Tag Archives: Basketball Reference

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 ways to improve MyNBA Eras.

MyNBA Eras is one of the most impressive modes in the history of basketball video games. The ability to wind back the clock and start a franchise game in previous eras, with the league evolving with expansion, re-branding, and even different rules and formats, is a concept that once seemed impossible. As is the case with any historical content in sports video games, there are obviously limitations. Licensing and likeness rights are the biggest issue, so if nothing else, we can expect to see some placeholders standing in for players who can’t be included.

Beyond that, I never want to downplay the hard work that has gone into creating a mode that so many of us fantasised about, but never expected to see. With that being said of course, this doesn’t mean we can’t critique MyNBA Eras, or suggest ways in which it could be better. It certainly helps that the framework is already in place, and generally speaking, the mode functions as intended while making the most of its huge but incomplete roster of historical players. Hopefully Take-Two can continue to work with the NBRPA to add those missing players, but in the meantime, there are some improvements that can be made to the content and experience that’s already on offer.

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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 paying tribute to Doug’s Stats, an essential modding resource in the early days of our community.

I’ll admit that sometimes I yearn for the World Wide Web of yesteryear, when fansites were king and before social media became everything. Selfishly, it’s because we didn’t have to compete with platforms backed by billionaires, but beyond that, I miss seeing other websites that have the same passion that we do. At this point, we’ve outlasted a number of our contemporaries, from fellow NBA Live fansites to our former host, GameSpy. Some of those sites have been preserved by archive.org, but many others are sadly gone forever.

Occasionally, someone will drop by the Forum or one of our social media pages to reminisce and express joy that we’re still around. Obviously it’s always nice to receive flattering compliments and read people’s positive memories of the NLSC, but I also relate to it because I too am heartened to discover a site I once used to visit is still around decades later. One of those sites is Doug’s Stats, which as I mentioned, was once an essential roster modding resource in our community. Doug’s work definitely deserves recognition – even to this day – so 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 ways to improve the great resource that is Basketball Reference.

Since it was launched in April 2004, Basketball Reference has become an essential destination for hoops fans. Whether you’re looking for player statistics and bio data, league records, team rosters, or pretty much anything else you’d ever want to know about the NBA, ABA, WNBA, and other leagues, the site has you covered. Over the years, Basketball Reference has constantly added features and data to become an even more valuable and entertaining resource. It’s also powering the basketball version of Immaculate Grid, a fun daily grid-based trivia game that I really enjoy.

Needless to say, Basketball Reference has also become an essential resource when creating roster mods for basketball video games. No matter whether you’re making a current roster or retro season mod, there’s no doubt that you’ll be browsing Basketball Reference for the information you need. It’s certainly quicker than the old methods of looking up almanacs, magazines, trading cards, and previous video games, as we did in the early days of our modding community! However, there are a few ways that Basketball Reference’s resources could be made even better, especially for people creating rosters. If it’s at all possible, I’d love to see these additions and enhancements.

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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 the rosters in NBA Live 96 PC.

Have I mentioned that old basketball video games can be interactive almanacs? I believe I have, once or twice! It’s one of the things that I enjoy the most about retro basketball gaming, on top of the nostalgic throwback gameplay of course. As I’ve noted on several occasions, sim titles capture a snapshot of the league at the time they were released. This includes interesting trivia such as phantom stints, familiar faces in unfamiliar places, and familiar faces back in familiar places, to name just some of the examples that I enjoy keeping my eye out for.

I’ve previously revisited the rosters in NBA Live 2002, NBA Live 95 (both PC and Super Nintendo), and NBA Live 99 PC (with the official update). Those were fun trips down memory lane, but I’m even more excited to revisit the rosters in NBA Live 96 PC. It’s one of my all-time favourite basketball games, and while I sunk countless hours into it playing with my 1998 season roster, I also spent a considerable amount of time with the default lineups. It’s also helped me out with modding, and even in answering trivia all these years later! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 we used to create current and retro rosters for NBA Live.

Back when we were the NBA Live Series Center, our founders described the site as “the official home of the Roster Patches and the NBA Live Editors for Windows”. In those days, there were no official rosters pushed through by EA Sports, and limited in-game editing facilities. Modding existed before the NLSC, and the PC versions of NBA Live for that matter, but it’s fair to say that the efforts of Tim, Lutz, and Brien were instrumental in bringing the hobby to the virtual hardwood. It certainly blew my mind when I discovered the NLSC, and I was inspired to make my own rosters.

Of course, even with the editors that our founders created, it wasn’t always easy. I’ve talked about the technical aspects of editing those early games, and some of the tools that made it possible. In this week’s Wayback Wednesday, I’d like to reflect on the process of making rosters; in other words, how we found the necessary information that made those projects possible. It’s a process that’s become a lot easier as online resources have expanded, but back then, we had to hunt around a little more. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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