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NCAA Hockey: Road to Tampa Bay (NHL 94) - 2023 NCAA ROMs - Final Update


Sean

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2 hours ago, seamor said:

Yeah… but then you have to play 95 ;) 

95 is better for season mode stats track standings. Trades free agent create  a players season awards. Way deeper of a game. 94 just has fighting on 95. Oh my ! Opinions opinions!! 

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18 minutes ago, Engelby77 said:

 94 just has fighting on 95.

Not going to try and debate you, but will add that 94 does not have fighting. 93 does though, so if you’ve been playing 93 instead of 94, come try 94 since it’s amazing!

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On 1/28/2023 at 1:33 PM, seamor said:

Hey all,

Just wanted to share an update on the scope of this project (mostly for my own gain/to track progress).

image.pngimage.png

First, I have decided to revamp the branding to get away from the ESPN+ imagery. There was some serious East Coast bias in that decision given only 2 conferences are on the service.

image.pngimage.png

Second, I am changing the pre-game experience to be a bit more true to college hockey and cohesive with the NCAA branding. Colby Cohen takes over as the color commentator given he's the only Frozen Four broadcaster who played D-I, and team rankings appear. Drezz's background hacks appear on both pre-game screens. This is a screenshot of the rough draft of this stage of the game, and I am very excited with how the final looks.

image.pngimage.png

Third, the rink and arena tile layout has been updated to feature a more realistic atmosphere. Ice logos are as authentic as possible, and fan colors are now "dynamic" based on the home team's color palette. The signs are also going to be on the bottom of the glass as to match actual NCAA rinks.

I hope to publish the podded update where you can see all of the changes in action within the next few weeks, these large scale changes take a lot of time but they are necessary to create a ROM worthy of the amazing league that is D1 NCAA Hockey.

I can't say enough about how much I love that you just keep plowing ahead with new ideas and variations. Last time I played there were two clone coaches… now I see you have three distinctively different coaches behind the bench! Every time I see this ROM, there is some new detail to delight in.

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2 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

I can't say enough about how much I love that you just keep plowing ahead with new ideas and variations. Last time I played there were two clone coaches… now I see you have three distinctively different coaches behind the bench! Every time I see this ROM, there is some new detail to delight in.

Oh you Canadians are too kind :) 

I just have way more free time than everyone else and waited until all of you did the hard parts so I could build off your ideas LOL. 
 

To quote those repetitive commercials, we’re in a “new golden era” right now with all of the amazing hacks!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello all!

Just wanted to share an update (one I am very excited about) on this project.

drumroll... I have figured out how to really take advantage of Smozoma's midi2nhl94 converter and have begun work sweeping through my mental rolodex of stadium songs and pep band classics to create a more modern (yet still classy 16-bit) music experience.

Take a listen to my rendition of You Should Be Dancing by The Beegees (better known as the "Gino Time" song here in Boston though!), along with the Bill Walsh College Football Theme, The Hockey Song by Stompin' Tom Connors, and Sirius by The Alan Parsons Project snuck in elsewhere.

You can also grab a preview of the new audience, ice layout, and menu designs in action there.

There is no ETA for this because I am not stupid enough to put one again knowing I'll miss it!

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Okay. That sounds awesome.

You're also making me think I need to step up my game. I have a project in the works that is just screaming for new music, but have not yet gotten serious about doing that.

Extra special kudos for the Chicago Bulls shout out.

Edited by von Ozbourne
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23 minutes ago, von Ozbourne said:

Okay. That sounds awesome.

You're also making me think I need to step up my game. I have a project in the works that is just screaming for new music, but have not yet gotten serious about doing that.

Extra special kudos for the Chicago Bulls shout out.

I know what you mean! I'm fixated on adjusting the stanchions, meanwhile he's knocked down the entire arena twice over, and put up three more in its place. It's been wild to watch this project! @seamor This is awesome!

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9 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

I have a project in the works that is just screaming for new music, but have not yet gotten serious about doing that.

It's pretty easy once you get rolling with it and I'm sure that you'd be able to go beyond what I've done by a lot. Once I fill every slot (which is surprisingly coming up shortly) I will upload a patch for the in-game organ songs and some notes. Excited to see what you do!

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9 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

meanwhile he's knocked down the entire arena twice over, and put up three more in its place.

So there's this real cool thing I found where anyone can call city hall, threaten to relocate a sports team, and suddenly you get 9-figures of cold hard cash wired to your business bank account to build a new stadium. It started as a miscommunication while calling about a sidewalk shoveling question, but it's just what I do now.

