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New Modding Resource: DDS Plugin (64 & 32 Bit)

Bassman58 has uploaded a new modding resource to our Downloads database, namely a DDS Plugin that will work with both 64-bit and 32-bit systems. Check it out at the link below!

Adobe
DDS Plugin 64/32 bit

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.

NBA Street Vol. 2 Legendary Edition Mod Released

NBA Street Vol. 2 Legendary Edition Mod

Some of you may recall the updates for the GameCube version of NBA Street Vol. 2 that were released some years back. Building upon those modding projects, agent_michael_scarn has just released a new update for the game titled “NBA Street Vol. 2 Legendary Edition”.

The mod is definitely worthy of Barney Stinson’s favourite catchphrase, as this comprehensive update for a beloved classic is indeed legen…wait for it…dary! It features 2020 season rosters updated as of the NBA Bubble restart, along with legendary players for each squad. All team logos and jerseys have also been updated for the current season, and player ratings are based on NBA 2K20 attributes wherever possible. A few elements from the older mods also remain.

You can pick up NBA Street Vol. 2 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. You can also go back and check out some of the older updates by JaoSming, johnz1, and Mazzochi, which can be found in the Other Basketball Games section of our Downloads database. Check out a complete roster listing for the mod here.

Making a Mod: NBA 2K11 Current Roster (Episode 3)

Making a Mod: NBA 2K11 Current Roster (Episode 3)

It’s been a long time, but the third episode of Making a Mod: NBA 2K11 Current Roster is out now! The series chronicles the process of creating a current roster update for NBA 2K11 PC, while also providing status reports on the project.

The NBA shutdown turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I’ve been able to make some significant progress on the roster. In Episode 3, I talk about entering the home stretch after getting all of the players created. I also preview some of the new art updates, including some fantastic Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson faces by Maravich.

For all of the latest details, check out Episode 3 of Making a Mod below. You can also catch it here on our YouTube channel. While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe if you haven’t already!

Be sure to check out this topic in the NBA 2K11 section of the Forum for further previews. For those who’d like to lend a hand with any art updates, you can also find a list of required files there. Most of the faces are for bench, G League, and 2-Way players, but I’d still welcome having proper faces for as many of them as possible. Thank you to everyone for your continued patience in waiting for my current roster for NBA 2K11. Also, a big thank you once again to everyone who has helped out with the project so far. I’m looking forward to delivering it at long last!

The Friday Five: 5 Mods That Might Make a Comeback

The Friday Five

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 mods that might just be making a comeback.

It’s funny how modding trends have changed over the years. I remember the days when we were very limited in what we could do with the early NBA Live games, but still made the most of the tools at our disposal. By the end of NBA Live’s run on PC, we’d created a wide variety of impressive projects as a community. When we took up NBA 2K modding after the series arrived on PC, we found ourselves back at square one for a time. Fortunately, new tools were made, new techniques were discovered, and great works have followed, spanning two generations of PC ports.

There are some mods that we don’t see as much of anymore, for various reasons. Times change, tastes change, and certain things are either no longer possible, or not as easy as they used to be. With that said, as times change, some things end up coming back into style. What’s old is new again, as the saying goes, and I believe there are some mods that might end up making a comeback in the near future. Perhaps I’m wide of the mark on these predictions; I may be putting too much stock into some recent releases, or I may be projecting because I find these ideas intriguing. All the same, I’d like to put the ideas out there. If these mods do make a comeback, so much the better!

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NLSC Podcast #326: Letting It All Out This Week

NLSC Podcast Logo

Episode #326 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! Dee4Three and I are your hosts for this week’s show.

