kingraph Posted January 14, 2021 Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 MUTANT LEAGUE HOCKEY FANS - I started to tinker around with hacking this game again and figured I would share my findings as I made some significant progress. Ultimately the goal is to create a ROM that can be modded for future updates. I don't think I will expand the teams, but that may be something to consider for the future. This game is 2MB with no real extra room in the ROM. It uses up a ton of space on graphics data with all the animations, as well as text (there's a lot of descriptions, talking, etc). In theory I can expand to 4MB, but I know it gets tricky with the RAM space. TBD if that's even necessary. Please let me know if you are interested in helping, investigating or suggesting things to unlock. Items to investigate: Remove checksum Offset 0690: 4EB9 001F FD60 change to 4E71 4E71 4E71 Data Player Structure/Location - Done Player Ratings - Done Team Structure/Location - Done Stadium/Rinks - Location found, haven't looked into structure Coach Info - Done, it's just the name offset. Period Length Special Plays Graphics Team Logos (location, palette, possible decompress) - Done (will post later) Team palette - Done (will post later) Scoreboard Start Menu MLH Logo Referee Coaches Fighting Players Away Team colors Other? Framerate Issue Puns! - posted here 4 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
segathon Posted January 14, 2021 Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 Can the frame rate be tweaked at all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 14, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 9 minutes ago, segathon said: Can the frame rate be tweaked at all? I'm not exactly sure how that works or what causes the jumpiness of the game. My guess is all the sprite animations are overloading. So actually maybe? If we reduce some animations, it may help? I'll add it to the list to investigate, thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
segathon Posted January 14, 2021 Report Share Posted January 14, 2021 That would be great, I know the big brains over at Tecmo made a ROM that doesn't flicker on NES emulator. Not sure how they accomplished that as the forum is gone now. I love both Mutant League games, but the hockey frame rate has not aged well. Also make sure not to offend @clockwise because Coach Wimpson was based on him..... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted January 15, 2021 Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 (edited) this sounds interesting, I wonder if it would be possible to set up cpu/demo games like in the nhl 94 or uniform colors can be modified in the game, i am not much ofa fan with every away team wearing only the grey and red colors every time in the game. Edited January 15, 2021 by bushhockeyfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2021 15 minutes ago, bushhockeyfan said: uniform colors can be modified in the game, i am not much ofa fan with every away team wearing only the grey and red colors every time in the game. I'm pretty sure I can swap the palette of the away team, but there may be some other reasons it's locked to red/grey. Likely the scoreboard or Mutant League logo is also linked to that same red/grey palette. I'll add it to the list. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted January 16, 2021 Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 (edited) On 1/14/2021 at 7:23 PM, kingraph said: I'm pretty sure I can swap the palette of the away team, but there may be some other reasons it's locked to red/grey. Likely the scoreboard or Mutant League logo is also linked to that same red/grey palette. I'll add it to the list. i believe the unreleased amiga version of mutant league hockey game, didn't have a problem giving the away team their correct team colors rather then the red and grey colors like the sega version i think it could be possible. If we are able to get the the game not only modded but also able to work on the modding programs used for the sega nhl games. then it opens to possibilities of how many things can be modded to MLH similar to the nes kunio-kun hockey modding. Until then, lets see where this code breaking lead this project. Edited January 16, 2021 by bushhockeyfan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Ozbourne Posted January 16, 2021 Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 22 minutes ago, bushhockeyfan said: If we are able to get the the game not only modded but also able to work on the modding programs used for the sega nhl games. then it opens to possibilities of how many things can be modded to MLH similar to the nes kunio-kun hockey modding. Until then, lets see where this code breaking lead this project. This would be really cool if it can be done. I figured I could change the art assets around, but not a lot else. But to have some way to change team names, rosters, colours and what type of monster each player is, would really make it interesting. Although part of me wants to redo the player sprites as just regular goons in kind of a Hit the Ice style. