Tag Archives: 1998

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 my Christmas of 1998, which included receiving NBA Live 99 for the Nintendo 64.

It’s Christmas Eve, so I hope that you’re enjoying the holiday season no matter how you spend it! To that point, I appreciate you checking in with us for some basketball gaming content. When I glanced ahead in the calendar and was reminded that this week’s Wayback Wednesday would fall on the night before Christmas, I naturally began thinking of what would be a suitably festive topic. I’ve previously reflected on the inclusion of the special Christmas jerseys in various games, and other ways that Christmas has been represented on the virtual hardwood.

This year, I’d like to share something a bit more personal, specifically memories of my Christmas in 1998. We all have years in our lives that are significant to us for one reason or another. Whether they were wonderful, terrible, or otherwise shaped the person we are today, those years stick in our minds. 1998 was a memorable year for me, and for mostly positive reasons. To that end, my Christmas of 1998 capped off a great trip around the sun, and also happened to deliver a new basketball video game: NBA Live 99 for the Nintendo 64. Join me as I take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five lost basketball video game saves that I’m tempted to reboot and play once again.

Decades of basketball gaming has resulted in far too many of my saves being lost. Sometimes it’s due to unfortunate technical issues, but all too often, I’ve made the mistake of believing that I was done with a particular game and carelessly discarded those files. As I’ve come to realise – especially with my preference for retro basketball gaming in recent years – I’m actually quite likely to revisit old favourites and make them a part of my rotation once again! To that point, it’s a shame that I can’t resume those lost Season, Franchise, and Dynasty saves when I dust off classic titles.

Of course, while the original saves may be lost, the ideas live on! With that in mind, while recovering those lost saves is highly unlikely unless I discover some backups somewhere – and trust me, I’ve already looked – I can always re-create them. Now that I’ve made my return to franchise gaming and reignited my passion for playing through seasons, I’m open to making that something I do with any old favourites that I end up getting hooked on. Sure, it wouldn’t be a true continuation of those lost saves, and it’d be tough to truly re-create the magic of the original experiences. I do think it’d be a lot of fun, though! With that being said, I’m quite tempted to reboot these five lost saves.

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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 reminiscing about the time that I took an NBA Live 96 PC season on the road.

I don’t need many excuses to nostalgically reminisce about 1998! As tumultuous as our teenage years can be, it was an exciting time for my younger self. In the NBA, there was The Last Dance for the Chicago Bulls. It’s the year that I became a fan of professional wrestling, with the Attitude Era and Monday Night Wars in full swing. The Simpsons was still in its golden age. I also made new friends that would end up impacting my life more than I could’ve ever expected. Oh, and I also became an uncle at 13 when my nephew was born in January (my brother is 16 years older than me).

Indeed, it’s my nephew that inspired this walk down memory lane. More specifically, he got married earlier this month, and he and his wife are expecting a daughter, so I’ll soon be a great uncle. On top of being proud of and happy for him, it’s also a reminder of how time flies, as it seems like only yesterday that we were waiting to meet him! Thinking about how those 27 years sometimes seem like they went by in a blink, I’ve recalled how a trip to attend his christening produced a basketball gaming memory: playing NBA Live 96 PC on the road. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five rosters that I’d like to make for NBA Live 06 PC.

Even though I haven’t been as active in the modding community as I was during the heyday of NBA Live on PC, the lure to tinker with the games I’m playing has always been there. Admittedly I haven’t been moved to mod recent NBA 2K games any more than I have been to play them, but should a future release capture my interest, I won’t rule out the possibility. For now though, just as I’ve gravitated towards retro gaming, I’m far more interested in creating mods for old favourites that find their way back into my rotation…or new old favourites, as the case may be.

