I have seen a few tools and some awesome projects. One thing I have not seen is a project to recreate or reverse engineer NHL 94 for modern windows/android/ios/linux systems. 
 

I doubt the source code for NHL 94,95,98 are out there but I’m sure enough is known to port it and potentially have 2 versions. One for genesis and the other for modern ports. 
 

I would love to help in this if there are others willing to contribute their knowledge and time.

 

my end goal would be to replicate the gameplay of 94 or 95 with the options of 98 and have things like the logo, uniforms all banners and names be based on a team pallet and all text be based on that he database text. So editing a team name in the DB changes to the start screen, standings, in game etc. this would allow for easier modding for everyone.

 

let me know if you are interest in working together.

I don't have any skills in this department, but I'd love to see this. This would be amazing. If you smart guys can add fighting too, that would be awesome.

Something like this gets posted every year. Nothing ever happens, because the hardest part is starting. So I recommend that if you'd like this to happen, get something basic working, put it on github with some instructions for building and running the code, and then people will want to help.

That's a fair comment!  I often hear people talking big but not doing anything. I think ill start with something simple like you said. maybe if we can get the people who created NOSE, NHL94e, Nhl edit to get involved it will get a good chunk of the DB work done.

Center Ice Hockey - arcade hockey, built for the long haul

Fast 6-on-6 arcade hockey. Deep simulation underneath. Free demo planned for autumn 2026.

On 9/9/2026 at 4:50 AM, WillSams said:

Center Ice Hockey - arcade hockey, built for the long haul

Fast 6-on-6 arcade hockey. Deep simulation underneath. Free demo planned for autumn 2026.

When are you planning on releasing this game? i have it wishlisted on Steam.

I think that's a differnt game. I'm only only on itch.io.

Free demo is up, but there is a lot fixed that's not there. Most of it is Season/Franchise mode stuff that's not in the demo, but some of it is obvious issues in the demo. Still, I'm planning to work on the game and improve on it until it becomes something people enjoy. The simulation piece is the best part and that can use some improvement, too..

Going along with the theme of this thread, someone else is working on a modern game, too. I don't mind hyping up someone ele's game, I'm enjoying on watching the progress of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmFZORFnU_s

Edited September 18Sep 18 by WillSams

There are actually two different developers over at the nhl94 discord server showcasing their nhl92/94 clones/ports of the genesis/sega version of the game. At least one of them has mentioned releasing it open source on github. Based on videos they have shown, both developers already have a quite playable version.

In the meanwhile, the level of coding ability of AI system has become so good, that the OpenAI's latest Astra model already has been used by many non-developers to reverse-engineer computer games. For the time being running the coding agents with reverse-engineering tasks using the frontier Astra model is somewhat costly for these purposes I suppose though.

If someone has some spare money to burn on AI and given that there are two developers who are close to the goal line with nhl92/94 genesis/sega, I would in their place direct my attention on to the NHL 95 PC version or to the SNES version of nhl94.

Once a game such as nhl 95 pc or nhl94 snes is reverse-engineered and ported, it becomes very easy to modify the game mechanics and add new features using even free AI models.

Here couple links on Astra and reverse-engineering:
https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/accelerate/comments/1wawot1/who_needs_emulation_with_astra_you_can_decompile/

https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/accelerate/comments/1w8wzig/huge_implications_binaries_are_now_basically/

https://redlib.catsarch.com/r/accelerate/comments/1w9d5wk/reverse_engineered_the_original_xbox_version_of/

If someone is interested in reverse-engineering nhl95 pc or snes nhl94 with Astra but doesn't know how to start or needs more info, post here and I'm sure someone can help

Didn't realize any frontier models allow for reverse engineering commercial games, that's usally a no-no for AI. I figured something like hat would probably need to be done by an abliterated/uncensored model, locally.

I'm not trying to do a port/clone, the graphics used so far was just to get it done. Me doing the graphics didn't work out & commissioning an artist wasn't an option until late in the process. Planning to do that in the coming months or just spend the time getting better sprites artistry myself.

Edited September 18Sep 18 by WillSams

Astra has already been used to reverse-engineer commercial games, so it doesn't seem to be an absolute restriction. I've also seen reports of people using Astra to crack commercial software, although that's obviously a more questionable use case.

Hmmm, I may try to reverse engineer Monopoly Tycoon (the old one).

Damn, I didn't read the thread carefully. I only now noticed that you just released a demo of your hard work, and here I am going on about NHL '94 reverse-engineering. Well, the info is useful, but maybe I should have timed it a bit differently.

