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NHL MMVII


Chris

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As promised, I am starting an NHL MMVII thread. NHL MMVII (pronounced double M seven; 2007 in Roman numerals), is my upcoming hack for the Sega CD, which I hope to have ready by the start of the playoffs. NHL MMVII will feature the following:

  • Ratings will be tied directly to the particular player's real life NHL stats for the 06-07 season.
  • 26 NHL teams that were in the original NHL 94 in addition to Nashville and Atlanta. (Columbus and Minnesota to be included in "NHL MMVII: Special Edition")
  • Most realistic gameplay and pace of any other hockey game in existance.
  • Realistic rink appearance including the trapezoid.
  • All new soundtrack including the Hockey Night in Canada Theme as the main theme.
  • Modified player behavior to reflect the "new NHL". Defensemen are better prepared on defense and do new things such as cut off passes.
  • It is not as easy to score. You can no longer score at will with "cheap" goals
  • More penalties called to reflect the "new NHL"

Here are some screen shots:

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That looks f**ckin cool. Dude, its a must have.

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"All new soundtrack including the Hockey Night in Canada Theme as the main theme."

sweeeeet, cant wait for that

Did you fix the weight/hitting ratio for certain players....this is a daunting task, as some actual light players can hit pretty well, but there are alot of big guys who cant hit for s**t because of the bug. Fixed or not, looks like a great rom. Hopefully by the time i get a Wii there will be a way to emulate it on that.

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To elaborate further on what I said above, there will also be a Special Edition of NHL MMVII which will probably follow the other one by about a month or 2. The Special Edition will have the following features:

  • Columbus and Minnesota will take the place of Nashville and Atlanta.
  • Teams that have 3rd jerseys will be wearing them at home.
  • Slight graphical differences such as clearer glass (see screenshot below)

I might add a few more differences here and there but the bottom line is that I want the Special Edition to be different enough from the original so people other than Minnesota and Columbus fans have reason to play it, but on the other hand, I don't want the Special Editon to be "better" than the original. We'll save that for NHL MMV8 :P See the below screen shots. Keep in mind that these aren't as complete as the screen shots above as I haven't gotten around to upgrading the faceoff dots.

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post-46-1168728586_thumb.jpgpost-46-1168728653_thumb.jpg

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"All new soundtrack including the Hockey Night in Canada Theme as the main theme."

sweeeeet, cant wait for that

Did you fix the weight/hitting ratio for certain players....this is a daunting task, as some actual light players can hit pretty well, but there are alot of big guys who cant hit for s**t because of the bug. Fixed or not, looks like a great rom. Hopefully by the time i get a Wii there will be a way to emulate it on that.

The Hockey Night in Canada theme plays at the main menu screen, the team selection screen as well as the initial pause screen where you set up your lines at the start of the game. There are also other things such as Rock and Roll Part 2 playing when some teams score goals.

I am aware of the weight/check bug. I haven't "fixed" the bug but I have worked around it by compensating for the heavier guys checking ability while also taking into account the fact that the lighter guys need a lower checking rating. I also haven't hesitated to give players a 0 (25) checking rating if they refuse to play a physical game in real life. Overall the hitting isn't as easy in this game but that is an accurate reflection of the "new NHL" in which physicality is slowly being eliminated from the game.

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I played a bit of this release and the jerseys and the graphics look really good, Chris went all out to make the jerseys and the logos to look as close to the original as possible. While the graphic improvements are sweet the gameplay due to the lower ratio of the player ratings, makes this game far more challenging and that's really all that matters.

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Looks great! This is Gens right?

[*]It is not as easy to score. You can no longer score at will with "cheap" goals

Wow! I gotta ask, how are you able to do this? Have you figured out how to change the goalie AI?

[*]Modified player behavior to reflect the "new NHL". Defensemen are better prepared on defense and do new things such as cut off passes.

Again, how do you do this?

Amazing stuff. No more cheap goals!! Hope I'm not dreaming...

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Yes it is Gens.

Wow! I gotta ask, how are you able to do this? Have you figured out how to change the goalie AI?

