kamphuna8

USFL '84: Kings of Spring
 
Features:
 
-7 minute quarters
-Stats after every quarter
-Wedge Returns
-Directional Punting
-Run and Shoot formation for Houston
-What If Players
-'84 Rosters as close as possible (there were a lot of midseason trades, so I tried to place players on rosters where they made more appearances)
-New Orleans Breakers
-Graphic Tweaks, including funky end zones (watching USFL games I came to admire how bad the end zones often looked)
-Stat Tweaks
-3 team, 3 Division Structure
-12 teams make playoffs (as opposed to original 8 teams)
-18 game, locked, '84 schedule
-All Pro: '84 All-NFL Vs. '84 All-USFL in Vanilla (slightly modified in What If--All-AFC Freeman McNeil replaces Payton)
 
Built off the legendary USFL-WLAF hack by jstout and Denny, this rom features the '84 USFL teams, schedule, and rosters, along with a few wrinkles.
 
This rom was tricky as I am still new to this. I looked to TheRaja's TFO rom for some structure. Clubs are split into three, 3-team divisions. The schedule is '84's, so clubs still have the same division matchups. I tried to order games as close as possible to their original times and distributions, as USFL clubs played Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday every week. This still got a little murky in the middle, but all schedules are as accurate as possible.
 
This rom maintains TSB's playoff structure as well--six get in from each conference as opposed to the original 4, but, honestly, I wondered why the league didn't go with 6 just from a marketing standpoint. You got a new league with new teams, why not show them all off, a la the NHL? Once I get better at this stuff, I will edit down to a 4 team playoff.
 
Jstout's and Denny's hack was invaluable--they did the art and logos. I did make some light edits to the helmets and logos--several clubs had "triple stripe" helmets, so I shifted them to the "40" code designation, with the exception of the Maulers, whose logo is placed in the Rams making that too difficult. I changed the Feds' big helmet to reflect the switch to silver in '84 and I edited the Blitz's and Star's logos just a little bit. I also took a crack at the midfield and end zone graphics. 
 
Special thanks to USFLFan (@VUSFL2018 on Twitter) for providing invaluable knowledge on the what-if roster changes. Reading about some of the league's near-miss signings inspired me to take this on; @VUSFL2018's Virtual USFL project provided a great guide and framework. 
 
There are two versions of this rom:
 
Vanilla--the more I experimented with rosters, the more I realized I needed some balance. Vanilla has more accurate rosters. 
 
What If Edit--this is the counterfactual version, a little harder (not super juiced, but all clubs start 2-0 in terms of difficulty). This includes the "What If" Rosters.
 
Note non-TSB players: as this is an edit, and if you are playing TSB for the first time, this rom lacks the 2-point conversion implemented in USFL. Also, no touchbacks on kick-offs.
 
The Read Me includes a partial narrative and explains roster placements. 

This is my 1991 roster update to the classic game with no hacks. Personnel and ratings for each team have been changed to reflect the actual '91-92 season. A few playbooks were tweaked here and there to best fit the new rosters. You will see a lot of familiar faces and also some new ones. There is no BO. Sorry, I had to keep it real here and omit the greatest 8-bit athlete of all time due to his retirement after the '90 season. Also, No Joe. He didn't play a down of the '91 season due to injury. Plenty of hidden gems can be found on various benches, however. There are no two-way players. Sorry, but I didn't want to waist the roster spot for a return man. This is a balanced game with a lot more parity than the original roster. Enjoy, please let me know what you think. 
TSB 1991.nes

I can't take credit for this work @COA Elway did this graphical hack for another 1977 SNES rom he did. So I just copied the graphics over to the original SNES rom. Enjoy