Anyway, I tested the Linux version of Center Ice Hockey demo, but I couldn't start a game. When I'm picking the away team and press A, I just see the background image of the team-picking menu and nothing happens. I then tested the practice mode's free play, and that did work.

Another thing I noticed is that I could only bind the controls to certain keys on my keyboard, and I couldn't bind the player movement keys at all. Maybe you already know about these issues, but I just wanted to let you know.

Oh and also at first I got error while loading shared libraries: libSDL2_mixer-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory but installing SDL2_mixer on void linux fixed that issue.

Edited September 18Sep 18 by floating

Yeah, noticed that bug and held off releasing until yesterday (Sunday). I should also mention the per-requisites more clearly and/or put up a Debian file with all the dependencies. With that said, the Windows version works under Wine fine, it's a cross-native build from Linux. New demo up and v1.0 is out! After 8 years, 167k lines of code (half of them belong to the nearly 6,000 tests!), I nervously put this out there.

Center Ice Hockey v1.0.0 is out today.

[Itch.io link]

The goal was never to make another ultra-complicated hockey simulator. I wanted something that was immediately fun to pick up and play, while still giving hockey fans enough depth to build a season or franchise around.

It has:

🏒 Fast arcade-style gameplay
🏒 Season, Franchise, Playoffs, and Best-of-Seven
🏒 Local and online multiplayer (need feedback on this mode the most, I could only test but so much)
🏒 Hundreds of teams across multiple leagues
🏒 Trades, free agency, waivers, farm systems, and injuries
🏒 Player/team/roster/presentation customization. You can add logos, create your own database, drop in your own images for players, customize the in-game HUD so far.
🏒 Different team strategies and playing styles
🏒 Practice mode for just getting on the ice and playing

It's been a long road getting here, and I'm still planning to keep improving it based on feedback and some ideas I still haven't implemented (music player, diddy importer, more). Graphics overhaul incoming as well.

Free v.1.0 demo, the old 0.9.9 one I removed. Paid version gets you the Linux, Windows, Android, and Switch full release. I highly recommend trying the demo first and encourage anyone to support if you can. Times have been hard over the past year, finally getting myself back on my feet.

I should strongly emphasize this: the game is customizable. You can create your own custom database with players/leagues of your choice if you know SQL. There are spots to add custom graphics, including the rink. Making this customizable was also a goal from day 1.

Edited September 21Sep 21 by WillSams

On 9/21/2026 at 1:37 AM, WillSams said:

Yeah, noticed that bug and held off releasing until yesterday (Sunday). I should also mention the per-requisites more clearly and/or put up a Debian file with all the dependencies. With that said, the Windows version works under Wine fine, it's a cross-native build from Linux. New demo up and v1.0 is out! After 8 years, 167k lines of code (half of them belong to the nearly 6,000 tests!), I nervously put this out there.

Center Ice Hockey v1.0.0 is out today.

[Itch.io link]

The goal was never to make another ultra-complicated hockey simulator. I wanted something that was immediately fun to pick up and play, while still giving hockey fans enough depth to build a season or franchise around.

It has:

🏒 Fast arcade-style gameplay
🏒 Season, Franchise, Playoffs, and Best-of-Seven
🏒 Local and online multiplayer (need feedback on this mode the most, I could only test but so much)
🏒 Hundreds of teams across multiple leagues
🏒 Trades, free agency, waivers, farm systems, and injuries
🏒 Player/team/roster/presentation customization. You can add logos, create your own database, drop in your own images for players, customize the in-game HUD so far.
🏒 Different team strategies and playing styles
🏒 Practice mode for just getting on the ice and playing

It's been a long road getting here, and I'm still planning to keep improving it based on feedback and some ideas I still haven't implemented (music player, diddy importer, more). Graphics overhaul incoming as well.

Free v.1.0 demo, the old 0.9.9 one I removed. Paid version gets you the Linux, Windows, Android, and Switch full release. I highly recommend trying the demo first and encourage anyone to support if you can. Times have been hard over the past year, finally getting myself back on my feet.

I should strongly emphasize this: the game is customizable. You can create your own custom database with players/leagues of your choice if you know SQL. There are spots to add custom graphics, including the rink. Making this customizable was also a goal from day 1.

Very ambitious project!

At the current stage it's in clearly needs a lot of work, but once it pans out to something that I would regularly play and enjoy I ccan't wait! This is the kind of hockey game I've wanted practically my entire life.

Sorry, if offtopic, but did you, guys, see this? NHL94 in 3D https://youtu.be/qwIq1ea8QsQ

Yeah it's from StaticEck, a community member here. He's been detailing his work on the discord server/

That's insane!!!