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Widescreen Fix for NBA Live 2005-08, Other Fixes

Widescreen Fix for NBA Live 2005-08, Other Fixes

Long-time community member Murat (aka Badger) has been working on some fixes for NBA Live PC that will aid with retro gaming. They include a Widescreen Fix and Windowed Mode for NBA Live 2005, NBA Live 06, NBA Live 07, and NBA Live 08. Pick up the Widescreen Fix here, and the Windowed Mode fix here.

In addition to the Widescreen Fix and Windowed Mode Fix for the last four NBA Live games on PC, Murat has been dabbling with some other useful modifications. These include creating custom plugins for games, something that could potentially open up fantastic new retro modding possibilities. They require the FIFA Manager ASI Loader, and accordingly, Murat has uploaded both a DirectDraw and DirectX9 version in anticipation of further releases.

Helping gamers to play these classics on modern operating systems remains a goal of ours, and Murat has helped out by uploading a few more fixed executable files to the Game Fixes section of our Downloads database. If you have any retro gaming tutorials or resources to share, then we’d certainly welcome them!

A big thanks to Murat for providing these resources, and his continued research into developing mods and fixes for some classic NBA Live releases. He’s been sharing some updates in the NLSC Discord, so if you’d like to check them out, feel free to join! Be sure to head to the modding-discussion channel for the latest details.

The Friday Five: 5 Additions That Would’ve Greatly Improved Games

The Friday Five: 5 Additions That Would've Greatly Improved Games

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 additions that would’ve greatly improved specific basketball video games.

We’ve yet to see a truly perfect basketball video game. That’s not surprising since true perfection is an unrealistic goal, and we all have our own ideas as to what that would entail besides. We have had some fantastic sim and arcade basketball games though, with the NBA Live, NBA 2K, NBA Jam, and NBA Street series all offering up some candidates for the best hoops titles of all-time. However, much as many of the all-time great players have had a weakness or two, the best basketball video games are often missing a feature or mode that would’ve made them even better.

Interestingly, it’s not just the all-time best basketball video games that feasibly could have been improved by just one addition. There are some very good and even a few mediocre games whose overall quality and reputations would be greatly impacted by the addition of a key feature or mode. It might not quite push them into the upper echelon of virtual hardwood classics, but hypothetically, they suddenly become far more appealing and playable with one big addition. I’ve selected five hoops games of varying quality, and nominated a major addition – one per game – that I believe either pushes them closer to “perfection”, or results in the most significant improvement.

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NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: Nikola Jokic Face

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

We have another current season update in today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases, as suleyman48 has uploaded a face for Nikola Jokic. Check it out at the link below!

suleyman48
Nikola Jokić Face

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.

NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: Faces & More

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

It’s always great to see new mod releases for NBA Live 2005, especially with the ongoing efforts to update the game for the 2024 season! To that end, today’s new mods include a handful of player faces, a custom practice court, and a scoreboard colour update. Pick them up at the links below!

suleyman48
Alperen Sengun Face
Ja Morant Face
Victor Wembanyama Face

(Ice) mrjea99
2024 Practice Court
2024 Scoreboard Colors

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.

Wayback Wednesday: Team Rankings & Overall Ratings

Wayback Wednesday: Team Rankings & Overall Ratings

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 Team Rankings and Overall Ratings in basketball video games.

It’s interesting how we get attached to the little details in our favourite basketball video games, particularly the ones that served as our introduction to the genre! I can trace many of my preferences related to presentation and UI to NBA Live 96 PC as it was one of the first 5-on-5 sim games that I played, and it was also the very first one that I owned rather than just frequently renting. To that point, growing up with NBA Live conditioned me to expect teams to be sorted alphabetically by location. 2K’s method of sorting by team name thus felt strange at first, though I’m used to it now.

Another detail that I really enjoyed in the early NBA Live games was the rankings that appeared on team selection screens. Mind you, while I associate them with NBA Live given that it was the series that I primarily played as a young basketball gamer, many sim titles ranked and rated the teams in both individual categories and overall. These rankings gave way to Overall Ratings similar to the ones that players have, which didn’t feel as special, but are also nostalgic in their own way. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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The Friday Five: 5 Evergreen Issues with NBA Live

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 issues with NBA Live that were seemingly evergreen.

