NHL 94: 2023 Edition by Adam Catalyst

[AdamCatalyst]

1 hour ago, seamor said:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234905838803

You're famous (but also being plagiarized).

Wow! Thanks for sharing. I’m shocked, appalled, and flattered all at once. It makes me want to put a “do not pay money for this” disclaimer on one of the title screens. Totally surreal. 

[Drezz]

We were just taking about this on the discord.

ROM Hacks are often lifted by folks looking to make a quick buck off of repro carts. We figured you wouldn't have tried to on your own (but if you did, that would be impressive). But what tipped me off was the listing text (bad grammar and the use of Comic Sans LOL) and that a small SEGA cart was used instead of the EA specific cart. I know you're all about authenticity, so there's no way you'd ever do a repro without trying to get an EA yellow tab styled cart.

[von Ozbourne]

I kind of like [and really hate] the "Due to the popularity of this product, all orders will take approx 3-7 days to be shipped."
As in "we make them to order".

At least they acknowledge how "Very Rare" your game is.

Kind of wonder if you reported them to ebay if they would give a damn.

[George]

On 2/17/2023 at 2:54 PM, AdamCatalyst said:

Hi there @ttbarnum!

You can alway just dump the rosters & ratings with the Roster Tool found in this website. When I get home, I can DM you that CSV, just let me know if that’s what your looking for. 
 

I hope you’ll come back to pick up the final refined ‘23 version when it’s ready! Will be released on the eve of the finals. Will be ant least one more interim version as well. 

ROR is a leaf!

[AdamCatalyst]

23 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

I kind of like [and really hate] the "Due to the popularity of this product, all orders will take approx 3-7 days to be shipped."
As in "we make them to order".

At least they acknowledge how "Very Rare" your game is.

Kind of wonder if you reported them to ebay if they would give a damn.

I'm thinking of adding some text to the pre-title screen, that says something like "Available for free. Get a refund if you paid money" or something. But even that might be more effort than its worth. My fiancé is furious, she is likely to flag the listing out of spite. But I won't flag it. If someone does buy it, hopefully they see the "Built on the work of the NHL94.com community" credit, and end up coming back here to check out more people's work. Hmmm… maybe I should make that credit more prominent, on an actual title screen.

 

 

 

Edited February 22, 2023 by AdamCatalyst

[AdamCatalyst]

17 hours ago, George said:

ROR is a leaf!

LOL - I am hyper aware of this fact!  Am waiting to corral all the trade deadline moves at once, aiming for a March 10th release of v3.0. Playoff edition to follow in mid-April. Final edition to follow in late May.

Edited February 22, 2023 by AdamCatalyst
clarifying release dates

[profit90]

1 hour ago, AdamCatalyst said:

I'm thinking of adding some text to the pre-title screen, that says something like "Available for free. Get a refund if you paid money" or something. But even that might be more effort than its worth. My fiancé is furious, she is likely to flag the listing our of spite. But I won't flag it. If someone does buy it, hopefully they see the "Built on the work of the NHL94.com community" credit, and end up coming back here to check out more people's work. Hmmm… maybe I should make that credit more prominent, on an actual title screen.

Exactly as how I see things. People get too emotional and emotions always lead to wrong result. Have to step back unemotionally and always look at the big picture. Going after them does nothing. I would look at it as advertising to an untapped portion of the population that currently has no idea about nhl94.com. However, you can steer them in this direction, which has a domino affect of more and more people hearing about your work.

[ttbarnum]

On 2/17/2023 at 2:54 PM, AdamCatalyst said:

Hi there @ttbarnum!

You can alway just dump the rosters & ratings with the Roster Tool found in this website. When I get home, I can DM you that CSV, just let me know if that’s what your looking for. 
 

I hope you’ll come back to pick up the final refined ‘23 version when it’s ready! Will be released on the eve of the finals. Will be ant least one more interim version as well. 

Thanks man!

[von Ozbourne]

7 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

I'm thinking of adding some text to the pre-title screen, that says something like "Available for free. Get a refund if you paid money" or something. But even that might be more effort than its worth. My fiancé is furious, she is likely to flag the listing out of spite. But I won't flag it. If someone does buy it, hopefully they see the "Built on the work of the NHL94.com community" credit, and end up coming back here to check out more people's work. Hmmm… maybe I should make that credit more prominent, on an actual title screen.

