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The World Championships Series


von Ozbourne

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The reconning is taking over now as we see the release of:

IIHF 96 [Final Cut Edition]

  • Full licensing is in full effect with the change over to center ice sweater logos.
  • Uni colours are adjusted for period correctness.
  • Most player names were already fixed by this point, but I think there were a few I missed so those are good now too.
  • Speaking of missed, fixed the part where Team Austria used to say "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" on their team photo when you win the championship with them.
    [I get the backwards name of the Ducks, but oddly the Avs and Coyotes had a separate bits for their names too. Found the Avs before, they are all fixed now]

Wollen sie mit mir spielen?  Nein?
 

IIHF 96 F.bin

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I guess the story would be that the double dipping wore thin, [and lacking an extra-teams mod] so there was no "Championship Edition" for '96, meaning fans had to wait for the new year.
Still not a fan of this one, but at least it's better now.

IIHF 97 [Final Cut Edition]

  • Following the new licensing trend, center ice logos are modeled after sweater crests.
  • Some uniform colours also corrected to period correct styles.
  • Again most names were already modified for display. Fixed a few that didn't quite work.
  • Fixed Team Austria's "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" Championship banner.

Some things that are still not quite ideal, but are above my pay grade coding-wise.

  • Team Select still has weird rankings because I can't figure out how to edit the rating numbers.
  • The team "city" name being a three letter ISO code due to how it's integrated in various places in the game. Not a horrible workaround, but could have been better.

[Not quite] a perfect ten.
 

IIHF 97 F.bin

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The final of the Final Cuts is finally ready for the finale.

IIHF 98 [Final Cut Edition]

  • Most teams already had national program center ice logos, but they all do and they are actually period accurate.
  • Uniform colours are also more period accurate now.
  • A couple player names that slipped through the cracks were shortened for formatting constraints.
  • Fixed Team Austria's "Mighty Ducks of Anaheim" Championship banner.
  • A couple other minor fixes that I can't remember right now.

Note that still unresolved are:

  • Team selection ratings thing.
  • ISO team name thing.
  • Simmed season performance not matching player ratings thing.

image.jpeg

 

IIHF 98 F.bin

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With the Final Cut editions out of the way, it seems it is time to release the next installment in the series. And it gives me the chance to make another retro review so I'm going to take it.

With EA outsourcing the development of the SEGA Genesis version of NHL 98 to THQ while they concentrated on the fancy new PlayStation and PC versions, Team 1920 still took care of the Genesis conversion for IIHF 98. However, when EA started work on the '99 installment of their hockey franchise, it would only see a release on the Playstaion, PC and N64. This would not normally have been an issue, however the team was unable to procure a dev kit for the new systems and EA seemed to have forgotten they were still around; as evidenced by the fact that EA had not yet attempted to buy 1920 out, before they started neglecting the small production company.

With nothing else going on at the time, the team decided to take matters into their own hands and do what they do best; make a Genesis game.
And 'cuz they say... 2000 zero zero, game over, oops, out of time. So tonight I'm gonna party and play...

image.png

After two years without a title screen athlete, the developer made the decision to feature eventual #2 overall scorer and #1 fan favourite, Finland's Teemu Selanne.

The game was again based on the '96-'98 game engine and would feature the improvements that appeared in the '98 version like switching team controllers, line coaching, goalie changes/injuries and less predictable AI. Also, after a year of forgetting to do so, Fighting majors are again assessed a 10 minute misconduct.

image.pngimage.png

As the dev team was not a fan of the dark, and in some cases quite ugly, graphics style they were constrained to in '97 and '98, they took the opportunity to go for a much lighter scheme, while taking every opportunity to change as many assets as possible.

image.pngimage.png

Not wanting to reuse the team selection "Flag in a circle" logos for yet a fourth year in a row, and to emphasize their full licensing agreement, National Team sweater logos are now featured in place. The new team name font that debuted in IIHF 98 does make a return, while the menu titles get a new jumbotron dot matrix light styling.

While the top 26 ranked teams did not change from the previous year, the five unranked teams were switched out in favour of some less highlighted teams from the bottom five in 36th placed South Africa [making a return for the first time since IIHF '93], 37th ranked New Zealand, 38th place - 2nd year participant - Turkey, 39th overall Greece and 40th place rookie Iceland.

image.png image.png

To spruce up the playoff bracket, a rink style background was added, reminiscent of the ice surface in IIHF '94.

image.pngimage.png

For uniformity [and limitations] of the season mode logos, a clean new set of flag logos were added similar to what the IIHF would use on their website 20 years later! The full contingent of uniform logos would be carried over to the center ice area.

