NHL 94: 2024 Edition by Adam Catalyst

[AdamCatalyst]

New Roster update on the main page! As always, please let me know if there are any issues. I'm still working on revamping the gameplay for v3.0, but I have no idea when that'll be ready. For now let's just get the rosters and lines and photos up-to-date.

[Oaf]

On 2/14/2024 at 5:10 PM, AdamCatalyst said:

New Roster update on the main page! As always, please let me know if there are any issues. I'm still working on revamping the gameplay for v3.0, but I have no idea when that'll be ready. For now let's just get the rosters and lines and photos up-to-date.

Thanks for the update Adam.

Happy to have Lindholm on the Canucks now!

[AdamCatalyst]

13 hours ago, Oaf said:

Thanks for the update Adam.

Happy to have Lindholm on the Canucks now!

So are the Canucks!

[AdamCatalyst]

Hey folks, new update is live! This is a roster and lines update for every single team, covering everything through the trade deadline. I hope you enjoy.

[Ronnie]

2 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

Hey folks, new update is live! This is a roster and lines update for every single team, covering everything through the trade deadline. I hope you enjoy.

@AdamCatalystthank you!  :-)

[George]

On 3/18/2024 at 2:23 PM, AdamCatalyst said:

Hey folks, new update is live! This is a roster and lines update for every single team, covering everything through the trade deadline. I hope you enjoy.

you're the best Adam. Thanks. A couple of things you forgot. In your wishlist: Make a Sega CD version. Or get the sega CD music to work on the genesis version. Isn't the SCD version the exact same game as nhl94 with added videos and better music, etc?

[Fiddz]

Thank you @AdamCatalyst! You're work and dedication to these updates is appreciated by myself and the 94 community buddy!

[AdamCatalyst]

On 3/23/2024 at 4:08 AM, George said:

you're the best Adam. Thanks. A couple of things you forgot. In your wishlist: Make a Sega CD version. Or get the sega CD music to work on the genesis version. Isn't the SCD version the exact same game as nhl94 with added videos and better music, etc?

I'm going to have to leave that one to someone else. Just too much other work to do. If you, or anyone else can make some progress on this, I would be interested to see if I could try.

[George]

So the only thing I noticed in 2.5 is when a player gets a penalty and they walk up to the penalty box, their legs don't align with the placement of their bodies once they enter the box. That issue is still there from the original game. Maybe the left box, the players can align from right to left and the right box from left to right.

Edited March 26 by George

[dude4523]

I have not played in many years and greatly appreciate all the time, skill, and just plain hard work that has gone into these releases, but I find I'm struggling to score with any consistency and was wondering which, if any, of these releases contain the Arcade Patch that has been mentioned?

[AdamCatalyst]

17 hours ago, George said:

So the only thing I noticed in 2.5 is when a player gets a penalty and they walk up to the penalty box, their legs don't align with the placement of their bodies once they enter the box. That issue is still there from the original game. Maybe the left box, the players can align from right to left and the right box from left to right.

Hey George! Can you send me a screen cap of what you mean? I'm just struggling to understand. 

As far as changing the order of how the boxes fill up, they both have to be left to right in order to accommodate how the system draws the graphics in Rink view.

[AdamCatalyst]

13 hours ago, dude4523 said:

I have not played in many years and greatly appreciate all the time, skill, and just plain hard work that has gone into these releases, but I find I'm struggling to score with any consistency and was wondering which, if any, of these releases contain the Arcade Patch that has been mentioned?

Hi there! I haven't put out an "Arcade" patch since v.2022.6.x. In that version I also had a "Rookie" that made it easier to score.

I am planning on putting out patches sooner than later, but not promising any release date yet, as I'm still not close to being able to get that done.

What aspects do you think are making scoring the most difficult? The goaltending? Defensive checking? Shot accuracy? Any insights would be appreciated.

[nastynacho]

it is tough to score it is usually off a weird bounce or a perfect one timer taking a wrist or slap shot works 5% If that now sounds like hockey 🏒 but a little too simulation style especially if you just playing around with your mates it is usually in some glitchy way you score like goalie gets stuck on net 🥅 or fails to even move also the floater goal is dirty but works still 😀🏒🥅

Edited March 27 by nastynacho

[dude4523]

I think it is the goaltending that makes it hard for me to score. They seem to be drawn to the puck almost magnetically and are virtually never out of position. Even when I play just a shootout the rounds always get into the teens before someone scores, even if the CPU is one player. 