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 Team Data There are 23 teams in MLH. There are two sections in the team data structure that I'm not sure what they do right now. Each team is 158 bytes, broken out as follows. It starts with the Black Hearts: Offset - 18D8A - Pointer: Team Name 1 Offset (4 bytes). This value is 0004CF04, which is the offset to the text "Black" 18D8E - Pointer: Team Name 2 Offset (4 bytes) This value is 0004CF0A, which is the offset to the text "Hearts". Every team has 2 text values for their names. 18D92 - TBD. I'm not sure what these 4 bytes represent right now. Could be special plays, advantages, etc. TBD 18D96 - Pointer: Coach Data Offset (4 bytes) This value is 0001B668, which is the offset location to coach data. The coach data contains the name offset, speech text, etc. This offset is for Coach Sputter 18D9A - Pointer: Stadium Data Offset (4 bytes) Same concept as Coach Data. I'm not sure what other data the Stadium contains outside of the name right now. Skatium 18D9E - TBD. I'm not sure what these 4 bytes represent right now. 18DA2 - 24 Roster Pointers (96 bytes). Each 4 bytes is a roster offset to the player data. Follows the C,LW,RW,LD,RD,G pattern for 3 lines and reserves. 18E02 - Pointer: Team Logo Offset (4 bytes) 18E06 - Team Logo Palette Offset (4 bytes) 18E0A - Team Palette, 11 colors (22 bytes) 18E20 - Pointer: Team Description Text (4 bytes) "These are the well-named Black Hearts..." 18E24 - Pointer: Coach Text (4 bytes) "I'm coach Sputter..." And this follows for the next 22 teams. 18D8A - Black Hearts 18E28 - Bruiser Bots 18EC6 - Chilly Liars 18F64 - Deathskin Razors 19002 - The Derangers 190A0 - Mighty Weenies 1913E - Motroyale Cadavers 191DC - Mutant Monsters 1927A - St. Mucus Ooze 19318 - War Slammers 193B6 - Darkstar Dragons 19454 - Dead Things 194F2 - Ice Slashers 19590 - Lizard Kings 1962E - Pucksucker Pukes 196CC - Screaming Evils 1976A - The Shrimps 19808 - Slaycity Slayers 198A6 - Terminator Trolz 19944 - Turbo Techies 199E2 - Toxic All-Pros 19A80 - Maniac All-Stars 19B1E - Galaxy Aces 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 Player Data / Ratings Immediately following the Team Data is the Player Data. Each player has 14 bytes, except 2 players on each team that are "Enforcers". Those players have 16 bytes. There are 482 players listed. It's the 24 players on the 20 non-All-Star teams (total 480), plus Buggy Skull and Maim Zitzky are listed twice. The duplicate entries are the same except the jersey numbers for when they have duplicates on the all-stars. Buggy is #8 on the Toxic All-Pros and Zitzky is 89 on the Maniac All-Stars. I'll post the complete rosters and ratings separately as a Google Sheet in the future Here's the breakdown of 14/16 bytes: Offset to Player Name Text - 4 bytes Jersey Number (hex) - 1 byte TBD Next 2 bytes all value either 0001, 0002, 0003, 0004, 0005, 0006. The next 7 bytes are the ratings/info: ? (not sure...value is either 0 or 1, I'm guessing L/R?) Monster Type 1 = Skeleton 2 = Robot 3 = Troll 4 = Goalie Stamina ? (goes from 2 - A) Fighting/Wounding (if goalie) Skating Passing Speed Offense Defense Power/Block Left (if goalie) Accuracy/Block Right (if goalie) Enforcer Flag (1 = Enforcer) Checking/Consistency (if goalie) The following 2 bytes only exist for the Enforcers: Aggression ? (values 0, 1,2,4) Instinct ? (values 5-A) So at this point I'm not sure what a few of these values represent. The displayed stats are all identified above. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 Continuing on, following the players is the Coach offsets. These are the pointers to the 20 coach's names. Each is 4 bytes, there's no other data other than the name offset: 0001B668 - Coach Sputter 0001B66C - Doc Whizz 0001B670 - Coach Wimpson 0001B674 - Coach Trickster 0001B678 - Coach Spleenin 0001B67C - Coach McWhimple 0001B680 - Coach Le Jocque 0001B684 - Coach Bricka 0001B688 - Coach Scary 0001B68C - The Admiral 0001B690 - Coach Le Bludbathe 0001B694 - Coach Bowbot 0001B698 - Coach Thunder 0001B69C - Coach Smellnose 0001B6A0 - Coach Ralph 0001B6A4 - Buddy Riot 0001B6A8 - Coach Scampi 0001B6AC - Buck Troll 0001B6B0 - Dante N. Ferno 0001B6B4 - Coach Cyclone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 