NHL 94: 2023 Edition by Adam Catalyst ------------------------------------------------ 2023 01 17 - Version 1.1 Hello there friendly strangers, Here is the latest version of my 2023 ROM. The goal is to try to provide the most refined and realistic up-to-date versions of this all-time classic game. I'm thrilled to be able to share this with you. Here are the top reasons you might want to give it a try... Rosters, Ratings & Lines Eight hundred players obsessively rated, up-to-date rosters, and realistic lines, based on extensive 2021-2023 regular season player data and analytics. All of this is built on top of smozoma's 16-point player rating system (the original game was limited to a 7-point system). Gameplay Revisioned The gameplay has been adjusted for a more realistic modern hockey feel, with harder to score goals, easier to hit crossbars and posts, more realistic speed burst, fewer penalty calls, custom energy depletion and recovery rates (balanced for more realistic line rolling and shift length), and player rating distribution curves that have been carefully calibrated for more realistic gameplay on the ice. Graphical Refinements The most obvious change is the move to composite sticks, but there are hundreds of graphical refinements beyond this, including title screens, logos, banners, player photos, scoreboard, audience, face-offs, player sprites, scorekeepers, Zamboni driver, and more. The goal is to bring the most graphically refined version of NHL 94 ever made, while remaining faithful to the spirit of the original art direction. And so much more Of course there is the weight bug fix, but also a custom weight scale, less variance in Hot/Cold rating randomization, immediate goalie control by pressing the (Y) button with a six-button controller (clockwise), a custom 3-Stars of the Game rating formula, a Vegas / Washington / Winnipeg Menu & Player Cards crash fix, and… Every single change is documented below. I would love it if you would give it a try, and leave me any feedback! cheers, -Adam p.s. If you are interested in anything NHL 94 related, check out nhl94.com for more great ROM hacks, leagues, tutorials, and just about everything you could think of. ---------------------------------------------------------------- About Me ---------------------------------------------------------------- I've been discreetly creating an eclectic array of professional-quality media content for the Internet for decades. Whenever possible, I make sure that everything I produce is available for free, no strings attached. If you ever see anything with the tag "-AC" or my handle "Adam Catalyst" being bought, sold, or traded, please let me know at adam.catalyst@proton.me. Also feel free to just say hi anytime! And if you ever want to leave me a tip to help with my living expenses, I'd greatly appreciate it. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/adamcatalyst ---------------------------------------------------------------- Features & Modifications ---------------------------------------------------------------- Title Screens ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: EA logo refined. - Graphics: High Score Production screen restored to be closer to the original. - Graphics: Splash image updated with my personal 2022 MVP vote. - Graphics: Masthead re-drawn to match EA’s current NHL23 lettering. - Title screen Logos removed. - Credits re-coloured & edited. Main Menu ------------------------------------------------ - Settings: Default teams set for the 2022 Stanley Cup finals. - Settings: Playoff brackets updated to the 2022 seedings. - Settings: 7-minute period length option added. - Settings: Line Changes default set to on "On," because that's how I roll. - Graphics: Team Logos updated, with up-to-date official colours relatively mapped to the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive colour space. - Graphics: Team Banner colours adjusted to be uniformly consistent with the logos. - Graphics: Player Photos all updated with official NHL headshot images, custom cropped & colour graded. - Hack: Bug that would causes crashes upon cycling through the Player Photos for Vegas, Washington, and Winnipeg has been eliminated. Please note, this comes at the cost of preventing saved stats from showing under player names. - Typesetting: Player names centred vertically. - Main Menu: Re-wording of a couple menu options for greater clarity. Pre-Game ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: Play-off Banner colours modified & dithered to look much closer to the authentic colours used in the menu screens. - Graphics: The Pre-Game Announcer's picture frame has been altered to be more consistent with the design of similar elements throughout the game. - Arena Names: All up-to-date as of January 2023. Arizona State welcomes you to Mullet Arena. - Pre-Game: Match-up position names have been simplified for better accuracy