My biggest gripe is that I live in an area of the country where "free market rules" are prevalent and people who... pretty much do the equivalent of scalping, insert themselves as a middle entity and collect profit without adding any actual value. Anyway, they just make life more expensive for no reason and I don't like them.

But yeah. As someone who has taken the route of trying to make games that look like a real release of the era, I've mostly avoided those types of obvious markers. At least I haven't seen any of my ROMs being used in this manner, [don't know it I should be relieved or offended] but it does kind of make me wonder if a more prominent logo/credit/splash screen should be incorporated.

Hmm... now I'm thinking I may design one of the splash screens to say something like "NHL94.com Free Review Edition. Not for resale." That sounds realistic enough eh?

[smozoma]

36 minutes ago, von Ozbourne said:

something like "NHL94.com Free Review Edition. Not for resale."

I feel like that makes it sound more valuable

I used to watch fan-subtitled animes and they would have something like "This is a free fansub by #IRCGroup. If you paid for this, you got scammed"

[AdamCatalyst]

3 hours ago, smozoma said:

I feel like that makes it sound more valuable

I used to watch fan-subtitled animes and they would have something like "This is a free fansub by #IRCGroup. If you paid for this, you got scammed"

Totally! Makes it sound like a rare collectible. 

I always thought the "you got scammed" kinda messages were kinda harsh, but I've always seemed to notice them, so they work I guess!

Last I checked, the Ebay sales were up to two. Perhaps changing a title screen might be a bit of an overreaction, but I still like the idea of making a community credit / URL more prominent, because, well, shouldn't our ROMs be an advertisement for this site?

[AdamCatalyst]

3 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

My biggest gripe is that I live in an area of the country where "free market rules" are prevalent and people who... pretty much do the equivalent of scalping, insert themselves as a middle entity and collect profit without adding any actual value. Anyway, they just make life more expensive for no reason and I don't like them.

"Rent seekers" and other similar entities infuriate me as well.

[AdamCatalyst]

So, I went to go adjust the title screens to put some kind of "do not pay money for this" / "visit nhl94.com" kind of note, and I got totally sidetracked, and hours later this is what I ended up with. I'm unreasonably proud of simplifying the Avs logo to a handle of pixels.

p.s. Yeah, I know I got the socks wrong. It's a first draft. I'll fix it up before I put it in the ROM.

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by AdamCatalyst
disclaimer.

[Sean]

That's really awesome! I love how the black makes the actual sprite pop more too.

[von Ozbourne]

I like the blend of old, new and subtlety.

My only critique would be that you could tone down the anti-aliasing on the EA. It looks a bit blurry to me.

[AdamCatalyst]

53 minutes ago, von Ozbourne said:

I like the blend of old, new and subtlety.

My only critique would be that you could tone down the anti-aliasing on the EA. It looks a bit blurry to me.

Thanks for the feedback! Yeah, I wanted to combine the original logo, but more nicely anti aliased, with the icon from Rewind, bit updated for current cup winner. I thought that those design points kind of establish the tone for the concept of my ROM, which is iterative instead of innovative.

I’ll be testing the anti-aliasing software on my TV. I actually had it even blurrier looking earlier.

 

[ddman]

10 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

So, I went to go adjust the title screens to put some kind of "do not pay money for this" / "visit nhl94.com" kind of note, and I got totally sidetracked, and hours later this is what I ended up with. I'm unreasonably proud of simplifying the Avs logo to a handle of pixels.

p.s. Yeah, I know I got the socks wrong. It's a first draft. I'll fix it up before I put it in the ROM.

 

This is fantastic. Love the subtle touch.

[ddman]

Nit-picky, but found a typo on the first post. Only pointing it out because you seem like a perfectionist…

Player Ratings: [C]ustom… 

 

[AdamCatalyst]

16 minutes ago, ddman said:

Nit-picky, but found a typo on the first post. Only pointing it out because you seem like a perfectionist…

Player Ratings: [C]ustom… 

 

THANKYOU! Timely too, I’m refactoring those notes for brevity, combing items etc. 

