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NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: 2025 Roster

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

NBA Live 2005 may be turning twenty years old very soon, but we’re still seeing mod releases for it here and there, which is awesome! To that end, Lo55yboy has released a new 2025 season roster update, featuring the Class of 2024 Draftees and other offseason moves. Check it out at the link below!

Lo55yboy
2024/25 Roster

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: Latest Face Updates

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

It’s great to see people still updating NBA Live 2005, and to that point, we have some more mod releases today! Modders27 has uploaded four great face updates, accurate as of the 2024 season. Pick them up at the links below!

Modders27
Anthony Edwards Face
LeBron James Face
Ja Morant Face
Anthony Davis 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.

Monday Tip-Off: The Easiest Old Basketball Games To Get Into

Monday Tip-Off: The Easiest Old Basketball Games To Get Into

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 and advice on the old basketball games that are the easiest to get into.

If you’ve been around a while, reading my articles and listening to Dee and I on the NLSC Podcast, you’ll know that we’re enthusiastic advocates for retro basketball gaming. It’s not that we won’t play newer titles – and of course, the term “retro” is also subjective in that regard – but we love to revisit the classics, and encourage anyone who feels disappointed with modern games to do the same. Whether it’s a brief trip down memory lane or it becomes your primary means of hitting the virtual hardwood, there are many old basketball games that hold up and are still worth playing.

With that being said, some old basketball games are easier to get into than others. Needless to say, the further back you go, the more primitive the games, and everyone has a threshold as far as what’s too old to enjoy all these years later; at least on a regular basis. There’s also the matter of feasibility. You obviously need to be able to run the games, and that requires the necessary hardware, and sometimes technical savvy. There are ways to play pretty much any old basketball games that you can get your hands on, but some are definitely more accessible. To that end, here are my recommendations of where to begin if you’re interested in retro basketball gaming.

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NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: Rui Hachimura Face

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

Today’s mod releases feature a new Rui Hachimura face for NBA Live 2005, perfect for the recently-released 2024 season roster update. Check it out at the link below!

Modders27
Rui Hachimura 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.

The Friday Five: 5 Stints That Never Appeared in Games (Part 2)

The Friday Five: 5 Stints That Never Appeared in Games (Part 2)

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 another list of five stints that never officially appeared in basketball video games.

Yes, it’s time to reflect on another five stints that never appeared in video games; at least in any official rosters! As someone who enjoys basketball and basketball video game trivia alike, topics like this are always fun to dive into. It’s also risky, though. While I do have an extensive collection and try my best to thoroughly research in order to ensure these claims are accurate, I’m not infallible. This was made painfully clear after a previous article, when an assumption led me to overlook NBA Ballers and its inclusion of Rasheed Wallace’s brief stopover with the Atlanta Hawks.

Of course, that was also a handy reminder to do my due diligence! I believe that this time around, I’ve covered all of my bases by checking every game that I own, and crosschecking release dates and any roster listings that I can find online in ones that I don’t. And so, with the help of David L, I’ve compiled this list of five more players with stints that never appeared in games, as well as some others that I’ll get to in future articles. I’ll also once again clarify that I’m referring to official appearances, i.e. in the default rosters or an official roster update, so community-made rosters don’t count. With that being said, let’s look at five players and their unrepresented stints!

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The Friday Five: 5 Teammates Who Were Once Traded For Each Other

The Friday Five: 5 Teammates Who Were Once Traded For Each Other

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 teammates who were once traded for each other, and the video games that feature those stints.

While it’s become far more common – and some would say, acceptable – for stars to change teams nowadays, it’s always been somewhat rare for players to spend their entire career with one club. Even if a player does stay put, they’ll end up playing with a host of different teammates throughout the years. Between the players that join the team they’re on and the teams that they may go on to join, old rivals will become teammates, former teammates will reunite, and superteams will form, giving us plenty of interesting lineups to talk about…and of course, play with in video games.

Needless to say, trades also break up duos and teammates who no doubt enjoyed playing with one another. We’ve even seen former college teammates get traded for each other during the Draft, as Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison were back in 1998. A trade where former teammates end up being swapped for one another gets you thinking, specifically whether the reverse has ever happened. In other words, have any players who were once traded for each other later become teammates? It has indeed happened, and since I explore such trivia through the lens of the virtual hardwood, here are five traded players turned teammates, and the games featuring those pairings.

