NHL Stanley Cup

Another one of the many hockey games on the SNES. But this one is in Mode 7!

Error Handler#

There are few unused disabled error handlers in the US version. Patch the US ROM at 0xA9940 to 0xEA, then at 0xDFF64 to 0x00 to see one of the messages about "Battery RAM" checksum error.

To see another message about "WRAM" checksum error, additionally patch the ROM at 0xDFF66 to 0x00 as well. Then start new game in any mode. The message will appear before the start of the game.

Unused Text#

There are a few messages inside the message library for the game that aren't used at all.

Build Info#

Stored at 0xD952:

ver 10 7 10am

Sound Test#

Text for a sound test can be found at 0x0DE56 between other used message library. Some code routines at 0xD9DE in the US ROM are using these texts but there is no proper code to call these routines. So there is no easy proper way to re-enable it.

PLAY TUNE #/
ROCK N ROLL
ROCK 1
ROCK 2
CROWD
CANADA THEME
USA THEME
PLAY SFX #

Same in the French texts library at 0xE2C6:

Écouter/
ROCK N ROLL
ROCK 1
ROCK 2
CROWD
CANADA THEME
USA THEME
Écouter/sfx #

Regional Differences#

To do: Compare the titular Stanley Cup and its Super Hockey equivalent.

As it had happened with the original NHL Hockey a few years prior, and mirroring what had previously happened with Nintendo and Sculptured's own NCAA Basketball, when NHL Stanley Cup made its way outside North America it lost the NHL license along the way, becoming Super Hockey. Two versions exist, one released in most of Europe, and a separate version for France, with one actual notable difference between both.

Title Screen#

NHL Stanley Cup	Super Hockey

The title screen's logo was changed due to the title difference. Super Hockey also removes the NHL copyright/licensing info due to not having the license.

Options Menu#

NHL Stanley Cup	Super Hockey	Super Hockey (FR)

NHL Stanley Cup featured both an English and French language option, which the game's packaging proudly advertised, in an obvious attempt at catering towards the Canadian market. Super Hockey, as previously mentioned, had two different versions, and it's in this regard where both differ, as the general European release is entirely only in English, while the separate French release unsurprisingly features the French language option once again.

Difficulty Levels#

In NHL Stanley Cup, the difficulty levels are called Junior, NHL, and NHL Pro. Super Hockey changes these to Amateur, Regular, and Pro.

League#

As mentioned, Super Hockey does not have the NHL license, so it features the fictional WHL (presumably short for World Hockey League) instead, with all teams and divisions changed to fictional international ones (with a slight misspelling in one team's case)

Graphical Changes#

Background Graphics#

Most of the background graphics were changed due to the change of league.

In-Game Graphics#

All instances of the NHL shield shown during gameplay were also altered on Super Hockey; the one seen on the rink was recolored, while the one seen on the scoreboard was left largely identical besides the different initials. Curiously, both feature a slight inconsistency, in that they refer to the WLH rather than the WHL as seen on the menu graphics.

References#