Tag Archives: Decade All-Stars

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #620 of the NLSC Podcast!

The NBA 2K series has been packed full of retro content for over a decade now, but despite some major additions throughout the years, the overall quality still leaves us wanting. After reflecting on the issue of quantity over quality and the general lack of care for classic teams and players, we join the community in discussing how we’d enhance the retro content in future NBA 2K games. From fixes and updates that are absolutely essential to some more ambitious ideas that would make the retro content even more fun to use, there’s plenty that can and should be done. We also touch on how this lack of attention to detail is also already affecting the new collegiate content that recently debuted in NBA 2K.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 52:48 — 36.6MB)

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!

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 reflecting on my feelings of nostalgia and indeed anemoia when playing with players from before my time in basketball games.

Like most people, my nostalgia for basketball and basketball gaming is intertwined. Whether I’m dusting off a classic game or playing with historical content in a newer title, I’m usually indulging my nostalgia for the 90s and 2000s. However, I’ve grown increasingly fond of playing with many of the Legends from before my time. This includes players who retired before I was even born, as well as those whose careers wrapped up shortly before I became a hardcore basketball fan in the mid 90s. Even though I didn’t grow up watching those players, they’re still nostalgic to me.

It may sound strange to have nostalgia for a time that I never experienced, but it’s not uncommon. In fact, John Koenig’s Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows has given a name to such feelings: the aforementioned anemoia. Needless to say, it applies to more than just basketball and basketball gaming, but it aptly describes my newfound enthusiasm for playing with players from before my time. Although it’s more of a recent habit for me, upon reflection, my introduction to basketball clearly laid the groundwork for such anemoia. Let’s take a look at how I’ve come to enjoy going 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 Michael Jordan in NBA Live 2004.

These days, we think of Visual Concepts as the company to bring Michael Jordan to the virtual hardwood. After all, he’s been available as a Legend since NBA 2K11, we’ve had two iterations of the Jordan Challenge, and he’s graced the cover of four editions of the game. However, long before NBA 2K was celebrating His Airness, he was closely associated with EA Sports. From licensing him for the NBA Playoffs series as he disappeared from other early 90s titles, to games such as Jordan vs. Bird, Michael Jordan in Flight and Chaos in the Windy City, it was EA who brought us MJ.

Of course, the last time that Michael Jordan made an official appearance in an EA Sports game was in NBA Live 2004. Indeed, until NBA 2K11, it marked the last time that he was officially featured in any video games. Needless to say, adding him to the Legends Pool and 90s All-Stars was an annual task for our modding community from NBA Live 2005 through NBA Live 08, so we were still able to play with him on PC. There was something special about official appearances though, especially given MJ’s absence from the virtual hardwood in the late 90s. 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 Legends teams that would’ve been viable in eighth generation NBA Live titles.

A couple of years ago, I reflected on the misuse of Legends in NBA Live. While the series made a big splash with historical content when Michael Jordan and other all-time greats were added in NBA Live 2000, it’s had countless missed opportunities since then. From losing the rights to include certain Legends to leaving them out of the seventh generation releases entirely, NBA Live hasn’t done an impressive job with historical content. Legends were thankfully present in the eighth generation NBA Live games, but were exclusive to specific modes.

This is one of the reasons why Ultimate Team has been one of my favourite modes in eighth gen NBA Live: it’s where I can actually play with Legends! Of course, I wish that they were more readily available. To that point, some people have argued that that wouldn’t be feasible, as it would draw attention to how thin NBA Live’s historical content is compared to what’s on offer in NBA 2K. However, while NBA 2K does boast a massive array of retro players and classic squads, eighth gen NBA Live games could’ve viably included some Legends teams. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 thoughts on how bonus content is much better than live service content.

Live service content is an inescapable part of so many Triple-A games these days. While the idea didn’t exactly begin with mobile gaming – expansion packs and the like have been available for decades – modern Triple-A titles definitely take their cues from games with freemium economies. The concept succeeds because there is merit to it. Live service content can keep games fresh for as long as they’re supported, giving us something to look forward to. Of course, it can also be predatory, not to mention a crutch for games that are incomplete at launch.

To that end, in my opinion, bonus content that’s in the game from the very beginning is much better than live service content. I realise what an “old head” opinion that must sound like, but I stand by it. There’s a joy to bonus content that I just don’t believe live service content can replicate, because of its underlying concept and aims. It’s not that I haven’t ever enjoyed the live service content in recent basketball games, or for that matter, been underwhelmed by the bonus content found in old ones. However, as I’ve revisited more and more old games for Wayback Wednesday and explored their bonus content, the more soulless and dull that live service content has become in my eyes.