Yes and no. I have figured out how to swap the player AI but not modify it (for example, giving the goalie the defense AI which makes him circle around the defensive zone, or giving him the forward AI which makes him join the rush). Thats some interesting stuff which I plan to explore a little more in-depth in the future. But getting back to MMVII, it is not as easy to score because I have tied the players shot power and shot accuracy directly to the amount of goals that particular player has scored.

My formula is that I take the amount of goals scored, divide it by 10 and that is the players shot accuracy (example, a 30 goal scorer gets a 3, a 40 goal scorer a 4, a 2 goal scorer a 0, etc.). The shot power is the same thing but I just add 1 to the final number due to a bug in the game where players with weak shot power have a tendency to shoot the puck into the stands everytime.

To sum it all up, if you are shooting with a player who only scores 5 goals this season, expect it to be near-impossible to go in unless he is set up with a wicked one-timer, which is the way it usually goes in real life. In the original 94, EVERY single player was a scoring threat and pretty much could score at will when a halfway decent player is holding the controller. In NHL MMVII, goals will be harder to come by because every team only has so many 30+ goal scorers, which will put the focus on the opponents trying to shut down players such as Crosby, Ovechkin and Malkin which is what real life NHL hockey is all about.

There are similar formulas which I have tied to other player attributes such as pass accuracy being directly tied to assists, endurance being directly tied to age, aggression tied to PIMs.

Again, how do you do this?

This really isn't that hard, what I have done is slowed down the players a little bit (in original 94, players could sprint across the whole rink in about 2 and a half seconds which is totally unrealistic). I have also increased the defensive awareness of the defensemen and they are usually in position instead of being caught circling aimlessly around the blueline. Basically I haven't really done anything to the AI. The defense AI was actually much better than we realized because the people who did the ratings made the skaters too fast and blew by the defense before they even had the chance to assume the defensive position.

The result of this improved defense is that the front of the net is better guarded and a lot of passes are cut off which makes it much harder to bang in those one-timers. Also since the front of the net is guarded so well, I find myself skating into the corners and trying to make plays from there whether it be dumping it all the way around the boards or using my point men and passing back and forth until I see an opening. In many ways it really is like playing an updated game using the same controls as NHL 94.

Amazing stuff. No more cheap goals!! Hope I'm not dreaming...

No you are definitely not, ask Evan and Donny. Both of whom tested out an early prototype and actually tried repeatedly to score those cheap goals with minimal success

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I'd like to see more improvments like this going into the game, ultimately It would be sweet to have a game with 94 style gameplay with AI enhancements and new hockey game options, problem is people focus too much on the options and adding player controls the game gets too bogged down, heck the whole reason we edit this game is because we all know that the new games have lost much in the translation.

I would like to see 94 taken to the next level and I'm sure most of the people here do to or we would not be here.

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Chris, I should have asked you when we talk on AIM, but I need to know...

How did you change the music to the Hockey Night in Canada theme? I'm thinking of wanting to do something like that for my hack.

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Yes, this ROM is pretty cool. I've tested it a little in the earlier stages and it's slick. You definitely notice the AI difference, with the lower rated players barely being able to score at all.

It's good to see active game editors working on some cool stuff. Makes the editing guys inspired to get involved as well. Chris, as usual, you got a good thing going here. Keep up the good work.

-Evan

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Chris, I should have asked you when we talk on AIM, but I need to know...

How did you change the music to the Hockey Night in Canada theme? I'm thinking of wanting to do something like that for my hack.

It's not feisable unless your working with the CD version; since the audio files are in MP3 format you can swap them for any tune pretty much. I don't think anyone has discovered where the audio files for the Genesis version are. Or how to edit them.

The edits look like they are going to be something for the ages. Good to see someone carrying the torch (lordy knows I can't).

I know I've asked this ad nauseam, but can anyone tell me if the ISO's work with Kaillera?

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I added a few more screenshots above.

The suckiness of NHL 07 and NHL 2K7 is what inspired me to start this project. EA sports and 2k sports give us annual bags of monkey crap year after year and I'm fed up with it and this is my answer to it. I hope that everyone enjoys the finished product because that will make the answer even more emphatic.