If you are able to release an arcade patch or a rookie mode that would be much appreciated!

[George]

It's not that hard to score. You can still use the across the crease technique to score. It's more like across the front of the goalie not the crease. One timers also work decently enough. Dekeing is quite harder now but better for it.

 

On 3/27/2024 at 10:01 AM, AdamCatalyst said:

Hey George! Can you send me a screen cap of what you mean? I'm just struggling to understand. 

As far as changing the order of how the boxes fill up, they both have to be left to right in order to accommodate how the system draws the graphics in Rink view.

Adam, when a player gets a penalty it goes to the scoreboard view and you see a player skate to the penalty box. You can clearly see in the animation of the player getting into the penalty box that the legs won't align with the top part of their body. It's especially evident if the player goes to the left side penalty box.

Edited March 30 by George
correct errors

[NTNHLSTLFAN]

Sorry, where can I find the nhl94 modded rom with all the original players but all the graphical enhancements, etc?

[AdamCatalyst]

On 3/30/2024 at 2:52 AM, NTNHLSTLFAN said:

Sorry, where can I find the nhl94 modded rom with all the original players but all the graphical enhancements, etc?

Sorry, I haven't done one like that. Check out the forums for some other great ROM hacks that might be closer to what you are looking for!

[AdamCatalyst]

On 3/30/2024 at 12:15 AM, George said:

Adam, when a player gets a penalty it goes to the scoreboard view and you see a player skate to the penalty box. You can clearly see in the animation of the player getting into the penalty box that the legs won't align with the top part of their body. It's especially evident if the player goes to the left side penalty box.

I'm just not seeing this, hence why a screen cap would be so useful. Could be my emulator. Could be my eyes. Could be my brain. Could be how I'm interpreting your words. But the top and bottom of the players bodies are lined up for me.

[AdamCatalyst]

On 3/29/2024 at 4:27 PM, dude4523 said:

I think it is the goaltending that makes it hard for me to score. They seem to be drawn to the puck almost magnetically and are virtually never out of position. Even when I play just a shootout the rounds always get into the teens before someone scores, even if the CPU is one player. 

If you are able to release an arcade patch or a rookie mode that would be much appreciated!

Thanks for letting me know, that helps. I definitely will be making those patches! It just could be a long time (weeks or months) before I'm able to get to them.

[George]

18 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

I'm just not seeing this, hence why a screen cap would be so useful. Could be my emulator. Could be my eyes. Could be my brain. Could be how I'm interpreting your words. But the top and bottom of the players bodies are lined up for me.

I guess I should rephrase that. The animation is ok actually, I think it's just that where the player ends up sitting in that view compared to where he entered the penalty box is different. The player enters the box, animation runs, but then he magically appears to the side. It would be better if the player enters the box the same place he will sit.

Edited April 1 by George

[AdamCatalyst]

@George THANK-YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! I wish everyone would report bugs as clearly as that. 

Bad news, is that I don't know how to improve that. I totally agree with you, it would definitely better to get those two animations to line up, but I really don't understand that game logic for how that section works. If anyone ever publishes enough info on it, I will try to adjust it accordingly.

 

p.s. While I can change the order of how the box fills up, if it doesn't go left to right, it ends up having consistency problems with the rink view, which has errors if it doesn't go top to bottom.

[AdamCatalyst]

Hey everyone,

Good news, bad news.

Good news. The playoffs edition is almost ready! Still a lot to do, but I am 100% on top of it, and will try to get it out as soon as possible. All rosters and lines have been updated. Will start on end of year ratings tomorrow morning.

Bad news. I promised a version 3.0 with all new re-balanced gameplay, and arcade mode patches, etc. Well, version 3.0 (playoffs edition) is coming, and the gameplay will have a minor revision, but the all new re-balanced gameplay and arcade patches etc. aren't coming any time soon. I have spent loads of time on this, but I still need even more time to make sure it is balanced just right. To that end, I will need some beta testers this summer. PM if you are interested in helping out.

Good news. I wasn't actually planning on coming back for a '25 version, as there is another. personal projects I wanted to spend time on. But I am not going to abandon my '94 gameplay re-balancing project, so I will have to come back for at least one more season, in order to share my work with you. So, as long as my health holds up, I am planning a '25. 

