Tag Archives: Modding

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 roster editing was lacking in the eighth generation NBA Live releases.

For all the insistence that the only reason to prefer or still enjoy old games is blind or wilfully ignorant nostalgia, experience has taught me that the opposite is often true. Sure, I love revisiting old favourites that hold up well, and to a certain point, my nostalgia and affection for them does smooth over some rough edges. At the same time, I’ve discovered that some old favourites haven’t aged as well as I thought upon revisiting them, while games I never played or indeed didn’t care for when they were new have impressed me. It’s a case-by-case matter, rather than an absolute either way.

To that end, going back and playing some eighth gen NBA Live titles with fresh eyes and no (or low) expectations has allowed me to enjoy them more, or at least notice some of their stronger points. Unfortunately, roster editing isn’t one of them! Despite being a staple feature of basketball games and sim titles in general, roster editing was severely lacking in the NBA Live games released for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It’s a perfect example of how the series was lagging behind where it needed to be, as well as the vision for the series being out of step with what many long-time NBA Live fans wanted. Let’s take a look at the biggest roster editing shortcomings in those releases.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #547 of the NLSC Podcast!

Although we’re still playing NBA 2K25 and have a few updates on what we’ve been doing in it, we have been talking about the game at length for a number of shows now, so this week we’re putting it on the backburner. To that end, we recap a fun session playing NBA Live 06 PC with a work-in-progress ABA mod, and reflect on the league’s legacy and importance in the history of basketball. We also join the community in reminiscing about fun and weird ideas and approaches that we’ve employed in fantasy drafts, as well as some of the most memorable transactions – good or bad – that our favourite teams have made during all of our years following the NBA.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:14:41 — 51.6MB)

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!

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 sharing some of my roster mod philosophies.

Sometimes, I feel uneasy about giving modding advice, or commenting on modding-related topics. It’s been a long time since I regularly participated in the hobby, to the point where many people might not even know that I’ve been a modder! I was very active throughout the heyday of NBA Live modding though, and I’ve also dipped my toe into some NBA 2K modding here and there, even releasing a fixed official roster for NBA 2K10. Even though I did eventually become burned out on modding, as I’ve previously admitted, the urge to tinker is still there.

Moreover, I do know what I’m talking about when it comes to our community and creating mods, particularly rosters. I realise that times have changed and there’s always value in exploring new methods and possibilities, but there’s some advice that is evergreen. As Batman once put it on Justice League Unlimited, sometimes the old ways are best; a sentiment echoed in Skyfall many years later! And so, as we consider creating big projects for new games and old favourites alike, I’m sharing some of my roster mod philosophies. They’ve served me well when working on various rosters over the years, and it’s how I’ll approach any projects that I take on moving forward.

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As a big fan of NBA 2K17, I’m glad that we still see occasional mod releases for the game! To that end, SiC2K has released a Nike clothing pack for use in Blacktop mode, as well as templates for creating your own Nike uniforms and court updates. Check them out at the links below!

SiC2K
NIKE Clothing Pack for Blacktop
NBA 2K17 NIKE Uniform Template
NBA 2K17 Court Template Remastered

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.

Today’s new NBA 2K25 mod releases feature an arm texture fix for Kemba Walker by Thunder Shaq, and a Boston Celtics court update by Manni Live. sticky-fingers has also updated his file extraction tool. Download them all at the links below!

Thunder Shaq
Kemba Walker (Tattoos Removed)

Manni Live
Boston Celtics TD Garden Court Update

sticky-fingers
NBA2K25 Extract Files GUI (Updated to v1.3.1)

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.

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 the duality of MyNBA Eras.

Look, I realise how annoying it can be when someone qualifies their criticism with compliments. After all, it can come across as disingenuous, or too timid to stand by critique. Unfortunately, when the discourse is rooted in finding contrarian gotchas to dunk on someone who has dared to criticise what you like, it’s a necessary evil. On top of that, when it comes to a feature such as MyNBA Eras, credit where credit’s due. It’s a fantastic concept with some great features that once seemed like a pipe dream. I don’t want to downplay that.