This week, we’re letting it all out as we discuss a variety of topics! We begin with the impending return of the NBA, and our thoughts on the format to finish out the season. On that note, is this really the end of Vince Carter’s career? Elsewhere, a long-lost spin-off of SimCity has us wondering whether any more forgotten and unreleased basketball games will make it out into the wild. The rare version of NBA Jam with Michael Jordan springs to mind. Recent events also lead us to share some strong opinions on the use of Patreon in the modding community, and the focus on making money through the hobby. With EA Play on the horizon, we wonder once more about the future of NBA Live, and express some frustration. We also touch on representing the ABA on the virtual hardwood, and what would make for acceptable downloadable content in basketball games. Oh, and there’s a potentially divisive opinion about the Oklahoma City Thunder’s branding.

What’s your take on this week’s topics? Sound off in the comments section below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as suggestions for topics that you’d like to hear us discuss in future episodes. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki.

March Modness 2020 Giveaway Winner: DaCrispy

NLSC March Modness

Please join me in congratulating the winner of the March Modness 2020 giveaway draw: DaCrispy! He joins last year’s winner Pep, and winner of our inaugural March Modness giveaway back in 2018, TGsoGood.

As it appears that there will not be an NBA Live 21 after all, DaCrispy has won a copy of NBA 2K21 by default. He’ll also receive an NLSC t-shirt, courtesy of Arcane Team Apparel.

A big thanks as always to everyone who entered this year’s contest, and continues to share their mods with our community. Don’t forget that we offer free and permanent file hosting for the modding community, in order to preserve these great releases for years to come. For more information about adding files to our Downloads database, check out this tutorial!

The Friday Five: 5 Mistakes Modders Make

The Friday Five

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 mistakes that modders often make, and how best to avoid them.

I remember when I discovered the NLSC – then called the NBA Live Series Center – back in 1997. My family had just got connected to the Internet, and I was searching on Altavista for NBA Live 96 content. That’s when I found the site, and all the great work that our founders Tim, Lutz, and Brien had done, along with some other people in what was then a much smaller community. I was thrilled to find out about modding – then called patching – and marvelled at all the wonderful things that were possible. As I’ve said before, at long last my created Michael Jordan could have a full bio!

Modding was a hobby that I got into before I ended up taking over the NLSC, and while I haven’t been as active in that regard in recent years, I’ve continued to dabble here and there. Right now I’m working on an NBA 2K11 roster update, with an eye to getting it out soon. Of course, plenty of people have come to discover the NLSC over the years, and I always get a kick out of seeing them experience the same thrill I had when I first learned about modding. New people are always trying their hand at it, and while mod-specific tutorials and guidance will always provide the most help, I’d like to offer up some advice about common modding mistakes, and what to do instead.

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NLSC Podcast #317: The Perks of PC & The Merriness of Modding

NLSC Podcast Logo

Episode #317 of the NLSC Podcast is out now! This week, Dee4Three and I are discussing modding projects we’re working on (and the joy that it brings us), the benefits of PC basketball gaming, and the recently revealed specs for the next generation of consoles.

March Modness may be over, but we’re still in the mood to mod! In addition to discussing projects that we’re currently working on, we talk about how important the modding scene has been to the PC version. Specifically, we note that it’s drawn gamers from consoles to PC, and made them aware of the perks of PC basketball gaming. We also reflect on satisfying modding discoveries, and how mods stand out in other original content. As the preliminary specs for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox Series X have been revealed, we also take the opportunity to look ahead to the next generation. The specs sound impressive – and very much like a gaming PC – but will it matter if design philosophies don’t change?

Tune in below!

What are some of your favourite mods? Do you game on both PC and console, or do you prefer one over the other? Sound off in the comments section below, or join in the discussion here in the Forum! Additionally, feel free to hit us up with any feedback on the episode, as well as suggestions for topics that you’d like to hear us discuss in future episodes. For more information on the NLSC Podcast including episode guides, check out this page in our Wiki.

March Modness 2020 Ends; Winner Announced Soon

NLSC March Modness

The month of March has drawn to a close, and that means March Modness 2020 is at an end! Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate modding with some great releases throughout the month. For those who took part in our giveaway, we’ll be drawing the winner very soon.

