Tag Archives: Legends

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #472 of the NLSC Podcast!

NBA Action ’95 for the Sega Genesis was a game ahead of its time, yet it’s often overlooked compared to other 90s hoops titles. As such, we’re making it the subject of a deep dive this week, from its gameplay to its historical content to the interesting history of the NBA Action series. A listener question also prompts us to compare the NBA Playgrounds games to NBA Jam: On Fire Edition; do Saber’s games hold a candle to EA Sports’ second (and to date, final) NBA Jam release? We also catch up on the latest from Year 5 in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, and some other fun happenings around the community, including the 100th edition of the Top 10.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:16 — 52.7MB)

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 #471 of the NLSC Podcast!

This week, we’re joined by johnz1, creator of the NBA Jam: Legends On Fire Edition mod for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition PS3! John provides insights into the creation of this fantastic mod, and also shares stories of his history with modding, including projects for NBA Street Vol. 2 and Tecmo Super Bowl. We also chat about the philosophy behind ratings in the NBA Jam series, his discovery of hidden assets for Michael Jordan in the 2010 reboot of NBA Jam, and his origins as a basketball gamer. John also teases a future modding project for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition that should be out soon, and answers some rapid fire questions about legendary NBA players.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:35:23 — 65.9MB)

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!

A couple of weeks ago, in Episode #467 of the NLSC Podcast, Dee and I mentioned a forthcoming modding project that we were very excited to hear about. The time has arrived, as johnz1 has released NBA Jam: Legends On Fire Edition, a comprehensive mod for the PlayStation 3 version of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition!

NBA Jam: Legends On Fire Edition features the best players on the best 67 teams from the 1980s through to the 2020s. For example, you’ll find multiple Los Angeles Lakers teams from different eras, including Magic and Kareem’s Showtime squad and the Shaq-Kobe Lakers, and both the early 90s and late 90s Chicago Bulls that team up Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen with Horace Grant and Dennis Rodman respectively.

It also includes new faces, body models, arenas, jerseys, and logos, making it a comprehensive total conversion mod. On top of that, it also reworks Road Trip into a historical challenge mode, in which the goal is to defeat every team in what were the four most devastating losses in franchise history. There’s also a “classic” Road Trip option, in which you can use any team against the four best lineups that each club has fielded.

Please note that you must own an original copy of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition to use this mod. It can be played on original hardware if your PlayStation 3 is jailbroken, otherwise you’ll need to use the RPCS3 emulator. All in all, johnz1 has released a fantastic mod for a fantastic game! What are you waiting for? Check it out now!

You can download the latest version of the mod here. The release and support topic, which includes full installation instructions, can be found here. You can also check out a trailer for this incredible mod below. Dee and I are looking to set up a time to get johnz1 on the Podcast to talk about the creation of the mod, so stay tuned for that.

Read More »

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?

Read More »

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 that the NBA 2K modding scene is better than what we had with NBA Live back in the day.

So, last week I discussed five ways that NBA Live modding was better than the NBA 2K modding scene. It’s always difficult to write an article like that without sounding like a grumpy old man yelling out clouds, and lamenting bygone days that were far from perfect if we’re being completely honest. As I acknowledged, there were issues in the NBA Live modding community, too. Some of them remain problems with NBA 2K modding, but there are others that we no longer have to deal with. It certainly isn’t all doom and gloom when it comes to tinkering with NBA 2K.

While the different approach to design and file structure has presented us with some new challenges, there are aspects of NBA 2K on PC that make modding much easier. As a community, we’ve also been able to build upon what we established, and take advantage of new technology to help each other out. I stand by what I wrote last week, because there are aspects of NBA Live modding that would be great to have when creating work for NBA 2K. However, there are exciting possibilities with NBA 2K modding, and it’s why I’m interested in getting more involved with it. Here are five ways that the hobby has improved since we started modding NBA 2K on PC.

Read More »

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!

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 lists five features that didn’t originate in NBA Live or NBA 2K.

From the mid 90s through to today, NBA Live and NBA 2K are the two biggest names as far as sim basketball games are concerned. Obviously NBA Jam and NBA Street were the top dogs in the arcade space, and there have been other series of sim titles that have produced quality releases. However, when we’re talking about the brand leader in NBA licensed sim titles, it’s been NBA Live and NBA 2K for more than a quarter of a century, with the latter taking the crown from the former during the 2000s. Of course, it hasn’t been a competition for quite some time.

Nevertheless, being the two biggest names/brand leaders in sim basketball games has meant that many of the innovations in the genre did originate with either NBA Live or NBA 2K. To that end, they’ve ended up borrowing ideas from each other, which as I’ve long maintained is actually a good thing when it comes to features that should be staples of a sim game. Of course, there are also some great features that we take for granted that didn’t originate in NBA Live or NBA 2K. Some of them are older than we think, appearing in one of their predecessors, while other times it was one of their contemporaries that beat them to the punch. Either way, another game did it first.

Read More »

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #458 of the NLSC Podcast!

To all of our listeners, Merry Christmas and Season’s Greetings! We’ve got a very festive episode for you this week, as we’re reflecting on why we’re thankful for basketball video games, and what basketball gaming and modding has meant to us throughout the years. From our very first games that tipped off our love of the hobby, to the landmark releases and innovations that blew us away, there’s plenty that we’re grateful for. In this week’s mailbag, we join the community in sharing some of our favourite holiday memories on the virtual hardwood, including the hoops titles that we received as gifts.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:20:35 — 55.7MB)

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 introduction of the All-Time Teams in NBA 2K.

