NHL 25 - Retro 94 Edition by Jkline3 and von Ozbourne

[von Ozbourne]

Well, hopefully this was worth the wait.

Version 3.0, Trade Deadline Edition is now in the main post.

Features included in this version:

• New lines! Rosters pre-loaded to reflect lineups following the trade deadline.
• Since many teams' lines will probably be thrown into the blender come playoff time when they don't need to milk that LTIR.
• All new player ratings! Every player rating has been recalculated from the ground up to reflect changes in performance of this season.
• New player photos! For some regulars and the couple dozen new players.
• Puck collision reverted to more old-school feel, so net scoring area is bigger than in V2.
• Some overlays are modified to work with some longer names better because we kndv lyk vwls n nms.
• This version is still using the "All Players, All Positions" mod.
• Standard screen width.
  [some testing has been done with wide screen mods, but due to some preferences in formatting, this will need to be done by individual assets]

I think that's everything, but I'm literally starting to fall asleep in my chair here so this will have to do. Let me know if I missed something eh.

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v3.0.bin

[MadaHata_SW]

Long time lurker and I want to say nice work with this file.  I’ve enjoyed some of JKline’s CHL roms in the past as well as your WWE file.  Good stuff!

[Ronnie]

On 3/20/2025 at 12:35 AM, von Ozbourne said:

Well, hopefully this was worth the wait.

Version 3.0, Trade Deadline Edition is now in the main post.

Features included in this version:

• New lines! Rosters pre-loaded to reflect lineups following the trade deadline.
• Since many teams' lines will probably be thrown into the blender come playoff time when they don't need to milk that LTIR.
• All new player ratings! Every player rating has been recalculated from the ground up to reflect changes in performance of this season.
• New player photos! For some regulars and the couple dozen new players.
• Puck collision reverted to more old-school feel, so net scoring area is bigger than in V2.
• Some overlays are modified to work with some longer names better because we kndv lyk vwls n nms.
• This version is still using the "All Players, All Positions" mod.
• Standard screen width.
  [some testing has been done with wide screen mods, but due to some preferences in formatting, this will need to be done by individual assets]

I think that's everything, but I'm literally starting to fall asleep in my chair here so this will have to do. Let me know if I missed something eh.

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v3.0.bin 2 MB · 47 downloads

Sweet!!!!  Cant wait to download and try tonight!  Thank you sir!!!!

[grimmace92]

Awesome.  Took a quick look at the ratings.  They are drastically differrent from the earlier roms.  Is this intended?  Only a handful of 6 speed or 6 shot guys.  Tkachuk and Robertson are 1 speed.  Is that intended?  They basically arent usuable.

[Jkline3]

Suffered a crashed hard drive that I'm trying to recover from (BACK YOUR STUFF UP PEOPLE!!!) and lost all of my ratings spreadsheets so I can't speak entirely to how they were calculated. Tkachuk (oof) and Robertson are both among the slower skaters in the league this season. Tkachuk for example:

Although all players were completely re-rated, there shouldn't be a large difference in the number of 6s handed out - as in the original NHL94 I generally reserve them for the best of the best. I do use also use a comp system that takes into account a player's role and compares them to how that fit into ratings in the original game to prevent ratings bloat where everyone is an 80+ overall.

I did do a set of ratings last year that boosted players' speed ratings to potentially account for the faster pace of the game today but I don't think they were used in a finished ROM?

The drawback to having more data available to address things like skating and shot speed is although the ratings might more accurately reflect the reality of a player's skill set it doesn't necessarily translate to what makes players good in the actual game. Maybe the solution is to raise the floor on several key ratings (like speed) to make the game "more fun"? The problem there is that with 700+ players to rate now it makes for much less diversity in ratings, there's a big fat middle section of players that essentially play the same.

[Jkline3]

Just a quick side note to illustrate how slow Tkachuk really is... Nathan MacKinnon has broken 20+ mph 415 times this season or on average 5.85 times per game.

Tkachuk has done it 6 times the entire season.

