Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

Thought I'd update anyone interested. I'm working my way through the 1985 USFL teams and re-formatting them and trying to get the optimum starters for each team in place. About 1/3 of the way there. I'll be limiting the teams to 42 'active' players plus up to 10 'development' or reserve players. Once I'm done I'll upload a .zip file with all you need to run the game/season plus copious notes on how I run a season and factor in injuries and substitutions to cover injured players. Will also include a season summary for the league and each individual team.

[tredecimal]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

Hi guys, first post here. I loved this game so much as a kid and rediscovered it in the past few months. I've even tried to decompile it and get an idea of how the playbook works so I could write new ones. Unfortunately, my C skills are rather primitivo, but I did get an interesting result:


In one of the playbook files I added an entry in the White offensive set called "QB What", updated what numbers I could make sense of, and then copied the play above it and altered one character. I was trying to break it to see if any of these things could make changes.


After much trial and effort I got a broken version with many corrupted menus and several unuseable plays, but "QB What" was kind of hilarious. The offensive players would do something like a trap or sweep, but the ball would just sort of dance all over the middle of the field like a fumble.


Anyways, it got me to wondering what a better mind (or a less busy one) with programming could do with the playbook. I mean, it's not graphically intensive, it seems like most of the play interactions are deterministic? I've hit up a couple of hacker buddies but it didn't interest them since they didn't play the game as kids or really even like football.

[steelersgg]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

How do you install the game? I get an error. I am not that savy on how you install old games on new versions of windows. I would love to get back into this game. In the 90's my roommate and I played this a lot. This is by far the best football game. I was so disappointed when I paid for the premium edition and then it never was created.

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

G'day, I'll try to help. What actual error message are you getting and when do you get it? Does the game launch and you can't access team files? To run the game I use dosbox...

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

G'day, what you achieved sounds promising to me. I have zero programming skills, well I did a little QuickBasic back in the day but still. How did you access the play data? I'd love to see a screen dump of what you were looking at and maybe I could help out with interpreting what the numbers might mean. Myself and another guy (he runs an online NFL Challenge league called the NAXFL - see game replays on youtube) have messed around with the game for years trying to tweak it with limited success. We've been able to alter some of the Curves file to allow slightly more varied results on things such as Runs, Passes and Returns. Most of the Curves are alterable that way EXCEPT the bloody QB Scramble run Curve. That seems to hard-coded into the game such that it never allows a QB to ever run for more than 20yds. Ever. That one I'd love to fix. The .PLS file can be altered as well, in a limited way. You can add extra plays to the White Group and delete plays from the others if you want to. We have created a 1963 AFL/NFL Season and have removed all plays with the WR3 (because teams just didn't have the players to waste one at that position) and likewise the DIME defender. The game works without them fine as long as you put Filler Players in those spots.

[Hammerhunker]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

How do you install the game? I get an error. I am not that savy on how you install old games on new versions of windows. I would love to get back into this game. In the 90's my roommate and I played this a lot. This is by far the best football game. I was so disappointed when I paid for the premium edition and then it never was created.

I've wondered how much money was received for the premium and where did the money go? I know XOR got some of my nickels and dimes I sure didn't have back in college, the bastards!

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

How do you install the game? I get an error. I am not that savy on how you install old games on new versions of windows. I would love to get back into this game. In the 90's my roommate and I played this a lot. This is by far the best football game. I was so disappointed when I paid for the premium edition and then it never was created.

Put all the game files in a folder called, say, Football on whatever drive you like but we'll use c: as the example.

Open DosBox

Enter the following text at the Z:\> prompt -

Mount c c:\

You will now see - "Drive c: is mounted as local directory c:\"

So now you enter the following text at the Z:\> prompt -

C:\

This changes the directory to the C:\ drive

and you now enter -

cd\football

It will now display -

C:\FOOTBALL (with a flashing cursor)

Now enter NFL and the game will launch.

[tredecimal]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

@zonecadet-thanks for replying! I'll have to hunt around, I've installed so many different copies of this game that its hard to keep track, but when I do, I'll grab some screenshots. The playbook files you can see in your own install, I believe I used the Sublime editor, some freeware thing where you can see the coding in different text.


by cracky, one day we WILL have a five wide set in NFL XOR!