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11 hours ago, seamor said:

Hello all!

Just wanted to share an update (one I am very excited about) on this project.

drumroll... I have figured out how to really take advantage of Smozoma's midi2nhl94 converter and have begun work sweeping through my mental rolodex of stadium songs and pep band classics to create a more modern (yet still classy 16-bit) music experience.

Take a listen to my rendition of You Should Be Dancing by The Beegees (better known as the "Gino Time" song here in Boston though!), along with the Bill Walsh College Football Theme, The Hockey Song by Stompin' Tom Connors, and Sirius by The Alan Parsons Project snuck in elsewhere.

You can also grab a preview of the new audience, ice layout, and menu designs in action there.

There is no ETA for this because I am not stupid enough to put one again knowing I'll miss it!

what-the-fuck-wtf.gif

how-do-you-even-do-that-tell-me.gif

So here I am thinking to myself, "just release the 90s HNIC mod and be done with it" knowing that there's little niggling things like fonts, and text edits and things for branding etc. The last thing on my to-do list was checking out songs etc.

And now... looks like I'm going back to work. Thanks Sean. LOL

 

c0cb7a2c-8449-40c0-8aa6-25ec07b4e88b_text.gif

Edited by Drezz
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20 minutes ago, Drezz said:

what-the-fuck-wtf.gif

how-do-you-even-do-that-tell-me.gif

So here I am thinking to myself, "just release the 90s HNIC mod and be done with it" knowing that there's little niggling things like fonts, and text edits and things for branding etc. The last thing on my to-do list was checking out songs etc.

And now... looks like I'm going back to work. Thanks Sean. LOL

 

c0cb7a2c-8449-40c0-8aa6-25ec07b4e88b_text.gif

Ping me on Discord if you need anything, quiet weekend ahead so will be able to help out.

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13 hours ago, seamor said:

So there's this real cool thing I found where anyone can call city hall, threaten to relocate a sports team, and suddenly you get 9-figures of cold hard cash wired to your business bank account to build a new stadium. It started as a miscommunication while calling about a sidewalk shoveling question, but it's just what I do now.

Since you're an expert, I've always wondered. If I am forced to shovel the sidewalk in front of my house, and it's public property, am I not doing work for the city? And if i am injured working for the city, am I not then entitled to workers compensation?

Although seriously, I already know what I would like in there. Guess I just have to take your word for it and get to it.

13 hours ago, Drezz said:

knowing that there's little niggling things like fonts, and text edits and things for branding etc.

Soon you you may find yourself at that stage where you have changed everything, except the style of the player sprites [because seriously that is so much work, who wants to do that....] and those two things that there is no way to change.
And it will annoy the hell out of you.

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8 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

Soon you you may find yourself at that stage where you have changed everything, except the style of the player sprites [because seriously that is so much work, who wants to do that....] and those two things that there is no way to change.
And it will annoy the hell out of you.

I already changed the damn sprites... LOL

You'll see.

Edited by Drezz
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  • 3 weeks later...

2D42F454-F0A9-4C19-A540-174E8FDBAE48.jpeg

All of the content is done and the  “demo” for the updated project will be released tonight. 

This will have 2 ROMs, with East and West separated/unpodded. 

Assuming no one (including myself) notice any bugs, I’ll begin podding and have the remaining 4 ROMs out by the following Thursday/Regionals. 
 

 

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  • Sean changed the title to NCAA Hockey: Road to Tampa Bay (NHL 94) - 2023 NCAA ROMs - Playoff Update

This is awesome. I seem to enjoy these College mods more. Of course I'm playing this with Cornell, Miami Ohio, Minnesota, and Quinnipiac. I've played so much 94 with inferior teams like CBJ that I feel the need to play with better teams.

Edited by BlueJacketRebel
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The merged pods, a guide to the new (more sensible) pod setup, and a tier list are included in the .zip for what will probably be my final release here for a few weeks.

 

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  • Sean changed the title to NCAA Hockey: Road to Tampa Bay (NHL 94) - 2023 NCAA ROMs - Final Update

Long time reader, first time official contributor. First, thanks to all for your hard work and great Roms, I play them often. The college rom is brilliant and I play it often and look forward to whenever a new version comes out (Gameday, Dynasty, Road to TB).

After playing this latest version, I did notice (and tell me if I'm wrong) that we cannot play a computer-generated tournament that involves teams from 3 or 4 pods, only the selected 2 that were chosen at the start.  So, for example, we cannot have a tournament that has Boston College (pod A), RIT (pod B), and/or Michigan (pod C), and/or Minnesota (pod D).

