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NHL 25 - Retro 94 Edition by Jkline3 and von Ozbourne


von Ozbourne

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Hopefully this one's better late than never. As tomorrow is going to be a busy day of turkey and being reminded that family is like beer, best enjoyed in moderation, I figured I'd get this one out tonight so it will be ready for some playoffs with those of us who would rather play games than lie on your aunt's new carpeting in a food coma. As mentioned in last season's thread, this one is not entirely complete in that most of the depth player's photos have not been updated yet [blame nhl.com for taking so long to update] and a few other things like updating some line changes will need to be revisited once a larger sample size is available. Feel free to leave feedback is anything else turns up that may have been lost in the shuffle.

Anyway, it's about time to present:
2025-001.png
The Hughes Deluxe Retro Edition.

To start off some additional graphical changes were made to this version starting from the moment you plug your cart in and hit the power button.
2025-002.png  2025-003.png
The second splash screen uses the cluttered on-ice ads section to list all of the required parties including the nhl94.com community website.

Another new addition is the updated menu screen which see the old arena be retired in favour of a modern dressing room. In addition to the logos on full colour uniform background, the player call out will scroll through the entire roster if you can wait long enough.
2025-004.png  2025-005.png
Dave Reid sticks around as the presenter for NHL Network, introducing the newest team of Utah and a one of a few teams in their new look.

Another new look team waits for a redressed Zamboni driver to finish his task, while another team paints a new center ice logo to celebrate their 50th anniversary.
2025-006.png  2025-009.png

Player cards again feature full colour photos. And while some players will have to wait for their new photo to be uploaded to the game art, the top line of each team did see an update.
2025-007.png  2025-010.png
Speaking of lines, most teams are configured to match their season opener line ups, but that will probably be revisited next month some time when more data is available. We also fixed a couple things we didn't like about the back end of player ratings from last year, so hopefully that feels better than last year as well. This version is very much true to the feel of the original NHL'94, but we have been debating an additional, more arcade-like edition. Don't worry, we'll keep a classic version as well.

With Arizona moving to Utah, the playoff brackets did need to be edited, but with the discovery of how playoffs are calculated, a whole lot of randomness was baked in for better variety of first round match ups.
2025-008.png  2025-011.png
Also drawing attention to some minor tweaks to the 3-Stars formula. It should feel a little more logical than the original selections.

That's probably it for now. Feed back of course is appreciated - you know, if it's constructive. I did fix a couple of typos today though, so if you spot one I missed, feel free to get as mad as you want.

 

Hope you folks enjoy this one.

Most updated version:

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v2.0.bin

 

Old version for old people:

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v1.0.bin

Edited by von Ozbourne
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Oh man, from a color management standpoint, thank god EA had Hughes wear the flying skate jersey instead of the Orca/blue one!

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2 hours ago, Sean said:

Oh man, from a color management standpoint

You have me wondering actually. The behind the scenes is that that image uses about 32-36 unique colours and the Vancouver uniform is using it's own separate palette from the New Jersey colours. All three palettes share the black to white range, but it might have been possible to have the blue to green colours on their own instead.

Although that said, it would have been quite the clash colour-wise, so it was both logistically and aesthetically beneficial for all three Hugheses to stick to the warm side of the colour wheel.

7 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

There's one possible playoff tree where Vegas plays the Islanders in the first round. 

<insert guttural sounds of disappointment> Stupid Utah.
On the plus side, I looked the draws over again and you just had to find the only instance of a mismatch.  That'll be something I'll have fixed for the next patch

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back in my day... i made this for playoff matchups

image.gifimage.png

 

looks like theres a 110 different payoff matchups, this was for 93 though, you get the idea... one home and away vs each team

Edited by 77
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19 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

<insert guttural sounds of disappointment> Stupid Utah.
On the plus side, I looked the draws over again and you just had to find the only instance of a mismatch.  That'll be something I'll have fixed for the next patch

I only noticed it because I started a playoff as the Sabres which at this point feels like it should be impossible.😭

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3 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

I only noticed it because I started a playoff as the Sabres which at this point feels like it should be impossible.😭

Ah, well there you go. The game was messing with you because it knew that the only way the Sabres were making the playoffs this year was if Vegas were playing in the Eastern Conference Final.

 

12 hours ago, 77 said:

back in my day... i made this for playoff matchups

I have to ask. What do the numbers represent? I'd figure they'd be scores, but some of those look like a basketball score vs a football score.