One old favourite that I’d like to play more often and mod once again is NBA Live 06 PC. Although it was generally well-received in its day – and in my view, is the last great all-around release in the NBA Live series – that may sound like a strange choice. Compared to games such as NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14, it doesn’t have the same significant following several years after its release. To that end, I accept that any rosters that I create for NBA Live 06 will be niche projects, and indeed likely largely for my own use. That doesn’t mean I can’t and shouldn’t create them, though! They’re worth considering at least, and to that point, here are five ideas that I have in mind.

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As you may have seen from a couple of previous bulletins, Paxson-for-3 has released 1997 and 1998 rosters for NBA 2K11 PC. He has continued to work on updates for both of those projects, and to that end, new versions of each are now available!

The 1997 roster now includes 57 additional faces, while 61 faces have been added to the 1998 roster for NBA 2K11. These updates come courtesy of clutchcity1994-1995, so shout out to him as well! A few updates and fixes have also been made to players in the 1997 mod.

For those who may be unaware, both rosters include season-accurate team branding. The appropriate jerseys have been assigned as the default home and away uniforms, so there’s no need to manually select them before games. In short, both mods are extremely detailed retro rosters, perfect for anyone who’d like to throw it back to a couple of iconic seasons in one of the best basketball video games of all-time.

Download the 1997 roster here, and pick up the 1998 mod here! Thanks go out once again to Paxson-for-3 for providing these classic season rosters for NBA 2K11. He’s indicated that he’s working on some other retro roster projects for the game, so be sure to stay tuned for further previews and releases!

Paxson-for-3’s 1998 roster for NBA 2K11 has been updated, and the new version is now available to download!

As previously noted, the mod was in need of some additional logo updates. Thanks to Shamgod and clutchcity1994-1995, those logos have now been properly updated for the 1998 season. A few jersey assignments have also been fixed, with all of the teams now using the appropriate 1998 uniforms by default.

You can download the 1998 roster for NBA 2K11 from this topic in the Forum. That’s also where you’ll find some previews of the project, as well as details on any future releases. In case you missed it, Paxson-for-3 has also released a 1997 roster; more information on that here.

Once again, shout out to Paxson-for-3 for spearheading these awesome retro roster projects, as well as Shamgod and clutchcity1994-1995 for their contributions to the latest version of the 1998 season mod! As I’ve said in previous bulletins, it’s great to see the classics still receiving love through some excellent mod releases. While we’ll always be committed to housing mods and providing other resources for new releases, we’re all about promoting retro gaming and modding as well. To that end, a reminder that we welcome discussion and mod releases for all basketball video games, new and old. In the meantime, be sure to check out these awesome rosters for NBA 2K11!

Just a couple of weeks after releasing a new 1997 season mod for NBA 2K11 PC, Paxson-for-3 has followed up that project with a 1998 roster!

Like the 1997 mod, the 1998 rosters are accurate as of the season’s opening night (in this case October 31st, 1997), and all teams have their correct jerseys. The project is based on a previous 1997 mod that was released years ago, thus players also have era-appropriate faces.

Presently, a few teams that changed their logos ahead of the 1998 campaign are still using their 1997 season branding. Paxson-for-3 has appealed for help in updating those logos, so if you have the knowhow, he’s definitely keen to hear from you!

In the meantime, you can pick up the 1998 roster for NBA 2K11 here in the Forum, where you’ll also find some previews of the project. That’s also probably the best place to get in touch with Paxson-for-3 if you’re willing and able to help out with the missing 1998 season logo updates. As always, shout out to everyone who continues to release these passion projects for classic basketball video games! Once again, I’ve been mulling the possibility of retro rosters for old favourites, so I’m delighted to see that others have been similarly inspired to indulge their nostalgia. Keep up the fantastic work!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #573 of the NLSC Podcast!

