Today’s NBA Live 2004 mod releases aren’t exactly new, but they are important ones to preserve! With permission, JuicyShaqMeat has uploaded Seushiro’s custom AIACT and depth of field ENB updates for safekeeping, in a pack that you can find at the link below.

Seushiro
Seushiro’s Myxed AIACTs and ENBs for Live 2004

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 Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays is further proof that dunks are exciting no matter who’s throwing them down! Big men, guards, and wing players are crossing up, slipping by, and overpowering defenders to rock the rim. As always though, there is one play that stands a chance of topping a spectacular dunk, and that’s a clutch shot in the waning seconds. This week’s countdown has you covered there, too! Six different games are featured this week, from NBA ShootOut 2004 right through to NBA 2K25. Let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

You may recall that back in February, johnz1 released a new mod for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, bringing the 2020s to the game. V2.0 of the project is now available!

The new version of NBA Jam: 2020s On Fire Edition adds three new teams to the lineup: Detroit, Houston, and Toronto. A couple of players have been removed from teams where they’re no longer a good fit, and the final game in Road Trip is now USA vs. France. Player appearances and ratings have also been updated, along with some team uniforms. Please note that V2.0 essentially functions as a new game, so save files from V1.0 unfortunately won’t work with the new release. Check out the readme for more information on installation.

Key features of V2.0 can be found below. As previously noted, this mod isn’t an update for the 2025 season. Rather, it adds squads from on the recent past with a couple of current lineups, making the selection more of a “best teams of 2020” scenario. To that end, some franchises have multiple teams to choose from. Once again, more information can be found in the release notes below.

Download the new version of NBA Jam: 2020s On Fire Edition here! For more information and previews, check out the release topic here. johnz1 has done some amazing work updating an all-time classic, so shout out to him as always for the awesome mod, and for making it available to one and all free of charge. Stay tuned for more of his projects for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition!

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five frustrating aspects of old school season modes.

So, I’ve already covered why old school season modes in NBA Live and other early titles were so much fun, and I stand by that. They were the pinnacle of campaign play at the time, and if you’re a keen retro gamer who doesn’t mind a simpler experience, I highly recommend beginning a season in an old favourite today! With that being said, once those modes were fleshed out with some basic staples, it took a while before the next big innovation. We certainly recognised the drawbacks and limitations, and we dreamed of modes that lasted longer and represented the NBA in greater detail.

Thankfully, video game developers had the same vision, which led to the introduction of franchise and single player career modes. Interestingly, old school season modes stuck around as a legacy option in games with franchise modes, such as NBA Live and NBA 2K. It also remained the flagship mode in titles that were lagging behind the two brand leaders. Although it didn’t hurt to keep them in games – indeed, I believe there’s value in offering a streamlined option – it was painfully obvious how primitive they now were! Once again though, we already had our criticisms before then. With that in mind, here are five ways that old school season modes could be frustrating.

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As you may have seen from a couple of previous bulletins, Paxson-for-3 has released 1997 and 1998 rosters for NBA 2K11 PC. He has continued to work on updates for both of those projects, and to that end, new versions of each are now available!

The 1997 roster now includes 57 additional faces, while 61 faces have been added to the 1998 roster for NBA 2K11. These updates come courtesy of clutchcity1994-1995, so shout out to him as well! A few updates and fixes have also been made to players in the 1997 mod.

For those who may be unaware, both rosters include season-accurate team branding. The appropriate jerseys have been assigned as the default home and away uniforms, so there’s no need to manually select them before games. In short, both mods are extremely detailed retro rosters, perfect for anyone who’d like to throw it back to a couple of iconic seasons in one of the best basketball video games of all-time.

Download the 1997 roster here, and pick up the 1998 mod here! Thanks go out once again to Paxson-for-3 for providing these classic season rosters for NBA 2K11. He’s indicated that he’s working on some other retro roster projects for the game, so be sure to stay tuned for further previews and releases!

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m dusting off NBA Live 2004 to see when LeBron James will retire in its Dynasty mode.

