From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #576 of the NLSC Podcast!
Although we mostly play and primarily cover NBA and NCAA licensed basketball video games, there have certainly been some classic releases that lack their high profile branding, as well as real teams and players. This week, we join the community in recalling some of our all-time favourite unlicensed basketball video games. We also name a handful of favourites that only licensed one or two real players, starred fictional characters, or otherwise didn’t have anything to do with the NBA or NCAA. As we discuss, these games inspired us to use our imaginations, created many Virtual Hardwood Legends, and sometimes included impressive features and gameplay mechanics.
Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 53:42 — 37.2MB)
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I think the only basketball video game I knew back in the day were licensed games, nba jam, nba live 95 and nba give and go (I believe that’s the PAL name)
The only other game I played was one on the ps1 called Total nba which was ok but it was the box that was was unique as it had a rubber basketball on the cover popping out which was an actual rubber ball to touch.
Licensed games were definitely more common and popular! I’m overdue to cover Total NBA, which was actually the NBA ShootOut series renamed for PAL regions. Not sure why they did that for us; maybe they thought it’d be a more appealing name, or perhaps they thought “ShootOut” was controversial somehow.