When we look at the struggles that NBA Live endured for over a decade, there are two levels to our critique. The first concerns the minutia of the games; the hands-on experience, from gameplay to game modes. In other words, the technical issues and specific design choices that have resulted in titles which failed to live up to ours or EA’s expectations. That’s an important conversation to have, especially when we’ve compiled Wishlists, or otherwise sent in feedback to the developers. However, there’s also a second level in which we evaluate concepts and approach.

It’s at the conceptual level that you’ll find many evergreen issues with the NBA Live series, which have served to hold it back and take it in bad directions. It isn’t a case of laziness, a lack of knowledge, or even resources, though it could be argued that NBA Live has never received the same support from EA Sports brass as its other franchises. There are common mistakes that are present in all of the problematic NBA Live titles though, and even some of the best releases still suffer from these evergreen issues. A comeback for NBA Live will require many specific fixes and additions from a virtual basketball perspective, but conceptually, it must also break the cycle on these trends.

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Monday Tip-Off: Inspiration, Impatience, & Fresh Starts

Monday Tip-Off: Inspiration, Impatience, & Fresh Starts

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 a combination of new inspiration, impatience, and the appeal of fresh starts, can derail modding projects.

Last year, I was quite relieved when I finally released my fixed official roster for NBA 2K10; a roster that added missing Legends, corrected ratings and tendencies for the original Legends, and made a few other enhancements. Not only was I pleased with the results – as egotistical as that may sound – but it was gratifying to finish a modding project that I’d started, particularly one that can inject more fun into retro basketball gaming, and possibly even serve as a base for future projects. It came out later than I’d hoped, but it did mean that I was able to take more care with it.

Of course, it’s not the only modding project that I’ve envisioned or attempted in recent years. I’ve shared some of the roster mod ideas that have come to mind in Friday Five articles, and of course previewed an NBA 2K11 current roster project that ultimately fell through. It’s not something I’m particularly proud of, as I was once very dedicated to maintaining current roster updates for NBA Live, on top of other mods over the years. Unfortunately, as I’ve looked to get back into the hobby, I’ve found that being struck by inspiration for another project has a tendency to cause impatience with the current one, and a strong yearning for the excitement that comes with fresh starts.

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The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 19)

The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 19)

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 19 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

In Part 18 last month, I covered a couple of well-known players who only appeared on certain teams in video games, including an example from last season. For Part 19, I’m going back a bit further, with the most recent phantom stint occurring during the 2015 campaign. The older examples are also more obscure names that even hardcore NBA fans likely haven’t thought about in years. I do enjoy discussing those players though, as I’m sure that I’m not the only one that gets a nostalgic kick out of seeing or hearing the name of a long-forgotten journeyman that was once a mainstay in the league!

The fifth example – the one from the 2015 season – is the only player to have enjoyed a lengthy NBA career, which included an All-Star appearance and a couple of other honours. It’s obviously a good idea to include at least one player that we’ve all heard of and remember, but I’m also pleased with that example because it’s another one that I encountered by chance! As I’ve said before, David L has been extremely helpful in pointing out many players that needed to be covered in this series, but it’s always fun when serendipity delivers another name to me. With that being said, let’s get to the next group of five players whose phantom stints have been preserved in video games!

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NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: New Net Animations

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

As I’ve discussed before, as essential equipment in basketball, the net is one of those details that we want to see done right on the virtual hardwood. When it isn’t, the community has been eager to step in and fix things! To that end, today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases feature a net animations update by CarolusXCI. Download it at the link below!

CarolusXCI
New Net Animations

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.

NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: 2024 Season Rosters

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

It’s always exciting to see new mod releases for NBA Live 2005 all these years later, and we have a great one today! mrjea99 (aka Ice) has released a comprehensive 2024 season roster update, which you can download at the link below.

(Ice) mrjea99
NBA LIVE 2024 Full Update

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.

NLSC Podcast #503: Good Vibes, Free Mods!

NLSC Podcast Logo

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #503 of the NLSC Podcast!

We’re all about good vibes and enhancing everyone’s basketball gaming, from recommendations about an Android emulator that allows you to play mobile games on your PC, to advocating for freely available mods! Fortunately, we do still have people releasing some great projects free of charge, including wiscard_rush who has just completed a great 2009 season roster for NBA Live 10 PS3. This leads us to join the community in speculating on why we’re not seeing anywhere near as many mods for NBA 2K24 as we have for previous games. We also ask the community which console they’d choose if they could only have one for life, and what they consider to be the turning points for NBA Live and NBA 2K.

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: A Viable Roster of What Ifs

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 would be viable to create a single season roster mod that’s based on What Ifs.