Stadium Data Here are the offset locations for the stadium data (23 stadiums): 0001B6B8 - Skatium 0001B6D0 - Freeze Land 0001B6E8 - The Tomb 0001B700 - Cavern Palace 0001B718 - Madness Sq. Garden 0001B748 - Weenieworld Center 0001B754 - The Ice Room 0001B76C - The Graveyard 0001B784 - St. Mucus Arena 0001B79C - Rink War Arena 0001B7C0 - Fog Dome 0001B7D8 - The Crypt 0001B7F0 - Ice Asylum 0001B808 - The Mausoleum 0001B820 - Puke Palace 0001B838 - Tripout Rink 0001B850 - Prig Palace 0001B868 - K.T. Coliseum 0001B880 - The Skunk Centre 0001B898 - Buckle Dome 0001B8B0 - The Pole 0001B8C8 - Frozen Palace 0001B8E0 - Puck Dome The first 2 bytes for each is the offset to the Stadium Name. After that most stadiums have 20 bytes afterwards with the exception of 3 -- Madness Sq. Garden has 44 bytes, Weenieworld only has 8, and Rink War Arena seems to have 32. I have not looked into what those are yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted January 16, 2021 Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 Wow, what a rundown of codes, I am impressed what you dug up so far @kingraphkeep up the good work and i can agree with you @von Ozbourme it would look awesome if all that would be possible in a moddable rom of MLH. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 16, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 16, 2021 7 minutes ago, bushhockeyfan said: Wow, what a rundown of codes, I am impressed what you dug up so far @kingraphkeep up the good work and i can agree with you @von Ozbourme it would look awesome if all that would be possible in a moddable rom of MLH. All of this is and will be possible. Names, logos, ratings, text, etc. are already solved. I'll post more and eventually post a ROM with easy to edit graphics. Just need to test a few things out more to make sure I understand the relationships between the graphics/palettes 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 17, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2021 Team Logos The team logos are 6x4 (like the center ice logos in 94), with the one exception being the Bruiser Bots, which in the default ROM is 6x5. There are 7 unique colors on the palette that are used for the logo. These are the first 7 colors on the team palette offset in the team data, and end up being colors 3-9 on the full palette. Colors 1 (transparent) 2 and 10-16 are not changeable and is probably used for the menu screen bricks, torches, MLH logo,etc (TBD, haven't looked there yet). As far as I can tell for now, these 7 colors are only for the logo, it doesn't look to be shared with the sprites. The logos can be seen in TM when you put in a 1x4 block. For some reason the first 4 columns of each logo are first and then the other 2 columns are in another spot. The good news is they are pretty easy to see, to rearrange them to be 6x4 in one section is pretty easy. The logo data in the team data is laid out as follows. The 0F is 16 in hex and is the first 16 tiles, followed by the tile # they start with. The 07 is the other 8 tiles, followed by the start of the tile number, to put together the 24 tiles. Again, you'll see the Bruiser Bots have a "0B" in their second logo piece, which for whatever reason makes their logo 6x5. 00024886 - Galaxy Aces - 0002 0000 0F00 64AA 2000 0700 6626 00024894 - Toxic All-Pros - 0002 0000 0F00 64BA 2000 0700 662E 000248A2 - Maniac All-Stars - 0002 0000 0F00 64CA 2000 0700 6636 000248B0 - Motroyale Cadavers - 0002 0000 0F00 64DA 2000 0700 663E 000248BE - Bruiser Bots - 0002 0000 0F00 64EA 2000 0B00 661A 000248CC - Darkstar Dragons - 0002 0000 0F00 64FA 2000 0700 6646 000248DA - Dead Things - 0002 0000 0F00 650A 2000 0700 664E 000248E8 - The Derangers - 0002 0000 0F00 651A 2000 0700 6656 000248F6 - Black Hearts - 0002 0000 0F00 652A 2000 0700 665E 00024904 - Lizard Kings - 0002 0000 0F00 653A 2000 0700 6666 00024912 - Mutant Monsters - 0002 0000 0F00 654A 2000 0700 666E 00024920 - St. Mucus Ooze - 0002 0000 0F00 655A 2000 0700 6676 0002492E - Ice Slashers - 0002 0000 0F00 656A 2000 0700 667E 0002493C - Pucksucker Pukes - 0002 0000 0F00 657A 2000 0700 6686 0002494A - Deathskin Razors - 0002 0000 0F00 658A 2000 0700 668E 00024958 - The Shrimps - 0002 0000 0F00 659A 2000 0700 6696 00024966 - Screaming Evils - 0002 0000 0F00 65AA 2000 0700 669E 00024974 - War Slammers - 0002 0000 0F00 65BA 2000 0700 66A6 00024982 - Slaycity Slayers - 0002 0000 0F00 65CA 2000 0700 66AE 00024990 - Turbo Techies - 0002 0000 0F00 65DA 2000 0700 66B6 0002499E - Terminator Trolz - 0002 0000 0F00 65EA 2000 0700 66BE 000249AC - Chilly Liars - 0002 0000 0F00 65FA 2000 0700 66C6 000249BA - Mighty Weenies - 0002 0000 0F00 660A 2000 