The NBA Live 98 Wishlist was compiled using the suggestions of the NLSC Team and fans in the community. It was submitted to the production team on February 6th, 1997.

Top Wishes

• Add ability to save in the middle of a game
• Add ability to save replays
• Add ability to play over the Internet, either using a built-in solution or Kali or Kahn
• Add polygon player introductions of the starting five on the courts just like in the NBA, i.e. first the bench players come in, then it gets dark, laser show starts, starters will be announced with court depending music (if possible, use the Bulls announcer Ray Clay for that)
• Add ability to call timeouts and make substitutions in the middle of the game without having to go the game setup screen, maybe by pressing ‘T’ to call a Timeout and ‘S’ to make a substitution

Before the Game

• Add polygon player introductions of the starting five on the courts just like in the NBA, i.e. first the bench players come in, then it gets dark, laser show starts, starters will be announced with court depending music (if possible, use the Bulls announcer Ray Clay for that)
• Add an Option to go to the Pause Screen before the game, i.e. not having to go the Tip-Off and press ESC then
• Show ALL information on the players, i.e. birthdate, birthplace, etc.

During Gameplay

• Add ability to save in the middle of a game
• Add ability to save replays
• Add ability to play over the Internet, either using a built-in solution or Kali or Kahn
• Add ability to call timeouts and make substitutions in the middle of the game without having to go the game setup screen, maybe by pressing ‘T’ to call a Timeout and ‘S’ to make a substitution
• Improve Auto Subs, i.e. Substitution based on foul trouble, fatigue, performance, and defensive match-up, which could be done by adding a Playing Time Rating and/or have two positions assigned to a player or having only C, F, G and variations of these as positions; also when you’re way behind or in front of the other team, put the Starters out and the Bench Players in (optional)
• Make Dunks get blocked less, especially in All-Star Mode
• Reduce the center domination
• Include a bigger variety of dunks, including off-the-glass, double-pumps, wrapping it around the rim
• Have the rim bend when performing a dunk
• Add ability to see sideline crowd, commentators, coaches (walking and shouting) and bench players (all with emotions on the game)
• Add cheerleaders and mascots to the sideline
• Add ability to see refs run and actually make hand gestures on calls
• Add ability to see subs walk in and off the court
• Add Individual player stat-recaps during the game, i.e. FG’s Made, FG%, etc.
• Improve the “Current Run” feature so that it will not only be displayed when there’s a xx-0 run, but also a xx-2 or so
• Add a play-by-play commentator to comment on the action that’s going on, just like in NHL 97 and Full Court Press
• Add more crowd chants like “D-Fense”
• Have the crowd react more to the game flow, at the moment it makes no difference whether you’re behind or in front
• Have the Players calling out the plays audiably
• Don’t let Flagrant Fouls and Injuries depend on each other always, i.e. Flagrant Fouls without an Injury
• Ability to let the user pick the Player to go for the Free Throw after Flagrant and Technical Fouls
• Don’t let the ball go in that often when you get fouled while making a shot attempt
• Improve the passing (no two-handed overhead passes when your teammate is standing next to you, etc.), maybe by adding a Passing Rating
• Improve the ability to the computer controlled players on the user’s team when the ball is loose on the floor, i.e. after a rebound or check
• Change the flat crowd to a ‘real’ crowd
• Make the courts even more authentic, most are too dark and are missing some details
• Add higher vertical leaping
• Add Off-the-glass Alley-Oops
• Add more layup animations including scoops and runners and a fade-away jumper
• Improve Tip-In and Player-Waving-For-A-Pass Animations
• Add One and two handed board taps on lay-ups and blocks
• Improve spin and cross-over animations
• Add Signature Moves, i.e. Pippen doing his tomahawk
• Show replays not only of tip-ins and dunks, but also of great blocks and assists
• Allow dribbling and shooting with the opposite hand
• Add Computer fast-breaks
• Reduce wrist slap fouls
• Reduce the stopping of players to catch a pass on a break
• Add lead passes
• Add No-look passes
• Add ability to get off shots with 0.2 secs left on clock, which is the least possible amount of time to get off a shot in real life
• Make players move/wiggle when they line up around the paint during a free throw
• Add ability to save a complete game
• Add a “Restart Game” option
• Improve player animation so that their hands don’t go through the board
• Make blocking easier for the user
• Improve instant replay so that it shows a made made basket on a foul
• Improve the scoreboard on the court so that it keeps updated scores during the game, instead of 000 all the time.
• BUG FIX: No longer allow the user call Time-outs of the CPU controlled team
• BUG FIX: Fix that the announcer sometimes says “That’s his xx Personal” twice instead of first saying “Foul to No. xx,..”
• BUG FIX: Fix that when you’re playing with Custom Teams, in the 4th Quarter you’ll suddenly only have 0 Fouls to give when you have more
• BUG FIX: Fix the jerseys of the custom Jammers/Slammers, at the moment the Jammers have the Slammers logo and vice versa
• BUG FIX: Fix the Blockers court as the rim shadows are not displayed correctly at the moment