However, there is a duality to MyNBA Eras. It’s impressive in so many ways, and yet rather underwhelming in others. There are aspects that feel lazy and lacking, despite the fact that a ton of hard work and effort has gone into the mode. The ambition is admirable, but there are examples of putting the cart before the horse. There’s depth to the experience, but there’s also quantity over quality. In short, MyNBA Eras is indeed awesome, but there are ways that it could and should be better. Some of them may be easier said than done due to matters of licensing, but to that point, it makes the mode simultaneously comprehensive and half-baked. This is the duality of MyNBA Eras.

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With the early tip-off in the books and the official release looming, we’ve opened up the modding sections for NBA 2K25 in our Forum! This includes the usual boards, namely one for all releases, previews, questions, and so on, and one to consolidate tutorials, guides, and FAQs. As you can see, we already have people exploring the possibilities!

To that end, as the community prepares to dive into some NBA 2K25 modding, I’ve also added the necessary categories to our Downloads database. For those who are unaware, we do offer file hosting facilities free of charge, the only requirements being the need to register a Forum account (also free), and to follow the community’s rules regarding permissions, decorum, etc. As of this post, we’re awaiting our first release, but that isn’t surprising given that NBA 2K25 is a New Gen port.

There is some exciting news on that front, however. InFaMous has discovered that the PC version of NBA 2K25 includes a mod.exe file that both exports files and creates a mods folder, demonstrating native mod support. Once again, the community is still working everything out, but this is a very encouraging development to say the least! More information can be found here. Additionally, I should note that any custom rosters for the console versions are also welcome to be promoted in the modding section.

As I wrote about in Monday Tip-Off, I believe that we have an excellent opportunity for a fresh start with NBA 2K25 modding. As such, I encourage everyone to make use of our facilities, share knowledge with each other, consider open source projects, and make great mods freely available. As always, if there’s a way that we can better serve the modding community – for NBA 2K25, future games, and classic titles alike – by all means share your suggestions. With that being said, welcome to a new season of modding here at the NLSC!

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 the long-running modding practice of rolling back rosters to the previous season.

Two of the most exciting modding ideas for basketball video games are bringing an old favourite up to date, and winding back the clock in new games with a detailed retro season mod. There’s something truly enchanting about a mod so comprehensive that you almost forget that several years – or indeed, decades – separate the game and the season that the roster mod is set in! In comparison, roster mods that just involve rolling the rosters back one year may seem like a more humble affair, particularly if they’re completely minimalist and don’t include any court, jersey, or logo updates.

And yet, these projects can be immensely satisfying to create and play with! There are reasons that for as long as we’ve been able to meaningfully customise rosters – with or without the aid of external tools – we’ve had the idea of rolling back a game’s rosters to the previous campaign. In short, it’s a combination of some of our favourite aspects of playing and modding basketball video games, to the point where a season needn’t be particularly old or established as nostalgic for us to want to re-create it. It’s a way of changing things up, so let’s look at a popular way to go back, that goes way back!

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In our most recent Parsec sessions, Dee and I turned back the clock to 2003 in a couple of different ways! As you’ll see from the latest highlights uploaded to the NLSC YouTube channel, we connected to play the GameCube version of NBA Live 2003, and NBA 2K17 PC using Dee’s Ultimate Classic Teams Roster.

The NBA Live 2003 game – which we’ll be discussing in this week’s NLSC Podcast – saw us take on the San Antonio Spurs with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Whenever you flash back to that era, it’s difficult to pass up the opportunity to play out an epic battle of big men, namely Tim Duncan vs. Kevin Garnett. It wasn’t just KG and TD putting on a show though, as David Robinson, Steve Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, Anthony Peeler, and other notable names all contributed highlights.

Dee put together a fantastic project in the Ultimate Classic Teams Roster, and it allowed us to play an extremely authentic 2003 season showdown in NBA 2K17, jam-packed with highlights. We took on Steve Francis, rookie Yao Ming, and the Houston Rockets with an Orlando Magic squad featuring Tracy McGrady, Grant Hill, and an aging Shawn Kemp. The game opened with a jaw-dropping poster from T-Mac, and the great plays just kept on coming after that!