0700 66CE You can accomplish this in different ways, but what I did was make all 24 tiles in order for the Blackhearts and updated these tile references. Worked perfectly, so it's just a matter of doing them for all the teams. The logos start in TM C9540: The tricky part will be to make the palettes easy to update in TM for hackable ROM because each team has 7 unique colors and the other 12 are shared. So they aren't all in one 16 color block for TM. I have some ideas on how to do this, but need to test it out. In general, once you set the 1x4 block size, you'll see all the sprites and graphics much more clearly in TM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted January 21, 2021 Report Share Posted January 21, 2021 (edited) its interesting that the logos on the pucks are different colors in the menu and easy to tell while here seem to use some of sort of corresponding coloring for every logo, perhaps the colors are coded in for each layer? i hope this does not disrupt the idea of custom logos. Edited January 21, 2021 by bushhockeyfan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 21, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 21, 2021 50 minutes ago, bushhockeyfan said: its interesting that the logos on the pucks are different colors in the menu and easy to tell while here seem to use some of sort of corresponding coloring for every logo, perhaps the colors are coded in for each layer? i hope this does not disrupt the idea of custom logos. No, each logo has a separate palette that you have to load in order to see it properly. The colors I had loaded for that particular image was for the Black Hearts only. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted January 21, 2021 Report Share Posted January 21, 2021 5 hours ago, kingraph said: No, each logo has a separate palette that you have to load in order to see it properly. The colors I had loaded for that particular image was for the Black Hearts only. Oh thanks for clearing that up for me. As you were. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted January 24, 2021 Author Report Share Posted January 24, 2021 I rearranged the tiles for the team logos so it's much easier to see and manipulate in TM. Now the 23 logos are each 6x4 in order as you can see in the screenshot. I also remapped the palettes to make it possible to edit in TM easily. So as of now, it's pretty easy to edit the logos. Each team has 7 unique colors they can change (3-9) and the other 8 are shared (2; 10-16), which is the two reds and the black/whites/greys. Color 1 is transparent. (Some snapshots of the 15 colors all working properly from TM to the game, as well as what the puck looks like unedited and the full space of the 6x4 grid) Direct port of the Anaheim ice logo from the original ROM. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Ozbourne Posted January 24, 2021 Report Share Posted January 24, 2021 Good work man! Although, have to say it, that original organizational method was really weird. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted February 6, 2021 Report Share Posted February 6, 2021 (edited) So looking at the home team colors in the main menu, i kind of see the problem with most of the team player colors in the game, more so then just the away team being the red and grey the whole time. Infact, most of teams seem to have colors that are the same or don't really match up with the colors of their team logos, i don't think mutant league football had this problem. in certain sense it kind of made me think, mlh was rushed and not in a 2010 EA way either. hopefully this hack with fix that, the unreleased amiga copy kind of did. Edited February 6, 2021 by bushhockeyfan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted April 15, 2021 Report Share Posted April 15, 2021 bump for possible progress on this project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted April 15, 2021 Author Report Share Posted April 15, 2021 7 hours ago, bushhockeyfan said: bump for possible progress on this project. Thanks for the continued interest in this project! Once I uncovered how to hack the logos, players, player ratings, etc. I sort of lost steam as that would be enough to create a new updated/custom ROM. However, I can plow through some graphic hacks as those are the easiest (at least for me). If there's anything in particular you're looking for, I can surely focus on that next as well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bushhockeyfan Posted May 11, 2021 Report Share Posted May 11, 2021 (edited) On 4/15/2021 at 6:28 AM, kingraph said: Thanks for the continued interest in this project! Once I uncovered how to hack the