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A bit of an update...

My goal was to have this done by the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the worst case scenario having it ready by the start of the Finals. I am still shooting for the start of the Playoffs but I'm not sure how realistic this will be. I have everything pretty much done with the exception of the rosters and the player cards. I have started the rosters and I have about 8 teams done (of course I'm going to need to double check each team and make a few changes after the trade deadline which is approaching). Those of you that hex edit will know that doing the rosters is an extremely time-consuming process. The pace at which I have been working at (2 teams a day after I get home from my day job), has burned me out. I'd rather delay the game a few weeks if it means doing more of a quality job. Like I said, I'm shooting for the start of the playoffs, but realistically, we are probably looking at the 2nd or 3rd round. I will continue to show the overall progress in my signatures.

In other news, I plan on releasing this as a patch, which will convert the original NHL94 ISO into NHL MMVII. It will require downloading a certain patching utility called Ninja, but overall, it will be worth it since the patch itself is actually less than 1MB. I still haven't worked out as good of a solution for distributing the audio files, but I suspect that I'll be able to patch those as well with some tinkering. Stay tuned...

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A bit of an update...

My goal was to have this done by the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs with the worst case scenario having it ready by the start of the Finals. I am still shooting for the start of the Playoffs but I'm not sure how realistic this will be. I have everything pretty much done with the exception of the rosters and the player cards. I have started the rosters and I have about 8 teams done (of course I'm going to need to double check each team and make a few changes after the trade deadline which is approaching). Those of you that hex edit will know that doing the rosters is an extremely time-consuming process. The pace at which I have been working at (2 teams a day after I get home from my day job), has burned me out. I'd rather delay the game a few weeks if it means doing more of a quality job. Like I said, I'm shooting for the start of the playoffs, but realistically, we are probably looking at the 2nd or 3rd round. I will continue to show the overall progress in my signatures.

In other news, I plan on releasing this as a patch, which will convert the original NHL94 ISO into NHL MMVII. It will require downloading a certain patching utility called Ninja, but overall, it will be worth it since the patch itself is actually less than 1MB. I still haven't worked out as good of a solution for distributing the audio files, but I suspect that I'll be able to patch those as well with some tinkering. Stay tuned...

Hey Chris, it's Ben from back in the old skool editing days. I'm happy to see you're still chugging along with the editing. Your newest creation looks huge. I look forward to the final product and would be willing to help ya out if needed.

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I have tested the patch myself and it works, just download the NHL 94 iso off the downloads section on the main page install the patcher and there you go, only takes a bit. More info will come when the update is complete on how to do this.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Update:

All these trades have been pissing me off and frustrating the hell out of me. Theres nothing worse than busting your ass on stats/rosters only to have them rendered obsolete with every transaction and watching all your work go right down the drain. As a result of this, I have decided to take a bit of a break and finish up the game AFTER the trade deadline.

Those of you that have been fortunate enough to play the prototype, please share all your thoughts on it. Lets keep this thread alive and let it remain a bright spot on the editing board which has been spammed with a lot of needless threads lately.

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Just because the "New" NHL is calling more borderline infractions doesn't mean the game should too. Do you really want to have a power play fest for half the game? Visually it looks phenomenal and I love the HNIC theme song idea. Keep grinding in the corners as many of us eagerly wait for what looks like a monster of a game. Don't get too realisic. I really don't need to see Kiprusoff hosing his ugly mug with water between every face-off. :D

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Realistic is exactly what we want, tis why I repeat myself a million times, is why we play 94 over most of the new crappy hockey games that are anything but real. It's still good ol' NHL 94 in this edit just improved. :)

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Don't worry man keep grinding it out, we don't even want the small players dealt, just the big ones like Smyth...damn Ryan Smyth...still can't believe Captain Canada is now in the States with the Islanders of all teams.

I'm actually really enjoying the moaning and whining coming out of Edmonton right now. Much of the Oiler's success has come on the backs of the Canucks and that is never forgotten. :D As for Smyth, at least he'll have a shot at a cup. I just hope NHL MMVII incorporates Edmonton's new logo:

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