Check out the highlights of these 2003 season matchups in two different games – one from the season in question, one more recent and modded to include those teams – below! As always, be sure to subscribe to our channel for more basketball gaming content, and feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games you’d like to see us play.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #543 of the NLSC Podcast!

After celebrating a milestone, we delve into some NBA 2K25 MyTEAM news, courtesy of the latest Courtside Report. The biggest news of course is the return of the Auction House, and while it’s a welcome development, it’s also invited a predictably cynical response. Although we’re intrigued by the details and will give the mode a try if we like the gameplay, we’re certainly sceptical; a sentiment that the community clearly shares. We also discuss the positives and negatives of community days in light of last week’s NBA 2K25 event, and recap our sessions playing NBA 2K10 and NBA Jam: On Fire Edition with the 1992 season roster and Legends On Fire Edition mods respectively.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 59:50 — 41.4MB)

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 reflections on my 23rd anniversary as NLSC webmaster, with the age of forty looming on the horizon.

Today marks 23 years since I took over running the NLSC! I feel like I say it on every anniversary, but it’s been an extremely fun and interesting ride with its fair share of ups and downs. There have been some unpleasant moments and challenging times, but at the end of the day, I’m glad that I accepted Tim’s offer to take the reins. While there are some things that I might’ve done differently given the benefit of hindsight, I’m proud of the work that I’ve done, grateful for the friendships I’ve made, and awed by some of the opportunities that I’ve had. I’ll never regret taking the gig!

With that being said, 23 years is a long time to do anything, especially an online endeavour such as running a website. I didn’t create the NLSC, but at this point, I’ve been maintaining it for about four times as long as our founders! Of course, neither I nor the site would be here without the work of the original NLSC trio, so I’ll always give them credit for tipping things off way back in 1996. To that point though, unless you’ve been around since the black background days, you may not be aware of that era! Along with turning forty in about six weeks’ time, it only further emphasises just how long I’ve been the NLSC’s webmaster, and how quickly the years have gone by.

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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 NBA 2K25 New Gen coming to PC provides an opportunity to revive an old school approach to modding.

The announcement that NBA 2K25 PC will be New Gen – i.e. a PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X port – was naturally greeted with enthusiasm in our community. It’s taken longer than we were hoping, but the PC will finally be receiving the flagship version of NBA 2K once again, with all of its enhancements and content. That of course includes MyNBA Eras and its associated rosters, which should provide a massive head start for retro season modding projects. It’s exciting, especially as it could well herald a new golden age in our modding community.

However, to ensure this new era of modding is as successful as it could and should be, we need to adopt the right attitude. To be frank, this new gen of modding requires an old school approach. That doesn’t mean we should get bogged down by old ideas and thus fail to innovate, but I believe that in some respects, our modding community has lost its way. We’ve drifted from the philosophies and values that allowed us to create fantastic works that everyone could enjoy. We’ve also grown so accustomed to being able to do anything and everything that we allow imperfections to be a roadblock. To that end, an old school approach will greatly benefit NBA 2K25 New Gen modding.

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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 by sharing some of my hopes and expectations for NBA 2K25.

The NBA 2K25 preview season tipped off with some great news for our community, namely the reveal that the New Gen version is coming to PC. Given that my new PC should be able to handle it on relatively high settings at least, it’s something that I’m personally able to look forward to. Of course, since I do own a PlayStation 5, I’ve already been able to experience the ninth generation version of NBA 2K. To that point though, as I’ve previously discussed, I haven’t been particularly thrilled with what is now the flagship version of the game.

Of course, as I’ve also recently stated, it’s important to keep an open mind. I don’t go into new releases hoping to be disappointed, or looking to be negative. I’d rather enjoy the game every year, even if I am keeping some old favourites in the rotation. Recent releases have left me feeling cynical and less optimistic about the future of the series though, and that’s difficult to shake. Indeed, during the past two preview seasons, I discussed how NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24 might win me over, and re-reading what I wrote, not a whole lot has changed. So, with that being said, what are my hopes and expectations for NBA 2K25 as we await more previews, and its September release?