Edited by von Ozbourne
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10 hours ago, smozoma said:

It's just 16 colours? Or did you use the multi-palette technique?

Thanks eh.

Oh yeah no. It would have looked really bad if I tried to make that in only 16 colours so I did end up using three palettes. Luckily the image is very vertically aligned so it wasn't hard to keep track of the different sections. The New Jersey brothers got the first palette all to themselves so it was just the 8 greyscale shades and an array of reds. The second palette is also used by the NHL and NHLPA logos, but since those are greyscale as well, with the first slot dedicated to transparency, that left seven colours left over for the middle Vancouver uniform. I think the third palette used to be for the original '94 NHLPA logo? but with both logos sharing the second palette now, the third one was unused and free to make as many skin tone shades as possible. I don't recall what the forth one is reserved for, but I don't think it would have helped anyway.

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thanks so much for this, i don't even want to admit how many hours i've logged already.

the only thing i've seen close to an issue is when loading a saved line, the defensemen get jumbled up and are replaced by the same three forwards. i don't know if this is just something that happens with the edits or not so i thought i'd flag it you just in case

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those are games...  using NOSE to edit your play off matchup, CAL home vs CHI away GAME 1, COL home vs DAL away GAME 2, DET home vs EDM away GAME 3...  theres 8 games per DRAW, so maybe i did 4 west games then 4 east games?  super confusing stuff... all i know is it took me a long time to figure it out

thats how i figured out my playoff schedule, so every team is home and away vs every team in the playoff selection (without having duplications)

i wanna say your rom will crash if you dont get it right

Edited by 77
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11 hours ago, 77 said:

those are games...  using NOSE to edit your play off matchup, CAL home vs CHI away GAME 1, COL home vs DAL away GAME 2, DET home vs EDM away GAME 3...  theres 8 games per DRAW, so maybe i did 4 west games then 4 east games?  super confusing stuff... all i know is it took me a long time to figure it out

Oooh... Damn I should have taken a better look. I've literally done the exact same thing even going back to the Blades of Steel days. Only difference is that instead of numbering them, I just made a list and X'd out the ones I've used. Not sure if I was just adding a step there.

Actually if you're using NOSE, the program will give you a notification if you have a team listed twice in one draw. That said, it's easy to ignore that message and do it anyway. That's basically my workaround for giving teams a "bye round" in cases where I don't have the minimum 16 teams. Makes for messy replays and you kind of have to make a non-playable duplicate of those teams to make sure the player doesn't accidentally select one.

 

15 hours ago, castingsigils said:

the only thing i've seen close to an issue is when loading a saved line, the defensemen get jumbled up and are replaced by the same three forwards. i don't know if this is just something that happens with the edits or not so i thought i'd flag it you just in case

Huh, I've not heard that one before. I am curious if that is an issue in the original 32-Team hack or if it's related to one of at least a half dozen roster affecting modifications that are included in this version. To be honest, I just never bother saving roster changes, so this would be completely off my radar, but now I'm wondering what's going on there.

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Hey great work as always, just like last year! One gripe I have to say is this year VAN away jerseys look too much like TB, especially the white pant stripe. Other than that keep up the great work, I’m a big fan of your work.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Wow… this is amazing. Awesome work.

For those wondering, this rom works flawlessly on the Retro Freak. Nothing like sitting on the couch with an old school Genesis controller to play this incredible game!

Edited by supersoundwave
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Alright, looks like it's time for an update. Although I should point out that if the previous one was more of a "late pre-season" edition, this one is more a "late opening night" edition.

The big changes that make this one a 2.0 rather than a 1.1 version are

  • Some roster shuffling has been completed.
  • All players now have updated photos.
  • [except for a couple exceptions like Swayman, whose contract issues caused him to miss picture day and even the NHL website is using a year old image]
  • Team ratings have been adjusted to reflect some performance changes since last season.
  • Some lines have been shuffled to reflect newer groupings that were put together once the regular season begain.
  • Some teams have changed starting goaltenders to reflect who's taken over the net.
  • Oh and Vegas is only in the Western Conference now.

Graphics remained constant, other than also figuring out how to use some more tile spaces and changing the frames on the title screen because it appeals to my need for visual balance more than the original ones did.
image.png

A clearly labelled version 2.0 will also be included in the original post.
Enjoy, hopefully.

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v2.0.bin

Edited by von Ozbourne
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