Jump to content
NHL'94 Forums

Mark Lesser Interview


Recommended Posts

Thought this was a classic interview. Check it out....my fave snip-it:

Mark Lesser: In the realm of most games there are some fairly distinct and often simple hooks that catch a player's interest and become addicting. Even with the shell of complex graphics and sounds, there remain these core experiences which a player yearns for. For many games the eye and ear candy are of fleeting interest. I was flabbergasted to discover a website of devoted followers of NHL '94 which includes software emulation of the game and tournaments and chat rooms going strong after more than a decade. I also

http://www.digitpress.com/library/intervie...ark_lesser.html

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He also says this about NHL 95:

I could write a book on things I would like to redo. Besides fixing bugs, the tuning of many games needed more time and fewer outside 'suggestions'. NHL'95 was an example, where the player control, especially for the goalie, seemed jerky and needed more tuning. The only game I ever did that was as perfect as I could make it was my first - Auto Race, which, given the 511 byte program size and the lack of sound hardware, I think was as good as possible.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I remember being introduced to the sport of hockey for the first time. I knew almost nothing about hockey and had never watched a game when I appeared at EA with the contract for NHL '94. Some of the EA staff took me to a live hockey game and I tried to hide my ignorance. I learned the real game from programming the video game. I was embarrassed at first, but by the time the EA guys realized that I knew nothing about hockey, I did.

Whoaaa...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nice to learn some history and background from the NHL94 programmer, good interview.

Internet archive records this page from May 29, 2007 it seems..pretty new

We were having a discussion on our finnish nhl94 irc-channel (once again) about who should we thank on this great game, and how much further we can still go. Jim Simmons and Mark Lesser are probably those the most interesting guys as they have actually programmed these games. In addition the people behind NHL Hockey (1991) can't be forgotten. I guess it's pretty hard to estimate how much of their effort it is to thank. Richard Hilleman, Robert Penner, Scott Orr, Victoria Wong, Eric Pauker, Peter Veys and Dan Gessel at least have had an interesting role(gameplay editors point of view) according to game info. Not to forget anyone else who has worked on these games.

I heard there are a few retro programmers(if we can call them that..?..) that have "come back" and given something to retro projects. e.g. Steve Snake & NBA Jam in 94-95, and now he has his Kega fusion(at least) project. Kick-off's and Goal's Dino Dini has contributed something later to these games as I understood. So there's a slight chance we get some contribution someday too.

guess this post went bit off-tracks, so heres a link to cr0ssbar's recent topic ,which is somewhat related.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great find Amerk....thanks.

geez dude, not sure if I should be flattered or O-ffended B) 12 game losing streak (240+ min scoreless streak) suggests the latter :)

Peace Citadel

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Lesser sounds intense. Lives in seclusion in some cabin in Maine, then goes on to program some of the best hockey games ever made? He's like the Emily Dickinson of electronic programming. Wonder if he'd be able to remove EA and the NHL from the game, tweak the game to offer some more modes, then sell a revamped version to the hungry fans online. That is if he hasn't turned into Howard Hughes at this point.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wonder if he'd be able to remove EA and the NHL from the game, tweak the game to offer some more modes, then sell a revamped version to the hungry fans online.

Even if Lesser still has the source code on an old diskette in a closet somewhere, EA undoubtedly owns the source code. it's not just about the trademarks : )

If we want the source code, we have to go through EA... We need to convince them to be cool like id Software and release the source, like id did for Quake 1,2,&3 (http://www.idsoftware.com/business/techdownloads/).

Unfortunately, I think id released the source for those games in order to attract programmers to work for them, since experience working with Quake's code is still relevant. I don't think NHL94 is analogous, in that respect -- 68000 assembly isn't something they use anymore. They'd have to release it out of the goodness of their hearts, and I'm afraid the company is too big to do it.

Enter Plan B. Queue Mission: Impossible theme song. :P

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok i a moron when it comes to this stuff...what exactly would be accomplished if the source code would became available...someone should just call mark lesser and ask for the source code...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok i a moron when it comes to this stuff...what exactly would be accomplished if the source code would became available...someone should just call mark lesser and ask for the source code...

I'm not an authority on the subject, but I believe the release of the source code would make many things possible.

For example, while it may still take a ton of work for someone with lots of editing knowledge- things like Season Mode and Fighting would be in the realm of possibility.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

ok i a moron when it comes to this stuff...what exactly would be accomplished if the source code would became available...someone should just call mark lesser and ask for the source code...