to "Forward," "Defence," & "Goaltender." Arena ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: Audience colours throughout have been slightly adjusted to have more uniform tonal contrast. - Sprites: Audience members throughout have had a myriad of minor errors fixed. - Graphics: Ice Colour lightened slightly. The darker colour was giving me eye strain. Arena - Sideboards view ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: Scoreboard Banner colours modified & dithered to look closer to matching the Menu Banner colours. - Graphics: Sideboard Scoreboard has custom drawn NHL logo. - Graphics: Side-boards Score-Keepers revised. - Sprites: Zamboni driver revised to better match the perspective of the side-boards. Arena - Ice view ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: Centre ice logos updated, adapted from NHL Rewind designs to match the perspective of the ice. - Graphics: Goalie crease outline modification. - Graphics: The Crease's blue ice now has texturing like in the original NHL 94. No self-respecting goalie doesn't chew up their crease with their skates. - Graphics: Extremely minor lighting details in the original ROM that were incorrectly coloured so as to be invisible, have been restored to be visible. - Graphics: Bench coaches added. - Sprites: Bench players "chirping" animations refined to be less cartoonish. - Graphics: Score-keepers revised. - Graphics: Horizontal seam in the glass has been erased. - Graphics: Bench area modifications. (slapshot67) - Graphics: Bench backup goalie hack. (slapshot67) - Graphics: Net re-design. (slapshot67) - Graphics: Goal light modification. (slapshot67) - Graphics: Face-off circles modification. (Author unknown) - Graphics: Trapezoid line modification. (Author unknown) In-Play ------------------------------------------------ - Sprites: Uniforms have been coloured to have consistent official colour use, and a greater sense of depth with as realistic as possible colour shifts for shadows and highlights. Tests were done with demo play to try and give the most accurate impression of how team's look in motion, and not necessarily what is the most accurate in still. Lighter shadows under the players complete the look. - Sprites: Face-off animations revised. - Sprites: Players given composite sticks, because grey pixels have better puck feel, more flex, and are lighter weight. - Graphics: On-Ice Player Numbers changed to white for better legibility against the ice. - Graphics: On-Ice Player Star for Player 1 colour was changed to have less contrast against the ice, and to be less distractingly conspicuous compared to other visual elements. - Graphics: On-Ice Player Star for Player 2 was left the same colour, but because of the adjustments to the ice and player one star, the player two star now appears more distinctly. - Sprites: Goaltenders masks revised to reveal their faces. - Sprites: Puck and its shadow revised. - Sprites: Player Helmet colour patch. (Clockwise) - Sprites: Player Stick tape patch. (Clockwise) - Sprites: Improved Checking animations patch. (Clockwise) - Sprites: Player Eye colour patch. (Clockwise) - Sprites: Player Boots & Gloves colour patch. (Clockwise) Rosters ------------------------------------------------ - Rosters & Lines: Updated based on extensive 2021–2023 regular season player usage data. - Rosters: Shortened all last names to a maximum of 10 characters, to avoid cosmetic glitches in the game. This affected ~20 players in the game. Ratings ------------------------------------------------ - Team Ratings: Team attribute & overall ratings updated as per January 1, 2023 regular season data. - Player Ratings: Underlying system has been changed from the default 1-6 scale to a 0-15 scale for more accurate differentiation of players. (smozoma) - Player Ratings: Custom player ratings based on a mix of real-world data and gameplay oriented parameters. The goal is to make gameplay more contemporary, and individual player performance more realistic. - Player Ratings: Custom overall rating formula. - Player Ratings: Much more parity between the best and the worst of the league, with all players having a minimum 52 rating, ranging to a maximum 95 for McDavid, before Hot/Cold variance. - Player Ratings: Weight scale modification patch. (smozoma) - Player Ratings: Edit lines bug fix patch. (smozoma) Gameplay ------------------------------------------------ - Controls: Goalie control can now be accessed immediately by pressing the (Y) button with a six-button controller. (clockwise) - Player Ratings: Attribute rating distributions have been careful set and thoroughly tested to produce a faster more contemporary feel to puck movement & gameplay, with better goaltending throughout. - Gameplay: Body Checking and Aggressiveness have been balanced to reduce the penalty rate from the original, and approximate the real body checking and penalty rates of each