Quarter Break/Halftime

• Add an option to not go back to the game directly between quarters, but dropping to the “Pause” Screen instead to make substitutions
• Add Half-time updates including scores from around the league and highlights from the current game, maybe show the ones that the user saved during the game
• Add Polygon-based cheerleaders and mascots instead of the videos which you’ll only view once anyway

Controllers

• Add the option to allow keyboard control for two players
• Add a cross-over dribble button (maybe both joystick buttons simultaneously)
• Add a steal button
• Add a spin move button
• Add a cross-over in front, between the legs, and behind the back all controlled by one button press and a controller direction
• BUG FIX: Make the GrIP Support work correctly
• BUG FIX: Get rid of that problems with the UserLogs

Season/Playoff

• Simulate the stats from other teams according to the Quarter Length you have in the season
• Ability to play as more than one team during the season
• Add long term injuries, even between game injuries
• Add crowd excitement in the stadium after winning the championship at home, with confetti, noise, crowd rushing the floor, etc.
• Put “NBA Playoffs” and “NBA Finals” logos on the floor
• Add a Player Of The Week and a Player Of The Month
• Recalculate the Players’ Ratings based on seasonal progress, i.e. FG, FT and TP shooting
• Add an end of season draft
• Have the Team stats carry over to a new season (96-97 stats carried over to a new 97-98 season)
• Allow the CPU to make trades and FA signings for its teams
• Let players have real slumps during the season
• BUG FIX: Have both announcers correctly say “Eastern Conference” when you play a team of the Eastern Conference instead of saying “Western” at the moment
• BUG FIX: Have both announcers correctly say the Other Locations, as at the moment they say “Tokyo, Japan” instead of “Maple Leaf Gardens”
• BUG FIX: Have the arena announcer correctly say “Welcome to Game X OF the [whatever]” instead of dropping the “of” in the sentence as it is currently

Player Creation/Custom Teams/Rosters

• Add option to have more created players (500)
• Add ability to use your own portraits (if that is not possible, fine-render the facial feature you assigned to a player and Add the jersey of the team he’s on)
• Have the announcer try to pronouce the names of the created players, i.e. by letting the user pick any names that are already in the game
• Add ability to record your own sound files
• Add ability to move any player you want to the IR, even when the team is not full
• Add true custom teams including the ability to name them and pick and edit uniforms and courts
• Add option so that players on the Custom teams wear their own teams home and away uniforms as the rookies do in the Schick Rookie Game
• Allow to edit the user stats for a player when he creates someone with Years Pro greater than 0
• Include an Editor to allow editing of all ratings of all players in the game

All-Star Game

• Add a slam dunk contest like in the classic EA Game Jordan vs. Bird
• Add a three-point contest
• Add option to select the players for the All-Star game either by the user and/or the CPU, based on their performance in the season you’re playing (maybe let the user pick the starting five, the CPU will announce the bench players)
• Add a $1.000.000 Half Court Shot

German Version

• Add Frank Buschmann and Michael Koerner from the German Channel DSF as the announcers and commentators, the current German announcer and commentator are not that good, in the game it sounds like they’re reading directly from the paper 🙂
• Improve the translations, a lot of stuff is NBA specific and is not translated to German anyway, since most (if not all) of the people in Germany that like the NBA speak English

Some extras you might want to consider putting in

• Add all NBA Players, especially Jordan and Barkley
• Add a higher variety of difficulty levels
• Add fights
• Add ability to change uniforms and All-Star Game courts
• Add ability to play any quarter length you want
• Make an ‘official’ patch that keeps up with the latest trades and offer it from your Web Site or via an Auto-Update-The-Rosters Function
• Add 1-on-1, 2-on-2, and 3-on-3 games, this could be accomplished by a special option that allows less than 8 players on the team – add fun and interesting hidden codes
• Add ability to save ALL settings in the User Log, i.e. the Crash Boards Option
• Improve the coding to make the game run fast without needing a super high-end machine
• Add a Pause Key which only pauses the game without dropping back to the Pause Screen
• Add great teams from the past, like the ’93 Bulls, the ’83 76ers, and an All-Time East Team and an All-Time West Team
• Add ability to create your own Offensive/Defensive Sets
• Let the players have real minds, for example like a dialogue box popping up and a player demanding to be traded
• Have a dialog box come up and allow a player’s number to be changed when a player gets traded and his jersey matches the same number on the team trading to
• Let the user call plays when the CPU controls both teams, just like a coaching mode
• Add a season mode in which you are the manager, you pick players, calculate costs, put prices for games, etc.
• Add black shoes
• Add second away jerseys for the teams
• Add different lengths of hair and style for the players
• Add support for 3D Accelerator Graphic cards
• Add native support for Pro AudioSpectrum 16 sound card under DOS
• Add more commentators, i.e. Johnny Kerr and Tom Dorn
• Use Shawn Kemp for motion-capturing the Dunks
• Add more localized versions, i.e. Spanish