logos, players, player ratings, etc. I sort of lost steam as that would be enough to create a new updated/custom ROM. However, I can plow through some graphic hacks as those are the easiest (at least for me). If there's anything in particular you're looking for, I can surely focus on that next as well. Well i ofcourse talk about how most of the teams player sprites have the similar colors not just the away always being red and white, but how some of the home teams colors have colors that are identical to each other and not don't really correspond with their colors in their team logos. now if we can get this hacked rom to change the colors of the away and home team uniforms, this would make MLH look more like a complete game. Also i still wonder if its possible to code a demo mode or cpu vs cpu in the selection screen so we can watch both teams battle each other for the puck for a full game. Edited May 28, 2021 by bushhockeyfan 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KDornhecker Posted August 6, 2022 Report Share Posted August 6, 2022 I have to know, by chance any updates. Just happened to come across this forum, and really got interested how it's coming along and Bones Jackson fan to the bone. New to modifying ROMs and was just happened to be playing MLH on RetroArch. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted August 8, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2022 On 8/6/2022 at 12:53 AM, KDornhecker said: I have to know, by chance any updates. Just happened to come across this forum, and really got interested how it's coming along and Bones Jackson fan to the bone. New to modifying ROMs and was just happened to be playing MLH on RetroArch. Hey! I had found the palettes, team graphics, team and player data structure. So basically if anyone wanted to make an update the information exists now to make it happen. I haven't touched it since then, but if anyone is interested in making new names, teams graphics and such, I'd be happy to collaborate on a '23 MLH! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
von Ozbourne Posted August 9, 2022 Report Share Posted August 9, 2022 8 hours ago, kingraph said: Hey! I had found the palettes, team graphics, team and player data structure. So basically if anyone wanted to make an update the information exists now to make it happen. I haven't touched it since then, but if anyone is interested in making new names, teams graphics and such, I'd be happy to collaborate on a '23 MLH! You don't say eh. I'm a bit too busy at the moment, but this game is definitely on my radar. Going to have to stick a pin in this one for later and se what's possible. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingraph Posted August 9, 2022 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2022 1 hour ago, von Ozbourme said: You don't say eh. I'm a bit too busy at the moment, but this game is definitely on my radar. Going to have to stick a pin in this one for later and se what's possible. Definitely give me a PM when you're ready. Not sure if all my notes are typed up here but I'm pretty sure everything that was needed to hack has been done. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EagleXIII Posted August 11, 2022 Report Share Posted August 11, 2022 (edited) On 8/8/2022 at 5:04 PM, kingraph said: Hey! I had found the palettes, team graphics, team and player data structure. So basically if anyone wanted to make an update the information exists now to make it happen. I haven't touched it since then, but if anyone is interested in making new names, teams graphics and such, I'd be happy to collaborate on a '23 MLH! Hey this sounds great! Last year I started a little project to do a Mutant League Hockey version of NHL 94. I was hoping to change tons of stuff but anything beyond NOSE is way over my head. I’ve come up with Mutant League versions of all the NHL 94 teams (including possibly being sacrilegious by changing some of the existing MLH versions of NHL teams!) I also have brand new logos created for all the teams. Backstories/histories for some of them finished or planned. The next step was to make Mutant League versions of the players but I never got around to that. I’m more than happy to collaborate if you’re interested in seeing what I’ve got Edited August 11, 2022 by EagleXIII 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bones Jackson Posted December 28, 2023 Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 Hi everyone. I’m Brand new to this. I created an account just to talk about MLH. Is there any progress on the ROM hack? Thanks 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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