Stay tuned for a '24 playoff edition any day now.

cheers,

-Adam

 

 

 

Edited April 18 by AdamCatalyst

[Drezz]

21 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

@George THANK-YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS! I wish everyone would report bugs as clearly as that. 

Bad news, is that I don't know how to improve that. I totally agree with you, it would definitely better to get those two animations to line up, but I really don't understand that game logic for how that section works. If anyone ever publishes enough info on it, I will try to adjust it accordingly.

 

p.s. While I can change the order of how the box fills up, if it doesn't go left to right, it ends up having consistency problems with the rink view, which has errors if it doesn't go top to bottom.

Technically - you wouldn't climb over the boards to enter the penalty box anyway.

The players line up from left to right. I'm sure you could alter "where" they line up, but the animation will always put the player in that same spot each time.

I'm curious as to what would happen in a penalty fest when more than 3 players are in the box. It would be an overlap.

Not that it's THAT much of a big issue. It is a 30 year old game after all....

[von Ozbourne]

13 hours ago, Drezz said:

I'm curious as to what would happen in a penalty fest when more than 3 players are in the box. It would be an overlap.

As someone who usually plays an aggressive defensive game, I've had that fourth, fifth... sixth guy jump into the box and either overlap the rightmost player or possibly just disappear. [Actually I had run an experiment in NHL95 back in the day, playing as Pittsburgh, I had so many guys in the box that the game only gave me two players on the ice and my d-man was Ken Wregget. Only three of those 20 penalized players displayed in the box obviously. Then my brother played 20 minute periods, got Cam Neely to score 40 goals in a single game, and completely glitched the season and anything that recalled the records]

Back to '94, I don't remember where this was originally found, but there is a code that determined how many players line up in the box. No problem reducing it to one or two, but when you logically increase that number to four, it doesn't work so well. Was hoping that you could just extend the box and have another guy sit to the side or in the crowd or something, but it just completely glitches the game.

[AdamCatalyst]

Playoffs edition is out! Main page as usual. Hope you're all doing well.

-a

[AndrewB]

Thank you! Great work, as always. I/we appreciate it.

* Just an FYI - the file reads "2025 4 21" (instead of 2024 4 21, I'm assuming).

[AdamCatalyst]

9 hours ago, AndrewB said:

Thank you! Great work, as always. I/we appreciate it.

* Just an FYI - the file reads "2025 4 21" (instead of 2024 4 21, I'm assuming).

oh dear! thanks for letting me know. fixed now.

Edited April 22 by AdamCatalyst

[PuckFace88]

Love your work, was bummed to not see the recent D1 College Hockey prospect signings on the rosters 

Anaheim

Sam Colangelo

Cutter Gauthier

Carolina

Bradley Nadeau 

Jackson Blake

Chicago

Frank Nazar

Columbus

Gavin Brindley

Montreal

Lane Hutson

San Jose

Collin Graf

[AdamCatalyst]

1 hour ago, PuckFace88 said:

Love your work, was bummed to not see the recent D1 College Hockey prospect signings on the rosters 

Anaheim

Sam Colangelo

Cutter Gauthier

Carolina

Bradley Nadeau 

Jackson Blake

Chicago

Frank Nazar

Columbus

Gavin Brindley

Montreal

Lane Hutson

San Jose

Collin Graf

Thanks! I appreciate it.

Yeah, as for late season signings, my roster mandate is to keep each roster stocked with the 14 forwards, 8 defence, and 3 goalies that have seen the most minutes of ice-time for the club that they are on. I then consider exceptions for players who would have made the cut if they had stayed on one club all season, or players who were otherwise instrumental, even if they technically had less ice time than a teammate. Because the college players usually join the season so late they rarely make that cut, UNLESS they catch on as a regular in the playoffs. Last year I added Matthew Knies for the Leafs, once it became evident that they were playing him as a regular. If there are any new players who suddenly seem to become regulars in the play-offs, please let me know! 

Edited April 22 by AdamCatalyst

[twintowersjenga]

Awesome work!

I do have a favor to ask; is there any way you could do the same thing, but for the AHL teams/rosters? I know it's a big ask but I love having timecapsules of my favorite team. Either way, keep up the amazing work.