Tag Archives: NBA Live

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 seeking fun in flawed games.

Given the choice, I’d much rather play basketball video games that are great across the board. Obviously, no game is absolutely perfect or bug-free, but the strongest releases provide us with far more joy than frustration. Thankfully, there have been a number of such basketball games over the years. Even when the latest release hasn’t resonated with me, a library of favourites – and a predisposition for retro gaming – has allowed me to find some way of hitting the virtual hardwood. I’m not stuck labouring to make the best of flawed games whenever I want to indulge my love of basketball.

And yet, there’s something fascinating about seeking fun in flawed games! When you consider that Bart vs. the Space Mutants is a nostalgic favourite despite how flawed it is, I’m sure it’s no surprise to hear that I’m oddly drawn to bad basketball games as well. Granted, it’s harder to appreciate flawed basketball games compared to terrible platformers and other genres, particularly sim titles given the inevitable comparisons to real life and the expectations that come with that. Nevertheless, as I’m revisiting various titles as part of my retro basketball gaming, I can’t help but be intrigued by some of the most flawed releases, and the challenge of squeezing fun out of them.

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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 the oddity of basketball gamers being anti-consumer consumers.

Look, I realise the folly of hitting back against the shills in basketball gaming. If nothing else, it’s amplifying the voices of an already loud contingent of gamers who make their hobby and favourite titles too much of their personality. It’s how you get baited into frustrating arguments by that one person with the terrible take. Mind you, when it comes to anti-consumer consumers, it’s not just a lone contrarian troll. Even if you want to argue that it’s a vocal minority, they’re not only driving the discourse, but emboldening studios to engage in anti-consumer practices.

The release of a new game is always a peak period of anti-consumer consumers. It’s the annual honeymoon phase; that roughly two-week period where there’ll be the most gushing praise and determined pushback on any criticism. When a title is new, it’s easier to blame gamers for any issues they have with it, since they can potentially be chalked up to the need to adjust to any changes to the mechanics and other aspects of the gameplay. Once we’re past the honeymoon phase and there’s more honesty about a game’s flaws, it becomes harder to dismiss criticisms out of hand. Of course, while it takes some of the wind out of their sails, it doesn’t stop the anti-consumer consumers.

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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 fun discoveries that I’ve made while manipulating cutscenes in basketball video games.

Compared to mechanics, controls, and other design choices and technical aspects, cutscenes aren’t vital to great gameplay on the virtual hardwood. Nevertheless, they’re still an important part of the presentation. If you go back and look at some of our early Wishlists for NBA Live, you’ll see that gamers wanted future titles to add on-court cutscenes for championship celebrations and so forth. Even with the more primitive graphics of the era, such cutscenes would be far more immersive than generic videos or a slightly fancier “A Winner Is You” type of screen upon winning a title.

That wish would ultimately be granted, and for the past couple of decades or so, basketball video games have featured a host of cutscenes from the starting lineup introductions and trophy presentations to cinematic career mode stories and other flavour content. Unsurprisingly, we’ve discovered ways of manipulating many of the cutscenes for greater immersion, content creation, or just our own amusement. I’ve certainly enjoyed dabbling with various titles’ cutscenes for those purposes, and all of the fun and interesting discoveries regarding how they’re assembled, odd bugs and restrictions, and workarounds to get the results that I want. Here are five examples!

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #644 of the NLSC Podcast!

The big NBA 2K27 infodump has come and gone, which means it’s essentially a wrap on what has been one of the shortest (and honestly, underwhelming) preview seasons for a Triple-A basketball video game. Nevertheless, we do have some details to discuss, as well as some more gameplay footage courtesy of a recent event for content creators. As such, this week we join the community in reacting to what we’ve seen and learned, while also sharing a few thoughts on influencer culture and a disappointing lack of accountability for content creators nowadays. We also share some thoughts on the impending shutdown of NBA Live Mobile, and seemingly the end of NBA Live as a brand.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:03:32 — 44.0MB)

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 (and a few untold stories) as I mark 25 years of running the NLSC.

On August 25th 2001, Tim officially announced that I’d be succeeding him as the NLSC’s webmaster. It was already August 26th here in Australia, so that’s the date of my first post on the site. Whichever date you want to use, this time of year marks my anniversary of taking the reins here at the NLSC. It’s mind-blowing to think that at this point, I’ve been running the site for more than half of my life! To that point, it’s truly surreal to be able to say that as of this week, I’ve been doing this for a quarter of a century now.

As the years have gone by, I’ve made it a point to mark my anniversary in some way, whether via a social media post or a feature here on the site. Just to be clear right out of the gate: this isn’t a retirement announcement! As I’ve said before, it’s tough to say how long I’ll do this, or to even consider the end of my involvement with the site and what will happen thereafter. It’s very much a “we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it” situation, because as long as I’m willing and able to channel my enthusiasm for basketball gaming into content creation, I’m going to keep having fun doing so. That’s why as I celebrate 25 years at the helm of the NLSC, I believe I still have work to do.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #643 of the NLSC Podcast!