The alley-oop is one of the most exciting plays in all of basketball, and to that point, it’s vital that we can expertly throw lobs on the virtual hardwood as well. This week, we join the community in recalling the best and worst alley-oop mechanics that we’ve experienced in basketball video games, primarily focusing on NBA Live and NBA 2K. We’ve also been connecting to play co-op over Parsec a lot recently, which includes sessions with NBA 2K7 for PlayStation 3, NBA Live 95 for Super Nintendo, NBA Street Vol. 2, and NBA Live 06 PC using an old 1998 season mod. Naturally, this leads to some reflections on the teams we used, as well as the benefits of emulation in 2025.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 58:37 — 40.6MB)

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!

Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five modding projects that I unfortunately had to abandon before they were finished.

When I was reading Felicia Day’s first book several years ago, she offered up the advice to never throw away anything you’ve written. By all means start over or try to re-work what you’ve drafted, but don’t just delete the original file. After all, you may want to return to it as a starting point, or at least salvage a part of it. I’ve kept that in mind when writing articles since then. Whether it’s keeping the first draft while I take another run at a topic, or saving what I’ve written when I remove an example from a Friday Five list so that it can potentially be used elsewhere, I’m hesitant to scrap work.

The same goes for modding projects. Even an abandoned roster potentially has some data or art assets that can be recycled in another mod, so there’s value in holding onto both. Furthermore, while projects can hit a brick wall, there’s always a chance that you can persevere, perhaps by changing direction or scaling down the project. With that being said, there comes a time where you need to cut your losses rather than falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy. I’ve certainly done that with a few modding projects over the years! It’s never a good feeling, but it’s far wiser than wasting time on an ultimately doomed idea. Here are five of my modding projects that fell through.

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We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on whether to create 1996, 1997, or 1998 season rosters, as I consider future modding projects.

As I’ve said before, in order to stand the best chance of completing any major roster projects that I attempt moving forward, I need to pick an idea that I’m invested in, for a game that I want to play. When it comes to the games that I’d most like to play and mod, NBA Live 06 PC is definitely one of the frontrunners. As far as roster projects, I’d prefer something nostalgic over a current season update. This includes an Ultimate Jordan roster, various classic team rosters, and if I can assemble the appropriate assets and viable placeholders, at least one complete retro season mod.

To that end, I have a few seasons in mind. My work with NBA 2K6 for Xbox 360 has demonstrated how 2006 season games can be effectively rolled back a few years, and such projects can be made even better on PC with all of the modding capabilities. I’ll always be drawn to the idea of bringing the 90s into a 21st century favourite though, but that raises the question of which year. Being a 90s kid and Chicago Bulls fan, the 1996, 1997, and 1998 seasons are all prime candidates when mulling the possibilities for retro rosters. However, even if I were to create all of them for NBA Live 06 PC or another game, I’d still need to pick one to start with. So: 1996, 1997, or 1998 rosters?

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Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five lineups that despite their fame, didn’t actually last long.

Just how good is your memory? I like to think that mine is pretty good when it comes to basketball and basketball video games, because those are things that I’m passionate about. However, I definitely don’t have infallible recall! Moreover, our perception of time can be a tricky thing. To that end, while I may remember players, teams, lineups, and other such roster trivia many years later, my recollection of their longevity (or lack thereof) can be skewed. After all, what may feel like a long time when we’re living it day-by-day can turn out to be a short period in the grand scheme of things!

Case in point: the lineups that I’m talking about today. It’s no surprise that they stick in my mind – and I’m sure the minds of many long-time basketball fans and gamers – because they were all memorable in their own way. However, their memorability can ironically make us forget how short-lived those lineups actually were; especially if they did have a significant impact on the league (and video games) while they lasted. Even if they weren’t particularly successful, or a Video Game Team, they may still benefit from an oddity, or simply media hype, that grants them more nostalgic fame – or infamy – than you’d expect. Here are five such lineups that come to mind for me.

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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 the midseason rosters in Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside.