The "Champion is you!" picture and winning team photo were carried over from the previous year however because the dev's art director was already going quite batty and just couldn't be asked to spend any more time on those things. The team selection rankings also still posed a challenge that was only overcome with mockery, but it's funny to wonder if perhaps Canada is ranked 6th in tape usage because their 26th ranked stick boy has been eating it.

That said, I'd give it a perfect 5 out of 7.

 

IIHF 99.bin

Edited by von Ozbourme
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Love the new menu design for 99. You've really gone above and beyond working on these, dude.

The only thing that could make it absolutely perfect would be a 16-bit version of Jeff Van Dyke's original soundtrack.

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I usually only play '94, but I'm trying out some of these newer editions.  I'm finding it hard to score goals in, for example, the IIHF 99 ROM.  Does anyone have any gameplay videos or just goal-scoring tips?

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Thanks everyone.

Admittedly the text was the only thing I wasn't sure about, [I eventually found out that the colour palette is shared by a few different assets so it was a compromise hoping to make it as legible as possible and not break something else.] but I reeeally wanted to use that background, so I hope it's fine?

On 6/18/2021 at 5:44 PM, EagleXIII said:

The only thing that could make it absolutely perfect would be a 16-bit version of Jeff Van Dyke's original soundtrack.

Yeah. Sadly, figuring out the music is a whole next level. It would be amazing if I could get a 16-bit old-school Hockey Night in Canada theme in there, but I don't even know where to begin.

On 6/19/2021 at 1:55 PM, The Dopefish said:

I usually only play '94, but I'm trying out some of these newer editions.  I'm finding it hard to score goals in, for example, the IIHF 99 ROM.  Does anyone have any gameplay videos or just goal-scoring tips?

Heh. When you find a technique, let me know too eh? I usually play great defence in any game I pick up, but post '95, figuring out scoring is not my strength. As evidenced by the final test match I played where I out shot my opponent 38-4 and won 2-1. [Both were one-timers if that helps]
...That's not entirely true. I was able to figure out some scoring plays in the 2K series, okay; in EA games, I'm usually not the guy that you want to count to score that big goal.

 

 

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11 hours ago, von Ozbourme said:

Heh. When you find a technique, let me know too eh? I usually play great defence in any game I pick up, but post '95, figuring out scoring is not my strength. As evidenced by the final test match I played where I out shot my opponent 38-4 and won 2-1. [Both were one-timers if that helps]

LOL, okay, good to know that offense is not the easiest to come by!

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With @von Ozbourme's blessing I started working on the boxart for the series using the original NHL series as a template.

Here's the covers for '91 and '92 :)

IIHF Hockey

IIHF Hockey '91 Box Art.png

IIHF Hockey '92

IIHF Hockey '92 Box Art.png

Edited by EagleXIII
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I should clarify that I do know a cheesy way to score from NHL 96 onwards: skate into the zone at the corner points with a shooter whose handedness matches the point (i.e. left-handed shooter in the left point, right-handed shooter in the right point) (after more experimenting it looks like backhanders work too) and take a slapshot aimed for the lower near corner of the goal.  This works really well going downwards, and the goalie AI always seems to have a hard time with it.  Going upwards it works less well but it still can do the trick.  You want the shot to be off within the first two, maybe three segments of the wall.  The more accurate and harder the shot, the better, but some goalies have a hard time with even slow backhanders!

Edited by The Dopefish
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15 hours ago, The Dopefish said:

I should clarify that I do know a cheesy way to score from NHL 96 onwards: skate into the zone at the corner points with a shooter whose handedness matches the point (i.e. left-handed shooter in the left point, right-handed shooter in the right point) (after more experimenting it looks like backhanders work too) and take a slapshot aimed for the lower near corner of the goal.  This works really well going downwards, and the goalie AI always seems to have a hard time with it.  Going upwards it works less well but it still can do the trick.  You want the shot to be off within the first two, maybe three segments of the wall.  The more accurate and harder the shot, the better, but some goalies have a hard time with even slow backhanders!

So what you're saying is; reenact every goal Gretzky scored in the '80s, and the goalie will act like he was trained in the '80s.

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Alright, apparently this series is like a Junkion. It's not hard to knock 'em out, it's getting them to stay done that's the trick.

So special thanks to @CoachMac for showing me how to finally get the last two teams included in the Playoff selections in the original EA and NHL Hockey [92]. This means that now you can play as the United States or Yugoslavia in playoff mode.

So here we go again.

[also updated the original post]

 

IIHF Hockey (91) F2.bin IIHF Hockey 92 F2.bin

Edited by von Ozbourme
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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 weeks later...