team in the 2022–2023 season. - Gameplay: Hot & Cold range of variance has been reduced by ~25%, and the frequency of variance has been reduced by ~50%. - Gameplay: The "goal" area of the net has been reduced slightly, making it slightly more difficult to score, and slightly more likely that you will hit the post. - Gameplay: Goaltenders have slightly more lateral movement range now (without the puck). - Gameplay: Player Speed Burst set to 25% of the original, for a more realistic feel and higher difficulty. No more winning every loose puck race. - Gameplay: Custom Stamina Depletion & Recovery rates. - Gameplay: Weight / Checking bug fix patch. (smozoma) - Gameplay: Second-Assist bug fix patch. (smozoma) - Gameplay: Overtime set to 5 minutes. - Stars of the Game: New custom formula. In-Game Overlays ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: Referee pop-over refined. - Graphics: Linesman pop-over revised. - Graphics: In-Game Timer logo has been re-drawn to match the old EA Star logo in the style of the original graphic, but wider and smoother like The Sauce's excellent version, and shorter to fit the allocated space better. - Penalty: "Cross Check" renamed to "Cross-check" as per the official NHL rulebook nomenclature. - Penalty: "Face-Off" renamed to "Face-off" as per the official NHL rulebook. - Penalty: "Fight Instigator" renamed to "Instigator" as per the official NHL rulebook. - Graphics: Line Change Energy bars have been drawn to use an inverse quasi-logarithmic scale, more representative of ideal shift length and degrading player performance. - Graphics: The green for the line-change energy bars has been altered to be little bit more... energetic. - Graphics: Custom Stars of the Game icon. - Stars of the Game: Typesetting & layout refined. In-Game Menus ------------------------------------------------ - Graphics: NHL & NHLPA Logos re-drawn. - Graphics: "Hockey Night" Banner slightly re-coloured because the previous colouration, was… I just didn't like it. - Hack: Bugs that would causes crashes upon cycling through Player Cards for Washington (and possible also Vegas & Winnipeg) has been eliminated. - Typesetting: The "Change Goalie" option for "no goalie" is now in ALL-CAPS for greater visibility. Extras ------------------------------------------------ - Artwork: Matching box art was made! The artwork is high resolution, print quality, and stays very close to the original North American box design. You can view and download them from here: https://forum.nhl94.com/index.php?/topic/21621-nhl-94-2022-edition-by-adam-catalyst/&do=findComment&comment=188909 ---------------------------------------------------------------- Known Issues ---------------------------------------------------------------- * Vegas / Washington / Winnipeg Player Cards may crash if User Records are turned on, and there are stored goaltending statistics for these teams. A potential fix was being investigated, but is not at a workable state. For this reason, User Records are recommended to be left off. * User Records may incorrectly store user data if playing with Vegas / Washington / Winnipeg. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Future Wish-List ---------------------------------------------------------------- I've run out of time to work on this project, but if I did find more time, here is what I would like to focus on next... - Gameplay: Reduce the rebound rate of the puck to be way less bouncy. - Gameplay: Enable energy Recovery for players sitting in the penalty box. - Line-Changes: Enable line changes to be initiated without possession of the puck, preferably with a dedicated button. - Gameplay: Improve logic for how icings and offsides are calculated to use puck position instead of player position. - Gameplay: Prevent the goaltenders from skating into the trapezoid areas. - Sprites: Redraw Sideboards Referee to better match the art style of everything else (requires "de-compressing" shared tiles.) - Gameplay: Program the CPU to pull the goalie when trailing by 1 - 2 goals (currently only pulls with a two goal deficit). - Gameplay: Reduce the energy depletion rate for Speed Bursts. - Gameplay: Increase the amount of CPU Body-Checking without increasing the amount of penalties called. - Sprites: Improve the comparatively low visual quality of the on-ice officials throughout (requires "de-compressing" shared tiles.) - Penalties: Rename "Cross-check" to the proper "Cross-checking." - Penalties: Re-name "Roughing" period that causes an injury to "Illegal Hit." - Player Cards: Eliminate the crash that occurs on player cards for Washington when user records are turned on, and the goaltender has saved stats. - User Records: Restore system to be as fully functional as possible. - Player Sprites: Restore some player sprite shading details that have been lost from the original. If you were able to help me research or implement any of these changes, please let me know! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Credits ---------------------------------------------------------------- This project was built decades of work by the NHL94.com community, and never would have been possible without them. I'm sure there are more contributors than I could ever possibly know, let alone acknowledge, but I will do my best... Contributors ------------------------------------------------ This ROM contains contributions from the following individuals... Brodeur30 - Rink & Net collision geometry logic. chaos - Hot/Cold variation logic. Clockwise - Goalie Control with a six-button controller. - Player sprites helmet colour patch. - Player sprites hockey stick tape patch. - Player sprites improved checking animations patch. - Player sprites eye colour patch. - Player sprites boots & gloves colour patch. Dervin10 - Roster extractor & importer tool development. kingraph - Scoreboard graphic hack. - Stars of the Game graphic hack. slapshot67 - 30 to 32 team ROM re-structuring. - Scorekeepers graphic hack and original design. - Bench area graphic modifications. - Bench coaches hack and original design. - Bench backup goalie hack and original design. - Net graphic re-design. - Crease graphic re-design. - Goal light graphics revision. smozoma - 0 - 15 Player Rating scale patch. - Credits editing logic. - Edit Line Ratings bug fix patch. - Player Overall rating formula logic. - Player weight scale modification patch. - Second-Assist bug fix patch. - Stars of the Game formula logic. - Weight / Checking bug fix patch. - EARE tool development. Tony H. - Stopping & Crossover Rate logic. wboy - 28 to 30 team ROM re-structuring. - Player photo logic. - Player energy depletion & recovery rates logic. - Speed burst rate logic. - NOSE tool development. Author unknown - Face-off circles graphic modification. - Trapezoid line graphic modification. Special Thanks to... ------------------------------------------------ kingraph - tips & resources. Sauce - resources for rosters, ratings, and lines. smozoma - utterly invaluable tips, resources, tools, & support. ...and everyone at nhl94.com who tested Betas or provided feedback. Extra Special Thanks to... ------------------------------------------------ Ena - for nothing less than everything. ---------------------------------------------------------------- Version Change-Log ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2023 01 17 - Version 1.1 Weight Watchers Edition… Player weights and catching/shooting hand are now using an automated database lookup (NHL.com with EliteProspects as a fallback) to significantly reduce human error and more easily keep up-to-date. Hundreds of other minor updates were made, mainly to player ratings. Title Screen - Graphics: Splash image minor refinement. - Graphics: Masthead refined for better visual balance. - Credits: Credits copyright year updated. Rosters & Lines, & Ratings - Rosters: BUF, CGY & EDM updated. - Lines: COL & DET updated. - Lines: COL line order fixed. - Rosters: Names updated for Chris Tanev & Nicholas Paul as per NHL media guide. - Rosters: Jersey Numbers corrected for 12 players. - Ratings: Catching/Shooting hand corrected for 2 players. - Ratings: Weight updated for ~250 players. - Ratings: Miscellaneous minor updates to hundreds of players. ---------------------------------------------------------------- 2023 01 10 - Version 1.0 Initial Public Release… This first version for 2023 is built on top of the final released 2022 ROM (2022 06 12 - Version 6.0). All changes in that version are intact, with the following updates: Title Screens - Graphics: New Splash Image. - Graphics: Masthead updated. - Credit sequence updated. Main Menu - Graphic: EDM & SJS banner & logos updated. - Graphics: Player Photos added for new players, and some old photos have had minor improvements. Pre-Game - Graphics: Playoff banner colours adjusted for SJS. - Arena Names: Arizona has been updated. In-Play - Graphics: CAR Home uniforms, and on-ice logo updated. - Graphics: EDM Home & Away uniforms, and on-ice logo updated. - Graphics: SJS Home & Away uniforms, and on-ice logo updated. - Gameplay: Goalies given very slightly more lateral room to move without the puck. Rosters & Lines, & Ratings - Team Ratings: Team attribute & overall ratings updated as per January 1 2023 season data. - Rosters & Lines: Every team is up-to-date as of January 8, 2023. - Ratings: All skater ratings reviewed, and most, if not all players have been revised. - Rating: New statistical model for goaltender ratings. - Ratings: New statistical model to set CPU behaviour for shot attempts, body checks, and penalized infractions. Extras - Matching box art was made. https://forum.nhl94.com/uploads/monthly_2023_01/image.png.83c32ce86e620d7b194c74b60f9e9a4c.png ---------------------------------------------------------------- I hope you enjoy! -a