NBA Live 2004

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 Michael Jordan in NBA Live 2004.

These days, we think of Visual Concepts as the company to bring Michael Jordan to the virtual hardwood. After all, he’s been available as a Legend since NBA 2K11, we’ve had two iterations of the Jordan Challenge, and he’s graced the cover of four editions of the game. However, long before NBA 2K was celebrating His Airness, he was closely associated with EA Sports. From licensing him for the NBA Playoffs series as he disappeared from other early 90s titles, to games such as Jordan vs. Bird, Michael Jordan in Flight and Chaos in the Windy City, it was EA who brought us MJ.

Of course, the last time that Michael Jordan made an official appearance in an EA Sports game was in NBA Live 2004. Indeed, until NBA 2K11, it marked the last time that he was officially featured in any video games. Needless to say, adding him to the Legends Pool and 90s All-Stars was an annual task for our modding community from NBA Live 2005 through NBA Live 08, so we were still able to play with him on PC. There was something special about official appearances though, especially given MJ’s absence from the virtual hardwood in the late 90s. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

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.

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…

Read More »

It may be twenty years old, but NBA Live 2004 is a classic, so it’s always nice to see new mod releases for it! To that end, Riq4mods has released a modern shorts and sleeves mod, which also includes an alternate body type so that it doesn’t have to interfere with the old school models. Check it out at the link below!

Riq4mods
Modern Shorts and Sleeves Mod

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.

I’m always happy to see mod releases for a classic like NBA Live 2004, and today we have new HD ball update by Dmitri. Check it out at the link below!

Dmitri
HD Ball

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.

One of my goals when tinkering with old favourites is to try and devise fixes for my fellow retro basketball gamers. To that end, I’ve been able to put together a fix for the bug/design flaw with training in Dynasty Mode in NBA Live 2004.

For those who may not remember, assigning less than 20% of the available training time to any of the four areas (Shooting, Defense, Offense, and Conditioning) in pre-season training camp or in-season training sessions would result in your players’ ratings declining. As such, the only way to see significant improvement in one area meant weathering a drop in ratings in another.

This issue was fixed in NBA Live 2005, but as it turns out, it can easily be resolved in NBA Live 2004 as well! The ratings increases and decreases relative to the assigned time are stored in DBF files, and it’s easy enough to remove all the negative values (and thus the nerfs). With this fix, training your players in Dynasty Mode in NBA Live 2004 will only ever result in ratings increasing, as long as you assign enough training time. Otherwise, player ratings will remain static until the offseason. Players will still improve and decline as normal as they develop between seasons.

Download the fix here, and find the support topic here! For the moment, I’ve left the default increases and thresholds intact, but it would be possible to make it easier (or indeed, harder) to increase ratings through training camp and training sessions, as well as change the size of the increases. It’s definitely satisfying to resolve this issue, even if it is going on twenty years later! I’m hoping to release more of these little mods and fixes throughout March Modness 2023, so stay tuned.

Today’s NBA Live 2004 mod releases don’t feature anything new, but retro basketball gamers will definitely be interested. After playing a game with the custom broadcast camera included in ModManZZZ’s pack, I felt it would be useful if I reuploaded it as a standalone file for everyone’s convenience. Download it at the link below!

ModManZZZ
Broadcast Camera Mod

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 comparing NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004, in a new edition of “Versus”!

Once again, I’ve gone a while between posting a new “Versus” feature for Wayback Wednesday. There is a reason for that, though. With so many retro basketball games and retro basketball gaming topics to cover, it can take a while to circle back to titles I’ve already talked about. I’d also prefer not to profile games for the first time with a direct comparison to another game, as that would get in the way of a comprehensive retrospective. However, it is fun and interesting to rank and rate old favourites, having had plenty of time to enjoy and reflect on them.

That brings us to NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004, back-to-back releases in the Golden Age of NBA Live; or possibly the series’ second Golden Age, depending on how you rate NBA Live 2001 and NBA Live 2002. Among older basketball gamers, there’s a ton of nostalgia for both games. If you’re my age, you’ll remember them as fun games from early adulthood. If you’re slightly younger, they may have been your entry into basketball gaming! The question is: which game is better? I’ve broken up my arguments into five categories, so let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #427 of the NLSC Podcast!

We’ve been freshening up our retro basketball gaming with mods from the archives, as Lutz’s Champs Roster allowed us to re-create a classic Celtics highlight in NBA Live 98 PC! We also played NBA Live 2004 PC with a camera mod that’s made it difficult to return to the default broadcast view. Responding to an interesting listener question, we discuss whether adopting a similar idea to Dynamic DNA could benefit tendencies and roster quality in NBA 2K. As we catch up on the latest news from our NBA 2K19 MyLEAGUE and NBA 2K14 MyCAREER games, we marvel at the stories that can be told through gameplay and results alone. We also reflect on a truly shocking award snub.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:18:34 — 54.3MB)

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!

