Tag Archives: NBA Live 2002

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 “No Portrait Available” placeholders that are a staple of old basketball video games.

Beyond obvious examples such as dated graphics, fewer modes, and less bonus content, there are some hallmarks that immediately identify basketball video games as old school. They are the approaches and design choices that modern games eschew, either because they’re no longer necessary, or newer technology facilitates preferable solutions. These days, you’d never see a Free Agents Pool that’s limited to the same number of players as a regular team. No active players will be represented by Roster Players, since the entire league is covered by the current licensing agreement.

That brings us to another staple of old games that we no longer see: a generic portrait for players who are missing a proper one. If you’ve been playing basketball games for a long time, these players with no available portrait will be part of the nostalgia that you feel for old favourites, whether it’s the approach in general or some more specific examples. Don’t believe me? 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 the final few NBA Live games that were released on PS1.

The launch of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S has resulted in an interesting situation as far as multi-generation support is concerned. Obviously, the ninth gen consoles are receiving the flagship version of NBA 2K as far as technical innovation and features. However, the eighth gen version – which is also the one ported to PC – hasn’t been completely left behind. With NBA 2K23 in particular, 2K made a point of trying to implement as many features from the new gen version into the prior gen release. There also continues to be cross-generation support in MyTEAM.

Looking back through decades of console launches and multi-generation releases for basketball video games, outmoded platforms haven’t always received this kind of love and attention. It helps that nowadays the gap isn’t quite so wide, and the architecture is far more similar to the previous gen. The limited availability of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S has also left many gamers stuck on the previous generation longer than planned. When it comes to the final NBA Live games for PS1 back in the day, they didn’t stack up to their new gen successors quite as impressively. At the same time, they had some strong points of their own. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #463 of the NLSC Podcast!

Following a co-op session of NBA Live 10, we may have to bring it back into the rotation! We also connected to play NBA Live 98 PC with an old NLSC roster, and note that despite improvements in its immediate successors, it holds up just as well. Meanwhile, following up on a basketball management game riddled with microtransactions, it’s clear that the developer has no interest in goodwill or constructive feedback. We’re also talking about franchise mode follies, including the phenomena of “rosteritis” and “tradeitis”. We note how franchise mode burnout is similar to modding fatigue, and share tips on how to have a successful franchise game. In this week’s mailbag, community members share the origin stories of how they became basketball fans and gamers.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:30:15 — 62.3MB)

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!

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.

We’re still over a month away from March Modness, but it’s never too early to see mods being showcased in the NLSC Top 10 Plays! To that point, this week’s countdown includes highlights from KingJMASE’s Elite Street League, and His Airness defying gravity in Hokupguy’s Jordan Challenge rosters. The NBA Live 2001 Legends are also doing their thing (in NBA Live 2002 on this occasion), Dee and I provided some high-flying antics from our NBA Jam: On Fire Edition Road Trip, and other regular contributors have been putting on a show on the virtual hardwood. Enough teasers; check out what’s on tap this week!

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.

Welcome to the NLSC Rewind for 2022! It feels like it was only a few months ago that I was compiling last year’s Rewind, but that’s how it goes these days. I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that the last few years have all run together. That’s largely due to the pandemic, but it’s also true what they say: time does seem to go faster the older you are! In any event, it’s been another fun and productive year here at the NLSC.

Our modding community has been busy all year, seamlessly transitioning from NBA 2K22 to NBA 2K23 when the latter was released. A handful of older titles were also kept updated in 2022, including NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14. Glancing at the various modding sections, it’s clear that even more great work will be coming in 2023, with some great projects brewing for classic games as well. As always, a big thank you to everyone who continues to release work here! I’d like to remind everyone that the upload facilities in our Downloads database remain 100% free and available to all.

With that out of the way, let’s get to the NLSC Rewind for 2022! For those who are unaware, I use the Rewind to share some “editor’s picks” of our original content from the past year. Obviously I encourage you to peruse our entire archives; as with topics in our Forum, old comments sections are still open, and I’m proud of all our work. At the same time, there were some features and episodes of the NLSC Podcast that I’m particularly proud of, and I believe that you’ll really enjoy checking them out if you did miss them the first time around (or perhaps, enjoy them again a second time!). Without any further ado, let’s rewind the year that was 2022 here at the NLSC!

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 technical frustrations that one might encounter when retro gaming.

I love retro gaming! As I’ve said before, when I think back, I was probably born to be a retro gamer. The first console I ever played was one that came out before I was even born, and part of the 1983 video game crash. It’s not that I don’t enjoy playing new games and all the technological advances the medium has made, but my early forays into gaming have undoubtedly influenced my ability to overlook dated aspects if I still enjoy the gameplay. Some games hold up better than others – especially basketball and other sports titles – but bottom line, I can still have a blast with the classics.

