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NLSC Podcast #425: Sliding Back Into 1995, With Stildo33

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #425 of the NLSC Podcast!

Ken (aka Stildo33) returns to the show to talk about replaying the 1995 season in NBA 2K19 MyLEAGUE! In addition to a little trash talk, there are reflections on some of the favourite games so far, exciting upcoming matchups, and learning new skills on the virtual hardwood. We also talk about the importance of fine-tuning gameplay sliders, and some of the issues that NBA 2K19 had out of the box. A couple of ideas for future Parsec tournaments are also floated for your consideration! With the preview season of NBA 2K23 looming on the horizon, and the continued hope that EA Sports will return with a new basketball game at some point, we also touch on some of our Wishlist items.

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!

March Modness 2022 Giveaway Winner: kobedurant

NLSC March Modness

Congratulations to kobedurant, winner of our March Modness 2022 giveaway! kobedurant contributed some great jersey updates during March, and continues to do some fantastic work for NBA 2K22. As previously noted, his prize is a copy of the standard edition of NBA 2K23 PC. Details on the game are sure to be coming within the next few months, and we’ll of course be covering the preview season here at the NLSC.

A big thanks as always to everyone who entered this year’s March Modness contest, and continues to share their mods with our community! Don’t forget that we offer free and permanent file hosting for our modding community, in order to preserve these great releases for years to come. Whether you’re modding NBA 2K22, an older favourite like NBA 2K14, or indeed a very old NBA Live game, I encourage everyone to make use of our facilities. For more information on uploading and adding files to our Downloads database, be sure to check out this tutorial.

NLSC Podcast #424: The Many Ways We Play Basketball Games

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #424 of the NLSC Podcast!

NBA Live 2000 PC is back in the rotation, delighting with its gameplay. However, its presentation also leads to a surprising revelation, and a tribute to the late Don Poier. Once again, we can’t rule out some retro modding projects for the game! We also circle back to the potential tease of a new college basketball game, and reflect on missed opportunities with EA’s marketing of its hoops titles. As always, we provide updates on what we’ve been playing, including the latest progress in NBA 2K19 MyLEAGUE using the 1995 season mod, and Year 3 of NBA 2K14 MyCAREER. This week’s mailbag is all about how the community likes to spend its time on the virtual hardwood, and we received plenty of interesting answers covering a variety of modes.

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!

The Friday Five: 5 Ways to Avoid Virtual Hardwood Burnout

The Friday Five: 5 Ways to Avoid Virtual Hardwood Burnout

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 suggestions for avoiding burnout with basketball video games.

No matter how much we love a hobby or activity, we will get tired of it eventually. Obviously we’re passionate about basketball video games (and the real sport) around these parts, but there are times when the virtual hardwood brings us more frustration than joy. That’s usually when burnout has set in, and suffice to say, it’s not a good feeling. You want to keep playing as you definitely haven’t lost your interest in virtual basketball, but it’s hard to fire up a game and hit the court with the same enthusiasm. Somehow, an enjoyable pastime has become work; a chore.

Fortunately, there are ways to avoid virtual hardwood burnout! I’m speaking from experience here, as I’ve felt that burnout in recent years. Changing up my habits has allowed me to really enjoy basketball gaming again, and not just sink a lot of time into it. There is a difference, and it’s something that you really notice when you realise how addictive grinding can be. It’s all too easy to get stuck in a comfortable rut, so it helps to have a few methods of breaking out of one. These suggestions may seem obvious, but when you’re deep in that rut, you can easily overlook your options. If you’re feeling burnout with your basketball gaming right now, consider these tips!

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Wayback Wednesday: NBA 2K10 PC Disc Woes

Wayback Wednesday: NBA 2K10 PC Disc Woes

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 some strange issues I’ve had with my copies of NBA 2K10 PC.

My approach as a collector of basketball video games has been to acquire titles that I have an interest in playing, and of course covering here in Wayback Wednesday. A working copy is therefore far more important to me than “complete in box”. As you’d expect, it’s been much cheaper, too! As I’ve shown, my collection includes multiple versions of titles across the different platforms that I own. Sometimes I’ve doubled up on the same platform with alternate covers, repurchased games I once traded in, and have spare copies of a few games that I’ve stumbled across on sale at bargain prices.

And then, there’s NBA 2K10 PC. I picked up a second copy of the game, not on a whim because I’d seen it at a bargain price, but because mine had simply stopped working. Well, it kind of worked; sometimes, if I was patient and lucky enough. When I found a copy of NBA 2K10 going cheap on eBay, I snapped it up, and it appeared that all was well. And then, the same issues began occurring with that copy too. Of all the games in my collection, these disc woes are rather unique. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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NLSC Podcast #422: NBA Live 2000 Is Still Shak’n the Floor

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #422 of the NLSC Podcast!