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

@zonecadet-thanks for replying! I'll have to hunt around, I've installed so many different copies of this game that its hard to keep track, but when I do, I'll grab some screenshots. The playbook files you can see in your own install, I believe I used the Sublime editor, some freeware thing where you can see the coding in different text.


by cracky, one day we WILL have a five wide set in NFL XOR!

No worries, I'll check out that Sublime thing and have a go too. I tried a hex editor, briefly, but to no avail.....

As for Five Wide, I'd be happy to get 4 out there for Kelly to have his Run and Shoot!! I like to play AI vs AI so it just doesn't go that way, if I played with manual coaching I could call pass plays all day but I refer to run seasons rather than indivdual games...

[bbgeek]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

We had a league with the original version of this game back in 1985. It was a lot of fun.


Is there a way to have folders for different seasons, or does the game only use the teams that are in the same directory as the nfl.exe?


I found the manual (includes the playbook): https://videofootballleague.com/docs/nflchal.pdf



Also, a heads up to anyone looking to use the historic seasons. I had to tweak them, as (some/many/all?) teams did not have the required 49 players, and they were also missing starters (e.g. the Punter).

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

We had a league with the original version of this game back in 1985. It was a lot of fun.


Is there a way to have folders for different seasons, or does the game only use the teams that are in the same directory as the nfl.exe?


I found the manual (includes the playbook): https://videofootballleague.com/docs/nflchal.pdf



Also, a heads up to anyone looking to use the historic seasons. I had to tweak them, as (some/many/all?) teams did not have the required 49 players, and they were also missing starters (e.g. the Punter).

It was fun back in the day for sure, we were playing it around 1984 and it was something in its day.

You can have different seasons in folders BUT you do have to replicate all the game files as it is hard coded to run of NFL.exe and find the teams in the same folder that file is in. But if you do that (replicate the game in various folders you can name them whatever you like (NFL1988 for instance) and when you launch the game via DosBox you just call that folder up to play the game and season you want.

The 'historic' seasons on offer here are a great effort but, yes, they are alittle inaccurate, as I mentioned above often the team's best receiver is at WR3 and that is a very limited position if you run the game AI vs AI. I guess you could call a lot of passing plays involving the WR3 manually but there are only four so that would be limiting.

Some further game 'requirements' are that it must have two designated centers (C) in the lineup else it will crash if the starter gets injured. Also, you don't need 49 players to run the game, 49 is the maximum but you can run it successfully all the way down to about the mid-30s but injuries can compromise the outcomes. 40 or thereabouts is often all you need.

See my comments earlier about the DIME defender and the WR3 position.

[apollo1980]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

I used to have the NFL Dream Season disk (ESPN), NFL Greatest Teams that was released in 1990, not the version you're asking for, and the 1987 season.

Threw them out years ago, never thought I'd use them again.

Ouch. Sorry.

[apollo1980]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

Also, did you know there was going to be an NFL Challenge Premium Edition? I seem to remember it had Mark Rypien on the cover. The company was taking preorders to the game, but then they shut down. People who paid the preorder fee were out of money, apparently.

Also, want a completed pass? Throw to the TE. It's a bug.

[zonecadet]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

Yes to the Premium edition, was going to have a lot of 'improvements' with my favourite being the Run and Shoot offense. As for the TE, I only ever run game AI vs AI as I simulate seasons, but yes, the TE catches a lot of passes along with the FB...

[Hammerhunker]

Re: Keeping XOR's NFL Challenge Alive with Something Really Nice!

Also, did you know there was going to be an NFL Challenge Premium Edition? I seem to remember it had Mark Rypien on the cover. The company was taking preorders to the game, but then they shut down. People who paid the preorder fee were out of money, apparently.

Also, want a completed pass? Throw to the TE. It's a bug.

So you didn't read all the posts. I commented on this the previous page. Again, I wonder how much money was prepaid and where did it go. I remember calling their customer service almost daily looking for updates.