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NLSC Podcast #508: Basketball Gifts, NBA Live 16, & Who We’re Watching

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #508 of the NLSC Podcast!

We’re back on the air after a hard drive mishap, and it’s also our 2023 Christmas Special! After celebrating the arrival of a brand new desktop, we catch up on an exciting Top 10 Plays, and also compare NCAA March Madness 08 to NBA Live 08. Since we got into the festive spirit by playing a couple of games of NBA Live 16 using the Christmas Day jerseys, we recap those sessions, and once again discuss the game’s strengths and weaknesses. With the 2024 season well underway, we also join the community in listing the players and teams that we’re enjoying watching, and reflect on some of our favourite Christmas gifts involving basketball and basketball video games.

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!

NBA Action 98 Highlights: Bulls vs. Pacers

NBA Action 98 Highlights: Bulls vs. Pacers

As we discussed in Episode #487 of the NLSC Podcast, over the weekend Dee and I connected on Parsec to play a couple of games of NBA Action 98, with Dee compiling and uploading the highlights. In case you haven’t seen them yet…here they are!

The game was a re-creation of the epic 1998 Eastern Conference Finals showdown between the Chicago Bulls and the Indiana Pacers. As was the case at the time, Michael Jordan is absent, but in his place is #98, 1 Guard. As you’ll see, 1 Guard shares MJ’s legendary talents, pouring in the points in a variety of ways as we picked up the victory. You’ll also see Dennis Rodman sporting his colourful hair, Scottie Pippen doing his thing, and Virtual Hardwood Legend, Scott Burrell. On the other side, Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, and Dale Davis were doing everything they could to stand in the way of the win. Check it out!

NBA Action 98 is just one of many games that we’ve posted highlights from over on the NLSC YouTube channel, so be sure to subscribe for more basketball gaming content! Once again, Dee and I both have extensive basketball video game collections, so feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.

NLSC Podcast #487: NBA 2K’s Origins, Legends, & First Titles

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #487 of the NLSC Podcast!

We’re taking a look back at NBA Action 98 – the forerunner to NBA 2K on PC on Sega Saturn – after connecting to play a couple of games over Parsec. Naturally we compare it to NBA Live 98, as well as the PlayStation version, which was released as NBA Fastbreak ’98. We’ve also been drawn back to Ultimate Team in NBA Live 18, and reflect on the fun we’ve been having with our Legends squads. We also discuss a surprising teaser regarding MyCAREER in NBA 2K24, and our first virtual NBA Championships. In this week’s mailbag, we challenge the community to match Overall Ratings to the players in the default rosters of NBA 2K13.

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 Top 10 Plays of the Week: July 15th, 2023

NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

This week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays is all about poster dunks; I’m confident that there won’t be any objections! We’re tipping things off with Charles Barkley attacking the rim in NBA Fastbreak ’98 – the forerunner to the NBA 2K series – and then running through a variety of titles right up to NBA 2K23 Next Gen. There’s also an array of ankle breakers, slick passes, and other great moves along the way, and something a little different capping off the countdown in the number one spot. Without any further ado, let’s get to the action!

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

Monday Tip-Off: Enjoying Bad Basketball Games

Monday Tip-Off: Enjoying Bad Basketball 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 with some thoughts on whether it’s possible to enjoy bad basketball games.

On the surface, the idea of enjoying bad video games of any kind seems like an oxymoron. Of course, “bad” may be a matter of personal preference, and it’s not as though we don’t enjoy other media that’s judged to be subpar. We may like a “bad” song because it’s still catchy, even if it’s lacking in artistic merit. The same goes for TV shows and films. No one’s claiming that they’re great art, but they’re fun despite their flaws (or sometimes because of them). They’re the proverbial guilty pleasures: entertainment products that we know aren’t good, but we enjoy them all the same.

As many people have observed throughout the years, it’s harder to accomplish this with video games, given that they’re an interactive medium. Hammy acting is one thing, because it’s either intentionally or ironically humorous. Conversely, broken controls and poor game design are more difficult to enjoy than terrible scripts, or laughably amateur or outdated special effects. And yet, it is possible to enjoy bad video games…sometimes. There’s a limit on how flawed they can be, and you won’t want to have paid full price for them after anticipating their release, but there are ways to enjoy both “bad” and truly bad basketball video games. I know that I have.

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NLSC Podcast #472: A Deep Dive Into NBA Action ’95

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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.

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 90s Classics That Needed Today’s Official Updates

The Friday Five: 5 90s Classics That Needed Today's Official Updates

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 90s classics that needed the official updates that today’s basketball games receive.

Official updates for basketball video games are something we’re both wary of, and take for granted. After all, they can break aspects of a game while trying to fix others, and leave a title in a worse state than it was before. On the bright side, over the years we’ve seen official updates make fixes that would’ve once had to wait until the next game came out. For all the controversy that comes with day one patches, they have had their benefits. This wasn’t possible before consoles had hard drives, and even PC patches were rare and small back in the day. Many 90s classics stand as proof of this.