Thanks to DOSBox, Lakers vs. Celtics is still playable on a Windows 10 PC in 2022! We reflect on the game that tipped off what became the NBA Live series, and some of the incredible features it had for a title released in 1989. Speaking of classic basketball games from EA Sports, we also revisited NBA Live 2000. Suffice to say that we were blown away by how well it held up, not to mention the quality of the faces. Our College Hoops 2K8 Tournament drew to a close with an epic game that had some entertaining real life parallels, and the finale has us looking forward to future tournaments. We also recap another fun week in basketball gaming, which included playing the 1995 season in NBA 2K19, Year 3 of NBA 2K14 MyCAREER rolling on, and firing up Microsoft Complete NBA Basketball, a literal interactive almanac.

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!

NLSC Podcast #421: Arcade Basketball Games Are On Fire!

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #421 of the NLSC Podcast!

We love sim basketball titles, but we also have a great deal of affection for arcade games as well. Recent sessions with the underrated NBA Hangtime, and a brief stream of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, lead us to reflect on some of the best and worst releases in the genre. As always, we also catch up on other games we’ve been playing over the past week, including NBA 2K22, NBA Showdown, and NBA 2K14. One of us has also added a true gem to their collection, leaving the other to feel a tad envious! In this week’s mailbag, we’re talking about our go-to plays in various basketball video games, and one-off hoops titles that deserved a sequel (or possibly even a series).

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!

The Friday Five: 5 Specific Details Roster Mods Can’t Include

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 specific details that we can’t include in roster mods for various games.

There are a ton of creative things that our community has done with roster mods over the years. Sometimes the games have been conveniently flexible in what can be done with their roster files, while other times we’ve had to devise clever workarounds. For the most part, the community has been very understanding when limitations have stood in the way of 100% accuracy, especially when it comes to retro roster mods. At the same time, it usually requires some disclaimers to be posted. If you go back and look at the readme files for Lutz’s rosters, you’ll see FAQs addressing these concerns.

Unfortunately, there are some details that we just haven’t been able to include in roster mods for NBA Live and NBA 2K. It’s seldom been gamebreaking, but for those of us who strive for as much accuracy and detail as possible, it’s still a bummer. Of course, that’s also because they’re the kind of inaccuracies that invite messages telling us that we’ve “forgotten” to do something, even if the release notes are clear that it can’t be done due to technical limitations. Once again though, a vast majority of mod users do understand the situation after those limitations have been explained. I can think of five specific details that can’t be included in roster mods for one reason or another.

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NLSC Podcast #419: All Kinds of Madness This March

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #419 of the NLSC Podcast!

A Tweet from the official EA Sports account has sparked rumours of a new college basketball game. We’re trying not to get ahead of ourselves, but we’re definitely interested! Speaking of March Madness, our College Hoops 2K8 Tournament continues to produce epic showdowns as it enters the Elite 8. NCAA Basketball 10, NBA Live 10, NBA Live 2001 and NBA Jam: On Fire Edition have also been in the rotation, as more community members jump aboard the Parsec train. After previewing some forthcoming mods for NBA 2K19 and NBA 2K10, we open up the mailbag to discuss PC gaming setups. The community shares stories of how they’re enjoying PC basketball gaming, from hardware and peripherals to where their rig is set up to play.

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!

NLSC Podcast #418: House Rules, Epic Duels, & Offline Views

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #418 of the NLSC Podcast!

Mad as it may seem, we were compelled to revisit NBA Live 07 for Xbox 360 this week. It’s as rough as we remembered, and doesn’t hold a candle to NBA Live 06 on the same platform, which was a far more fun game to dust off! The College Hoops 2K8 Tournament has also been a blast to play and to watch, with the Sweet 16 almost in the books. After catching up on some recent stories from NBA 2K14 MyCAREER, we discuss house rules when playing against the CPU. What’s the best way to ensure fairness, and challenge? In this week’s mailbag, we’re talking about ideas for offline modes and content. As you might expect, the community isn’t just about the online experience these days!

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!

March Modness 2022 Tips Off Today

NLSC March Modness

It’s that time of the year again, so we’re tipping off our fifth annual March Modness! The event is a celebration of modding, and the modding community that we’ve built and maintained over the past 25 years. Naturally we support modding all year round, but we’ve nominated March as a time to get extra creative and productive!

As always, March Modness includes a giveaway. All you need to do is upload a new mod to the Downloads section with “March Modness” in the description, and you’ll go into the draw to win a copy of NBA 2K23 PC. The mod can be for any basketball game that can be modded, including retro titles. Full terms and conditions can be found below. Congratulations once again to Pep, the winner of last year’s giveaway!