After an unexpected week off, we’re back to discuss skill gaps in basketball video games, specifically what that truly means. In response to Mike Wang’s post on X polling the community for feedback regarding shooting percentages when Badges are involved, we note the detrimental effects of such artificial boosts, and how they and other mechanics often run contrary to the idea of encouraging more skilful play. We also once again discuss how concepts designed around the online scene end up negatively impacting the sim gameplay for offline gamers. On a happier note, we also recap a couple of fun co-op sessions with NBA 2K14 and NBA Live 18, played using Parsec and the Xbox App.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:04 — 52.6MB)

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 with some reflections on what inspired me to mod NBA 2K10, and continue to explore ways to update that roster.

When NBA 2K10 was released, it didn’t become an instant favourite. A couple of the other members of the NLSC Team at the time encouraged me to pick it up, since we were making inroads into covering the NBA 2K series following its arrival on PC the previous year. While I understood the benefits of expanding our content and wanted to facilitate that, I hadn’t been able to get into NBA 2K9 myself, and honestly wasn’t optimistic that NBA 2K10 would win me over either. Sure enough, I didn’t like NBA 2K10 much more than its predecessor, owing to controls that just didn’t click with me.

I was also still flying the flag for NBA Live; perhaps less enthusiastically than before, but it remained “my brand”. Mind you, between it being a console-only release and a couple of quibbles with the gameplay following the official patches, I wasn’t entirely keen on NBA Live 10 either. Since then of course, I’ve developed a new appreciation for NBA Live 10, and it became a major retro gaming kick for me. Likewise, NBA 2K10 is now a game that I greatly enjoy. I was even motivated to mod NBA 2K10, creating a fixed roster that added missing Legends and a few other enhancements to the game’s final official update. You may fairly ask though: why, after all these years?

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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 details in old games that I miss.

Even though I’m nostalgic for my earliest basketball gaming memories and believe that many old titles are still extremely enjoyable today, I won’t pretend that the genre hasn’t come a long way. Indeed, even within the first few years of being a basketball gamer, I was seeing and reaping the benefits of some impressive innovations. While I haven’t been entirely satisfied with the on-court experience in the current generation of NBA 2K titles – to put it mildly – the games are as deep as they’ve ever been, with some cool features that I could’ve once only dreamed of.

With that being said, there are some details in old games that have disappeared over the years, and I certainly miss them. In all fairness, I can’t argue that all of them are absolutely vital, or that their absence actively detracts from my enjoyment. In fact, some of them had already fallen by the wayside by the late 90s or early 2000s, so they’re absent from many of my all-time favourite games over the past two decades. Of course, while they may not be necessary for a basketball game to rank among the all-time great releases, they were still special. They undoubtedly helped establish my love of basketball gaming, so I do miss seeing these details from those old games.

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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 it being 30 years since I first rented the Super Nintendo version of NBA Live 95, shortly after getting my SNES.

Since 1996 was the year that I really got into basketball and basketball gaming, 2026 marks the 30th anniversary of several firsts in my hoops fandom. As such, I’ve felt inspired to reflect on those memorable milestones in becoming a hardcore fan of both real basketball and the virtual hardwood. Back in January, I reflected on it being 30 years since I bought the PC version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition. Come June, I reminisced about the 1996 Chicago Bulls, and how seeing my favourite team win an NBA Championship solidified my love of them and the sport.

That brings me to the 30th anniversary of a couple of other memorable moments for me back in 1996: my acquisition of a Super Nintendo, and subsequent rental of the SNES version of NBA Live 95 from my local video store. NBA Jam Tournament Edition had been a great introduction to the virtual hardwood with its pick-up-and-play arcade gameplay, but after playing NBA Live 95 SNES, I fell in love with the simulation style as well. Again, hitting the 30th anniversary of all these milestones definitely has me feeling nostalgic, so let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 things that NBA Live 10 needed to have.

Although a couple of the eighth generation NBA Live releases garnered a moderately positive reception, or at least inspired a dedicated following, it’s generally agreed that NBA Live 10 was the last very good game in the series. There are several long-time basketball gamers who have gone so far as to deem it to be the best NBA Live. While I’ve developed a much greater appreciation for NBA Live 10 after revisiting it back in 2021, I wouldn’t go that far. It ranks up there for me, but I believe NBA Live 06 PC is better in terms of depth, polish, and overall quality relative to the time it was released.

Nevertheless, NBA Live 10 was a high point during a rough period for NBA Live, and not just because it cleared a low bar. It was outsold by NBA 2K10 and wasn’t as highly-regarded, but it was still well-received and seemingly a sign that the series was on the right track. That momentum regrettably went to waste, but at least we got one undeniably good NBA Live release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360! Looking back though, it’s clear that NBA Live 10 lacked some things that it absolutely needed to have. Here are five that not only could’ve made it the best NBA Live, but may have also avoided all the disasters that led to the series’ downfall and dormancy as of 2026.

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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 freeze-frame player introductions in seventh gen NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08.