Now that roster updates are common and viable on all platforms, we’re accustomed to midseason moves being officially represented in video games. In the 90s and into the early 2000s however, we generally had to make our own roster updates, even on PC. As such, there have been many brief stints and short-lived lineups that don’t appear in any official rosters due to occurring midseason, and being over by the time the next game is released. Outside of those rare official updates, the only way we’d see games reflect midseason rosters would be revised and re-released editions, and late launches.

That brings us to Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside, a Nintendo 64 exclusive released in 1998. Indeed, that is the key factor that sets it apart from other 1998 season titles such as NBA Live 98 and NBA Action 98/NBA Fastbreak ’98. Whereas those games were released in late 1997 ahead of or around the beginning of the season, NBA Courtside came out after the calendar rolled over to 1998, and thus features midseason rosters. To that end, it captures a unique snapshot of the 1998 season, with some stints and lineups that you won’t find in any other games. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 revisiting NBA Live 2002, and creating some makeshift 90s teams.

Minimalist modding has become a staple of my retro gaming. It’s a way to indulge nostalgia in multiple ways: the mechanics and aesthetics of my chosen game, the teams that I assemble, and the process of modding. I do also enjoy simply playing with the default rosters, or a roster update set in the same season as the game, for a more authentic step back in time. However, the creativity of minimalist modding so often steers me towards discovering what I can do with the content that’s available in any game that I’ve chosen to revisit.

In games such as NBA 2K6 and NBA Live 10, it’s difficult to go back to the 90s with any makeshift classic teams, at least without creating a bunch of players. After all, by that point, most the stars and role players who were active in the 90s had retired. Not all of the big names had signed on to be Legends around the time of NBA 2K6, and NBA Live 10 doesn’t have any historical teams or players at all. However, since NBA Live 2002 came out closer to the 90s and includes several stars from that decade, is it possible to cobble together some retro teams? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 the transitional rosters of the 1999 lockout season, as captured in NBA Live 99 PC.

It’s been 25 years since a lockout led to NBA games being cancelled for the first time, with the threat of an entire season being lost. I’ll admit that I wasn’t paying attention to the looming labour crisis as a teenage Chicago Bulls fan in 1998. I was focused on following the action, hoping that Michael Jordan would win another scoring title and the Bulls would end the year as champions once more. The rumours that concerned me were that it would be The Last Dance, which it obviously was. Furthermore, the magazines I was reading weren’t really covering it, and NBA Action definitely wasn’t!

Fortunately, the season was saved when ultimatums were issued – though, it wouldn’t be the last labour dispute – and the 1999 lockout ended on January 20th, 1999. On top of shortening the 1999 campaign to 50 games, it also meant that video games such as NBA Live had to launch with final 1998 season rosters. Fortunately for PC gamers, EA Sports released an official patch that not only fixed a few bugs, but updated the game for the new season. As such, NBA Live 99 PC in its updated state does preserve the rosters from a weird, yet memorable season. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 my 1998 season roster mod for NBA Live 96 PC.

It’s overwhelming to think that the NLSC has been around for more than a quarter of a century! Our founders tipped things off in 1996, I took over in 2001, and we’re still around all these years later. Through all the ups and downs, moving to different hosts, and putting up with some nonsense along the way, we’ve managed to outlast a ton of websites. We’ve also outlasted more than a couple of basketball video game series (and indeed, video game studios and publishers). Unfortunately we’ve lost some mods and resources along the way, but we’ve still got some fun stuff from the early days.

To that end, our archives have preserved some of my earliest roster mods for NBA Live 96 PC. Upon discovering the NLSC in 1997 and all of the work that people in the community were doing, I was inspired to try my hand at some modding as well. I released that work through my own site – the NBA Live Domain – and felt immense pride when our founders added it to the database of mods on the NLSC. How do I feel about those mods today? It’s been a while since I’ve played with or taken a long look at them, so I thought I’d start by revisiting my 1998 roster for NBA Live 96, which I actually co-credited to my cousin Clinton. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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