Additionally, I’m taking this opportunity to announce a change to the way I post bulletins about recent uploads. For years now, I’ve been using the term “File Additions” for those bulletins, as it’s what our founders used when they first began maintaining a Downloads database back in the mid 90s. It’s something I’ve kept out of tradition, but in order to move with the times and remove any ambiguity, those posts are now going to be titled “Mod Releases”.

I’m looking forward to this being an exciting and productive March Modness. As always, I’ll be looking to get in on the fun myself with a few releases. The modding bug does bite from time to time, and this is obviously the month to indulge it. Stay tuned for those releases, and all of the great work that I’m sure is coming this month!

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NLSC Podcast #416: Three Games & An Island

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #416 of the NLSC Podcast!

In an exciting development, NBA Live 2001 enthusiasts Nate and Roger are on Parsec, which means a 2v2 showdown is in our future! Speaking of Parsec, our recent sessions have given us a new appreciation for a couple of often-criticised games in the NBA Live series. Our NBA Jam: On Fire Edition Tournament also wrapped up, and it ended in spectacular fashion. Dipping into our collection as we often do leaves us wondering: which three games would we take with us to an island we’d be stuck on indefinitely? We share our answers, and open up the mailbag to see which games the community would pick. With February drawing to a close, we also look ahead to March Modness.

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!

Monday Tip-Off: Hacking MyCAREER in Older Games

Monday Tip-Off: Hacking MyCAREER in Older Games

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 recounting the fun I’ve recently had with hacking MyCAREER in older games.

Here at the NLSC, our stance on hacking modes such as MyCAREER and MyTEAM has been the same as our policy on piracy: we don’t support it. Since we already walk a fine line with modding, we try to stay on the right side of both the law and our host’s terms of service, in order to avoid any unwanted repercussions. On top of that, there’s also the matter of fairness. While we can understand wanting to stick it to a Triple-A publisher by hacking MyCAREER or MyTEAM for content and in-game currencies, it’s also upsetting the competitive balance, and ruining things for your fellow gamers.

To that end, recounting my experiences hacking a MyCAREER save probably seems quite hypocritical. Here I am preaching fairness, while going against our own rules and community philosophy; talk about double standards! If you’re grumbling, I can appreciate where you’re coming from. However, there is a distinct difference between hacking to gain advantages in the connected modes of MyCAREER while the servers are still online, and messing around with an offline save years later. In fact, that’s a distinction that we can perhaps draw in our rules moving forward, because at a certain point, hacking MyCAREER for your own enjoyment does become fair game.

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Monday Tip-Off: 20 Classic Jerseys I Want to See in NBA 2K

Monday Tip-Off: 20 Classic Jerseys I Want to See in NBA 2K

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 suggestions for 20 classic jerseys that I’d like to see added in future NBA 2K games.

NBA 2K has an impressive array of classic jerseys. It’s yet another example of how the series has gone above and beyond with extra content, especially when compared to recent NBA Live titles. Of course, NBA Live once included a large range of classic jerseys, even bringing them back in NBA Live 10 after they fell by the wayside in the seventh generation releases. Unfortunately, recent NBA Lives have only included the throwbacks that will be worn on Hardwood Classics Nights during the season they’re set in. Conversely, NBA 2K’s selection of retro uniforms is extremely comprehensive.

With that being said, it’s definitely not complete. As of NBA 2K22, there are several classic jerseys that are still missing from the selection of retros. I’m not just talking about short-lived alternates or special event jerseys, though I’d certainly love to see them added as well. There are some prominent uniforms, including primary home and away jerseys, that haven’t yet been featured in NBA 2K. Now, the selection that we currently have is great, minor inaccuracies aside. Many eras are accounted for, and some teams are fairly close to complete, at least when it comes to primary uniforms. Nevertheless, I’d love to see future NBA 2K games add these 20 classic jerseys.

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NLSC Podcast #413: More NBA Video Games, Please

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #413 of the NLSC Podcast!

Catching up on the latest results from our NBA Jam: On Fire Edition Tournament, we reflect on a truly epic comeback! We also recap the fun we had connecting on Parsec to play NBA Live 2004 PC with the 1996 season mod, another exciting countdown with the Top 10 Plays, and recent fun going back to an NBA 2K14 MyCAREER save. This week’s main topic is the variety of NBA video games that we used to enjoy. We open up the mailbag to see which NBA video games the community most wants to see return instead of (or in the best case scenario, in addition to) NBA Live, and discuss our memories of those titles.

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!