This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at the PlayStation version of NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC.

Although I grew up playing both simulation and arcade basketball games, by the late 90s I’d lost interest in the new arcade titles. This was partly due to finding the sim games more appealing, but the arcade genre also seemed to be losing steam. I still loved NBA Jam Tournament Edition and NBA Hangtime, but Acclaim’s NBA Jam games weren’t impressive, and I didn’t keep up with Midway’s titles. It’s unfortunate, because there were some good arcade basketball games being released in between the original classics by Midway, and the launch of EA Sports’ NBA Street series.

The good news is that running Wayback Wednesday features gives me an excuse to track down some old games and check them out all these years later. As I’ve said before, some games are gems, while others were worth skipping the first time around. They’re all fun and interesting to sample though, but the better games always make for more exciting additions to the collection. This week I’m covering a game that I would have liked to have played more of when it was released: Midway’s NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Check out some recent modding releases in today’s file additions for NBA 2K21! Our own Dee4Three has released an update for Jim Jackson and a face for The Mask, while Lethanos has uploaded a template for custom court mods. Find them at the links below!

Dee4Three
Jim Jackson Face by Dee4Three
The Mask Face by Dee4Three

Lethanos
Lethanos Court Template 16K

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and File Additions bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with some thoughts on the broadcast camera angles, and the apparent controversy and ridiculous shaming involved with using them.

Fans are fanatical; it’s in the name! It’s fun to passionately enjoy things, but it doesn’t take much for those strong feelings to turn to tribalism and toxicity. That attitude isn’t just directed at people outside the fandom, either. There are all kinds of schisms in just about every fanbase you can imagine. Just because you like the same things, it doesn’t mean you have the same opinions, and we’re all convinced that our point of view is correct. When it comes to basketball video games, we can be really snobby about our preferences, from gameplay settings to the modes that we choose to play.

That’s why we see absurd statements like “Who even plays MyTEAM?”, when in fact it’s one of the most popular modes in NBA 2K. It’s why we see exclusively online gamers sneering at people who prefer single player experiences. “What difficulty are you playing on?” is a valid question if someone is bragging about their abilities on the virtual hardwood, but can easily turn into gatekeeping when someone is just talking about having fun with the game, which is the point of it after all. And then, there’s the mocking of choice in camera angles, particularly the broadcast cameras. I’ll just say it: it’s one of the weirdest, dumbest forms of gatekeeping I’ve seen in basketball gaming.

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Episode #373 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this weekly podcast that’s all about basketball gaming.

Our first foray into playing NBA 2K17 head to head using Parsec and Steam Remote Play didn’t go as well as we hoped, but we’re not giving up just yet. Following up on the announcement that prompted our main discussion in Episode #368, the PlayStation 3 Store is remaining open, preserving NBA Jam: On Fire Edition a little longer. Although the preview season is still months away, we’ve been thinking about past innovations that changed basketball gaming, and what would excite us for NBA 2K22. Surprisingly, it’s still not shoelace physics! In this week’s mailbag, we’re taking a look back at NBA Live 09 on PlayStation 2, and discuss buying prior gen games after we’ve moved on to a new console.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:47:58 — 74.2MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS

Join in the conversation in the comments below, or here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as mailbag questions and topic suggestions for future shows. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. The show also comes out on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe for future episodes and other video content.

There’s some great news regarding the continued availability of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition on PlayStation 3. Following on from the announcement that the PlayStation 3 Store would be closing on August 27th 2021, Sony have since elected to keep the Store open for PS3, as well as PS Vita. The PSP Store will still close on July 2nd this year.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that NBA Jam: On Fire Edition will be available indefinitely. There’s still a chance it will be removed from the PlayStation 3 Store and Xbox Live Marketplace at some point in the future. However, as long as those platforms remain open and the listings are active, you can search for NBA Jam: OFE and purchase it. There’s certainly less of a ticking clock now that the PlayStation 3 Store will remain open.