[grimmace92]

If its intended thats cool.  Some other things I noticed.  I used Tampa in our league and Point was a 6 speed in the earlier rom and now he's a 4.  Mcdavid was a 6 speed now a 5.  Barzal now only a 4 speed.  He is on IR so maybe you are dinging him for that?  If all this is intended its all good.  Just figured I'd let you know what i'm seeing and ask.

A really good example is Sam Reinhart.  Poor Florida decimated lol.  2 speed 2 shot power.  In real life has 35 goals in 71 games.  Wont score a single one with those attributes in the video game.

Edited March 26, 2025 by grimmace92
added more context

[Jkline3]

Didn't mean to break everything 

It's great that the NHL is providing all this new data and I've tried to incorporate it into my ratings. The downside is exactly what you've pointed out...

Just to use your examples, McDavid was intended to be dropped, his top speed this season is behind Necas, Kupari, Jarvis, Janmark, Stamkos, Pospisil and Trocheck. The problem is, as you've pointed out, that it takes away from the "name" players. I doubt anyone is saying, "I can't wait to play with Mattias Janmark and Martin Pospisil!" Digging deeper, you could probably make good cases for McDavid and MacKinnon to be bumped up as they skate faster more often than Stamkos and Trocheck. Point is probably the highest-ranked of the 4s, just missing the cut but based on TOP speed.

Another stat the NHL now provides is 20+MPH/G. Top 3 would be McDavid, MacKinnon and Point. Maybe it would be better to use that instead of a skater's top speed moving forward.

Barzal... well he's had a rough season - he's only the 173rd ranked skater based on top speed at only (only?) 22.78 mph. Matt Rempe is (gulp) 154th. However, he's a respectable 3.27 20+ per game which would put him at 13th among forwards and on the 4/5 cusp. He's just not the burner he used to be this season, be it age or injury.

Reinhart is another problem one:

The new stats just aren't very kind to him. He's in the low-mid range among forwards in skating speed and he's only shot over 80 mph 5 times this season. However he's got a high shooting %, high offensive awareness and is among the league leaders in goals. You're right though, the low speed and shot power ratings kill him.

I was hoping that the new info available would make the game more interesting and bring a new element to player ratings outside of points per game and goals scored. Unfortunately the way that certain ratings have an oversized impact to in-game performance it seems it just created more problems.

Appreciate the feedback, playtesting is the only way to learn about this stuff. I'll definitely take it into account next go around.

 

 

[grimmace92]

I think its cool what you're trying to do.  It's tough to translate it to the game.  I just quickly exported the rom and used excel to look at various guys and those guys really stuck out as good examples.  We'll use the rom as is for the league.  Appreciate your updates so us consumers can have some fun with it.  It's getting some good exposure on the discord.

[Jkline3]

Came up with a few ideas last night on how to soften the blow on some of these quality players who have below average speeds/shot speeds without completely breaking my methodology. I'm fighting with one hand tied behind my back while I sort out my laptop issues but I'd like to try and maybe do an update of the ratings prior to the playoffs.

Appreciate any feedback you (or anyone else for that matter) has in the meantime. Everything helps. Also, do you play with line changes?

I still can't get over how slow Tkachuk is in real life, however... Only forward with any notable playing time that is more of an anchor by any of the data available is, drum roll please, Pat Maroon - who is hanging them up in a couple weeks.

[von Ozbourne]

Just woke up with a thought, [maybe I need help if I'm dreaming about this stuff] and figured I might as well purge this from my brain so I can get on with my day. My two cents.

Going to historical guys that I'm more familiar with, Phil Esposito and Teemu Selanne both scored a career high of 76 goals. Given that he was called the "Finnish Flash", it's not surprising that Selanne was one of the fastest guys in the league in his prime. But Espo was a different story. Not at all that fast, but he was a big body that parked himself in front of the net and couldn't be moved, getting a sizable chunk of his goals from tips and rebounds.

