Hockey 93

[Sedge]

This is something of a "what if" ROM that mainly stemmed from wanting an edit of NHLPA 93 on my EverDrive but knowing that the expanded ROMs don't work on it. Working with the original ROM limited my options a little so I decided to adapt the "legally distinct" rosters from the PS2 NHL 06 version of NHL 94. In a way it makes it like the Virtual Console version of Tecmo Bowl - a rerelease with no license for the league or its players.

I removed as much of the NHLPA branding as I could but the approach I took meant I had to leave a variation of the logo on the main menu, otherwise it would affect the menu borders. The NHLPA name is gone as far as I know, though. Technically Ron Barr and the EASN logo shouldn't be here either but those are problems for another time, probably.

I revised the pregame dialogue to accommodate the changed player names, including writing something entirely new for Ottawa. Each team's roster is essentially the 94 version but the overall ratings on this screen are still the same as the original game.

Adapting 94 to 93 naturally means that Dallas is Minnesota and there's no Anaheim or Florida. The all-star teams were also removed because the way data got shuffled to fit the new rosters had the side effect of breaking the pointer used for their location data on the pregame screen.

Hockey 93.bin

[Sean]

Super cool! Subtle but well done. Vancouver Hockey Team legend Taylor Miller has always been a favorite of mine, nice to play as him!

Would love to see a Hockey '94 w/o NHL or NHLPA branding and generic logos for the teams. I suppose your IHL ROM fits that build, but I think you did too good of a job for it to anyone to call that ROM generic .

[Sedge]

Thanks.

I don't think it would be too hard to do something like this for 94 since we already have a version with generic rosters for inspiration anyway. It would just be a matter of making generic versions of the team logos at that point. Heck, it even has one already for Hartford.

Incidentally, since you mentioned my IHL ROM, working on this one reminded me that one of my Vancouver players originally came from the 06 version of 94 as well. The name had just been in my roster notes for so long that I forgot the source.

[von Ozbourne]

Very interesting. Reminded me of how much I miss the longer individualized team descriptions when they were omitted from '94.

I'm curious though, I had intended on taking a look into this version of '93 at some point, mainly for the same reasons as you, and party because I like the spinning EASN logos on the opening splash screen. The disconnect of the All-Star teams is a little bit of a draw back though. Makes me wonder if there is an easy way around that or if it's just how it is if you want to modify the teams in any way. [read: more trouble than it's worth]

[Sedge]

The individualized descriptions are one of my favorite things about 93. I almost made an IHL 93 instead just so I could play around with that but the banner graphics seem to be compressed.

I feel like it should be possible to change team data without breaking the pointer for the all-stars but I'll have to test it more. That might be a few days, though, since it's December and I'm in retail. 

I think the main issue here is that Montreal's data ended up in a different spot than the game expected. If they were to stay in the exact same spot or if I knew where to find the pointer to update it, that should fix it.

[EDIT] Yeah, the problem is just that Montreal's team data got moved and I didn't update the pointer.

It looks like shuffling team data also moved the pointer so, as long as you search for "23CA" in hex, you should still find it. It can also be updated to any team if you want a different host city, just so long as it's pointing to valid data.

Fortunately I had already implemented the all-star rosters before I noticed the broken pointer so they've already been restored for the next revision. I've got a few other changes I might look into before I upload it, though.

Edited December 5, 2022 by DeterminedApathy

[Drezz]

One of the things on my list "to attempt" is reintroducing the descriptions into 94. They're in the CD version and really in-depth, so I wonder if there's a clue in there!

I'm liking this concept of "generic" Sega hockey - an unlicensed, unbranded version of a great sports game. Nice touch!

Edited December 5, 2022 by Drezz

[Deckard]

Hi! Is there a NHLPA '93 hack with the real team's names and logos changed? (like the game would have been had the league allowed fighting back in the day).

Thanks!

[von Ozbourne]

3 hours ago, Deckard said:

Hi! Is there a NHLPA '93 hack with the real team's names and logos changed? (like the game would have been had the league allowed fighting back in the day).

Thanks!

There are 30 and 32-Team versions of NHLPA'93 posted here. I've only used them for IIHF ROMs but they do have team logos put in there. I think the original mod was based on the NHL 2018-19 season. Don't recall seeing a more recent one though.

Just checked. The 30-Team ROM has team logos in the banners and center ice locations. Unfortunately the 32-Team version actually only has one common center ice logo for all teams.

Edited March 11 by von Ozbourne

[Deckard]

On 3/11/2023 at 9:03 PM, von Ozbourne said:

There are 30 and 32-Team versions of NHLPA'93 posted here. I've only used them for IIHF ROMs but they do have team logos put in there. I think the original mod was based on the NHL 2018-19 season. Don't recall seeing a more recent one though.

Just checked. The 30-Team ROM has team logos in the banners and center ice locations. Unfortunately the 32-Team version actually only has one common center ice logo for all teams.

Thanks my friend!