NHL 94: 2025 Edition by Adam Catalyst

[DirtyB]

This is just a small request any chance of shortening Mitchell Marner to Just Mitch. https://www.nhl.com/mapleleafs/player/mitch-marner-8478483 has it listed as such. Thanks to everyone for making such a great game.

[AdamCatalyst]

Thanks for catching that! Fixed. Hopefully this weekend I can put out a final version. 

[DirtyB]

Maybe even make Anthony Stolarz  the starting goalie for the leafs also. Thank you 

[AdamCatalyst]

Lol - I did. That was the very FIRST mistake I noticed. I’m a huge Leafs fan, I knew exactly the roster changes I wanted for the playoffs, but somehow they stayed in my head. 

[waynehigh]

Single game playoffs not working, resets to ana vs ana after first rd, and youre unable to play, any thoughts? thanks for the hard work, very well done ROM

[AdamCatalyst]

@waynehigh oh weird! I've had no issues playing single games and series. Can you give me any more information… what team(s) were you using?

EDIT: Just tested again, no issues. Please let me know what hardware OR software emulator you are using, and any other details?

Edited May 1 by AdamCatalyst

[waynehigh]

8 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

@waynehigh oh weird! I've had no issues playing single games and series. Can you give me any more information… what team(s) were you using?

EDIT: Just tested again, no issues. Please let me know what hardware OR software emulator you are using, and any other details?

i was using kega fusion, and i was columbus, after 1st game and continuing playoffs again, the screen then showed like 3-2 4-1 or whatever as if they were 7 game series, then id start next game, it owuld say anaheim vs anaheim and at face off as soon as i press any button, striaght back to main menu

[von Ozbourne]

Interesting. If I may interject. I wasn't having issues with the ROM when playing the playoffs, but I use Gens.

I will note that the Anaheim vs Anaheim thing sounds exactly like a side effect of one of the old Player Card freeze bug fixes. The one that resulted in preventing the player card data from crashing the game because no data was being saved. But this ROM doesn't use that method. [you can tell because the player names are on the second line on the main menu roll call]

I wonder if there is a glitch somewhere with the way Kega Fusion is dealing with the save data.
[in Gens it's a .srm file, I am not familiar with Kega to know if it uses the same format]

[BFA]

Signed up for the forum specifically to thank you and give you huge props for all the work you continue to put into this, absolutely loved NHL 94 as a kid back in the day (so many hours 'invested') and now with the new players etc my young kids are obsessed with your version. We're watching playoffs as a family and for them to be able to play the same matchups, with the same players, and even recognize their faces, is a huge thrill for them and keeps them coming back to play again and again.

And that's before we even get into the massive litany of gameplay updates and improvements, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original (and including the patches to revert things, if we so chose!) is just phenomenal. Just wanted to take the time to give you a shout out that your efforts are very much appreciated. Keep up the good work!

[halifax]

This is a great 12 minute video from tech dweeb on the @AdamCatalyst rom!

It explores the updates that are done every year. I really enjoyed it!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zkw-01CNrQs

[AdamCatalyst]

@halifax I can't remember the last time I blushed so hard. What a video. A beautiful love-letter to the game, and the best of its era in general.

[AdamCatalyst]

7 hours ago, BFA said:

Signed up for the forum specifically to thank you and give you huge props for all the work you continue to put into this, absolutely loved NHL 94 as a kid back in the day (so many hours 'invested') and now with the new players etc my young kids are obsessed with your version. We're watching playoffs as a family and for them to be able to play the same matchups, with the same players, and even recognize their faces, is a huge thrill for them and keeps them coming back to play again and again.

And that's before we even get into the massive litany of gameplay updates and improvements, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original (and including the patches to revert things, if we so chose!) is just phenomenal. Just wanted to take the time to give you a shout out that your efforts are very much appreciated. Keep up the good work!

Oh man, waking up to comments like this is like Christmas morning for me. Thank-you so much for taking the time to write-in. It makes me so happy to imagine you enjoying with your kids. All the best to you and yours.

[AdamCatalyst]

12 hours ago, waynehigh said:

i was using kega fusion, and i was columbus, after 1st game and continuing playoffs again, the screen then showed like 3-2 4-1 or whatever as if they were 7 game series, then id start next game, it owuld say anaheim vs anaheim and at face off as soon as i press any button, striaght back to main menu

Thank-you for this! Helpful. Will try to re-create this morning. I am itching to get v3.6 out the door ASAP. Even if I can recreate the error, I doubt that I can figure out a fix it in time, but will take another stab at recreating it this morning.