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NBA Live MyEra Project V0.1.1 Released

NBA Live MyEra Project V0.1 Released

Following the project’s launch in May, Murat and company have released a new version of the MyEra Project for NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06 PC. Inspired by MyNBA Eras in NBA 2K23 and NBA 2K24, the mod currently includes 1984-85 and 1995-96 rosters. It remains a work in progress, but to that point, some significant additions have been made in V0.1.1. Please note that it is not compatible with the console versions of NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06.

Key features of the latest release include:

  • Cyberfaces and PA data for more than 500 players
  • Generic dornas for 1995-96 season
  • More coaches

You can pick up the latest version of the NBA Live MyEra project here in our Downloads section! For more information and previews, be sure to check out the release and support topic here in the NLSC Forum. As you may have seen, Murat has been making some excellent efforts to revive the modding scene for NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06 PC throughout 2024, as well as working on enhancing the retro gaming experience with those titles. This includes the development of some widescreen fixes that are also compatible with NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08 PC. If you’re willing and able to give Murat a hand with the MyEra project moving forward, please get in touch with him!

Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting My NBA Live 2003 Roster Updates

Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting My NBA Live 2003 Roster Updates

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 old roster updates for NBA Live 2003.

I haven’t maintained a current season roster update for any version of NBA Live – or any basketball video game period, for that matter – since the 2013 season, when I was still regularly working on NBA Live 2005 through 08. That’s a little over eleven years at this point, which is scary because it doesn’t feel like it was over a decade ago! To that point though, it’s been over twenty years since I released current roster updates for NBA Live 2003 PC. Sure, the maths and the date on the calendar checks out, but it just doesn’t feel real sometimes!

In any case, since it’s been some twenty years since I wrapped up those 2003-2004 roster updates for NBA Live 2003, and the once far-off 2023-2024 season has come to a close, it seems like a good time to reflect on that project from the heyday of NBA Live modding (or patching, as we called it at the time). Roster mods have come a long way since then, and indeed, it wasn’t long after NBA Live 2003 that I committed to making more detailed current season updates with the help of various contributors. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Retired After The Roster Cut-Off Date

The Friday Five: 5 Players Who Retired After The Roster Cut-Off Date

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 players who retired after a video game’s roster cut-off date.

The roster cut-off date – aka the “accurate as of” date – is ultimately responsible for a lot of basketball video game trivia. Phantom stints, rare stints, unrepresented stints, player absences…it all comes down to the rosters being locked on a specific date as a game is being finalised for launch. A major trade or signing late in the offseason is all it takes to leave a game notably outdated, or indeed with a glaring inaccuracy, such as Michael Redd infamously returning to the Milwaukee Bucks after NBA Live 2003 PC went gold. Yes, I know I bring up that example a lot, but it’s a really fun one!

Needless to say, if a player abruptly retires after a game’s roster cut-off date, that also leads to a rather noticeable inaccuracy. When I discussed players who had remained active in games after their careers ended in real life, I noted that Larry Johnson was an example of such a player. While the other players I mentioned in that Five were still under contract and on the injured list when the games in question were released, LJ retired on October 10th 2001; after NBA Live 2002’s rosters had been set, and too late to be accounted for. Here are three other All-Stars, along with a couple of notable role players, who retired after the roster cut-off date and thus remained active in games.

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Monday Tip-Off: Reviving the Retro Modding Scene

Monday Tip-Off: Reviving the Retro Modding Scene

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 reviving the retro modding scene, and how we could best accomplish that.

Given that my dissatisfaction with the most recent releases in the NBA 2K series has pushed me towards retro basketball gaming – however you want to define that – I’m obviously intrigued by the prospect of reviving the retro modding scene. To reiterate a point I made when I discussed the definition of retro gaming, retro modding means different things to different people, but broadly speaking, I’d suggest that it refers to nostalgic favourites that the community has largely moved on from, but a dedicated contingent of people still revisit and have interest in modding and using mods for.