Hypothetical situations invite thought-provoking discussions, no matter what the topic. To that end, like all sports, basketball has provided us with countless What Ifs. Granted, too many fanboys believe that their imaginary scenarios prove a point, as theoretical accomplishments are used to enhance a legacy. Tribalistic discourse aside however, NBA What Ifs are fun and interesting to ponder. They’re also a tantalising idea for roster mods, since those hypothetical situations can be made tangible, thus allowing various debates to be played out on the virtual hardwood.

A couple of people have made What If roster mods over the years. In fact, it’s an idea that I keep in the back of my mind as a project that I’d be open to tackling at some point. However, those What If rosters are usually comprised of standalone teams, and maybe an opponent for them. In other words, it’s a mixture of What Ifs: Tim Duncan on the 2001 Orlando Magic, Kobe Bryant on the 2005 Los Angeles Clippers, and so on. Such a mod is still fun to play with of course, but I’ve been wondering if it would actually be possible to make a single season roster that accounts for multiple What Ifs. If so, what would be the ideal season for it, and how much history would we change?

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The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Only Appeared on Certain Teams in Games (Part 17)

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 17 in an ongoing series looking at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

Many of the examples of players who only appeared on certain teams in games go back a number of years. There’s a reason for that, and it’s not just my love of retro basketball gaming (though yes, that is a factor!). With decades of basketball video games capturing a snapshot of the NBA when they were released, there have been tons of older examples to cover. On top of that, official roster updates were once uncommon, preserving a number of phantom stints. With active players who are potential examples, I obviously need to wait until their phantom stints are “official”.

However, there are indeed players who only appeared on certain teams in more recent video games too, and are safe examples to cover at this point. To that end, in Part 17 of this ongoing series, there are three players whose phantom stints are preserved in games that were released within the last five years. With that being said, the first two examples are much older, including one that I’ve somehow neglected to mention in this series until now, despite noting it in other features. Once again, I must shout out David L, as his research has been invaluable in compiling examples for this second run of articles about players who only appeared on certain teams in video games!

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Wayback Wednesday: The Class of 2003 & Video Games

Wayback Wednesday: The Class of 2003 & Video Games

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 Class of 2003, and their impact on and connection to basketball gaming over the years.

Somehow, it’s been twenty years since the Class of 2003 – widely considered to be one of the best NBA Draft Classes of all time – debuted in the NBA. Only one player from that Draft – LeBron James – is still active, and now playing in his 21st season. With the retirement of Andre Iguodala and Udonis Haslem, he officially became the league’s oldest player. This is something I’ve been trying to get my head around and make peace with. After all, I’m a couple of months older than LeBron, which means I’ve reached the point where I’m older than all active NBA players. Old head indeed!

This day was bound to come, of course, but it’s not something you really think about when you’re a hardcore basketball fan in your late teens or early twenties. However, the entry of the Class of 2003 into the NBA two decades ago was one of my first “Oh, I’m not exactly a kid anymore” moments. More than starting to go out to clubs and pubs, staying up as late as I wanted, or any other rites of passage, realising that there were now NBA players who were my age made me feel…well, not that I was grown up, but definitely in the next stage of life! Let’s take a look back…way back…

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The Friday Five: 5 Reasons NBA 2K Has a Virtual Monopoly

The Friday Five: 5 Reasons NBA 2K Has a Virtual Monopoly

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 reasons that NBA 2K now has a virtual monopoly over the virtual hardwood.

We’re fortunate that the NBA hasn’t followed the NFL’s example of offering video game developers and publishers exclusive rights to their license. In theory, we could still see an array of licensed NBA video games from a variety of companies, since there’s nothing legally preventing them from throwing their hat into the ring. Of course, in terms of feasibility and practicality, it’s not so simple. NBA 2K has set a high bar that sim basketball games are expected to clear and raise, meaning the NBA license alone won’t allow alternative titles to compete.

Since no one else is taking a chance on competing with NBA 2K, they have a virtual monopoly when it comes to basketball video games. Sure, there have been a handful of NBA Live games over the past decade – though none since 2018 – as well as two NBA Playgrounds titles. We’ve also seen some indie hoops games that don’t use the NBA license, including the outstanding Basketball Classics. However, NBA 2K is the only Big Name™ in basketball gaming, and the lack of alternatives and competition is essentially a monopoly. How did we get to this point? Here are five reasons that NBA 2K was able to establish a monopoly, with a little help from its one-time competitors.

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