In many respects, NBA 2K18 was a turning point for the series. MyCAREER added The Neighborhood, a concept that has since evolved into The City. While it wowed gamers when it was unveiled, it’s unfortunately taken the mode in a direction that has less and less relevance to basketball. It also introduced a new motion system that in the opinion of many NBA 2K gamers – and I’m among them – is inferior to games that came before it. Paying for haircuts, a MyPLAYER character who gave up basketball to be a DJ, B-Fresh…in short, NBA 2K18 isn’t one of the series’ strongest releases!

At the same time, it unveiled a welcome addition to the series’ complement of retro content: the All-Time Teams. It’s all too easy to dismiss the All-Time Teams as one of the weaker ideas for bonus squads in NBA 2K, merely combining already-licensed historical players with current stars. As a concept, it’s nothing we haven’t already done with roster mods, going right back to the early days of NBA Live on PC. However, All-Time Teams are an important expansion of the retro content in NBA 2K, even if they aren’t as exciting as specific classic teams. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

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 some NBA memories through eleven historical screenshots in NBA 2K14.

When I was capturing screenshots for the feature re-creating NBA Finals matchups with the classic teams in NBA 2K14, I ended up replicating some other scenarios as well. As I said in last week’s feature, for me a big part of being on a retro basketball gaming kick is to get as much as I can out of the game, including messing around with rosters, classics teams, and whatnot. Once again, even though there are problems with the accuracy of the retro squads, I still enjoy putting them out there on the virtual hardwood, and playing out some historical matchups.

Originally, these were going to be bonus screenshots in last week’s feature. With twenty-nine NBA Finals series being represented however, including these screens as well would’ve made it an even longer article. To that point, I’m spinning them off into their own feature, as I had a blast getting these historical screenshots in NBA 2K14, and want to share them with everyone as I reminisce about league history. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

Server shutdowns remove access to some great custom rosters, but fortunately, they can still be shared offline. Today’s NBA 2K19 mod releases feature a re-upload of Brian Mazique’s Ultimate Legends Roster, courtesy of sticky-fingers. Check it out at the link below!

Brian Mazique
Ultimate Legends Roster 4

Thanks to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads database! If you need help uploading files, be sure to check out this video tutorial. For more information about downloads, the modding community, and Mod Releases bulletins, please see this FAQ in our Wiki.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #446 of the NLSC Podcast!

They’re back! Nate and Roger, the NBA Live 2001 Legends, join us once again to talk about their all-time favourite basketball video game, as well as other virtual hardwood classics that they enjoy such as NBA Live 2004 and NBA Live 2005. We discuss the appeal of retro basketball gaming, and compare notes about what drives our nostalgia for specific titles. As fellow creators, they also weigh in on the challenges that come with creating content that’s based around older titles, or otherwise doesn’t chase trends. The guys also share some great stories about interacting with former NBA players thanks to their NBA Live 2001 highlights, name some of their favourite video game teams, throw out a few suggestions for fantasy scenarios, and list other video games that they enjoy.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:52:16 — 77.5MB)

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 #444 of the NLSC Podcast!

After a full week with NBA 2K23, what are our thoughts on both versions of the game? We’ve got further impressions to share – both positive and negative – about gameplay, MyNBA Eras, and MyTEAM. One of us headed to The Rec to check out the state of the online scene, and in what may come as a surprising development, we could be seeing the return of NLSC THRILLHO! The addition of Semi-Pro difficulty leads to a discussion of preferred settings, and their impact on first impressions. We also reflect on the interesting use of Legends in NBA ShootOut 2004, and respond to a particularly nasty and condescending Tweet about playing video games as an adult. In this week’s mailbag, our listeners share their thoughts on NBA 2K23 so far.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:48:33 — 74.9MB)

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!

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 by pondering whether it would be feasible to include the whole world in one basketball game, most likely NBA 2K.

Since 2010, the NBA 2K series has done an impressive job of fleshing out its extra content. The old All-Decade teams and Draft Class squads were dropped (though the former would eventually return) in favour of classic teams, beginning with those that were included as part of The Jordan Challenge. The roster of retro squads has since expanded, with All-Time teams also being added. We’ve also seen Olympic teams, EuroLeague teams, and now the WNBA represented in NBA 2K. If the series was to expand its bonus content further, what else could it possibly include?

How about the whole world in one basketball game? Yes, I’m talking about a FIFA-like representation of other prominent professional leagues, in addition to the NBA. Now, I believe that the NBA should always be the priority given it is NBA 2K, and expanded bonus content isn’t a vital improvement. Still, it’s an intriguing possibility, especially with NBA 2K’s dominance in the basketball gaming space. Outside of management titles, or indie efforts such as PBA Basketball Slam, it’s unlikely to see other leagues licensed for their own games. However, the success of NBA 2K, and strength of the NBA brand, could buoy an all-encompassing pro basketball title.

Read More »

The latest NBA 2K23 developer blog provides an in-depth preview of MyNBA in Next Gen. Suffice to say, it dropped some pretty big news!

In addition to the traditional franchise experience with current rosters, MyNBA in NBA 2K23 will include three historical eras: the Magic vs Bird Era, the Jordan Era, and the Kobe Era. These eras will allow us to jump into the past and play through to the modern day and beyond, with the league evolving as it did in real life. The presentation will also be era-specific, similar to the effects featured in the revamped Jordan Challenge.

Although the default historical rosters won’t be entirely complete and without any missing players, custom rosters and Draft Classes will be available in NBA 2K23 MyNBA. Additionally, eras are a Next Gen exclusive feature, and thus unfortunately will not be available in Current Gen’s MyLEAGUE mode.

You can find my summary of the key points of the developer blog below, along with 2K’s official breakdown/trailer for the mode. What are your thoughts? Sound off in the comments, and join in the discussion here in the Forum!

Read More »