The fact that I’m referring to these basketball games as 90s classics should indicate that I still think very highly of them. Even without official updates, these were some of the best hoops titles of the decade, and still have replay value today. However, whether it’s a quality-of-life fix, a gameplay tweak, or updated rosters, these games definitely would’ve benefited from the official updates that are now commonplace. Obviously, the modding community was able to step up in some cases, but there are some fixes that only the developers can make. Again, it’s not my intention to dump on these 90s classics, but as far as receiving useful fixes, they sadly came along too early.

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Wayback Wednesday: Virtual Stadium Technology

Wayback Wednesday: Virtual Stadium Technology

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 Virtual Stadium Technology in the early NBA Live games.

In our desire to see games and gaming technology constantly improve, we obsess over specifications. This isn’t a new phenomenon, of course. One only needs to look back at the console wars of the 90s, where the number of bits and jargon such as Sega’s “blast processing” were thrown back and forth in the eternal fanboy debates. These days, we’re also aware of the most popular game engines, and the use of technology that we hold in high esteem is often celebrated. We also speculate on how it could help the games we’re interested in. “If only NBA Live had used Frostbite!”

It’s interesting to see how the engines and tech of different basketball games have been hyped through the years. Eco-Motion may not have lasted, but it was definitely well-received in NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Conversely, although EA Sports’ IGNITE engine worked out well for other titles, it didn’t make NBA Live better than its predecessors. The Playmaker Engine in NBA Live 13 sounded good on paper, but the game shaped up so poorly that it was cancelled. And then, there’s NBA Live’s Virtual Stadium Technology. What did that entail? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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The Friday Five: 5 Players In More Video Games Than NBA Games Played (Part 7)

The Friday Five: 5 Players In More Video Games Than NBA Games Played (Part 7)

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 Part 7 in an ongoing series listing players that appeared in more video games than actual NBA games.

As I’ve said in so many articles that have examined roster-related trivia, I love how basketball video games serve as interactive almanacs, but it’s important to note that they’re not infallible. If nothing else, they’re lacking in context and additional details, such as whether or not a player actually ever played in the NBA. Needless to say, if they’re in a licensed NBA video game, they were signed to an NBA contract at some point. However, their careers on the virtual hardwood ended up lasting much longer, no doubt featuring debuts and tenures that never eventuated in real life.

Even though these players may not be familiar, there are some interesting stories here. There’s a player that was the first to carve out a specific path to the NBA, though his journey obviously came to an end before actually setting foot on the court. A couple of others have followed a calling in their post-basketball careers that you might not expect of athletes who once chased the dream of playing pro ball. And of course, their stories are intertwined with some video game trivia, with a title other than NBA Live or NBA 2K making the list in this instalment. Enough of the teasers: let’s get to yet another five players with more appearances in video games than the actual NBA!

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NLSC Podcast #440: MyNBA Eras in NBA 2K23 & Other Wonderful Throwbacks

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #440 of the NLSC Podcast!

MyNBA Eras have added a feature to the franchise experience in NBA 2K23 Next Gen that we once thought wouldn’t ever be possible. Although we do have some concerns about the quality of certain elements, and its absence in Current Gen is a bummer, we’re definitely impressed and excited! That joy carried over to our retro gaming this week, as we were able to resolve some technical issues for a better experience. Another instalment of Dee’s Deals provides a roundup of some very fairly-priced classics for aspiring collectors. We also reflect on the lineup of basketball games circa 2002-2003, once again lamenting the lack of choice we have some twenty years later. In this week’s mailbag, our listeners tell us which MyNBA Era they’re most excited to play in NBA 2K23.

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 Top 10 Plays of the Week: April 16th, 2022

NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week

Get ready for more fantastic highlights from the basketball gaming community in the NLSC Top 10 Plays of the Week, curated by Dee4Three! New and old games alike are featured in this celebration of spectacular moments on the virtual hardwood. To submit your clips, post them in this topic, or hit up Dee on Twitter.

I’ll be honest: although it would be seasonally apt, there aren’t any Easter eggs spotlighted in this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays. However, you will see ridiculous lobs, crazy circus shots, and some of the best dunks that you’ll find on the virtual hardwood! The 1995 season mod for NBA 2K19 is also on display, along with NBA Fastbreak ’98 (aka NBA Action 98), the forerunner to NBA 2K. A total of nine different games are featured in this week’s countdown, once again demonstrating that revisiting old favourites produces great highlights, and a lot of fun.

What was your favourite highlight this week? Sound off in the comments below, and once again, get in on the fun by sending us your best plays! Remember, as long as it’s a basketball game, it’s eligible for the countdown. Also, don’t forget to subscribe to us on YouTube for more basketball gaming videos.

Wayback Wednesday: Unusual Roster Players

Wayback Wednesday: Unusual Roster Players

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 of the more unusual Roster Players that have been featured in various games.

