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The Weight Bug - FIXED!


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As most of us know, in NHL 94 on the Genesis, there is "the weight bug" that makes it so light players can hit and take hits better than heavy guys. This bug makes heavy guys like Lindros and Lemieux play like feeble old men, while light guys like Roenick and Fleury run around and crush everyone.

Well, I found the code in the ROM that is responsible for this incorrect behavior, and I have fixed it!

This is not like what I did with the original Blitz ROM in early 2008 (where i just changed the weights to reflect the players' Checking ratings -- and since weight affects acceleration and turning, this had the unfortunate side effect of making the fast-but-light players really sluggish, ie, easy targets for checks)

This new fix does not affect acceleration! The players will skate/accelerate/turn exactly the same as before. The only difference is, when you use a heavy guy like Lindros to check a light guy like Fleury, Fleury will actually fall over now!

Here are the ROMs.

The first also has extra code to make a high checking rating make a player a more effective checker, and a low checking rating, a less effective checker.

The second is just the plain weight bug fix (heavier is better)

NHL94_WgtChkFix.bin - Wgt bug fix + bonus/penalty due to checking rating

NHL94_NoWgtBug.bin - Just plain weight bug fix

You can also read about the riveting technical details of the bug fix here + download a program to apply the fix to ROMs

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Oh my god we need to make a league of this! this is how NHL94 was meant to be

In Blitz, for season 2, I'm going to put the weights back to normal and use the code weight bug fix.. unless maybe we can get a large portion of current blitz league guys to agree to change it now before the season really gets going.. but well no one seems to be around these days anyway...

Another idea is to just have 2 roms for Blitz and let people choose which one they want to use each game (but the original weight-changed ROM gets precedence because it's what people drafted based on)

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As most of us know, in NHL 94 on the Genesis, there is "the weight bug" that makes it so light players can hit and take hits better than heavy guys. This bug makes heavy guys like Lindros and Lemieux play like feeble old men, while light guys like Roenick and Fleury run around and crush everyone.

Well, I found the code in the ROM that is responsible for this incorrect behavior, and I have fixed it!

This is not like what I did with the Blitz ROM (where i just changed the weights to reflect the players' Checking ratings -- and since weight affects acceleration and turning, this had the unfortunate side effect of making the fast-but-light players really sluggish, ie, easy targets for checks)

This new fix does not affect acceleration! The players will skate/accelerate/turn exactly the same as before. The only difference is, when you use a heavy guy like Lindros to check a light guy like Fleury now, Fleury will actually fall over.

Here she is:

NHL94_NoWgtBug.bin

You can also read about the boring technical details of the bug fix here

I will write a little program that will apply the fix to any nhl94 ROM some time.

I'm glad you discovered this NOW, rather than when the next NHL season began. I have been building an NHL 09 rom for quite a while, and created my own formula for what a player's weight should be (in accordance with his checking rating). Knowing that you fixed the problem now, I feel I can soon put the players' weights back to normal and apply whatever changes are necessary to fix the weight bug.

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Like i said i the other thread...gens is inferior because of this...but i guess you just fixed it.

so is every league going to change this now?

cause in draft leagues poeple draft light guys because of this bug. this changes everything!

my team will go from really great to like...medium.

which...isnt THAT bad, but i want the great team i hussled for, you know?

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Like i said i the other thread...gens is inferior because of this...but i guess you just fixed it.

so is every league going to change this now?

cause in draft leagues poeple draft light guys because of this bug. this changes everything!

my team will go from really great to like...medium.

which...isnt THAT bad, but i want the great team i hussled for, you know?

Everyone's team will be affected, so everyone will need to shuffle things to get the team they want :)

I think most leagues will stick with the bug, anyway.. I suspect that most people will find they prefer the bug in!

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Smoz, great job! I applied your steps with a hex editor, and it works like a charm. It's fun to finally have players like Joe Thornton, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin, and other strong puck-carriers be difficult to knock off the puck now. Now I don't have to make bruisers like Komisarek, Chara, Orpik, Phaneuf, and Ovechkin 172 lbs!

However, I will experiment and decide whether or not I still want to change the weights of the goaltenders. In my NHL 09 rom, I made all goaltenders identical in weight (so that their lateral movement may be determined solely by their speed and agility ratings). I have no conclusive proof -- just a hunch -- that weight affects a goalie's performance in NHL '94.

One thing that would be great: I would love it if any of us could figure out a way to make SPEED affect a goaltender's overall rating. I thought it was comical that it affects the rating in '93 but not in '94. EA's formula for a goalie's overall rating is just terrible for NHL '94.

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Smoz, great job! I applied your steps with a hex editor, and it works like a charm. It's fun to finally have players like Joe Thornton, Mario Lemieux, Eric Lindros, Jaromir Jagr, Alexander Ovechkin, and other strong puck-carriers be difficult to knock off the puck now. Now I don't have to make bruisers like Komisarek, Chara, Orpik, Phaneuf, and Ovechkin 172 lbs!

The bug fix just makes it so higher weight players can take out lower weight players. Guys like Phaneuf (200lbs=7 or 8) and Niklas Kronwall (192lbs=6 or 7) will still be relative pansies. Though, if they have good skating stats, that'll help their ability to hit, because they'll be able to actually catch guys. Lindros is pretty hard to hit with, still, since he's so slow (high weight slows acceleration, which slows turning).

However, I will experiment and decide whether or not I still want to change the weights of the goaltenders. In my NHL 09 rom, I made all goaltenders identical in weight (so that their lateral movement may be determined solely by their speed and agility ratings). I have no conclusive proof -- just a hunch -- that weight affects a goalie's performance in NHL '94.

Yeah, I suspect that lower weight for them works the same as for players -- quicker acceleration. But I haven't actually noticed it.

One thing that would be great: I would love it if any of us could figure out a way to make SPEED affect a goaltender's overall rating. I thought it was comical that it affects the rating in '93 but not in '94. EA's formula for a goalie's overall rating is just terrible for NHL '94.

An easy way to do this would be to substitute speed for defensive awareness in the formula (since that would involve changing just one number in the code). Don't all the goalies have just 3 or 4 speed in the original ROM, anyway? That's weird; I wonder why they made it like that.

--

I'm going to try to extend this bug fix so that it takes into account the player's checking rating... but i'll have to learn a few more things in order to do it, so it'll take a while.

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  • 3 years later...

It's so tempting to finally make the switch from '93 to '94 now...part of what kept me away was the lack of depth with no fighting, but this fix brings a whole new element to the game. This is like NES Ice Hockey meets NHL94! Thanks a ton smozoma.

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  • 3 years later...

Didn't remember if I said this before, but thanks for this. Do to my new found preference of SNES over Genesis, I enjoy the fixes you've added to the game. Very rarely do I even play the OG Genesis version anymore. I enjoy using the players that were actually meant to be used like in the SNES version.

:dal_skater_hand_grab:

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