If you’re a collector and/or an avid arcade basketball gamer, I definitely recommend NBA Jam: On Fire Edition for PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360. Please note that the servers are offline, removing online play and the roster updates that the game received. It’s nevertheless one of the best games in the NBA Jam series though, and still a lot of fun to dust off today, even with the default rosters.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five times that various basketball video games featured incorrect jerseys.

In sim basketball titles, accuracy down to the last detail is the name of the game. An arcade title usually has more wiggle room for inaccurate, exaggerated, and stylised details, but we still expect a certain degree of faithfulness in NBA-licensed products. Some inaccuracies are admittedly only apparent to the most eagle-eyed gamers who are particularly attuned to minute details on jerseys, courts, and shoes. However, other inaccuracies are blatantly obvious to everyone, leaving one to wonder just what the developers and artists were thinking (or what sources they were working from).

Case in point: the five incorrect jerseys that I’ll be spotlighting today. Now, I’ve decided not to include any jerseys with incorrect colour palettes, such as the Chicago Bulls jerseys that were more pink than red for so many years. My reason is that they tend to be well-known examples too numerous to mention, and we can assume that they’re the result of developers working from official colour palettes that didn’t yield the proper results in-game. Instead, I’m focusing on jerseys that were incorrect due to weird mistakes in their design, or some other oddity. Some of these incorrect jerseys are noticeable right away, while others do require being something of a uniform buff.

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Today’s file additions for NBA 2K14 PC feature the latest face updates from Taco2k. Pick them up at the links below!

Taco2k
Jarrett Allen Face
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope Face

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and File Additions bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Live 06 on Xbox 360, and following up on my previous retrospective of the game.

When I covered NBA Live 06 as part of my retrospectives for the 25th Anniversary of NBA Live, I noted that the PC/current gen release and the Xbox 360 version received very different responses. NBA Live 06 on PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox was generally well-regarded, whereas the Xbox 360 release is seen as the beginning of the series’ downfall. I would still agree with that assessment, but as I mentioned in Episode #363 of the NLSC Podcast, I’ve been having some second thoughts about the quality of the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06.

That’s not to say that I think it’s the best game in the series, or that it wasn’t a major misstep in many ways. However, after firing up the game as part of my research for an article, I ended up playing a full game and really enjoyed myself. Considering that I described NBA Live 06 on Xbox 360 as having vastly inferior gameplay to the PC version in my aforementioned retrospective, it prompted me to spend some more time with the game and see if my opinion of it changed. Obviously it still has many issues, but does the reputation of NBA Live 06 on Xbox 360 overshadow some of its good points? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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A few dedicated modders are still making updates for NBA 2K11 PC, as you can see from today’s file additions. Download an ESPN Presentation update by Jere2K at the link below!

Jere2K
ESPN Presentation for 2K11

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and File Additions bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Start your week here at the NLSC with a feature that’s dedicated to opinions, commentary, and other fun stuff related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on how the traditional Playoffs mode is one of the most underrated experiences in all of basketball gaming.

Underrated and overrated are relative terms. In online discourse, their usage often boils down to not liking something that’s popular, or wanting the things you like to be more popular than they are, with little regard for consensus or objectivity. Since I’m talking about a mode that I believe is underrated, perhaps it would help to mention a few synonyms, such as undervalued, underappreciated, and overlooked. With that in mind, when we’re talking about underrated modes in basketball gaming, what are some of the examples that you immediately think of?

You could argue that the rise in online gaming has made franchise modes underrated, but they’re still fairly widely enjoyed by basketball gamers of all ages. The W and The W Online are underappreciated examples of how a career mode without recurrent revenue mechanics is still viable, but the WNBA’s popularity relative to the NBA is a factor. Staunch MyCAREER and MyTEAM gamers tend to underrate the opposing mode despite both ranking among the most popular experiences in NBA 2K, and boasting impressive depth. When it comes down to it though, the most underrated mode is one that we’ve had for decades now: the humble standalone Playoffs mode.

