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Noclip: The Making of NHL 94 - 30th Anniversary Documentary

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman


NHL 94 is largely considered one of the best sports games ever made. 30 years after its release we talk to the developers about that era of sports game design and the magic that went into the development of NHL 94.

00:00 - Intro
02:28 - The Origins of Madden
06:38 - EA Sports Network
13:47 - Mark Lesser Sports Game Design
20:45 - NHL 94 Features
30:24 - Fights
33:14 - Testing & Production
36:28 - One Timers
38:42 - Maine Magic
42:01 - NHL 24
46:48 - The Series After 94
49:54 - Why is NHL 94 Special?
53:48 - CREDITS
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
NHL 94/95 were awesome.

A couple major quirks in one of the games (I forget which one, or perhaps both?)

- If you play season mode and get 128 pts, it puts you last place and you miss the playoffs

- When you play the game and sim stats, they seem pretty decent. Good players get lots of points, bad players dont. BUT it's all a mirage. It is not based on player ratings, but where there name is on the roster. My bro and I found this out doing trades to replicate real teams and noticed why suddenly sim stats on those teams looks wonky. The simmed stats are pre-done by roster slot. So a team's roster slot #9 might have Jagr. Racks up tons of point with default rosters. Mess around with Pitt's roster and Jagr might be suddenly roster slot #8 or #10 which might be bad scoring slots as the players originally in those slots were bad. So to solve this, you had to mess with rosters and get the good players in the right roster spot by signing or dropping additional players to get Jagr back to #9 on the roster list
 

Ozzie666

Member
My most played Genesis game by far. The year of Yzerman, Fedorov, Coffey and so many other great players on that stacked Detroit team. Little did I know they were 2 years away from losing in the finals and then so close to back to back wins. Good time to be a wings fan. I had a lot of friends in my area who lived and breathed Hockey.

However I remember always playing as San Jose or one of the bottom teams and smothering great players and winning with shutouts. Love the checking in that game.
 
I played so much NHL 93' with my Dad on Genesis. I actually have a physical copy of either NHL 93 or 94 somewhere still in my closet somewhere around here. I've never been a sports guy, even then, more so now, but it was a great game and my Dad and I got a ton of enjoyment from it at the time.
 

Lunarorbit

Gold Member
NHL 94/95 were awesome.

A couple major quirks in one of the games (I forget which one, or perhaps both?)

- If you play season mode and get 128 pts, it puts you last place and you miss the playoffs

- When you play the game and sim stats, they seem pretty decent. Good players get lots of points, bad players dont. BUT it's all a mirage. It is not based on player ratings, but where there name is on the roster. My bro and I found this out doing trades to replicate real teams and noticed why suddenly sim stats on those teams looks wonky. The simmed stats are pre-done by roster slot. So a team's roster slot #9 might have Jagr. Racks up tons of point with default rosters. Mess around with Pitt's roster and Jagr might be suddenly roster slot #8 or #10 which might be bad scoring slots as the players originally in those slots were bad. So to solve this, you had to mess with rosters and get the good players in the right roster spot by signing or dropping additional players to get Jagr back to #9 on the roster list
Wait, what?!? If you get 128 points you miss the playoffs. That's fucked.

I had some serious bs moments dominating super tecmo bowl 2 but nothing like that glitch. I would've broke a controller
 
It is amazing that EA didn’t see the value in bringing a version of NHL Rewind or similar to’94 to pc/mobile/Switch. Especially after seeing how Retro Bowl was received. Really a missed opportunity by EA.
 
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Reminds me of the double combo game of nhl and nfl for the mega drive.

EA_Sports_Double_Header_Europe_-image_530x.jpg


Brilliant games. I assume that was not hockey 94 but an earlier title right?
 

amigastar

Member
I like the Noclip documentaries.
So a little bit off topic but whats the best Basketball game in history of gaming?
 

Chittagong

Gold Member
It’s insane how good NHl94 was, they really nailed the multiplayer on Super NES. We played it daily for years at Club Nintendo.

It’s equally insane how bad NHL95 was, it was an entirely different game. The feel of the characters and gameplay was totally different, and the game was so buggy we had to print a note to be shipped with the game informing consumers of the “quirks”.
 
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