Jump to content
NHL'94 Forums

Beer League Hockey


von Ozbourne

Recommended Posts

This was a dumb idea.

But as it is my habit for doing weird and/or esoteric stuff, the question started off innocently enough.
"What if there was a game where you play in a beer league, that is sponsored by actual beer companies? I mean... Breweries used to have teams back in the day... granted then so did factories, offices and banks."
"Except instead of real company teams, you make it play like a typical beer league."
"Yeah this is already sounding silly."
"No, it's sounding funny and awesome and you have to do it."
"I *have* to eh? Ah what the hell..."

So with that mindset, we dive into:
image.png

The backstory on this one was that, while developing IIHF Hockey [1991] for the Genesis, a small section of Team 1920 was unwinding with a few brews after hours and thought it would be funny to use the game engine to make a beer league game. This breakaway group called themselves the "Twist Cap Division" and did the work in their free time, which they had some of since crunching wasn't as prevalent back in those days.
image.png
They took 22 of their favourite beers and named teams after them, subbing them in for the international teams. Bottle caps made for great logo references and a Beer League Hockey logo displaced the EA Hockey League logo because never mind them.

image.png
The idea was that these guys would never play in a big arena, so the smaller community centre look was used for the pre-game team preview screen.

image.png
Playoffs were divided up and Easter eggs were thrown around willy-nilly. Just assume that everything is an Easter egg.

image.png
Such as the black and white Elsinore brewery teams. If you've seen Strange Brew, you know exactly how well these guys play hockey. The kids today might be tempted to call this team the "Dark Souls of Hockey", but they aren't *that* bad.
Broadcast sponsorship was "provided" by local channel C-BRU - Channel 13.

image.png
Fittingly, the beer leaguers are playing for glory and a golden trophy. Based on a real trophy, which is just a regular keg painted glorious metallic yellow. The actual golden trophy was the stuff inside it.

This was a dumb idea.
Please enjoy responsibly.

 

UPDATE: Version 1.1 features corrected the bench players, so they wear the same uniforms as the guys on the ice.

image.pngBeer League Hockey 91[1.3].bin

image.pngBeer League Hockey - 40oz Edition[1.3].bin

Disclaimer: This game was based on the PAL port of EA Hockey [1991] as I am apparently obsessed with the extra speed and arcadey physics that it provides. For best results, set your device to 60hz NTSC.

Edited by von Ozbourne
  • Love 7
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...
  • 3 months later...

Had this one kicking around for a while so figured I'd finish that one last thing and throw it out there.

By request, since apparently a game about a bunch of drunken hockey players wasn't degenerative enough, Beer League Hockey has been issued a new and impaired

40 Oz. Edition.

Main differences are the new title screen.
image.png

Half of the league has been swapped for new swill sponsored teams.
image.png  image.png

A few minor presentation tweeks.
image.png

Had to downgrade the Championship trophy due to budget cuts.
image.png

Remember kids. Don't drink and drive hard to the net.

Beer League Hockey - 40oz Edition.bin

 

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Continuing on the '92 edit train to catch all of these, both versions have been updated with player bench sprites that match on-ice player sprites.

Updated both to main post as well.

Beer League Hockey 91[1.1].binBeer League Hockey - 40oz Edition[1.1].bin

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Eh, I actually already deleted the upper deck in the corners, so it looks like they are playing in a community centre. Figured that was alright. And besides, I tried making a side view empty seat sprite before and didn't like the results, so four rows of people is fine.

Curious what one would do with player names in '92. The game doesn't have player stats, or even a line editor, so there is nowhere to actually view the players if they did have names. To that point, it might just be easier to transplant the fighting frequency and after whistle brawling back into '93. [although by easy I don't mean it won't still be stupid hard]

Line indicators are a tricky one. I've found the sprites and was able to do some different things with transparencies to reduce the real estate they take up, but so far the only way I've found to eliminate them from the screen entirely is to play with line changes off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

have you played a beer league game?

youll have maybe someones girlfriend and her friend in the arena... thats 2 PEOPLE max!!!

in the US no one cares, maybe not in canada though =P

 

 

Edited by 77
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I like the lack of names for this mod. It’s perfect because (1) we aren’t dealing with an NHL team with real people (2) the teams have a hive mind kind of rating system - each team has a strength that goes across all individuals.  It’s cool. 

    This beer league concept is fun because it’s low-level hockey (yes, very few fans 🙂)! I’d love to see it in ‘94 (no names, or we enter our own buddies). Even more garage-league would be roller hockey (maybe even ball hockey), 4-on-4, and fake teams from the local neighborhood.

There is something also very perfect about the golden, bubbly beer, the keg/cases, and the bottle caps.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Technically this game was built on the bones of EA Hockey because the PAL version has 50 fps and when you switch your emulator to NTSC 60hz, you get a 20% boost to everything [I think the overall physics were tied to refresh rate, so it's not just a matter of being faster] It gets intense.

To clarify the intent though, this game was meant to have a bit of a double meaning with the title. The "beer" in the league also alluding to the fact that each team was sponsored by a beer company. Kind of like how in the first half of the 20th century, it was not uncommon for there to be leagues of amateur teams that were both sponsored as well as consisting of players that were bankers, or factory workers, or post office workers or what have you. This was back before there was the breadth of access to watch professional games, so if you wanted to see hockey, you had to organize your own games. And on attendance, I seem to recall some commentary that during a stint in the 1930s, some Montreal amateur teams were better attended than the not-yet-mighty Canadiens.

So basically the sort of point of the game was that the teams were manned with employees of the respective breweries with the player numbers being references to significant dates in the history of those companies, since I went way too deep in that rabbit hole for some reason, and the stands are filled because they game free tickets to their employees, their families and their promotional marketing team and vendors and those tickets probably also included a seat to watch the game!
[see the joke was that they were drink tickets... ah never mind]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems I should have waited on version 1.1 because already here's version 1.2. Only change really is the addition of a fourth period length option after @McMarkis posted his How To on '94 and it turned out the knowledge was transferable. And I took the opportunity to make more thematic player "off screen pointers" since I already changed the active player "star".

And a week later is version 1.3. Probably the last one since all the big fixes are finished.

 

 

Edited by von Ozbourne
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...