Mark Lesser can't give us the source code. I don't think he works for EA anymore. EA owns it (as far as I know).

With the source code, people could edit the game to their heart's content. They could add new functionality. There are websites online that teach how to program for the Sega Genesis. I took a course or two in university in which we programmed for the same CPU the Genesis uses (though I didn't know that at the time!).

The ROM contains the compiled code. This is the low-level CPU instructions that tell the Genesis hardware what to do when you press the C button, what to draw to the screen, etc. The source code, on the other hand, is written in a way that people can read it and understand it.

The compiled code says stuff like "add the value from memory location 4238 to the value from memory location 894032 and store it in location 9873. if the value in 9873 is greater than 7, then... etc" While the source code would say, "add the speed of the puck to the current location of the puck. if the puck location is now in the net, then...etc" (or rather, a person could look at the source code and understand that that is what it means).

The first thing added would probably be a season mode.

I would try to fix the "weight bug" so that the heavy players could check the light players.

I'd like to see more statistics, like a stat counting checks by individual players.

Maybe fighting could be added by copying the code from NHLPA93 (assuming they were to release that, too).

Someone with AI experience might try to make the computer AI better, so it can score goals.

Bugs could be fixed.

Currently, all we can do is change the constant values in the compiled code (the ROM). For example, we can change the speed of the players, since it's just specified as a number. We can change the names of the players, since they are just written in the code. We can change some of the graphics. With the source code, we could change the actual logic behind the scenes, that makes things happen.

"theoretically" we could reverse engineer the ROM compiled code into the source code, but it would be very hard. We can't see what the variable names are, so all these numbers in the ROM code.. we don't know what they represent. Plus, the source code would have documentation explaining what each section of the code does.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

how much money would said source code be worth...

Unfortunately, I think a lot.

5 years ago, it might have been buy-able, but now, Nintendo is making money of old NES/SNES/Genesis/etc games. I can turn on my Nintendo Wii and go buy Blades of Steel for US$5, and that is like 5$ of almost pure profit because they already made the game years ago.

Currently it looks like no EA games are available on the Virtual Console right now, but I'm sure EA is thinking about it...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unfortunately, I think a lot.

5 years ago, it might have been buy-able, but now, Nintendo is making money of old NES/SNES/Genesis/etc games. I can turn on my Nintendo Wii and go buy Blades of Steel for US$5, and that is like 5$ of almost pure profit because they already made the game years ago.

Currently it looks like no EA games are available on the Virtual Console right now, but I'm sure EA is thinking about it...

On the other hand.. They could just remove the NHL/NHLPA references from the game (like they did when they included it in NHL06 on the PlayStation), then release the source code, and I doubt it would cut into their sales at all. Mainly, they just have no reason to go through the trouble and costs of releasing the code. There's just no business incentive. If it occupied 2 employees for 2 weeks, it'd cost them around 5000$ just for the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I used to think that the number one thing 94 needed was a season mode, but now, with online seasons, I really want fighting in the game. There'd be nothing quite like a fight breaking out in the middle of an intense online game. We could just play '93, but without one-timers, it's not the same.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I don't think Mark Lesser is "the man" when it comes to this great game.

Maybe the main guy is Jim Simmons (was that his name), though?

My point is, the real credit for this great game goes into the guy or guys that put together the "mechanics" of skating and the basic physics of on-the-ice movements. They got it right, in a way that has never been replicated. Mark Lesser took the existing "engine" and added some great things and fixed some bugs, but any competent programmer could have done that.

That is my two cents...

Aqualizard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't think Mark Lesser is "the man" when it comes to this great game.

Maybe the main guy is Jim Simmons (was that his name), though?

My point is, the real credit for this great game goes into the guy or guys that put together the "mechanics" of skating and the basic physics of on-the-ice movements. They got it right, in a way that has never been replicated. Mark Lesser took the existing "engine" and added some great things and fixed some bugs, but any competent programmer could have done that.

That is my two cents...

Aqualizard

I concur. His name was first, but 94 was the first NHL game he worked on.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 years later...

bump

Mark Lesser interview where he says, " I was flabbergasted to discover a website of devoted followers of NHL '94 which includes software emulation of the game and tournaments and chat rooms going strong after more than a decade."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...