As far as the specific titles, we can name some popular examples here. NBA 2K13 and NBA 2K14 are two of the most modded games of their generation, and they hold up well. There’s a ton of nostalgia for the later NBA Live releases on PC, especially NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 06, with NBA Live 2003 and NBA Live 2004 being up there as well. NBA 2K11 has some untapped potential, and is a game I’ve seen gamers cite as one they’d like to see benefit from more retro modding. NBA 2K17 and NBA 2K19 are two recent classics that gamers want to keep alive. I love the idea and support the initiative, but to make it happen, we must keep a few things in mind.

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NBA Live Widescreen Fix Updated to V1.04

NBA Live Widescreen Fixes Updated

As you may have seen in previous bulletins, Murat has been doing some excellent work with the last few NBA Live releases on PC, enhancing the experience for retro gamers with various fixes. To that end, he’s released a new version of the NBA Live Widescreen Fix, which is compatible with NBA Live 2005, NBA Live 06, NBA Live 07, and NBA Live 08.

V1.04 of the NBA Live Widescreen Fix adds an updated transition screen for NBA Live 2005, as well as the option to enable and disable the intro/attract mode videos that normally play while idling in the main menu. No further editing or hacking is required, and it won’t interfere with any other mods that you’re using. Pick it up here in our Downloads section!

For more information and previews of projects that Murat is working on, check out this topic in the Forum. For retro gamers who love retro season mods, I’d also recommend giving the work-in-progress MyEra Project a look. A big thanks to Murat for his work, and to everyone who continues to contribute to our Downloads section! Obviously we want to support modding for NBA 2K24 and future NBA 2K releases, but we’ll always advocate for retro gaming, and mods that breathe new life into old favourites.

NBA Live 2005 Mod Releases: New Derrick White Face

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

Today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases feature a new face update for Derrick White from iceman99, just in time for the 2024 NBA Finals. Pick it up at the link below!

iceman99
Derrick White 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: Two Player Faces

NBA Live 2005 Cover Art

Two player faces can be found in today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases, namely updates for Jose Alvarado and Derrick Jones Jr. Pick them up at the links below!

iceman99
Jose Alvarado Face

Modders27
Derrick Jones Jr Face By Modders27

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.

The Friday Five: 5 Conceptual Mistakes Basketball Games Made

The Friday Five: 5 Conceptual Mistakes Basketball Games Made

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 looks at five conceptual mistakes that were made with various basketball video games.

Game design isn’t as easy as some people believe it to be. Programming is far from entering instructions in plain English, with many technological challenges that must be overcome. It’s also impossible to cater to everyone’s tastes and preferences, and what might seem like a good idea on paper may not work out as well as hoped when it comes to fruition. For the most part, no one is trying to make a bad video game. It’s just that some concepts don’t pan out, there’s not enough time or adequate resources, ambitious plans set the bar too high, or perhaps a combination thereof.

At the same time, some basketball games have left us wondering what the developers were thinking when it comes to an approach or design choice. There may be some small merit to an idea, but it’s still bewildering that it survived the planning stages, or preliminary proof of concept testing. In all fairness, there are other ideas that seemed good to us as well, until the games were in our hands and we realised that it wasn’t quite what we wanted after all. These are the conceptual mistakes that held games back from being as good as they could and should have been. Hindsight is 20/20 of course, but again, a few of these examples were waving red flags from the beginning.

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Monday Tip-Off: Padding & Politics in Player Ratings

Monday Tip-Off: Padding & Politics in Player Ratings

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 padding and politics involved with player ratings.

Although the discussion has seemingly turned to MyPLAYER builds and figuring out the meta, I’d suggest that real player ratings will always be a point of interest. They’re still vital in accurately representing the players’ abilities and skill levels, and if you play franchise modes or with retro teams, you’ll notice mistakes and inconsistencies. There’s also still an interest in which players are top-rated in key categories such as dunking and three-point shooting, as well as where everyone ranks with their Overall Ratings. Again, it may not be as much of a focus now, but there’s still a discussion.

To that point, it’s clear that personal opinions and politics do play a role in both our view of the ratings, as well as how they’re assigned in the first place. Lest I sound like a grumpy old head grumbling about modern games, let’s make it clear that this has been going on for many, many years! Indeed, I’d suggest that as long as basketball video games have had visible ratings – and in some cases, where there have been some sneaky hidden mechanics – player abilities have been subject to padding and politics. There are times when it’s been fairly benign or even enhanced the experience, but it can certainly be problematic and damaging when it leads to widespread inaccuracies.

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