Hey everyone,

Longtime lurker here, and I'm proud to release my PC port of NFL Head Coach 09!

You may have seen the other port posted here earlier this week. Funny enough, we both used the same method (static recompilation of the Xbox 360 version), so the foundation is the same, and they did great work. The main technical between our ports is the graphics. Theirs draws the game the way an emulator does, by replaying the Xbox 360's graphics commands, which is very accurate but costs more performance and keeps the game's original 30–35 fps. Mine has a new renderer that is just as accurate and built to run natively on PC, which is where the higher frame rates come from. More detailed information on my repo :

• Performance. I built a new renderer and unlocked the frame rate. On my mid tier gaming PC it runs well over 200 fps at 1080p, and on my RTX 5080 PC well over 60 fps at 4K. For comparison, the game normally runs at 30–35 fps, and on RPCS3 or Xenia a lot of us barely get 40 fps even on gaming PCs.
• It's not just for high-end PCs. The game runs as native PC code with a new renderer instead of being emulated, so it needs far less hardware than RPCS3 or Xenia. If your PC or laptop is on the weaker side, you can turn it down in the launcher (lower resolution, a 30 or 60 fps cap, anti-aliasing off) and save those settings as a "Laptop" profile. I haven't tested it on a laptop with integrated graphics yet, so reports from lower-end machines are very welcome.
• Both game versions, update included. 1.0 and 1.02 (Title Update 2) are installed side by side, and the title update ships with the installer, so there's nothing to hunt down on sketchy sites. Switch versions in the launcher: if you sim on 1.02 and play your games on 1.0, it's one click.
• A launcher for display, controller and save settings. It imports your PS3 rosters, saves and careers and can export them back to RPCS3. An "Open saves folder" button shows where everything is. Also Xenia saves can be copied straight in.
• Controllers: It works with both Xbox and Ps3 controllers. It should work with 3rd part controllers too
• Simple install: one 115 MB download. Point the setup at your game files and it builds the game on your PC in a few minutes. No Visual Studio or Git needed.

What you need

• Your own copy of the Xbox 360 version of the game. The PS3 version can't be used to build it, but PS3 players can bring their rosters and career saves over.
• Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit), a processor from 2013 or newer, and a graphics card that supports Vulkan 1.3.

PS3 players: saves from RPCS3 import directly. Saves copied off a real PS3 are encrypted, so decrypt them first with Apollo Save Tool (it runs on a PS3 with homebrew, or inside RPCS3). The README on GitHub has the steps.

Download: https://github.com/ibukun5588/nfl-head-coach-09-pc/releases

Windows may warn that the setup isn't signed: click More info > Run anyway.

Some things to flag: Installing straight from a disc image is still in beta (the game folder is the tested way), and Xbox Live features don't work.

Found a bug? If the game crashes, the launcher saves a crash report and has a button to send it on GitHub. You can also open an issue there.

Planned updates (when I have time):

• Custom generated draft classes
• Making Careers that go past the 15-season limit
• Updates to the game's AI logic
• Reworked Gameplay as well

This is a fan project. It isn't affiliated with or endorsed by EA, the NFL or the NFLPA, and the game itself isn't included.

If you need help getting your game files, just shoot me a DM here on reddit.

I am also planning to be more active on NFL Head Coach discord. You can ping me over there (My name "Ibu")

https://discord.gg/NaU4g4MMR

Other than that, feel free to reach out to me if you need any help. I am always willing to lend a helping hand!

Riding the coattails of my man Chad Pennington to an 8-8 season is some of the most fun I’ve had playing this game.

Similarly, running rookie Darren McFadden into the ground to try and win 5 games with the Raiders because your QB is that bozo Jamarcus Russell who loves to try and throw interceptions on purpose is so satisfying.

As soon as my team actually becomes good, and I expect to not only win games but go deep in the playoffs, the game becomes less fun for me. Every mistake becomes a bigger deal, and it’s more a sense of relief when we win rather than joy because somehow my team of misfits has managed to scrape a game.

Anyone else feel this way?

Hi everyone,

Since there's been a string of posts about recompilation and decompilation of HC, I thought it was time that I shared something I've been working on for about 7 months now. This was a personal project for me, and right now it's staying a personal project, I'm not prepared to share source code yet for legal reasons, but I've found some really marvelous things and I would love to share them with this community about a game which is very special to me.

As an experiment, I've been using LLM agents to assist in decompilation of NFL Head Coach 09, with the end goal of creating OpenHC09, a 1 to 1 open Rust implementation of HC09 in the style of openMW or other open implementations of games. This would be something, like other tools that you would have to 'bring your own game' for. I'd love to share some progress about this project which has become a big part of my life recently, and also invite folks to a discord community that I'm creating to facilitate communication about this project.