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As we tip off August, it’s an excellent opportunity to get caught up on some of the latest uploads to the NLSC YouTube channel! As always, Dee and I have been playing a variety of basketball video games both separately and co-operatively, and sharing highlights from those sessions. Here are a few of our highlight reels that went up in late July.

Following on from our session with NBA 2K10 using 1997 season rosters, we rolled back the clock to 1992 with another fantastic roster mod. This time, we took on the New Jersey Nets with the Portland Trail Blazers, which turned into a spectacular dunking exhibition by Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey! Once again, we were reminded of how NBA 2K10 is an overlooked gem.

Our next Parsec session saw us connect to play NBA Live 2000, taking on the Indiana Pacers with the New York Knicks. As we discussed in Episode #538 of the NLSC Podcast, it was a game that reminded us of just how amazing NBA Live 2000 PC was (and still is), and led to some interesting comparisons to the original NBA 2K, which we played right afterwards.

Year 6 of my NBA 2K14 PS4 MyCAREER continues, as I’m past the All-Star break and heading towards the 2019 Playoffs. To that end, I compiled the highlights from Games 51-60. As always, I’m not just spotlighting highlights that I produced with my MyPLAYER, but also some of the CPU’s best moments as well.

Dee shared an action-packed highlight reel from NBA 2K13 PC, using 2001 rosters to stage a showdown between the Sacramento Kings and Indiana Pacers. As you’ll see, Dee produced some extremely authentic highlights using that young Kings team, led by Chris Webber and Jason Williams.

Finally, we connected for a long session with NBA Street Vol. 2, ahead of discussing The Run: Got Next on this week’s podcast. It was a reminder of why it’s one of the most popular basketball video games of all time, and indeed, many gamers’ pick for the best hoops title we’ve ever seen.

Check out all of the latest uploads to the NLSC YouTube channel below! If you haven’t already subscribed to the NLSC on YouTube, then we certainly invite you to do so! We’re always uploading highlights in addition to the podcast, the weekly countdown of Top 10 Plays, retrospectives, video essays, and more. As always, feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play, and we’ll try to get them into the rotation!

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Unfortunately, as the years have gone by, we’ve not only lost mods for NBA Live and NBA 2K, but also a handful of modding tools. Whenever we can recover those lost files and resources, we’ll do our best to preserve them so that they’re readily available for anyone who wants to go back to play and create mods for old favourites.

To that end, a recent post in the Forum asking about Looyh’s Hook for NBA 2K22 prompted me to dig into my archives to see if I could mirror it. Not only did I find it, but I also discovered a couple of other modding tools for various NBA 2K games that I was able to add to our Downloads section.

These include Looyh’s Hooks for NBA 2K20 and NBA 2K21, along with some of his other tools. V0.96 of gregkwaste’s NBA 2K17 3D Importer/Exporter has proven difficult to track down, but I did find V0.95 in my archives, so in the meantime we can at least preserve that release. Similarly, I was only able to find V1.1 of Looyh’s File Export Console utility for NBA 2K21, but if V1.2 can be tracked down, I’ll upload it accordingly.

A very overdue addition is FlyingFinn’s roster editor for NBA 2K9 PC! That tool has been available as an attachment in the original Forum topic since 2009, but as it’s in a reply to the original post, it’s obviously very easy to overlook. As such, it’s now also in the Downloads section for safekeeping and easy access.

You can find links to all of the NBA 2K modding tools that I’ve re-uploaded and mirrored below; all credit to the original authors, of course! As always, if you have anything in your archives and backups that the community could benefit from – be they mods, utilities, or other resources – please feel free to add them to our Downloads section! Just be sure to credit the original authors, and also ensure that they haven’t stated that they don’t want their work to be posted or mirrored anywhere else.

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