USFL '84: Kings of Spring 1.0.0

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.