EDIT: Good news, bad new. I was able to recreate the error, 100% of the time. Thanks for help from @von Ozbourne, I was able to identify that the error has to do with the system knowing that it is in playoff mode, but not being able to load in the information about the ongoing playoff series, and thus defaulting to all zero vales for team, series wins etc. (ANA is team 0 in my ROM). The bad news is that I could only recreate the error by forcing it to happen in the code. I could not get it to happen organically, in the latest versions of Kega Fusion, Gens, Genesis Plus GX.

So first I would ask that you make sure that you are using the latest build of your emulator. If you are, check your settings next. Make sure that you have not disabled anything involving memory or save ram. If you are still getting the error, can you ZIP up your emulation install for me to test?

Edited May 2 by AdamCatalyst

[AdamCatalyst]

10 hours ago, von Ozbourne said:

Interesting. If I may interject. I wasn't having issues with the ROM when playing the playoffs, but I use Gens.

I will note that the Anaheim vs Anaheim thing sounds exactly like a side effect of one of the old Player Card freeze bug fixes. The one that resulted in preventing the player card data from crashing the game because no data was being saved. But this ROM doesn't use that method. [you can tell because the player names are on the second line on the main menu roll call]

I wonder if there is a glitch somewhere with the way Kega Fusion is dealing with the save data.
[in Gens it's a .srm file, I am not familiar with Kega to know if it uses the same format]

I was wondering exactly this. Thanks for clarifying. Going to play-test with user records turned on. Actually, I should also play test with the old freeze patch that breaks the playoffs to see what it does. Do you offhand know where it is? I'm sure I could search for it, but that's all the way at the top of this webpage, and I am tired.

EDIT: Thank-you for this. I was able to adjust to code to re-create the error. You are right, he is describing a scenario where it is loading in null values for continuing a playoff series. I just can't figure out why he would ever see such a thing.

Edited May 2 by AdamCatalyst

[von Ozbourne]

11 hours ago, AdamCatalyst said:

was able to adjust to code to re-create the error. You are right, he is describing a scenario where it is loading in null values for continuing a playoff series. I just can't figure out why he would ever see such a thing.

I have nothing more to add other than this reminds me of how you could follow the readme instructions to the letter, but still not be able to get your Sound Blaster drivers to work properly because of some esoteric unknown compatibility issue with your SDR RAM not being friends with your brand new VGA graphics card.

[von Ozbourne]

Sorry. Just realized that I do have something to add.

Congrats on the nice review man. That was pretty awesome.

[waynehigh]

Sorry for the delay, just saw your response, I am using the latest fusion (3.64) and havent changed any settings, ill include my save state and my install file, hope this helps

EDIT: I noticed this game doesnt have a .srm file in my fusion folder like all the other games ive played, wonder if this plays a part?

CBJ.gsx Fusion364.zip

Edited May 3 by waynehigh

[AdamCatalyst]

@waynehigh a couple issues right away.

1. There is no INI file. I need to see that the see your paths setup. The fact that there was not one present in the folder is strange.

2. YES, there should be an SRM created on startup. If you cannot find one, that might be the problem. I've included one here to try.

I DID try it out, with your copy of Kega, but it's byte for byte identical to my own since it is generating an INI for my system. Regardless, I tried your save state, and it is screwed up. Every time I load a game, It shows me that it anticipates the next series will be CBJ @ BUF, but when I go to play it, I get MIN & TBL in the final. If I scroll through the menu, it changes the teams to MIN & TBL. There is clearly an issue here.

I am increasingly certain the problem is your configuration, not the ROM. If you can send me your INI, and a copy of my ROM that you are using, exactly as it is, I can try to troubleshoot that. I have a theory, but need more info to test it.

Edited May 3 by AdamCatalyst

[joonaspes]

Hello,

Good job on the ROM, I really enjoy it and also played on last years 2024 version.

On the latest version 3.5 i seem to get no energy depletion, my lines are always with full energy. Do I need to patch with one of the gameplay patches to get energy depletion?

[AdamCatalyst]

@joonaspes Thanks for writing in!

Are you sure you didn't accidentally set line changes to off? I've never seen energy depletion fail to work properly, and it's been very throughly tested. If the problem persists, please give me more details (In-Game Settings, Emulator, etc.) and I will see if I can recreate it.

[AdamCatalyst]

@waynehigh Thanks for sending everything I requested! I was able to recreate the error. The problem is most likely with your emulator. Here is what I see happening.

There are two key files invvoled.

