The first generation Virtual Stadium titles used motion-captured sprites, but second time around it's all polygons with the 3d models built from data obtained using enhanced motion-capture techniques. When EA introduced their Virtual Stadium technology for the '96 range NHL '96 was the first to be released and as such was less polished than it could have been, although nonetheless very good. EA know all too well that the first impression that the game-player gets is a visual one and this is certainly very impressive.
Then, there is a brief wait while some loading is done and then it's straight into a demo exhibition match. This is followed by a rapidly changing montage of action video clips. The game starts with a pre-rendered sequence of some basketballs being melted down to make pucks and goalie masks. Anyway, I digress, the installation program is up to EA's usual slick standards and proceeded without a hitch, I chose the middle of three installation options ranging from 25 to 80-something megabytes. Thankfully, I had no such problems with good old DOS, and as ever my nice standard PC at work with it's ubiquitous Soundblaster 16 worked fine in Windows 95. As it was this took a lot of persuading before it ran in Windows 95, needing the latest Matrox drivers, yet at least six other DirectX games have worked without problems with my previous drivers. DirectX and Windows 95 seem to have something against ice hockey games - witness the problems with Virgin's NHL Powerplay '96. NHL '97 comes with both MS-DOS and Windows 95 (DirectX) versions on one CD.
The manual was somewhat lacking on this subject and I don't think I was ever certain what icing was until reading the NHL '97 manual!
As I only ever played the PC version I can't comment definitively, but I spent many enjoyable hours playing it, despite at the time having never really seen ice hockey being played or really knowing the rules. It was said at the time by some that the PC version was inferior in gameplay terms to the Megadrive original. This was around three years ago and it featured one almost top-down forced perspective viewpoint and VGA graphics. The first NHL Hockey was a hugely popular game on the Sega Megadrive and was converted some months later to the PC. Judging from past EA Sports titles, I had high hopes for NHL '97 .
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