As of writing, it seems a safe guess to say that LeBron James will likely play at least one more season. He has an opportunity to set a new record by playing in his 23rd campaign, not to mention add to his career statistics and possibly contend for another championship. It would also give him an opportunity to further mentor his son Bronny and likely play some more minutes side-by-side with him, while also enjoying a full retirement tour. And of course, if by some chance he does decide that the 2025 season was his last, he’s obviously had a long and extremely successful career.

His longevity, while certainly impressive, isn’t altogether surprising. Not only are we seeing more players stick around for 16+ seasons, but LeBron is obviously a superb athlete, and has remained healthy throughout his career. As with other greats who came straight out of high school, it was commonly speculated that LeBron would go on to have a long career, but what did contemporary video games predict? With Dynasty mode in NBA Live 2004 consisting of 25 seasons, the game may still be able to correctly predict when LeBron will retire! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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V3.4 of Shamgod’s 2016 roster for NBA 2K14 PC is now available! If you aren’t familiar with the previous releases, in addition to updating the game for the 2016 season, this project aims to replicate the presentation and aesthetic of NBA 2K16. Key features of the latest release are as follows:

• Zoom Kobe VI has been updated (Fixed MyCareer crashing)
• Warmups updated to have smaller logos on the pants
• Jabari Parker’s cyberface has been updated
• BBVA logo has been updated for All-Star Game Presentation

Shamgod has also changed the featured game to the 2015 NBA Finals matchup between the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, updated player portraits, and fixed some accessories. With player appearances and presentation taken care of, a major ratings update is planned for the next release, so stay tuned for that.

Download the new version of the 2016 roster for NBA 2K14 here, and check out this post for more information on the changes in V3.4! In addition to further updates to this project, Shamgod has been working on some other great mods for NBA 2K14, which you can find here. As always, shout out to Shamgod and everyone else still keeping old favourites alive with some fantastic releases, and of course, making them freely available to the community. Your efforts are very much appreciated!

We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with a few thoughts on the habit of tossing out confidently incorrect gotchas in online discourse.

Through message boards, chat rooms, social media platforms, and Discord servers, the internet provides us with various ways to connect and discuss the hobbies and interests that are important to us. To that point, we have numerous avenues to tell each other that we’re wrong! This is of course a very old observation about online discourse. Cunningham’s Law posits that posting an incorrect answer is the best way to get the correct information about a topic. The iconic xkcd strip “Duty Calls” sums up our need to argue with each other: “Someone is wrong on the internet!”

You don’t have to be a troll or a toxic member of an online community to have felt the catharsis of telling someone they’re wrong and setting the record straight. As much as we rightfully call out the obnoxiousness of an “um, actually“, there’s no denying its appeal. Besides, it is possible to offer up a correction and useful information without being a pompous know-it-all. Unfortunately, the appeal of being the one to catch a mistake or misinformation leads some people to be very quick on the draw. In short, some of us are way too eager to shout “wrong” in an effort to embarrass someone else and sound smart. This is how we end up with so many confidently incorrect gotchas.

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Today’s mod releases for NBA 2K14 feature a 2025 season logo pack from Sastre Matulin. Pick it up at the link below!

Sastre Matulin
2024-2025 NBA Logos

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 Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, send Dee a message, or hit him up on X.

There are some interesting trends in this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays. Gamers are clearly enjoying recent releases, with NBA 2K24 and NBA 2K25 showing up a couple of times. However, the classics are also still in people’s rotations, as NBA Live 2003, NBA Live 2005, and even NBA Live 99 make an appearance! Unsurprisingly, NBA 2K14 also remains a favourite. Of course, the main thing is that every game is producing some spectacular virtual hardwood highlights, as Shawn Kemp, Vince Carter, and other stars past and present are rocking the rim, swatting shots, and generally putting on a show. Let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five aspects that made season modes in old school basketball video games so much fun.