1. the SRM, which is the file for the virtual battery back-up save RAM that you would find on a cartridge.

2. the GSx, which is your emulators Save State file. TO my understanding this is akin to a snapshot of the CPU Stack and RAM etc.

When a game has no SRM, it is easy for a Save State to restore things perfectly. But in this case, some relevant playoff data appears to be stored in the SRM, and NOT the CPU stack and RAM. So the Save State alone is slightly incomplete.

So with NHL 94, when you restore a Save State in a Playoff series, both files are necessary for the restore to happen properly. In fact, the emulator needs to make sure it uses the correct SRM with whatever GSx it uses, or… guess what might happen?

I found that if I mixed and matched your GS0 with other SRM files where I had started other matches in Fusion, I could get lots of different errors, mostly just having the wrong teams show up. However, I could recreate your error exactly, if I started a playoff series, and saved a state. Then I deleted or moved the SRM before reloading the state. Did it every time, ANA vs ANA, all series at 0-0.

I am going to assert that your Kega Fusion did not either properly save or restore the correct SRM file with your GS0. Your INI indicates that your SMD/Genesis Save State files are located in: StateFiles=C:\Data\Fusion364\Save

You might want to check there, to see if there are other SRM files saved that you could load up instead. However, I suspect that the SRM used for your Save State was overwritten, at some point. Kega Fusion appears to only save one SRM per ROM file name.

I don't think the problem is with the ROM at all, just Kega Fusion acting in a less than desirable way.

[joonaspes]

On 5/4/2025 at 12:07 AM, AdamCatalyst said:

@joonaspes Thanks for writing in!

Are you sure you didn't accidentally set line changes to off? I've never seen energy depletion fail to work properly, and it's been very throughly tested. If the problem persists, please give me more details (In-Game Settings, Emulator, etc.) and I will see if I can recreate it.

I'm playing 7 min periods, regular season with penalties on and line changes manual. 

I entered the team roster page during a game and could see that the energy was around 90 with the players I had on ice. But they restore quite fast and I can play the whole period with one line.

I run on a SF2000 hand held device, need to look in to what emulator it uses. 

When I played last years version the energy depleted faster.

 

[AdamCatalyst]

@joonaspes Oh! I thought you were saying that they were not losing energy at all. Yes, the energy recovery and depletion is completely different from last year.  

Energy Depletion rate per second of skating
-48 / -52 (2024 / 2025)

Speed Burst Energy Cost
-204 / -82 (2024 / 2025)

Energy Recovery Rate Per Second
+16 / +9 (2024 / 2025)

Energy Recovery Conditions
On-Bench Only / On-Bench and/or Penalty Box (2024 / 2025)

Energy Level After Timeout
100% / +270 (9 per second * 30 seconds) (2024 / 2025)

Timeout Conditions
Anytime / Only During Stoppages (2024 / 2025)

So lots of differences, aimed at more realism, and better balancing forward and defence energy drain rates. Depending on one's style of play, there may be more or less impact with these changes. I'm not going to change them so late in the season, but I will play test them again this summer, and likely make the depletion slightly more aggressive. Unless your players are always at 90, it's not broken, just different. Please do let me know if you see anything that seems outright broken!

Edited May 5 by AdamCatalyst

[AdamCatalyst]

@DirtyB Should have v3.6 out before the draft tonight. I am so tempted to rename "Mitchell Marner" to "Just Mitch" as per your request, but will go with "Mitch Marner" instead.

[DirtyB]

@AdamCatalyst is there an easier way to request roster changes then posting it here? 

[AdamCatalyst]

@DirtyB Nah, I prefer people post here. That way I don't get a whole bunch of the same PM. Gives me one single place top monitor for feedback.

[DirtyB]

I believe Spencer Knight should be the starting Goalie for the Chicago Blackhawks. 
 

Frederik Andersen Should be the starting goalie in Carolina also. 
 

thank you for your work in creating this excellent game.

Edited May 5 by DirtyB

[AdamCatalyst]

@DirtyB I already had the change for Anderson incoming. 

Honestly, too late to do Knight right now, as I am QAing the release. But I will make a note in case I end up making another update, and will look out for Knight coming out of training camp next year. 

[AdamCatalyst]

v3.6 released on the main page! Some tiny roster fixes, and lines updates for the key players who returned from injury.

[joonaspes]

@AdamCatalyst I tried again and it worked better now. At first I didn't check the energy levels from the roster pages and the lines seemed "full".

I really like playing this game as a warmup before the real playoff games 😀