Of course, over the years, that hasn’t always been easy to do. This is particularly true of older PC basketball games following upgrades to a new system. At the end of the day, retro gaming (basketball or otherwise) is still something of a niche interest within the hobby, with technical frustrations arising because it’s not kept in mind when new hardware and operating systems are being developed. Fortunately, there are usually workarounds, though they can be intimidating if you’re not technically savvy. I’ve been able to find ways to get all of my old games running for my retro gaming and content creation purposes, but there have definitely been some technical frustrations.

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 the defunct and relocated teams that are fun to play with in older games.

If it isn’t obvious from producing a weekly Wayback Wednesday feature, as well as playing old favourites with Dee4Three on Parsec and discussing them on the NLSC Podcast, I love revisiting basketball games from multiple eras, and bringing them back into my gaming rotation. Sometimes I get on an extended kick with a game, as is the case with NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4, while other titles I just like to throw on for an exhibition or two. Whether I’m playing solo or with Dee, those exhibition games always raise an important question: who to play with, and against?

Obviously, our favourite teams – the Chicago Bulls and Boston Celtics – will always be an option. Of course, there are some Bulls and Celtics teams throughout time that aren’t as fun to play with, while other teams are far more intriguing. However, more and more, I find myself being drawn to the defunct, relocated, or re-branded teams in older basketball video games. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

Despite my intentions to post regular bulletins for our uploads to the NLSC YouTube channel, I’ve regrettably fallen behind again in recent weeks. As such, it’s time for another round-up of the content that Dee and I have been posting!

In addition to regular features such as the NLSC Podcast and Top 10 Plays of the Week, Dee has continued to connect with the community to play a variety of games over Parsec. He and I have connected on several occasions to play NBA Live 96, NBA Live 99, NBA Live 2000, NBA Live 2005, and NCAA Basketball 10, in the process showcasing some work-in-progress and classic mods alike. Dee has also played games with Nate Stacho and JuicyShaqMeat, and shared highlights from his ongoing MyTEAM Domination campaign.

Having sorted out my recording software and settings on PC, and picked up a new Elgato HD60 for console recording, I’ve caught the video bug as well. I’ve posted highlights of the Street Legends in NBA Street Homecourt for Xbox 360, 1-on-1 games featuring Michael Jordan in NBA Live 2001 and NBA Live 2002, and a game between the 1989 Bulls and 1989 Pistons in NBA 2K14 that will take you back to the days of recording games on VHS.

Catch up on all of the recent NLSC YouTube uploads below! There’s plenty more fun on the way, so we invite you to subscribe, enable notifications, and of course, share our videos with your friends and followers if you’re digging what we’re doing on the virtual hardwood. We’re always open to suggestions for games you’d like to see us play, so feel free to hit us up.

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 the rosters in both versions of NBA Live 95.

The interactive almanac aspect of basketball video games doesn’t begin years later when we start going wayback. Sure, that’s when we’re reminded of strange stints, forgotten returns, and other roster trivia. However, from the moment a basketball game becomes one of our favourites and we spend countless hours with it, its rosters are intertwined with our fond memories on the virtual hardwood. We remember the players on the team that we played with most often, as well as the players on the opposing squads that we faced in our most memorable, challenging, and epic games.

Those memories come flooding back when we revisit a title. However, depending on whether you spent time with the PC or console version of NBA Live 95 – or indeed, if you played both – you’ll recall two very different rosters. While the console version of NBA Live 95 featured final 1993-1994 season rosters, the PC release was updated to include the Class of 1994 rookies, as well as player movement accurate as of February 1995. As such, each captures its own snapshot of a memorable era in NBA history. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Read More »

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #454 of the NLSC Podcast!

As promised last week, we revisited NBA Live 2005, and were reminded of what a great game it was (and still is)! NBA Live 2002, NBA 2K14, and NBA Street Homecourt have also been in the rotation as of late, and they’ve inspired some of our recent YouTube content. We also follow up on last week’s discussion of NBA 2K17 being the last truly great release in the 2K series with our thoughts on whether NBA 2K23 is a return to form, and thus the best game since then. In this week’s mailbag, we’re quizzing the community on the Top 5 players in the original NBA 2K. Not to go all clickbait, but at least one name will definitely surprise you!

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:04:26 — 59.3MB)

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 as I experience a reunion with 2002.