Now it would make sense that Selanne would have a speed of 6 and Esposito is more like a 2, but to advocate for the devil, the game isn't the same as real hockey and you're guy could have a 96% shot accuracy rating, but it doesn't do any good if he can't push his way through the defence to get a clear shot. If it sounds like I'm arguing both sides, sorry, my brain just does that. But to defend my partner's choices, I've always liked the adaptability required when dealing with lower stats in games and not relying on "More numbers = more better". That said, sometimes a game wasn't designed with that nuance in mind and you're just handcuffing yourself. As mentioned, this would be where the play testing comes in. Better data does help make better decisions, so if the general consensus supports it, we can try to consider that and plan updates accordingly.

[AdamCatalyst]

My $0.02. Compensate with the Awareness value, etc. Endurance. Shot Accuracy too, if they score goals. As for variance from one release to the next, you could try using rolling average ratings for players, so the more games they play, the less their ratings move around from one release to the next. On more than one occasion I released a ROM where my rating for a player (internally) was broken, but thanks to the rolling average, no-one really noticed.

Also, Nathan MacKinnon is broken this year. Not like in the game. In real life.

 

Edited March 26, 2025 by AdamCatalyst

[grimmace92]

Yeah I think from a playability standpoint a 1 speed guy will never be used.  Even a 2 speed guy is pretty brutal. In this rom I can see a 2 speed guy who is heavy you can get away with it as a defenseman.  If he has a big shot then maybe at Center (Ovechkin as an example).  It's a tough balance between fun and what is perceived as accurate real life ratings.

[von Ozbourne]

Hey all. Had a couple issues that I didn't necessarily want to keep in the final version for the season, so we agreed to make one more update.

Changes in this one:

• A handful of teams have added some new players now that they don't need to worry about that pesky salary cap
• Glass collision has been returned to normal so the crowd should get less souvenirs
• New weight bug fix calculation has been included so those big guys should be better able to make those big hits.

Updated in the original post, but here it is too.

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v4.0.bin

[MadaHata_SW]

Nice job!  Thanks for posting your new version!

[Jkline3]

Here's another version that should play a bit faster. Don't want to bore with silly math stuff but did a few things to bump up the median speed and shot power and factored in offensive performance to make the real life slow but skilled skaters more playable.

NHL 2025 - Retro 94 Edition v4.1.bin

Appreciate any feedback if you use it.

[AdamCatalyst]

@Jkline3 I live for silly math stuff!

Edited June 16, 2025 by AdamCatalyst

[von Ozbourne]

On 6/16/2025 at 4:40 PM, AdamCatalyst said:

@Jkline3 I live for silly math stuff!

I guess you would be into this silly math stuff then huh.

Is it thread hijacking when I started the thread?

Edited June 19, 2025 by von Ozbourne

[Ronnie]

Hey @von Ozbourne!  Hope you had a great summer and are gearing up for NHL opening night tonight!  Just curious when this years NHL 94 Hockey game will be released by you?  Love your ROMs each and every year and appreciate all you do. :-)

Edited October 7, 2025 by Ronnie

[von Ozbourne]

Thanks @Ronnie hope you had a good summer too. 
This is where I say actually...

The short summary is that we did put out a "preview" for this 2025-26 season here.

But the slightly bad news is that while this is really a beta version and is about 90% of the way there, this is a partnership with @Jkline3 and coincidentally, both of us are kind of dealing with some extracurricular stuff we'll say. Don't worry though because it just means that while you'll have to settle for this version on opening night... today, it will probably only be a couple weeks or so before version 1.0 is ready to go.

[Ronnie]

On 10/7/2025 at 7:52 PM, von Ozbourne said:

Thanks @Ronnie hope you had a good summer too. 
This is where I say actually...

The short summary is that we did put out a "preview" for this 2025-26 season here.

But the slightly bad news is that while this is really a beta version and is about 90% of the way there, this is a partnership with @Jkline3 and coincidentally, both of us are kind of dealing with some extracurricular stuff we'll say. Don't worry though because it just means that while you'll have to settle for this version on opening night... today, it will probably only be a couple weeks or so before version 1.0 is ready to go.

Sweet!  Thank you! :-)