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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 how the addition of free agents in basketball video games has enhanced roster modding.

A pool of free agents and the ability to sign and release players is just one of those things that we take for granted in basketball video games. After all, it’s a concept that goes back to games released in the 90s, making it a well-established staple of roster customisation that we expect to see. Indeed, if you got into basketball gaming during the 2000s at the earliest, you probably haven’t played many sim games that didn’t represent free agency in their roster customisation functionality, or at least their season or franchise modes.

However, if you’re my age and you recall playing the classics of the 90s, you’ll no doubt remember how restricted we used to be when it came to modifying the rosters in-game. Even after the ability to trade players outside of season modes was added, it still took a couple of years to implement the free agents pool. It was longer still before that pool was frequently filled with players to sign! Needless to say, the addition of the free agents pool and subsequent inclusion of a selection of free agents every year significantly enhanced roster modding. 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 putting some Legends back in uniform in NBA 2K9.

As I’ve mentioned before, whenever I’m hooked on an older basketball video game, part of my retro kick involves messing around with the rosters. I particularly enjoy this is in any game that has Legends and retro jerseys, as it allows me to set up some historical scenarios. While playing NBA 2K9 ahead of producing my retrospective, I ended up putting many of the Legends back in uniform. It turned out to be a fun way to talk about some strange stints that weren’t captured in the rosters of any other video games (aside from one that I felt was too important not to cover).

Before I re-created those examples of familiar faces in strange places using NBA 2K9 though, I was placing Legends back in the uniforms that they famously wore. It may seem like an unusual thing to do when there are so many games – and for that matter, mods – that allow me to play with historical rosters. However, there’s just something really fun and satisfying about messing around with a game’s retro content! NBA 2K9 doesn’t feature the largest selection of Legends in the 2K series, but it has enough to depict some memorable moments in NBA history. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #579 of the NLSC Podcast!

What are the best lineups that we can assemble picking from players in the modern NBA? This week, we fire up NBA 2K25 and run separate fantasy drafts in MyNBA Eras to craft teams that we believe would be both successful and a lot of fun to play with on the virtual hardwood. The exercise leads us to share a few more thoughts on NBA 2K25, and the community’s attitude towards it. We also recap a couple of fun co-op sessions with NBA Live 2000 and NBA 2K13, using the All-Decade teams and a 1985 season roster respectively. Both games continue to impress us all these years later, demonstrating that the best releases are timeless and undoubtedly worth revisiting.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 34:44 — 24.2MB)

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!

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #516 of the NLSC Podcast!

Suffice to say, we’ve been on a major NBA Live kick lately! To that point, we’ve got some extremely enjoyable sessions with NBA Live 97, NBA Live 2004, NBA Live 06 (both versions), NBA Live 09, and NBA Live 10 to recap. We also join the community in reflecting on the NBA Live titles that we’ve spent the most time with over the years. On a less positive note, 2K has reached a whole new level of greed with NBA 2K24 MyTEAM. In addition to expressing our disgust, we commend some content creators for (finally) speaking out about these issues. We wrap up this week’s show with a celebration of Michael Jordan’s birthday, as we and our listeners share our fondest memories of MJ on the real and virtual hardwood alike.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 2:00:17 — 83.0MB)

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!

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 original All-Time Teams that were featured in early NBA 2K titles.

The concept of All-Time Teams is naturally a staple of sports discussion. Which franchise could field the best lineup with all the players that have ever worn their uniform? Who can boast the best all-time starting lineup? Who would prevail in a showdown of stars, if they could all be together on the team in their prime? Such What Ifs are impossible to conclusively prove in reality, but they’re a great idea for fantasy matchups in video games. Even in the early days of NBA Live modding, the community was creating Legends and All-Time Teams rosters.

Those projects have remained popular over the years, so it’s no surprise that with all of the other historical content in NBA 2K, All-Time squads were eventually added for each franchise. As I noted when I covered those teams in a previous article, while the concept was nothing new, it saved us a lot of time by ensuring that certain players and assets would be in the game by default. However, I neglected to mention that NBA 2K18 wasn’t the first game in the series to feature All-Time Teams, as a few such squads were unlockable in earlier releases. 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 how Legends have been misused in NBA Live over the years.

If you remember hitting the virtual hardwood before NBA Live 2000 was released, then you’ll recall what a big deal it was when Legends were announced for the game. Sure, we had modding, and even on console Create-a-Player could be used to make some serviceable retro players, but now they were going to be right there in the game by default! They’d have proper faces, and their names would be called by the PA Announcer and commentators. And of course, Michael Jordan would at long last appear in an NBA Live game. It was huge news, and a landmark feature.