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Episode #372 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Derek (aka Dee4Three) and I are your hosts for this weekly podcast that’s all about basketball gaming.

Roster editing has come to Basketball Classics, and we’re very impressed with what Josh and Dave have managed to implement. Meanwhile, the latest patch for NBA 2K21 Next Gen is slightly less exciting, but nevertheless contains a couple of important fixes. Taking a suggestion from Twitter, this week’s main discussion concerns the difference between sports gaming and competitive gaming, and the effects that the latter has had on the NBA 2K series. We talk about how gameplay and the online scene in NBA 2K could improve, and how NBA Live could capitalise on the situation. In this week’s mailbag, we reflect on Acclaim’s NBA Jam games, and the quality of sequels.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:36:51 — 66.6MB)

Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | RSS

Join in the conversation in the comments below, or here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as mailbag questions and topic suggestions for future shows. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. The show also comes out on our YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe for future episodes and other video content.

Check out the latest face updates from our own Dee4Three – including characters from the Rocky movies! – and a Trae Young update by RKJ2K. They’re all available in today’s file additions for NBA 2K21, which you can find at the links below.

Dee4Three
Smush Parker Face by Dee4Three
Troy Hudson Face by Dee4Three
Walter McCarty Face by Dee4Three
Calvin Booth Face by Dee4Three
Rocky Balboa Face by Dee4Three
Apollo Creed Face by Dee4Three

RKJ2K
Trae Young Face with Glasses [RKJ]

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and File Additions bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five examines five factors that go into making a basketball game a personal favourite.

What determines your favourite basketball video games? Quality and liking them a lot, obviously! Short and snarky answers aside, there are a number of factors that we can identify as playing a role in determining our favourite hoops titles. Nostalgia comes into play, but even then, there are specific aspects that hold nostalgic appeal. There have been several fantastic basketball games over the years, so it’s interesting to look at the reasons why some of them end up standing out as our personal favourites, while others don’t rank up there for us, as good and enjoyable as they may be.

Furthermore, there’s also the matter of unpopular and controversial opinions, such as a game with a mixed reception being a personal favourite. When a game draws very polarising reactions, these factors will determine which side of the fence you stand on. And of course, just because a game is a personal favourite, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you perpetually hold it up as the gold standard, or believe that no game since has been technically better. It just means that it occupies a special place in your memory, and you hold it in high regard for the great times that you had with it. If we break it down, I’d suggest that these are among the main factors that determine our favourites.

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Patch 1.08 is now available for NBA 2K21 Next Gen. As always, it should come through automatically as long as your PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S is online. If it doesn’t, try restarting your console, or checking for updates manually.

The latest update is considerably smaller than the previous patch, and is more of a hotfix to address a few issues. The full notes are as follows:

• Improved player lighting and shadows in The City during daytime hours
• Improved an issue that was causing slow bootup times for some PS5 users. More improvements to come
• Addressed a potential hang in MyNBA Online when accepting trade offers

Details on Patch 1.08 have been added to the update history for NBA 2K21 Next Gen over in our Wiki. Feel free to share your impressions in the comments, as well as join in the discussion taking place here in the NLSC Forum.

A new version (V2.8.1) of agent_michael_scarn’s Current & Legendary Edition Mod is now available for the GameCube version of NBA Street Vol. 2! Following on from the previous release, the new update accounts for the latest player movement. Key changes in the latest release are as follows:

• Swapped Andre Drummond for Jarrett Allen
• Swapped Victor Oladipo for Calvin Murphy
• Swapped Nikola Vucevic for Hedo Turkoglu

You can pick up NBA Street Vol. 2 Current & Legendary Edition here in our Downloads database! For more information on how to install it, as well as previews, further support, or if you just want to say thanks, check out this topic in the Forum.