Being a keen retro gamer, one of my least favourite phrases in gaming discourse these days is “I can’t believe we used to think this was good”. It’s a myopic statement that forgets that we needed generations of technological improvements to get to where we are today. Moreover, just because graphics, mechanics, and modes have since been surpassed, it doesn’t mean that they’re retroactively terrible. Putting aside the fact that many classics do hold up on the sticks years later, they represent important stepping stones that ultimately led to major developments and improvements in the genre.

Of course, I’m not suggesting that modern games should be as basic as their more primitive predecessors. Just because I’m praising something in an old game, it doesn’t mean that I think it should be in a new one; at least, not in the same form. Once again though, games didn’t get to where they are now without those early attempts at modes and features that we enjoy so much, and indeed take for granted. Furthermore, beyond being nostalgic and worthy of appreciation for their innovation, there’s definitely an appeal to certain aspects of old school season modes. With that in mind, I’m not just reflecting on how those modes paved the way, but how their ideas are still fun today.

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Today’s NBA 2K25 mod releases are all about throwbacks! FurryBeans has uploaded a new version of his Kobe Era roster, while Bassman58 has released some fixed versions of his Magic-Bird Era courts. Check out all of the latest mod releases for NBA 2K25 at the links below!

FurryBeans
Bean’s Kobe Era Roster (Updated to v1.2)

Bassman58
New York Knicks Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
Phoenix Suns Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
Portland Trail Blazers Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
San Antonio Spurs Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
San Diego Clippers Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
Seattle Supersonics Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
Utah Jazz Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)
Washington Bullets Magic-Bird Era Court (Updated to v2.0)

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 Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Give ‘n Go.

Back in the 90s, EA Sports were the dominant brand in sim basketball games with NBA Live, while Midway developed the best arcade hoops titles with NBA Jam. However, Konami were producing some fun games in the sim-arcade hybrid genre; that middle ground between sim and arcade that’s not too over the top, but still isn’t too concerned with realism. I’ve already covered a couple of those Konami games, namely NBA in the Zone and NBA in the Zone 2. Left Field Productions also tried to imitate Konami’s formula with Slam ‘N Jam.

As I’ve said before, I didn’t really have much interest in those games growing up. I either wanted the sim approach of NBA Live, or the wild arcade action of NBA Jam. The hybrid style of Konami’s games or Slam ‘N Jam was certainly intriguing, but that middle ground didn’t really appeal to me at the time. All these years later, I have far more appreciation for the sim-arcade hybrid, even if it isn’t my first choice. Konami’s NBA Give ‘n Go is a classic release in that genre, and I’m definitely overdue to cover it. With that being said, let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #581 of the NLSC Podcast!

What are some of the most memorable plays that we’ve seen in all of our years watching basketball? This week, we join the community in reminiscing about a few of our all-time favourite highlights. Considering our favourite teams, players, and eras to watch, some of our choices might just surprise you! Of course, a couple of others certainly won’t be particularly shocking. We also discuss which game should be featured in the next NLSC Tournament that will be played over Parsec, hopefully in the near future. The community also has some suggestions in that regard, and suffice it to say, there are some very popular picks when it comes to sim and arcade titles alike.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 46:15 — 32.1MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify

To get involved with the mailbag or to provide any feedback on the show, hit us up in the comments, reach out on social media, or post here in the NLSC Forum! For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki. You can also find the show on our YouTube channel, along with the rest of our video content. As always, thanks for tuning in, and go get buckets!

You may recall that late last December, I released a 2005 roster for the Xbox 360 version of NBA 2K6. There were further enhancements that I could make to the project however, and to that end, V1.1 of the roster is now available!

Although the developers had already set ratings based on the 2005 season, I wasn’t satisfied with all of them. Combing through the rosters I noticed several players that were undercooked or had a questionable rating here and there, so I’ve gone through and fixed them. I also went ahead and created an “uninjured” version of the roster that’s better suited to Association play, since all of the key players are in the lineup.

Download the 2005 roster for the Xbox 360 version of NBA 2K6 here, and check out the release and support topic here in the Forum. Please see below for more information, including installation instructions. I won’t rule out any further updates, but I’m fairly satisfied with the project for now, so I’ll be moving onto some other minimalist rosters for NBA 2K6. Stay tuned for more info on those!

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