[ddman]

On 2/22/2023 at 8:27 PM, smozoma said:

I feel like that makes it sound more valuable

I used to watch fan-subtitled animes and they would have something like "This is a free fansub by #IRCGroup. If you paid for this, you got scammed"

Yes, but it sounds like it is not solely the ROM being sold, but a repro cartridge (with the ROM) and case.  Reminds me of how free distros of Linux were/are packaged with instruction manuals and sold. 

If someone is buying the cartridge, it might be helpful to point people to EverDrive, or other resources for getting the ROM to console without having to buy a pre-made repro? 

Edited February 25, 2023 by ddman

[AdamCatalyst]

11 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

My only critique would be that you could tone down the anti-aliasing on the EA. It looks a bit blurry to me.

- Toned down the AA as per @von Ozbourne

- tweaked the smallest "A" and "R" characters.

- Revised the tiny little guy.

I know he should probably take his stinky hockey gloves off while handling the cup, but for now I'm going to leave him in the oven mitts.

[smozoma]

Now that you mention the gloves, I can't unsee them!

[smozoma]

3 hours ago, ddman said:

Yes, but it sounds like it is not solely the ROM being sold, but a repro cartridge (with the ROM) and case.  Reminds me of how free distros of Linux were/are packaged with instruction manuals and sold. 

If someone is buying the cartridge, it might be helpful to point people to EverDrive, or other resources for getting the ROM to console without having to buy a pre-made repro? 

That's true, it's not like there's zero value. But still they are not giving the ROM creator anything.

Everdrive: Yes, whenever people come on the forums and ask for cartridges, I point them to getting an everdrive.

[ddman]

55 minutes ago, smozoma said:

That's true, it's not like there's zero value. But still they are not giving the ROM creator anything.

Everdrive: Yes, whenever people come on the forums and ask for cartridges, I point them to getting an everdrive.

100% and I agree that's not cool.  

I do think that, if given the choice, one would rather have the EverDrive, which allows you to, relatively easily, update the ROM, vs a repro which would be more complicated to update.  My guess is the people buying the repros just don't know about other options.

I don't know enough, but I think there is opportunity to educate folks about the options. 

Also, perhaps the message shouldn't be to the buyer, not to buy, but to the seller, not to sell.

Edited February 25, 2023 by ddman

[Deckard]

Looking forward for the next update, thanks a lot for your hard work @AdamCatalyst!!!

Cheers

[smozoma]

6 minutes ago, ddman said:

Also, perhaps the message shouldn't be to the buyer, not to buy, but to the seller, not to sell.

Yeah, the wording needs work. It needs to point out that the game is available for free to the buyer, but the seller has done something wrong. Unfortunately the seller won't care what the message is, unless the buyer disputes the sale and gets a refund. So maybe something like "This is a freely available fan-made mod. If you bought it, request a refund" Then the nhl94.com URL

[von Ozbourne]

11 hours ago, smozoma said:

Yeah, the wording needs work. It needs to point out that the game is available for free to the buyer, but the seller has done something wrong.

Of course google is bloody useless these days, but I was trying to find an image example of the old DOS "This is freeware" screens. In lieu of that, I am wondering if some website logo and text disclaimer might be a nice stand in. I'm kind of rolling around a rough idea but the question is how to make it fit in.

[von Ozbourne]

15 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

I know he should probably take his stinky hockey gloves off while handling the cup, but for now I'm going to leave him in the oven mitts.

The sacrilege!

Although seriously, given the limited number of pixels you have to work with I'd say he looks pretty good.

[AdamCatalyst]

On 2/25/2023 at 2:19 PM, smozoma said:

That's true, it's not like there's zero value. But still they are not giving the ROM creator anything.

Everdrive: Yes, whenever people come on the forums and ask for cartridges, I point them to getting an everdrive.

I don't know why, but it annoys me more that they downloaded my packaging, and used it without even bothering to ask me, then that they are putting my ROM hack on a cart. I mean, it's absurd, I can't possibly have any claims of ownership to that box art, yet something about it rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I'm annoyed with myself because I didn't think to put a credit or watermark on the case to deter or diminish commercial use? I dunno. Probably just post-hoc rationalization of the irrational.

[mmeyer44]

I thought you could not sell reproductions or rom hacks on ebay. That guy should be ashamed of himself