For all the talk about how as we grow older we also grow more close-minded, I have to say that when it comes to basketball video games, I’ve had the opposite experience. When I was a younger basketball gamer, I was very particular about certain aspects of the virtual hardwood. Not only did I struggle to enjoy sim titles that felt different to NBA Live, but I had some rather strict criteria and a few petty gripes when it came to critiquing my favourite hoops series. That’s not to say that there’s anything wrong with having strong preferences, but I definitely took some things way too seriously!

To that end, while I do stand by some of my criticisms all these years later, I have lightened up about other things that used to bother me. An obvious example is the comedic cutscenes in NBA Live 2003. While I still think they went a little overboard with them and they’re not the tone I’d prefer in a sim game, I can find the humour in them nowadays, and appreciate how they gave the game character. The freeze-frame player introductions in NBA Live 07 and NBA Live 08 are another example of a stylistic choice that I’ve warmed up to. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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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 every basketball video game is someone’s first, and how that’s connected to issues with repetition.

The longer that you’re a fan of something, the more difficult it is to not become at least a little cynical and jaded. It’s incredibly difficult to top the excitement we felt when everything about our hobbies and interests was fresh and new. Indeed, it’s why when we experience something delightful after being a fan or enthusiast for a long time, we’re inclined to describe that joy as “feeling like a kid again”. Whether it’s getting hooked on a video game, seeing your favourite team win a championship, or watching a successful reboot of a nostalgic TV show, it’s a wonderful feeling!

Of course, there are reasons that we become jaded and cynical, and it’s not just a case of aging into a grumpy older person. I mean, I can’t deny that that happens, but it’s not just the years, but the experiences within them. As far as NBA 2K is concerned, take modes like MyCAREER and MyTEAM for example. The journey to superstardom or a stacked fantasy squad can be an absolute blast the first few times that you travel that path. After a while though, it begins to feel repetitive. Starting over from square one quickly becomes more of a chore. It’s an issue that many long-time gamers would like to see future titles address, but there’s a catch here: it’s always someone’s first game.

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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 old school roster modding techniques that – for the most part – stopped being necessary in newer titles.

When it comes to modding – roster or otherwise – there are some techniques that have remained fairly similar across decades of games, and even between different series. With rosters, the ratings and other attributes need to be accurately assigned so that players perform as expected. Many of the basic techniques of modding textures and models for faces, jerseys, courts, logos, arenas, and so forth apply to multiple games, though the specifics and necessary tools may certainly differ. If nothing else, while there may be some unique steps, there’ll be familiarity in the process and results.

Mind you, there have also been some noticeable differences as basketball games have become more sophisticated, and changed their file formats. As someone whose entry into roster modding came with NBA Live 96 for PC, I can absolutely attest to that! To that point, I enjoy looking back at how the hobby has changed throughout the years. I’m undoubtedly glad that changes to the games have made roster modding easier, but I’ll admit that I do have nostalgia for the techniques we had to use in the early days. It inspired us to problem-solve and to be creative in our solutions; something I believe that these five old school roster modding techniques demonstrate! Let’s begin with…

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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 I’ve shelved and abandoned my basketball video game saves over the years.

For a franchise or career mode gamer, there’s nothing better than getting hooked on a title and seeing a season (or several) through to the end. As I’ve said before – and I stand by it – completion is what we make it on the virtual hardwood. When it comes to sim games in particular, I don’t believe that it’s necessary to win a championship – or even just finish an entire season – to have enjoyed a title and feel that you got your money’s worth out of it. In fact, I’ve yet to play through at least one season from start to finish in several of my all-time favourite basketball video games!

That’s not to say that I don’t wish that I did, or that I wouldn’t be open to doing so as a retro basketball gaming experience now. Moreover, it doesn’t mean that I didn’t try to finish seasons in those old favourites. Unfortunately, those attempts were derailed, and so countless saves ended up being shelved and eventually abandoned. Mind you, while some abandoned and lost saves represent wistful What Ifs, others either were successfully completed, or I had very good reasons to quit while I was ahead! I’m sure this is something that many basketball gamers can relate to, so let’s look a look at five reasons I’ve shelved and abandoned saves, along with a few memorable examples.

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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 another look back at the hidden players in NBA Live 96 16-bit, and determining whether they’re truly in the game.

One of the most famous old school basketball video game secrets is the presence of hidden players in the 16-bit versions of NBA Live 96. Whether you were playing on Super Nintendo or Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, you could unlock the Class of 1995, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, and some all-time NBA greats, simply by entering their name in Edit Player. The game would then automatically fill out all of their ratings and attributes, allowing you to add those missing and bonus players in a flash. Suffice it to say that it’s a core memory for many basketball gamers in the 90s!

Of course, some people mistakenly remember the feature being present in NBA Live 95, but hey, it was over 30 years ago now! In any case, whenever I post about NBA Live 96 on our socials, there’ll always be comments reminiscing about unlocking the hidden players. To that point, if I mention Michael Jordan’s absence from NBA Live throughout the years, there’s usually at least one person pointing out the method of playing with him in NBA Live 96. My argument is that it doesn’t count as an official appearance, but is that an accurate statement? Let’s take a look back…way back…

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