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 “cheat” that was possible using instant replay in old basketball video games.
I’ve said it so often in these Wayback Wednesday features that I’m sure it’s starting to sound trite, but basketball video games have come a long way since I first got into them. There are older titles that still hold up quite well and are fun to revisit, but even then, technology has allowed their successors to implement graphics and features that definitely weren’t possible all those years ago. To that end, old hoops titles have a few quirks that tend not to be found in modern games. Some of those quirks can be quite amusing to look back on.
That’s not to say that we didn’t recognise them as being quirky at the time, of course. They were the things that we noted in both amusement and frustration, and talked about when we compiled our Wishlists. Over the years they’ve become somewhat nostalgic, although we’re not exactly clamouring to see them return. One of those quirks was an instant replay glitch that was often listed in the Cheats sections of gaming magazines and websites alike. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 Pressbook that appeared in only a few NBA 2K games.
As much as I enjoy looking back at games and their major features in my Wayback Wednesday articles, it’s also nice to appreciate the little things. While the appeal of basketball video games lies in enjoyable gameplay and engaging modes, the little things can be that extra touch that really makes the experience. Sometimes they add convenience, or simply enhance the overall atmosphere of a game. They may be something that a lot of people overlook or never really use, but if it’s a feature that you do enjoy or find useful, you’ll miss it if it’s removed.
Case in point: the Pressbook in NBA 2K. It’s a very small feature in the grand scheme of things, and it probably isn’t something that most of us would use after every single game we played. Nevertheless, it was a good idea, yet one that only appeared in a few NBA 2K releases. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 2K11 with a tenth anniversary retrospective.
Monday marked the tenth anniversary of NBA 2K11, so I feel a retrospective is only appropriate. Before we get to that though, the fact that ten years have passed since the release of NBA 2K11 is, for me at least, mind-blowing. It doesn’t feel like a whole decade has gone by since basketball gamers were sinking their teeth into a title that many still consider to be one of the best (if not the best) hoops games ever made. Like NBA Live 2000 before it, it’s managed to hold a special place in our hearts long past its release, because it was such a great game for its time.
Of course, being a great game for its time doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s still the benchmark, which raises a few questions: just how good is NBA 2K11, and how well does it hold up? What makes it so special that a vocal contingent of basketball gamers opine that no game since has been able to top it? They’re pertinent questions for an NBA 2K11 retrospective to explore, so let’s take a look back…way back…
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 an old custom roster for NBA Live 08 on Xbox 360 that I discovered in my archives.
Through looking back at old basketball video games for Wayback Wednesday, I’ve been able to make a few discoveries. Whether it’s changing my opinion on a game one way or another, recalling a forgotten feature, or even noticing an error that I’ve been able to some overlook for more than two decades, covering old games on a regular basis has resulted in some interesting experiences. There’s something very satisfying in gaining a new perspective, filling in a gap in your knowledge, and for that matter, simply discovering something cool. It’s like finding buried treasure.
Today, I’d like to talk about a different kind of discovery: a custom roster for the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 08. Now, I’ve been able to go back and find a few roster mods and the like in my archives over the years, but they’ve generally been for the PC version of various NBA Live titles. Finding some original content for the console releases is much rarer, at least when it comes to my archives. As soon as I found it, I knew it was something I’d have to revisit and talk about here in Wayback Wednesday. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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…
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 ten more familiar faces who found themselves back in familiar places.
Just as there are have been several familiar faces that ended up in strange places, there are more familiar faces who made it back to familiar places than I can possibly fit into just one list of ten! To that end, I’m also making this spinoff topic an ongoing series for Wayback Wednesday. As I previously noted, these homecomings can be just as interesting as the strange stints of well-known players, as they can also end up flying under the radar and being forgotten due to being unremarkable returns. In other cases, it’s the original stint with a team that is overlooked.
Either way, they’re fun to look back on. We can obviously do that by going back and watching old games, but it’s also possible to revisit these tenures through the virtual hardwood. I’ve grown quite fond of referring to basketball video games as interactive almanacs and time capsules to the point where I’m probably overusing the expression. It is quite apt though, and with that in mind, I’m using video games to demonstrate these examples of familiar faces back in familiar places. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 issue with missing keys in NBA 2K9 PC.
Hopefully, I’m not the only person around these parts with an appreciation for old school adventure games from Sierra and LucasArts. Those two companies took a very different approach to the genre. While LucasArts adopted the stance of avoiding game over situations (and thereby encouraging gamers to freely experiment), Sierra’s games could be brutal in the way they punished you for trying the wrong thing or missing a detail. If you forgot to pick up a key very early on in the game, you might find that it’s unobtainable much later on, resulting in an unwinnable state. Save early, and often!
Yes, I’m going on a very long journey for an analogy; you might say, almost as far as Guybrush Threepwood travelled by rowboat around the titular location in The Secret of Monkey Island! The point is that you never want to get stuck without a required key, and unfortunately, that’s what happened to a lot of gamers who picked up the PC version of NBA 2K9. With that nostalgic and self-indulgent metaphor out of the way, let’s take a look back…way back…
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 another mistake that I’ve somehow managed to overlook for more than two decades now.
I won’t lie. When I realised I’d overlooked a mistake with Kevin Edwards’ portrait in the PC version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition for over twenty years, it blew my mind. You can’t imagine how many times I’ve fired up that game over the years, how many times I’ve cycled through all the teams’ rosters, and yet somehow failed to notice that he has Blue Edwards’ portrait instead. It didn’t click, even though I also own the Super Nintendo version of the game, and do recall Edwards having a different (and correct) portrait in that release.