The song changes from “Without Me” by Eminem to Junkie XL’s remix of Elvis Presley’s “A Little Less Conversation”. Speaking of remixes, Scooter’s take on “The Logical Song” by Supertramp is also on the playlist, along with “By the Way” by Red Hot Chili Peppers. There’s even some Avril Lavigne, among other chart toppers. And speaking of music, that NBA Live 2003 soundtrack is incredible! It’s one of the games that I’m playing, along with its immediate predecessors, NBA Live 2001 and NBA Live 2002. Even NBA Live 99 PC gets the occasional spin. The year is…2022.

Needless to say, I’m experiencing those things a little differently than the first time around. Those hits that were charting in 2002 are on a Spotify playlist, rather than CD or radio (or, more honestly, acquired via LimeWire or Kazaa). Those games are being played thanks to fixes that allow them to run on modern hardware far better than what I had at the time. Thanks to emulation, I can even run NBA Live 2002 on my PC if I’m getting screenshots, or if it’s more convenient than firing up my PlayStation 2. In more ways than one, I’m having a reunion with 2002. Despite what you may think, this isn’t a cry for help from a Grumpy Elder Millennial who’s edging closer to forty.

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 the rookies that were missing in NBA Live 2002.

Official roster updates are something that we take for granted these days, especially on console. As long as we’ve had modding tools on PC, adding missing rookies and other players – eventually complete with their proper faces – has usually been a fairly straightforward task. Of course, there’s always been value in players being added through official updates. It allows them to appear in the default rosters, and in some cases utilise correct audio. They also don’t stand out from original players, as was the case in older games with more primitive Create-a-Player functionality.

Since playing with the new rookie class is an appealing prospect every year, it’s disappointing when a noteworthy draftee is absent. In older titles, that could arguably be more frustrating than the absence of holdouts such as Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. At least in their case, developers were unable to license them. With missing rookies, their absence came down to simply not being signed to an NBA contract in time. Funnily enough, NBA Live 2002 did include MJ as an active player due to his comeback with the Washington Wizards, while a handful of prominent rookies were missing instead. 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 my 1996 roster for NBA Live 2001 PC.

Whenever I’ve contemplated making a retro season mod, the 1996 campaign is always the first to come to mind. The reason is simple: not only is it a memorable year in NBA history, but it’s also the season when my basketball fandom truly blossomed. Revisiting the 1996 season, whether by watching real highlights and recaps or via the virtual hardwood, always brings back such fond memories of that joyful time of fully falling in love with basketball. My nostalgia was already firmly entrenched by the early 2000s, leading me to create a 1996 roster for NBA Live 2004.

However, it wasn’t my first attempt at bringing the 1996 season into what was then a new generation of basketball games. It was also far from the first retro roster for NBA Live, as the updates for NBA Live 95 and NBA Live 96 PC had famously included rosters for earlier years as well as the current season. Looking back, it wasn’t the most complete retro project, but I still have fond memories of making the 1996 roster for NBA Live 2001. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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 more creepy moments in various basketball video games.

Last year, I finally got around to a Friday Five topic that I’d been considering for some time: creepy moments in basketball games. It felt like an appropriate topic for an article coming out around Halloween, and although that spooktacular holiday is next Monday, I thought I’d get us in the mood early rather than repurpose it for the Tip-Off. There are a couple of examples I forgot about when writing the previous Five, and upon further reflection, a few more came to mind. On top of that, I’d suggest that producing a sequel pays fitting tribute to many horror franchises!

As I said in my previous article, creepiness and horror aren’t usually the hallmarks of basketball video games. It’s not in the spirit of the genre to be creepy and frightening, but there are nevertheless moments on the virtual hardwood that make us jump. Once again, they’re generally unintentional, being the results of glitches or perhaps strange design choices. However, this time there is one example that is definitely deliberate, and while it likely didn’t cause any nightmares, it’s fitting for Halloween. To borrow the tag line of R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series: reader beware, you’re in for a scare! Well, perhaps not, but these are some unusually creepy moments in virtual hoops.

Read More »

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #448 of the NLSC Podcast!

After circling back to our plans to revisit NBA Showdown 94, we connected on Parsec for a head-to-head game. Although it was a lot of fun, we can’t help but reflect on what a massive jump NBA Live 95 made in just one year. We also recap our other basketball gaming sessions from the past week, which included another co-op game of NBA Live 2003, and a devastating injury in NBA 2K14 MyCAREER. Additionally, we discuss our future plans with NBA 2K23, and feeling more inclined to play old favourites instead as of late. In this week’s mailbag, the community tells us which retro hoops titles they’d pick up if they had $20 to spend.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:15:31 — 52.2MB)

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!