anyone else have the game crash?  Either in edit line PP screen or after the unknown player scores.   This happened after I edited my lines.  

Not yet, but I've only played a few games.  I'll try and replicate it in a bit.

Given that EA has suggested this evening (UK) that the game may be more widely available in December (with someone from here suggesting that is when an online mode should be added!), it it might be worth us logging any crashes etc. in the hope that EA (or Arsenal / Empty Clip) pick them up in future updates, given that they are clearly scouring the board for ideas!

[DSgamby]

I played as Montreal.  The unknown player replaced Tomas Tatar on the PP

[smozoma]

2 hours ago, DSgamby said:

Anyone else have the game crash?  Either in edit line PP screen or after the unknown player scores.   This happened after I edited my lines.  

There seems to be something weird in the Edit Lines. I had 2 Mitch Marners in my lineup at one point.

[DSgamby]

Did it crash when the wrong one scored?

[smozoma]

1 minute ago, DSgamby said:

Did it crash when the wrong one scored?

Sadly I didn't get the chance to try having 2 Marners on the ice. I tried to make it 3 Marners and ended up with just 1 again and couldn't get the 2nd one again. I need to watch the stream replay to see how to do it again.

[chaos]

So there's a player 0 sighting?

2 hours ago, DSgamby said:

I played as Montreal.  The unknown player replaced Tomas Tatar on the PP

 

[DSgamby]

1 hour ago, chaos said:

So there's a player 0 sighting?

 

Yep

[kgman]

What do joysticks look like and is this guy in the game

Coyotes renounce rights of Mitchell Miller, draft pick convicted of racist bullying

 

The Arizona Coyotes last month boasted about having their chief executive selected to an elite National Hockey League committee that pledged to stop racism, but the team then spent its first draft pick on an 18-year-old who has admitted to bullying an African American with developmental disabilities.

Isaiah Meyer-Crothers, the Black student, told The Arizona Republic that he was stunned and saddened when he learned the Coyotes earlier this month had selected Mitchell Miller, whom he grew up with in Sylvania, Ohio.

Four years ago, Miller admitted in an Ohio juvenile court to bullying Meyer-Crothers, who was tricked into licking a candy push pop that Miller and another boy had wiped in a bathroom urinal.Meyer-Crothers had to be tested for hepatitis, HIV and STDs, but the tests came back negative, according to a police report.

Meyer-Crothers, also 18 and who now lives in Detroit, said Miller had taunted him for years, constantly calling him "brownie" and the "N-word," while repeatedly hitting him while growing up in the Toledo suburb. Other students at their junior high confirmed to police that Miller repeatedly used the "N-word" in referring to Meyer-Crothers. 

"He pretended to be my friend and made me do things I didn't want to do," Meyer-Crothers said in a phone interview. "In junior high, I got beat up by him. … Everyone thinks he's so cool that he gets to go to the NHL, but I don't see how someone can be cool when you pick on someone and bully someone your entire life."

Miller was the Coyotes first pick in the fourth round on Oct 7. 

[LaTormenta]

33 minutes ago, kgman said:

[Abridged: Is the recently drafted and now dropped (racist bully) Mitchell Miller in NHL '94 Rewind?]

Nope.  This is the one plus of the fact that the rosters reflect the end of last season and do not factor in the draft and free agency etc.  Otherwise, many would (rightly) be petitioning EA to add a beheading mode in the December update.  In any case, I suspect that EA would have had him stealth removed.

[77]

80% of the roms on this site are better than what EA will do =P

 

if only we got nhlpa 94... *sigh*

Edited October 31, 2020 by 77

[I got the puck]

3 minutes ago, 77 said:

80% of the roms on this site are better than what EA will do =P

 

if only we got nhlpa 94... *sigh*

I second that for sure!!!! we do it better here!!!

[LaTormenta]

Spot the glitch...   This was enough to crash a Stanley Cup game (or, at least, prevent it from continuing as the player never made it to the box!).

And... There are not many trophies available in the game (and they are not that difficuly, in fairness), but I am a bit proud of ploughing through these so quickly, given that I am (by comparison to most of you) terrible at the game!

[LaTormenta]

Also, the skin colouring seems to have been updated in the game, so it actually features black players, which is a pretty neat touch.

EDIT: It's just for the face-offs by the look of things, but still.

Edited November 1, 2020 by LaTormenta
Update

[smozoma]

On 11/1/2020 at 9:50 AM, LaTormenta said:

Also, the skin colouring seems to have been updated in the game, so it actually features black players, which is a pretty neat touch.

EDIT: It's just for the face-offs by the look of things, but still.

Skin tones work during the play, too.

[slapshot67]

I don’t have a ps4 or xbox so has anyone tried to look for the rom in any of the install files?

I ripped the special nhl 94 rom from a ps2 disc, also the special madden 93 rom from a ps3 disc.

it was inside an .RN or .ELF file, maybe they used the same file system.

[smozoma]

1 minute ago, slapshot67 said:

I don’t have a ps4 or xbox so has anyone tried to look for the rom in any of the install files?

I ripped the special nhl 94 rom from a ps2 disc, also the special madden 93 rom from a ps3 disc.

it was inside an .RN or .ELF file, maybe they used the same file system.

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!