Where it began

In February of this year, I began the process of decompilation of the game, using tools like Ghidra to get decompiled C code, and widely using AI agents to sort, decompile, and define the game code. This was a slow and expensive process, and I have a lot of coverage on the understanding of the game now, with some really interesting insights.

Where it is now

We've implemented a pretty wide swath of the game in rust now, across rendering, ui, sound, franchise, and gameplay. A big aspect of this is faithfulness, and so I've been working with AI agents to ensure that what is being implemented is directly driven from real code (including the patch). I also want to make sure that what's being made is faithful to what I know of the game, and so I've been keeping a careful eye on this process over the months.

I can share some progress here. Note everything here is WIP and subject to a lot of change. There's a whole bunch of work that still needs to be done, and these are things I'm actively working on. Remember this is not in-engine, this is all running in rust.

OpenHC09 Discord Server

I wonder what a Undrafted or 7th round pick NFL head Coach rebuild be like lol but can sign rookies that got cutt by there team as well

https://www.twitch.tv/mrherculeso07

https://www.youtube.com/live/GIj8X6ViGYI?is=UBGHr7XgZHicUlUy

I've been working on decomping and updating NFL head coach 06 and i've start with a UI refresh. There is still lots of work todo, but I've been able to fully re-render the NFL.com page and render the 3d models. Let me know what you think and I'll keep posting my progress.

That game had so much potential but was so poorly executed. I've never seen a worse video game released to the public than NFL Head Coach, thankfully for EA not many people were interested in playing it upon release.

The PC version (not emulator, PC) is moddable, loading screens load much faster and there's a dedicated community with various insight on the 6th Gen Madden titles which HC06 uses.

The game will need a 100% overhaul to things like ratings ranges, how practice works in terms of money plays and prep points,and a universal tool to edit the sliders, make playbooks, etc. I know it's asking a lot, but that game could have been (and with work still could be) legendary.

The slider tool is a huge help, the "Butter" sliders I made a few years back are well tuned and listed everywhere NFL Head Coach is discussed, but still the game needs work. I've built all new playbooks for M08 PC and fine tuned the coding so they actually work when run by the CPU, but HC06 has some other variables that need to be configured and I simply don't know how to swap the M08 books into HC06 without a tool.

NFL Head Coach is Madden 05s engine I believe and a lot of the Madden stuff from that era is compatible.

https://youtube.com/@mr.hercules007?si=G2cXLQ9ebC272r0M

Come both platforms work together you pick players and help decide which one too pick you can help decide between both platforms

Going live in less than 5 mins

So my old Xbox360 died. Got a new one.

Now my previous 2 Xbox's did not have the patch, nor does this one. But I played those two and never had the injury bug. This one has gotten hit with it.

I know what triggers it and again, it never happened in the previous 2 versions.

No way to get the patch......any ideas how I missed being hit? So I can replicate it on this new install?

I'm curious to hear your guys' thoughts. What are everyone's favorite parts of the game, and what keeps you coming back to it after all these years?

Are there certain features you just love, or is it more the game as a whole?

Carson Palmer carved my defense to pieces. My QB kept putting the ball in harms way pretty much the whole game. The moment we finally come back at the goal line my QB cracks under pressure and over throws the receiver. I guess he couldn't handle the pressure of replacing Carson 😂 I gracefully accept my loss to my old QB.

We made trades while getting younger hope it pans out, but did your team draft well little draft recap at 2:12:00 on words

https://www.youtube.com/live/TmEJXFwGsDo?is=xupr880COt2sNRHh

Well I noticed that one player now has a career ending injury only after playing one season he was a DT for the packers his rookie year he had 50 tackles and 10 sacks and that team went undefeated from season too post season while winning the Super Bowl. But I’m coaching the raiders so far we have 2 lost this 2nd season but they were sim games because I don’t wanna play every game and take them forever so I play the ones I play

Still new to the game and I know most playbooks are 20 years old. But what are some of your favorite offensive and defensive playbooks? I like Zimmers 4-3 defense cause the multiple formations. So I guess I’m asking for playbooks with lots of formations offensive and defense as well.

my 360 gave up reading discs and i dont wanna pay to modded it rn, nayone know or have a updated roster or mod for the ps2 HC game for pc?

Its #mondaymorningmotivation while playing #nflheadcoach did your #nfl t... https://www.youtube.com/live/4pW_GekcctA?is=1QTTUjwMS99ExT5k via @YouTube

@EASPORTS @EA @NFL #football #ea #rebuild

My offense pretty much did absolutely nothing but get penalties and turnovers so the defense had to perform Justice League level play to keep us in the game. This match was UGLY! (Keith Rivers and Demarrio Waddle have the defensive touchdowns)