If you’ve played sim basketball titles from the 90s, you’ll be familiar with Roster Players. They’re the fictional placeholders that stood in for the players that couldn’t be licensed to appear under the NBA’s agreement with the NBAPA. Most famously, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were Roster Players in several games. For those who are unaware, the term comes from the names that those players were usually assigned. EA Sports used “Roster Player” in NBA Live, but similar terms such as “Roster Guard” and “1 Forward” were also used in place of real names.

Although Roster Players are no longer used to replace active players, they are still utilised to fill out the lineups of classic teams in NBA 2K. On top of that, some rather unexpected players have been replaced by Roster Players in various games over the years. I’ve discussed the phenomenon of Roster Players in a previous article, but this week, I’m covering some unusual examples. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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The Friday Five: 5 Mind-Blowing Basketball Gaming Facts for 2022

The Friday Five: 5 Mind-Blowing Basketball Gaming Facts for 2022

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five offers up five basketball gaming trivia tidbits that are mind-blowing facts in 2022.

This will be difficult to appreciate if you were born in the late 90s or early 2000s, but there was a time that the Year 2000 screamed “futuristic”. It felt that way for me as a kid and later a teenager in the 90s, and I’m sure it really felt that way for my parents who were born in the 40s. The Year 2022 truly seemed like the stuff of science-fiction all those years ago, yet here we are. Granted, we’re somewhat behind schedule as far as flying cars, living on the moon, and everyone wearing shiny jumpsuits. Still, when it comes to certain technology, we have many things that were once the stuff of sci-fi.

They’re now just normal, everyday conveniences, but that’s how it goes as technology marches on. All the same, there’s something mind-blowing about it being the Year 2022, especially for those of us who remember the Year 2000 like it was only five, ten, or at most fifteen years ago. Once the years start flying by, the rising stars of the NBA are suddenly the veterans with a decade under their belts. The basketball video games you’re nostalgic for suddenly feel very retro. Even the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are beginning to seem old! In the spirit of acknowledging the passage of time, here are five basketball gaming facts that are – all clickbait aside – mind-blowing.

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Wayback Wednesday: NBA Action 98 Retrospective

Wayback Wednesday: NBA Action 98 Retrospective

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! In this feature, we dig into the archives, look back at the history of basketball gaming, and indulge in some nostalgia. Check in every Wednesday for retrospectives and other features on older versions of NBA Live, NBA 2K, and old school basketball video games in general. You’ll also find old NLSC editorials re-published with added commentary, and other flashback content. This week, I’m taking a look back at NBA Action 98, also released under the name NBA Fastbreak ’98.

Back in the days when demo CD-ROMs were still a thing, I happened to get my hands on a collection titled Sportz Crazy 2. Released by Sprint Software circa 1997, it featured over twenty sports game demos, in addition to a bunch of Windows 95 tools (including Internet Explorer 4!). As you might expect, my attention was immediately drawn to the basketball games, one of which was Slam ‘N Jam. The other was NBA Action 98, a game published by Sega Sports that was also available on the Saturn. NBA Fastbreak ’98 was the title given to the PlayStation version.

Both titles may be unfamiliar to younger basketball gamers, but the game stands as a significant release, being the forerunner to the NBA 2K series. It went head to head with NBA Live 98, and while EA Sports’ title was better across the board, NBA Action 98/NBA Fastbreak ’98 displayed many of the traits and the attention to detail that would eventually make NBA 2K the premier brand in sim-oriented basketball games. I’ve since picked up the full versions of both NBA Action 98 and NBA Fastbreak ’98, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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The Friday Five: 5 Weird Quirks of 90s Basketball Games

The Friday Five

Welcome to this week’s edition of The Friday Five! The Friday Five is a feature that I post every Friday in which I give my thoughts on a topic that’s related to NBA Live, NBA 2K, and other basketball video games, as well as the real NBA, and other areas of interest to our community. The feature is presented as either a list of five items, or in the form of a Top 5 countdown. This week’s Five is a list of five weird quirks that you can find in basketball games from the 90s.

As someone who was born in 1984 and thus grew up and became a teenager in the 90s, I have a lot of nostalgia for the decade. It’s become a popular decade to hate on, perhaps because it’s the one that people were starting to feel nostalgic for as social media really took off. Perhaps if the Internet had been a bigger thing earlier in the 90s, 60s and 70s nostalgia would be the popular subject of scorn instead. Then again, I suppose people have been railing against nostalgia for as long as they’ve been feeling nostalgic. History suggests that both of these feelings are cyclical, and inevitable.

With that being said, while nostalgia goggles are rose-coloured by design, it doesn’t mean that there’s no truth or accuracy in holding the past in high regard. No, not everything in the 90s was wonderful, but there were great shows, films, and video games, and it was a tremendous era for basketball. Combining those last two things, there were some very important basketball games released during the 90s that paved the way for even better titles. They were great for their time, and some are still quite playable today. Those 90s basketball games do have some weird quirks though, which we’re highly unlikely to see ever again. Of course, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

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