Well, it happened again! This time, it was our own Eric (aka Q) that pointed out the mistake to me. The error can be found in NBA Hangtime, Midway’s successor to NBA Jam TE. I went back and double-checked just in case it had been fixed in the PAL version that I played, but no, the mistake is definitely there. As with Edwards’ incorrect portrait, it hardly ruins the game, but now that I’ve seen it, I can’t believe I overlooked it for all those years. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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…
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 early Australian release of NBA Live 06 PC.
I’m a proud Australian who loves his country and its culture, and I would say that being an Aussie is part of my identity. However, there are drawbacks to living in the Land Down Under, and it’s not just about us having blistering hot summers and more dangerous and deadly creatures than just about anywhere else in the world! As a basketball gamer, living in a PAL region such as Australia has resulted in me missing out on some titles over the years that I’d have really liked to play. I’ve only recently been able to get my hands on some college games, thanks to now owning a PS3.
Even with games that were actually released here, it wasn’t uncommon for us to have to wait until the following week, or sometimes longer, before they were available in Australian stores. As late as NBA Live 16, worldwide releases were often at least a couple of days after the North American launch. However, there was a time when we got a basketball game before the rest of the world: the release of NBA Live 06 PC. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 yet more NBA players who became familiar faces in strange places, and those stints in video games.
Just when you thought I was done talking about familiar faces in strange places, here is part four in an ongoing series of Wayback Wednesday articles! Not all of these players are Hall of Famers or even perennial All-Stars, but they are nevertheless significant and recognisable, thereby qualifying as familiar faces. They’re also players that we grew accustomed to seeing play for one or two teams in particular, so the strange places they ended up in do make for a jarring sight, both in real life and on the virtual hardwood.
Once again, I’m looking at these familiar faces in strange places through the lens of basketball video games, in part because that’s obviously what we cover here at the NLSC, but also because it emphasises how games like NBA Live and NBA 2K in particular act as time capsules and interactive almanacs. From past champions and the glory days of the game’s brightest stars, to the forgotten and overlooked stints I’m recalling here, those memories come flooding back upon firing up old favourites. Let’s take a look back…way back…
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 way Vince Carter was booed in NBA Live 10.
In last week’s Friday Five, I mentioned that in NBA Live 10, Vince Carter would be booed by the virtual Toronto crowd whenever he played there as an opponent. As I needed a screenshot of Vince in NBA Live 10 for the article, I fired up the game and my Elgato capture device, and got to work. After deciding to go the extra step and record some footage of the phenomenon, I grew curious. Is that detail still a thing if he gets traded to another team? What happens if he’s back in Toronto? It seemed like a good idea for a video feature, so let’s take a look back…way back…
I hope that satisfied your curiosity as it did mine! I enjoy making the occasional video for Wayback Wednesday and other weekly features, as well as providing updates on my modding projects, so it was nice to whip up another one this week. Be sure to subscribe to the NLSC’s YouTube channel for more videos moving forward!
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 some examples of familiar faces returning to familiar places, and the games where we see those stints.
In an ongoing Wayback Wednesday series, I’ve been taking a look back at familiar faces in strange places; in other words, well-known players and their stints with teams that are less talked about and usually weird to see, and the video games where those stints were represented. This week, I’m inverting the idea and taking a look back at familiar faces back in familiar places; in other words, well-known players who made a return to a team they’re most closely associated with, after leaving to play elsewhere in the NBA.
On the surface, this may not seem as interesting as seeing familiar faces in strange places. However, these return stints are interesting in their own right, as they have their own stories. Some of them were brief and essentially retirement tours, while others lasted longer and saw more success. Oddly enough, it can also feel strange to see a player back in an old uniform after we get used to seeing them in a new one. As I like to say, basketball games act as interactive almanacs for these stints of note, so let’s use them to take a look back…way back…
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 ten longevity records players have set on the virtual hardwood.
With the Atlanta Hawks’ 2020 season officially over, Vince Carter has officially retired after 22 seasons in the league. The player once dubbed Half-Man, Half-Amazing, has certainly had a wholly amazing career. Beyond his breathtaking dunks, 360 layups, and other highlights, Carter set new marks for longevity, not only by playing the most seasons in NBA history, but also becoming the first player to appear in four different decades. Not bad for a player who briefly gained a reputation – albeit one that was somewhat overblown – for being fragile and constantly injured!
Needless to say, Vince Carter’s lengthy NBA career has set a few records in video games as well. However, he’s not the only player who holds some longevity-based distinctions on the virtual hardwood. I ran through these in Episode #329 of the NLSC Podcast, but I know that audio content isn’t for everyone, and it pays to have trivia like this written down as well. These records span many years of basketball gaming, so let’s take a look back…way back…
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 use of boot disks to play games on PC, in particular NBA Live 96.
Oh, I’m going wayback for this one! Way back to a time long before I worked in IT and could easily troubleshoot PC problems. Back to a time when my understanding of hardware and software was pretty decent for a ten or eleven year old, but certainly nowhere close to what it is today. We’re going back to a time when floppy disks were actually a thing, and not just an antiquated image used for the Save icon. It’s an era when computers were less powerful than the smartphones we now all carry around in our pockets, and weren’t always built for heavy duty gaming.
Today, we’re talking about boot disks. These days, boot media – generally in the form of a flash drive, as even optical discs are becoming outmoded – is still around, and is often used for installing and troubleshooting operating systems such as Windows. Back in the 90s, however, they were a way of getting games to run. Indeed, if your PC was getting a bit long in the tooth and the game was particularly demanding – at least by the standards of the time – boot disks were often the only way you’d get to play them. Let’s take a look back…way back…
NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