For my first contribution to March Modness 2022, I’ve released a new version (v3.1) of my 1996 Season Mod for NBA Live 2004 PC! It’s an overdue update as the last release came in 2018 – also to tip off March Modness that year – and there have been some changes I’ve been meaning to make.

Most notably, since several people have suggested it, I’ve removed the setup file in favour of a manual installation. Installing the mod is now just a matter of extracting the included folders to the appropriate places. The installation routine was originally intended to do this automatically, but it seemed to place files in the wrong folders more often than not. Please see the readme file for detailed instructions!

I’ve also included a pre-modified xstartup.cfg file, just in case you have trouble enabling CustomArt; a necessary step to use the mod, and any other NBA Live 2004 projects that utilise custom art files. If you’ve already enabled CustomArt or are confident in editing the config file yourself, you can skip this step.

Download the 1996 Season Mod for NBA Live 2004 PC here, and check out the release/support topic here in the Forum! This probably won’t be the last time that I touch this project, as I’m sure I can find a few other enhancements to implement beyond making the installation process easier. Thank you to everyone who has still expressed interest in this mod all these years later!

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 the story about a mysterious screenshot that I found in my collection.

For a long time – far too long, in fact – I left my weekly articles until the last minute. Not just writing them, but coming up with the topic, too. Even after I devised lists of ideas for future articles, I didn’t always have anything prepared by the time Monday, Wednesday, and Friday rolled around. In recent years, I’ve made a point of building up a buffer of articles based on my list of topic ideas. It’s meant that I’ve always got something ready to go, and if I’ve set aside the time, I’m able to schedule features a week or two in advance.

This prep work has been important for time management, consistency, and quality. Even though I’ve been pleased with certain articles that were actually written at the last minute, I’m far more satisfied with features that I haven’t had to rush. Part of preparing articles in advance is ensuring that I have appropriate screenshots to use, which means taking the time to fire up the necessary games to capture them, and set up any specific scenarios as required. It’s usually obvious why I have a particular screenshot in my archives, but recently I discovered one that left me stumped. This mysterious screenshot was for an article idea that I’ve completely forgotten about.

Read More »

Today’s file additions for NBA Live 2004 feature an updated version of nd172934’s 2003 Opening Day roster. Check it out at the link below!

nd172934
Opening Day 2003 Roster Update (Updated to v1.1)

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 the infamous Dallas Mavericks alternate jersey that can be found in NBA Live 2004.

Nothing turns us basketball fans into fashion critics quite like a new NBA jersey design. It’s rare to get a uniform that we universally agree is good or bad, especially when it comes to some of the colourful designs of the mid to late 90s. There are a handful of jerseys that draw close to a unanimous reaction however, be it positive or negative. The uniforms that are reviled by almost everyone – even the most ardent fans of the teams that sport them – become infamous, especially if they somehow stick around beyond a single season.

On the other hand, negative reception can derail plans for a uniform design to become a staple of the team’s branding. Indeed, the jersey I’m talking about today – the Dallas Mavericks’ infamous “trash bag” uniform – was scrapped after being worn in just one game. It’s a jersey that’s been talked about at length, given that it’s a mainstay on most “all-time worst jerseys” lists, but it does have an interesting history with NBA Live 2004. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

If you feel like dusting off NBA Live 2004 PC, check out today’s file additions! nd172934 has released a comprehensive Opening Day 2003 roster, ideal for replaying the 2004 season. Pick it up at the links below!

nd172934
Opening Day 2003 Roster Update

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 10-Man Freestyle in NBA Live 2004.

Over the years, we gamers have become more and more familiar – and thus, more and more obsessed – with the technical aspects of video games. In particular, we concern ourselves with the engine that games run on, and lament it when we feel that a title is using outdated or unsuitable technology. There are times that we probably assume too much knowledge in this regard, but it’s not always our fault. Developers are always touting the benefits of the tech they use, especially as we find ourselves on the brink of a new generation (as is the case right now).

Of course, technological advancements aren’t limited to next gen launches. During the course of a generation, we’ll see engines and motion systems replaced and revamped, with mixed results. A recent example would be the motion system introduced in NBA 2K18, giving the game an obviously different feel to NBA 2K17. We’re going a bit further back with the topic of this week’s Wayback Wednesday however, as I’ll be talking about 10-Man Freestyle in NBA Live 2004. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »