Tag Archives: Modding

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #630 of the NLSC Podcast!

Entering 2026, we had some plans and goals for the virtual hardwood. Since we’re rapidly approaching the middle of the year – no, don’t ask us where the time went – we decided to check in on how those plans are going! To that end, this week we’re joining the community in discussing our basketball gaming habits so far in 2026, from the selection of titles that we’re playing to the modes that have kept us hooked. We also recap a fun Parsec session with the Snes9x Super Nintendo emulator featuring a five-player co-op game of NBA Live 95 that was an absolute blast, and an intense four-player head-to-head showdown in NBA Hangtime that was ultimately decided in overtime.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 52:14 — 36.2MB)

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!

It’s always great to see new modding tools being released in the community, especially when they’re free of charge! To that end, SexCurryBeats has released 2KVenueLab, a comprehensive utility that includes tools for NBA 2K11 right through to NBA 2K26.

As per the description, the key features of 2KVenueLab are as follows:

• IFF viewer/exporter
• POD/mobile file support
• Archive tools
• Package staging/restore
• OBJ export
• Browser previews
• Roster editor tools
• For NBA 2K11-2K26

Pick it up here in our Downloads section! Shout out to SexCurryBeats for providing this modding resource, and several other mods and contributions throughout the years.

Also, thanks as always 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 #628 of the NLSC Podcast!

While it’s certainly exciting to be on the cutting edge of gaming technology, we’re not always in a rush to upgrade our hardware and play the (supposedly) most advanced versions of basketball video games. This week, we’re taking a look at why many basketball gamers often opt to stick with last gen hoops titles – ourselves included – and some of the benefits of delaying a jump to the next generation. We also touch on next gen elitism and gatekeeping – in particular, the “you’re broke” crowd – and the community shares their experiences in sticking with last gen basketball video games. Suffice it to say that it’s been a more common practice over the years than some people may think!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:02 — 43.0MB)

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!

Long before Leftos joined the NBA 2K development team, he was creating fantastic modding tools for our community. He made a point of making those utilities open source, so that other programmers could potentially update them in his stead. To that end, the NBA 2K Audio Editor that Leftos and Nesa24 originally created all those years ago has been updated by Eddie 2K.

In addition to fixing a few bugs and improving compatibility with longer files, Eddie 2K’s update to the NBA 2K Audio Editor includes a light and dark mode. There’s also a function to download and convert music from YouTube. You can pick up the new version of the tool here!

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.

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 remnants of missing and removed features in basketball video games.

Features and content are removed from all genres of video games for a variety of reasons, from design changes and technical challenges to deadlines and legal issues. It’s unfortunate even when it’s understandable, but it’s also entertaining to discover the remnants of cut content. They’re intriguing mysteries when we stumble upon them, fascinating What Ifs when we know their back stories, and sometimes even things that can be restored through modding. Our community has definitely been able to make good use of leftover content in NBA Live and NBA 2K!

Of course, the remnants of cut content can also be annoying. Not only are they proof of what we missed out on, but sometimes they’re a sign of anti-consumer design. A feature that would’ve been useful to have – and indeed was in a previous game – may have been removed because it isn’t conducive to recurrent revenue mechanics being as profitable as they could be. That may not be quite as insidious as removing content in order to sell it as downloadable content, but it’s still lacking in goodwill! Whatever the case, there have been some memorable remnants of missing and removed features in basketball video games over the years. Here are five that spring to mind for me.

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Having had a few roster projects go up in smoke due to burnout over the years, these days I’m sticking to manageable projects for games that I want to play; namely, old favourites. To that end, I’ve been dabbling with a 1976 ABA roster for NBA Live 06 PC – tentatively titled NBA Live ’76 – and I’ve uploaded some highlights from a recent game using the work-in-progress mod.

In the game, I take on the CPU-controlled San Antonio Spurs using the New York Nets. At this time, several players are using placeholder faces, but big names such as Julius Erving and George Gervin do have their actual likenesses. A handful of other players also have proper faces courtesy of retro mods from the archives. Both the Nets and Spurs are wearing their ABA-era jerseys and have the correct throwback logos, though all of the teams in the roster are currently using a generic floor with their respective logos at midcourt.

There’s still a ways to go with this retro roster project for NBA Live 06 PC, but as you can see from the highlights, it’s shaping up nicely! Between the ABA only having eight teams by the end of its 1976 season, the mods in our archives, and placeholder faces, I’m confident that it’ll all come together and be fun to play with. Although the ABA was before my time, it’s a fascinating part of basketball history, and the league is severely underrepresented in video games.

Check out the highlights below, and stay tuned for more info on NBA Live ’76 and other modding projects for NBA Live 06! Once again, these days I’m focusing my attention on mods for old favourites that’ll enhance my retro gaming, and projects like this will definitely help NBA Live 06 get back into my rotation. Incidentally, if there are any NBA Live modders still lurking in the community who’d like to lend a hand with some jerseys and so forth, please let me know!

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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 what keeps a few of my old favourites out of my basketball gaming rotation.

A few weeks ago, I discussed some of the basketball games that I’d like to bring back into my rotation at some point this year. Unsurprisingly, four of the games that I listed – NBA Live 96, NBA Live 2004, NBA Live 06, and NBA 2K13 – are among my all-time favourites. It only stands to reason that they’re prime candidates as I continue to get my virtual hardwood fix from retro and classic titles. And yet, despite holding those old favourites in high regard, to date I haven’t been in a rush to make them part of my rotation again. Instead, I’ve sought out new retro kicks.

It’s something that I’ve been thinking about since I posted that Friday Five article. My disappointment with recent NBA 2K titles has pushed me towards retro gaming, and to that end, you’d think I’d reach for my old favourites before anything else. After all, they’re the basketball games I’ve enjoyed the most. Familiarity and nostalgia should make them an ideal alternative whenever a new release fails to impress me. To that end, I have dusted off these old favourites here and there, but again, I’ve mostly been revisiting games that I overlooked, and discovering new favourites. Upon reflection, there are a few reasons why some of my beloved old favourites remained benched.

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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 the battle between passion and burnout can make it tough to walk away from modding.

Like thousands of others over the weekend, I watched Norman Caruso’s farewell video for The Gaming Historian. After some 15 years and so many wonderful gaming documentaries, Norman is officially ending the channel, though all of the videos will remain available. In his farewell, he reflects on he felt burned out after releasing his video on The Oregon Trail, and how that made it difficult to find the passion to begin work on the next project. After initially planning on a part time schedule in the hopes of reigniting his enthusiasm, he’s ultimately realised that it’s time to move on.

His candid and understandable explanation really resonated with me. While I won’t compare my dabbling with video content to what he and other fulltime YouTubers do, I’ve experienced similar feelings as I approach 25 years of running the NLSC. No, this isn’t me announcing my retirement! However, it did get me reminiscing about how I stopped creating roster updates for NBA Live, and my unsuccessful attempts to make similar mods for NBA 2K. Burnout is a roadblock for creative endeavours, but your lingering passion and sense of dedication encourages you to persist. At some point though, you’ll come to realise that it’s time to channel your energy into a new venture.

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Since the heyday of NBA Live modding, our community has made use of the original portraits from the PC versions of NBA Live 95 and NBA Live 96. Some have been useful for cyberface creation, and they’ve often been put to use as era-appropriate portraits in various retro rosters.

However, while those assets have been extracted and shared many times over the years, it’s been a while since there’s been a readily-available pack. At the prompting of one of our community members after posting some screenshots of NBA Live 95 and NBA Live 96 PC on our socials, I’ve gone ahead and extracted all of those portraits as bitmap files. You can download them as a pack here.

Although a majority of the returning players in NBA Live 96 use the same portraits as in NBA Live 95, I did extract those textures from both games, so there are doubles between both folders. Please note that I’m presenting these files as-is for any modding projects for NBA Live and NBA 2K alike. For more information on creating custom portraits and cyberfaces, please consult an appropriate tutorial. Unfortunately, for the most part I can’t help you out there (especially when it comes to faces).

Hopefully, this pack will be useful for retro roster modders. We remain committed to supporting the modding community in any way we can, from our upload facilities to guides and resources. If you have any suggestions or would like to lend a hand in that regard, please let us know!

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 basketball games that I’d love to add to my retro rotation in 2026.

With such a large collection of basketball video games and a predisposition for retro gaming, I’m not too bothered by my disinterest in more recent releases. Moreover, between a MyCAREER and historical matchups in NBA 2K14, a co-op NBA 2K9 Bulls Association with Dee, and a Bulls Dynasty in NBA Live 16, my retro basketball gaming rotation already has some enjoyable fixtures. There are also a handful of other retro favourites that frequently find their way back into my rotation, including NBA 2K17, NBA 2K6, and NBA Live 10.

Of course, there’s always room for other favourites! Furthermore, as fun as it is to have a retro kick begin unexpectedly and on a whim, there are some games that I’d like to make an effort to bring back into my rotation and enjoy anew. There was a time when I felt that certain games were getting too old to enjoy, but suffice it to say that I’ve changed my mind about that! Indeed, between unfinished business, playing different modes, and adding new content with mods, those old favourites can offer many fresh experiences. It remains to be seen how many of these titles re-enter my retro rotation, but they’re at the top of the list of games I’d love to revisit more often.

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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 memorable roster mod complaints that I’ve received over the years.

One of the annoying things about creative endeavours – especially online content creation – is the way that negative remarks stick in your mind. You can read nine glowingly positive things from people who enjoyed what you did, and one bluntly harsh comment from someone who didn’t, and somehow it’s the latter that sticks in your mind. Even though the takeaway should be that nine out of ten people liked your work, somehow you focus on the fact that one person wasn’t a fan. While negativity bias may have evolutionary importance, it’s not conducive to creative satisfaction!

After all, when you create something that you hope will be enjoyed, it’s dismaying to hear that someone didn’t like it. Of course, when it comes to a project such as a roster mod for a basketball video game, the complaints can feel rather disproportionate. To that point, some feedback is just entertainingly ridiculous, so it’s not necessarily a case of being hurt by what was said. Indeed, even negative comments that stung a little at the time end up being amusing to look back upon! And so, while negativity bias may have helped commit the following roster mod complaints to memory – and some are examples of how not to provide constructive feedback – I can laugh about them now.

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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 weird roster glitches that I’ve encountered in basketball video games over the years.

The harsh reality of video game design is that no release is ever going to be absolutely perfect. Of course, absolute perfection is an impossible goal in just about any creative endeavour, and you’ll also never be able to please everyone with your design choices. On top of that, bugs are basically inevitable. They were present in classic games, and we certainly see them in modern titles. Whether it’s Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, or NBA 2K26, it’s just not feasible to code a game that has absolutely no technical issues or imperfections.

Ideally, bugs and glitches will be rare, or have minimal impact on the experience. The best video games – basketball or otherwise – tend to be extremely stable for the most part. There have been some frustrating bugs in basketball video games over the years though, including glitches related to roster editing. They can be particularly nasty, causing us to lose saved data and in turn countless hours of work customising a game. As someone who has enjoyed tinkering with games and creating roster mods since the 90s, I’ve encountered several weird glitches and badly-designed editing functions. These five are among the strangest and most annoying that I’ve experienced to date.

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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 unexpected benefits of basketball video games.

Like most devotees of the virtual hardwood, I got into basketball games because they combine two things that I enjoy; obviously, video games and basketball! To that end, the main benefit of basketball games has been countless hours of fun playing a virtual representation of my favourite sport. When I was a kid getting into hoops back in the 90s, basketball games helped to educate me about the NBA, and become familiar with some lesser-known players. They’ve allowed me to re-create iconic moments, indulge fantasies, play out What If scenarios, and basically just have more fun with basketball.

You can’t really ask for more than that out of one of your favourite hobbies! However, there have been some other, more unexpected benefits of basketball games. I couldn’t have ever imagined those benefits when I was excitedly installing NBA Live 96 and NBA Jam Tournament Edition on the family PC and renting NBA Live 95 for Super Nintendo from the video store all those years ago. While basketball games would’ve remained an enjoyable pastime for me even without these unexpected benefits, they certainly make me grateful that I took and maintained an interest in them! Indeed, I’m sure that basketball games have given many of us more than just fun on the sticks.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #619 of the NLSC Podcast!

It’s Michael Jordan’s 63rd Birthday, so we’re taking the opportunity to have an in-depth discussion about His Airness! This includes listing some of his biggest accomplishments, and recalling our favourite memories of watching him with both the Chicago Bulls and Washington Wizards. We also discuss MJ’s interesting history in video games, as despite a common reputation of never appearing on the virtual hardwood, he was in fact a fixture of early releases. Of course, we also have to touch on modding him into so many later titles! We also read out some of the community’s favourite real life and video game memories of Michael Jordan, and unsurprisingly, there are some familiar stories!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:02:48 — 43.5MB)

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!

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 finding basketball gaming’s answer to Tecmo Super Bowl.

Tecmo Super Bowl is undoubtedly an iconic video game. Fully-licensed NFL teams and players, well-designed gameplay, stat tracking, and the dominance of virtual Bo Jackson, all helped cement it as a legendary release. That legend has only grown over time, thanks to emulation facilitating a modding scene that has kept the game dutifully updated and enthusiastically played right through to today. When it comes to a cult following in the retro gaming and modding scene, Tecmo Super Bowl is right up there with the original Doom games.

Basketball is my sport however, so I’m left wondering: is there an equivalent retro hoops title to Tecmo Super Bowl? For that matter, could there be? Obviously, there are a handful of old favourites still being updated, but these days those titles rarely approach the same vintage as Tecmo Super Bowl. It stands to reason. It could be argued that sim basketball games that hold up decades later didn’t come along until the mid 90s, or even the mid 2000s. Once they evolved to that point, we ended up with several great releases that remained moddable and playable years later. With that in mind, which titles could potentially be basketball gaming’s Tecmo Super Bowl?

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