Since I’ve still got projects in the works, and plenty of others are working on nifty mods of their own, I’m proposing that we extend the celebrations with Add-On April! We won’t be holding another giveaway, but I’d like to do my best to finish up the things I’m working on, and continue to discuss modding-related topics in our original content. As most of us are social distancing and spending time inside right now, it’s a great opportunity to not only hit the virtual hardwood, but mod it as well!

Thank you once again to everyone who helped us celebrate March Modness 2020! Modders, please feel free to keep making use of the hosting facilities in our Downloads database. For those who may have missed it, my last three Friday Five articles have discussed modding-related topics. Be sure to check out the 5 Most Satisfying Mods to Make, 5 Unfortunate Barriers in Modding, and 5 Unsolved Modding Mysteries (Part 2).

The Friday Five: 5 Unsolved Modding Mysteries (Part 2)

The Friday Five

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 another list of five unsolved modding mysteries.

As I mentioned in my first Friday Five article about unsolved modding mysteries, the whole hobby is dedicated to figuring out the inner workings of the games we play, and discovering how we can change them. We’ve made many exciting discoveries which in turn have led to the creation of fantastic projects, but there are still some gaps in our knowledge. Although we’re constantly looking to innovate and solve those mysteries, sometimes we have to admit defeat – if only temporarily – and file them under the heading of modding barriers that we may or may not ever overcome.

Incidentally, I originally included “blanking out career stats in NBA 2K11” on this list, as it’s something I’d noticed in the Chinese roster updates and had no idea how it was done. Not only have I since been informed that it’s an option in the Chinese trainer for the game, but I accidentally stumbled upon a method of doing it with REDitor II. It just goes to show that even when a game has been out for a decade, we can continue to solve modding mysteries and learn new techniques. That may mean that there’s hope of finding answers to these five modding mysteries at some point, but as of now, they do remain unsolved.

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The Friday Five: 5 Unfortunate Barriers in Modding

The Friday Five

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 unfortunate barriers that challenge us when creating great modding projects.

Sometimes it seems as though we can do anything when it comes to modding the PC versions of NBA 2K, and back in the day, NBA Live. The fantastic projects that we’ve seen are the result of hard work, experimentation, and perseverance in the face of barriers that seemingly stood in the way. Either by developing new tools or nifty workarounds, we’ve been able to do things that once seemed impossible. This has only contributed to the feeling of being able to accomplish just about anything we can imagine with the mods that we make for basketball video games.

However, there are indeed limitations and barriers that make modding difficult, or in the worst case scenario, impossible. It’s been our goal in the modding community to find a way around these barriers, but in some cases, we’ve had to admit defeat. If nothing else, we’ve had to accept that certain ideas can’t come to fruition exactly how we envisioned them. It’s always frustrating when a game is so modder-friendly in some respects, but so limited in what we can do in another area. Once again, it obviously hasn’t prevented some amazing mods from being made, but nevertheless, here are five unfortunate barriers that we’ve encountered while modding.

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New Forum Rules Regarding Mods & Patreon

Forum Rules Updated with Patreon Policy

Please be advised that our Forum Rules have been amended with an official policy regarding Patreon. Our rule regarding charging for mods now reads as follows:

Charging money for mods and patches is not allowed. Beyond simply not being the “done thing” in our community, it also invites legal problems, as profiting off someone else’s intellectual property and likeness is illegal. As long as we’re not charging for updates, the developers are happy to look the other way (and sometimes even quietly support us) when it comes to modding.

Please note that while you are free to take the risk of charging for patches on your own site or blog, you may not promote it here with any links. Donation links, tip jars, and Patreons are acceptable, but releases cannot be held for ransom in demand for donations (thus indirectly charging for them). All Patreon content must also be made available publicly within a week; Patreon-exclusive releases cannot be posted here.

Further information on how Patreon releases must be handled has also been added:

Patreon is another service that you may use, and is a good platform to seek support for hosting larger mods. However, it must not be used to circumvent our rules against charging for mods. Early access via Patreon is allowed, but the mod must be made available publicly on the NLSC within a week of the Patreon release. If those conditions are adhered to, you are free to promote early access releases and your Patreon in general. Patreon-exclusive releases without a public release count as charging for mods and are not allowed. What you do with your Patreon is your business, but as far as our community and platform is concerned, you may not promote/link to any Patreon-exclusive releases. or your Patreon in general if you aren’t posting any public releases.

These rules are now in effect and apply to all future releases. We are implementing this policy in the interests of being fair to our community, and avoiding any problems with intellectual property. If you have any questions, please contact myself or another member of staff.

The Friday Five: 5 Most Satisfying Mods to Make

The Friday Five

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 types of mods that I find the most satisfying to make.

Although the NBA season is on hold and March Madness has been cancelled, March Modness is still underway! We’re celebrating modding throughout the month of March with new releases, a spotlight on modding, and of course a giveaway as a means of saying thank you to our modding community. There’s still time to enter that giveaway, so if you’re interested, be sure to check out this post for details. The prize is a copy of either this year’s NBA 2K or NBA Live, though from the looks of things, it’ll probably be a Steam key for NBA 2K21 for the winner!

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t celebrate NBA Live modding, and release some new mods for old favourites. In fact, I’ve done just that, releasing fixed versions of my Hangar and NBA Elite 11 practice courts. There are a few other mods I’d like to finish and release this month, and I’m working towards getting that done. After all, modding can be a lot of fun, and it’s hard to resist the lure of the hobby. Most of us have a type of mod that we specialise in; updates that we find the most satisfying to make. I’ve been able to branch out with a few different types of mods over the years, and looking back, these five are the kind of updates I’ve found the most satisfaction in creating.

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Third Annual March Modness Tips Off Today

NLSC March Modness

It’s March 1st, so that means we’re tipping off the third annual March Modness here at the NLSC! For those who are unaware, the event is intended to be a celebration of modding. We of course welcome mod releases all year round, but we invite modders to get extra creative and productive during this month!

In addition to our usual File Additions bulletins and spotlighting other big releases, we’ll be holding another giveaway. As a thank you to our talented modding community, anyone who releases work and adds it to our Downloads section will go in the draw to win a copy of either NBA 2K or NBA Live (as long as there is an NBA Live game to choose from this year). Congratulations once again to Pep, who won the giveaway last year.

To enter the giveaway, all you need to do is release a mod and upload it to our Downloads section during the month of March 2020, with “March Modness” in the description. The mod may be for any PC version of NBA Live or NBA 2K, but it must be your own work and remain hosted in our Downloads section. Please see below for the full terms and conditions of entry, and good luck!

Once again, I’ll be looking to get into the spirit of the event myself with at least a few releases. I’m hoping to finally get my 2020 season roster for NBA 2K11 out this month, as it feels it would be timely with all of the celebrations. I also have a few other ideas I’d like to explore, time permitting. Stay tuned for that, and the many fantastic releases I’m sure that we’ll see throughout our third annual March Modness!

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Monday Tip-Off: The Art of Minimalist Modding

Monday Tip-Off: The Art of Minimalist Modding

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 look at the idea of minimalist modding.

With all the tools and techniques that our modding community has developed for NBA Live and NBA 2K over the years, we’ve been able to produce some fantastic projects. From detailed current rosters and multi-season packs to NCAA mods and other total conversions, we’ve been able to re-skin the game and create brand new experiences. These projects can take a long time to complete, but it’s very satisfying to see them come together, for both the creator and the community. I can attest to that, having been involved in quite a few large roster projects over the years.

Of course, these fantastic projects do have their drawbacks. They can be incredibly time-consuming, so even if you have the skills to create all the necessary assets, it’s much easier if you have a few other people helping out. To that point, not everyone can do it all when it comes to modding, so it’s usually necessary to assemble a team or rely on some community contributions to get everything done. As you can imagine, the amount of time and effort required can lead to multiple delays, or projects falling through. It’s why I’ve become intrigued with the idea of creating larger projects that don’t require as much external effort; something I’m calling minimalist modding.

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