Am I wrong?  If so, please tell me and how to involve all 3/4 pods in a tournament. If I am correct, any chance that is an option in the future - two 16-team pods (or however you need to) so all teams from all 4 pods could be in a tournament together?

 

Thanks again!

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45 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

I did notice (and tell me if I'm wrong) that we cannot play a computer-generated tournament that involves teams from 3 or 4 pods, only the selected 2 that were chosen at the start.  So, for example, we cannot have a tournament that has Boston College (pod A), RIT (pod B), and/or Michigan (pod C), and/or Minnesota (pod D)

So this is my biggest complaint about the ROMs as well, and a reason why the Dynasty package had so many Excel sheets.

But sadly it’s not possible to fix until we get a 64-team ROM (which by then might still be an issue because of how many schools are rumored to add D1 programs). 

This exists (sorry if I’m over-explaining) because the most teams we can put in a ‘94 ROM right now is a firm 32, so the pods exist to even allow two teams that wouldn’t be together if I did ROMs by conference, region, or rankings to play in the first place.

A symptom of this is that there is no way to just do a HockeyEast tournament (always will be AH or ECAC teams somewhere) or do a tournament involving a mix such as BC, RIT, NoDak, and UMich without software like Excel or Challonge.

It’s not the best and you’d have to simulate/guess how games would go for others, but it is a necessary evil for the rest of this to work. 
 

Aside from this - thanks for the kind words, and hope you enjoyed the latest update! 

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1) I understand. I wasn't aware that 32 teams is the max (it makes sense after I think about it and look at other roms). Thanks for the detailed explanation. I'm glad it wasn't taken as a complaint and you agree with my thoughts. Hopefully in the future this can be accomplished.

Either way, I'm enjoying your works.

2) Now... are you saying in your included Excel spreadsheets, we can change the actual game using those Excel pages? I think I was under the impression that those are simply simulation spreadsheets and do not change the actual in-game experience.

 

Again thanks and you make great stuff!

 

 

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12 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

I think I was under the impression that those are simply simulation spreadsheets and do not change the actual in-game experience

Bingo. Would still need to switch ROMs. 

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Well, mind blown! It seems the best way is to put the 16 teams that made the tourney into Pod A and/or B, the "next best 16" into Pod A and/or B (all others in C & D)... then hope computer-generated fate makes a true-to-life tourney after choosing Rom with Pods A and B.

 

I see my weekend being extra full now.

 

P.S. I appreciate your quick and helpful replies.

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26 minutes ago, AndrewB said:

It seems the best way is to put the 16 teams that made the tourney into Pod A and/or B, the "next best 16" into Pod A and/or B (all others in C & D)... then hope computer-generated fate makes a true-to-life tourney after choosing Rom with Pods A and B

If this was a one-time release… yes, I would do that in a heartbeat. But there’s a good reason and I’ll share it.

The main reason I don’t do that is because this project began in October, so keeping heavily structured pods (regions based heavily on conference and geography, alphabetized) as opposed to rankings saved me hours and hours of boring meticulous work reordering and repodding and made the navigation a little easier while playing, and saved guesswork as to who would have a good year and who wouldn’t.

While the big symptom is that you can’t play the real tournament without Challonge and have to switch ROMs for certain match-ups, for now I’m okay with that because I’m burnt out on hacking and 5 minutes of work to set up a bracket when I log on for a weekend beats hours and hours of making a new ROM (but I completely understand why as a player who didn’t make the game that it would be an inconvenience).


TLDR: next year I’ll maybe do a Top 32 commemorating the tournament, but for now I just can’t

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You don't need to explain yourself to me or anyone else. I'm just Monday Morning Quarterbacking here with the luxury of not having to do all that work you did. Your game is fantastic and I truly understand all the work that went into it.

I actually just made that "Top-32 plus 32 More Dynasty Mode" mod here at home off of YOUR incredible hack and hard work. It turn out great - thanks!

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4 hours ago, Sean said:

If this was a one-time release… yes, I would do that in a heartbeat. But there’s a good reason and I’ll share it.

I'm constantly trying to figure out how to make this work more maintainable for myself, as it so quickly gets out of hand. I've made some minor progress on this, but not nearly enough. I might start a thread to see if folks wanted to share their tips and tricks as to how they keep efficient. I hear your pain, and can only imagine the time and energy you have sunk into this.

 

p.s. after you changed your name and icon, and I literally didn't realize who you were for a bit! Nice to meet you again sir.

Edited by AdamCatalyst
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