Considering that EA Sports had found themselves in hot water after trying to sneak some Legends into the 16-bit version of NBA Live 96, it seemed like something that would never happen. That made the official inclusion of Legends even more special, and it’s why I won’t take historical content for granted. However, it’s fair to say that over the years, NBA Live didn’t do as much with the Legends as they possibly could have, leaving the door open for NBA 2K to blow us away with retro content and features. Even before that though, NBA Live was dropping the ball with throwback players. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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As Dee and I have discussed on the NLSC Podcast, we both enjoy dabbling with the card collecting modes in NBA Live and NBA 2K. To that end, we’ve both recently uploaded highlight reels from NBA Live 18 Ultimate Team and NBA 2K24 MyTEAM.

In my NBA Live 18 Ultimate Team reel, the 90s All-Stars are back in action! The Glove connects with The Reignman, The Dream shakes and bakes in the post, Clyde glides before finishing with force, Shaq attacks the rim without mercy, Tim Bug breaks ankles with the UTEP Two-Step, Penny shines and drops dimes, Nique is a Human Highlight Film, and Pip does a little bit of everything! My aim was to capture the spirit of the NBA in the 90s, which had us all saying “I love this game”!

Dee’s NBA 2K24 MyTEAM reel also showcases some memorable historical players, as well as current stars. Darryl Dawkins is dominating in the paint, while Robert Pack reminds us that you don’t need to be seven feet tall to leave the basket shaking! Rick Barry and Jack Sikma also get buckets, while Steph Curry is dialled in from long distance. Cover player Kobe Bryant also dazzles and shows off the Mamba Mentality as Dee completes all three 76ers Challenges in Domination.

Check out both highlight reels below! We’ll be sharing further impressions of NBA 2K24, including thoughts on MyTEAM, in the next NLSC Podcast. Stay tuned for that, and be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content!

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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 aspects of retro content in older basketball video games that is underrated.

Retro content has been a staple feature in basketball games for decades now. It’s one of the best additions in sim and arcade titles alike, as it’s a blast to play with the stars of yesteryear in addition to the current generation of players. The amount of retro content has steadily increased since it was introduced, progressing from historical All-Star teams to retro NBA teams and All-Time legends squads. With the addition of MyNBA Eras in NBA 2K23 (and its return in NBA 2K24), it’s fair to suggest that these days we have more retro content than ever before.

With that being said, retro content has indeed been around for a long time, and an admirable effort was made with it in many old games. In fact, while the quantity of retro content in basketball games has never been higher than it is in NBA 2K23, we can certainly point to ways that older favourites boasted better quality. If nothing else, there are some aspects of the retro content in older basketball games that are quite impressive, and not just for their era. In fact, I’d go so far as to call them underrated, or certainly underappreciated, especially as they made the most of the resources that were available to them at the time. Let’s take a look at five examples of these aspects!

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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 poses five questions regarding historical teams for both the community and developers to consider.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that the historical content in NBA 2K is one of the series’ biggest triumphs. Sure, it isn’t perfect, as missing players and inaccurate ratings and data do impact the experience of playing with and against historical teams. Still, NBA 2K has managed to break new ground as far as including retro content. Older games may have included a handful of playable Legends, with NBA Starting Five 2005 even featuring a small selection of classic squads. However, as far as overall depth and scope is concerned, the NBA 2K series has done it the best.

Of course, that doesn’t mean we can’t critique the historical teams and content in NBA 2K, and suggest feasible improvements. In determining how this content could be better, we need to ask some important questions. There are different approaches and standards that can be applied here, and while it’s unlikely that gamers will ever be in complete agreement, I believe there might be more common ground here than we think. Additionally, some of these questions may be pertinent to modders who are working on their own historical roster projects. So, with that in mind, what are some of the most pressing questions to consider regarding historical teams in NBA 2K?

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #467 of the NLSC Podcast!

As March Modness tips off, we’ve received word of an exciting retro project that we’re keen to see come to fruition. We’ve also been working on our own projects – some of which have already been released – and announce our upcoming NCAA Basketball 10 tournament. Recapping some recent retro pick-ups leads us to reflect on how much fun it is to play on original hardware, even with the convenience of emulators. While we’re in a retro mood, we also discuss the historical content that NBA Live needs to have if/when it returns, and share some suggestions from our listeners. In this week’s mailbag, we challenged the community to guess the top-rated Legends in NBA Live 2004, and point out some of the most disrespectful ratings for historical players in those rosters.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:11:12 — 49.2MB)

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!