In light of the variation of the 32-team glitch fix posted by @AdamCatalyst , I figured it was a good fit for the presentation in my IIHF rom. So now the only drawback is that Ukraine and USA won't crash the game.

Updated in the original post list.
IIHF 94 CE F2.bin

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  • 1 month later...

So, I was messing with the 99 ROM earlier and encountered a bug. For some reason the game will sometimes crash on the Hot/Cold screen with one of the unranked teams. I don't know if it’s all of them but it did seem to be specific to teams in that group. I haven't tested many of the ranked teams yet, though.

I don't know what’s causing it exactly because it doesn't happen every time, but having it happen the first time I tried a match with one (specifically, South Africa) was noticeable.

I also tried the 98F ROM since it uses the same base and was able to replicate the issue, though not as easily for some reason.

This happened both on Kega Fusion and ClassicBoy.

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Well that's annoying. I do recall coming across this once while I was in the middle of making changes, and it stumped me to the point where I just went back to a previous version where that issue dis not arise and went on from there. But it seems that when I select South Africa, I'm now getting about a 50/50 chance that it glitches. Weird that I didn't notice this when I was testing, guess it must have snuck back in there along the way.

I still can't figure it out, but I'm curious if it has something to do with the fact that I used the hex code edit that changes the default from the East & West All-Stars to the EA & THQ teams. [they had more sprites to work with as far as art] South Africa happens to be the first of all the unranked teams. [EA]
Did the same thing for 98, but the glitch hasn't come up yet. Only using Gens myself.

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After a long hiatus, it's finally time to revisit the World Championships. ...with a twist.

The story behind this entry is that as the new millennium approaches, it is now the time of the PlayStation and EA games have fully embraced the era of low-poly 3D models, janky animation and really learning what the word "clipping" means. As for the IIHF series, it is also reaching a milestone in releasing its tenth game.

IIHF-2000-PS1-cover.png

I do not have this game.

However, as a bonus Tenth Birthday surprise, the Anniversary Edition of this game has an Easter egg in the menu where you can load up an retro version of the game based on the NHL'94 ROM.

So, presenting the retro review of:
image.png
First thing one will notice is that the game art is more of a reference to NHL'94 rather than IIHF'94. This is mostly due to the game being built on the architecture of the PlayStation version of the game and some limitations imposed with that. There are a few differences that will show up between this version and the original, starting with how Team 1920 got the call to adapt it to the IIHF, but the rest of the old credit scroll was disabled.

image.png
When the main menu comes up, the Play Mode is the second difference, [third counting the missing second splash screen] You start with a "Play Now" option and the User Records were disabled. Likely due to not having a way to save them on the PlayStation.

image.png
Another big change is that there is no Ron Barr introducing the game [for obvious licensing reasons] and while, unlike the retro NHL'94 version with fake random player names, this game does have the real player names, but the connection to the photos had been severed and only these staticy silhouettes remained. [which meant that the researcher didn't have to spend any time trying to find photos of all of the players, so hey, that's fine]

image.png
An interesting difference for the playoffs, the updated IIHF World Championship trophy makes an appearance [in it's final form before being retired in favour of a new trophy unveiled at next year's tournament]

image.png
Player cards get some nice updated logos, but of course no photos.

image.png
Another interesting difference with the PlayStation version is that the code for the player stats is wholly dependant on a "blank defenceman" being listed in the code for the players or else the stat screen completely breaks. No idea why this is, just that it takes up bytes. Also in the "no idea" file, the "Press A to Switch teams" text on the bottom of this screen was removed. Trying to put it back just breaks things, but the text not being there doesn't mean that you can't still press A to view your opponent's player stats anyway.

image.png
One on-ice improvement over the original IIHF'94 is that the full licensing agreement by this time means that ice logos are based on team uniform logos as opposed to each country's flag or coat of arms.

image.png
It's tiny, and not quite the right colour, but the World Champs trophy makes an on-ice appearance once you win the playoffs as well.

image.png
A final note. Since the game is not being emulated within a PlayStation game, this End Game menu item doesn't actually do anything. Apparently an interview with a Team 1920 spokesperson at the time revealed that while this game was "an interesting challenge to work with, it is unlikely that we will be revisiting it for any future releases."

So there you have it.

IIHF 2000 [10AE].bin

Edited by von Ozbourme
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  • 1 month later...

Thank you Ozzy! I started playing 94 a few weeks back. I beat about 8 ROM hacks this past week. Started playing IIHF 94 CE Final Edition today. I have to say that even though I'm playing as Team USA, its still giving me a challenge. Probably the most challenging ROM I've played yet. Czech Republic was up 3-0 before I even scored. Good stuff! :dal_skater_hand_grab:

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