Tag Archives: NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC

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 secret courts that can be unlocked using cheats in various basketball video games.

Wasn’t it way more fun unlocking content in basketball video games by completing tasks or entering secret codes, than buying it with microtransaction-based in-game currency? I know, I know, more Grumpy Old Man griping about the Good Old Days, but come on, am I wrong? I mean, not everything was better “back in the day”, but bonus content that we could all enjoy without pumping more money into the game, or mindlessly grinding, was a far superior and way fairer approach. If you disagree, then I’m sorry, but you might just be too far gone as a shill!

Alright, alright, enough with the antagonistic commentary about microtransactions! That issue aside, basketball video games have had some cool secrets over the years, and it was always entertaining punching in codes to access them. Those secrets also gave rise to a number of urban legends and hoaxes, but some were legit, allowing us to change things up on the virtual hardwood. Indeed, some of those secrets and bonus content directly involved the virtual hardwood, as basketball games have included some secret courts that can only be unlocked via cheats. It was a fun way to alter the setting and atmosphere, and with that in mind, here are five of the best secret courts.

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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.

If there’s one thing that’s been proven three years into the NLSC Top 10 Plays, it’s that no matter what analytics say, the dunk still reigns supreme when it comes to highlights! This week’s countdown is another loving tribute to slamming and jamming the basketball, but it’s not just about throwing it down with flair and in faces. These dunks are being set up by some excellent moves, from crafty crossovers and spectacular spins to savvy defensive stops. Eight different games are on display this week, from NBA 2K24 to NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC. 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.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #464 of the NLSC Podcast!

After some messing around, we were able to connect to play a co-op session of NBA Full Court Press. Although it isn’t one of the all-time classics, it’s nevertheless an intriguing game to revisit today. We’ve also got some further progress reports on modding projects, including the revival of the All-Time Teams roster for NBA Live 96. With the 30th Anniversary of NBA Jam upon us this year, we’re itching for a new release, and we’re not alone in that regard! We discuss our ideas for a hypothetical new NBA Jam, as well as the community’s responses of what they’d like to see. Finally, we make some plans for our basketball gaming rotations through the rest of February.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:10:14 — 48.6MB)

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!

In addition to the Top 10 Plays of the Week and full episodes of our podcast, we also upload other basketball gaming videos to the NLSC YouTube channel! I’ve fallen behind on sharing the uploads here on the NLSC itself, and to that end, I’ll be making a better effort to post bulletins featuring new videos moving forward.

That’s because in addition to curating the weekly Top 10 countdown, Dee4Three has been very prolific in uploading excellent gameplay highlights for a variety of titles, in addition of course to NBA 2K23. This includes his MyTEAM Domination highlights, as he’s currently working his way through the mode. You’ll also find playlists featuring our Parsec tournaments, co-op and competitive sessions, and more.

I’ve also put together a highlight reel from my first session in The Rec in NBA 2K23, in which Valor and I squadded up with a number of random teammates; some better than others! Kenny also joined us for some 3v3 Pro-Am games, and I’ll have a highlight reel from that session uploaded very soon. In short, please subscribe to our channel for some fantastic basketball gaming content, and in case those YouTube notifications don’t work, keep an eye out here for bulletins about our future uploads! For now, you can catch up on the most recent uploads to the NLSC YouTube channel below.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #438 of the NLSC Podcast!

This week’s show opens with a tribute to the late, great Bill Russell, truly one of the most legendary figures in basketball history. As we catch up on what we’ve been playing recently – including another NBA 2K14 MyCAREER update – we discuss our fondness for Classic Cam, and our appreciation of its appearances in later games. We also reflect on NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC, and compare NBA Live 06 and NBA 2K6 on Xbox 360. On the heels of the First Look Trailer, the first developer blog of the preview season provided us with insights into gameplay in NBA 2K23, and we have plenty of thoughts to share! We also open up the mailbag to hear what the community thought of the blog.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:31:28 — 63.2MB)

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!

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 celebrates highlights at both ends of the virtual hardwood, with a bevy of high-flying jams, brutal poster dunks, blocks, and behind-the-back passes. The NBA Live 2001 Legends Nate and Roger return with their favourite game, LookyDaGamer lives up to his reputation as a Putback King with an incredible clean up of a miss, and I even take a break from MyCAREER (albeit still with a highlight from NBA 2K14 PS4)! This week’s countdown also pays tribute to the late great Bill Russell, who sadly passed away last Sunday.

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 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 rank NBA Jam: On Fire Edition as the best release in the NBA Jam series.

We really need another NBA Jam game. I know there were gamers that skipped the NBA Jam games by EA Sports, either because they were burned by previous non-Midway Jam titles, they didn’t trust or want to support EA, or a mixture of both. I understand having that stance, but frankly, you missed out on a couple of really good NBA Jam games! They were faithful to the originals, while also bringing something new to the table. It’s because of this that NBA Jam: On Fire Edition remains my pick for the best NBA Jam game to date.

I know that’s a big claim to make, especially when the original NBA Jam still holds up today. Tournament Edition was a fantastic follow-up to that, and though Midway lost the Jam moniker, NBA Hangtime was a worthy sequel to TE. NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC and NBA Hoopz were also fine games in Midway’s branch of the lineage; Acclaim’s titles, not so much. In short, there is some stiff competition for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, yet I do believe that it stands above the rest. While EA were struggling with NBA Live by the early 2010s, they made great use of the NBA Jam license, creating the definitive Jam experience with NBA Jam: On Fire Edition.

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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’m a little late in sharing this week’s NLSC Top 10 Plays, as I was out of town and then travelling home. As such, there’s a chance that you’ve already seen the full countdown over on YouTube, or perhaps the equally excellent abridged version that Dee shares on Twitter. However, I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s worth another watch, as eight different titles from Team USA Basketball to NBA 2K22 have provided the community with some more memorable virtual hardwood moments. We’re grateful that those moments have been shared with us, so once again, check out this week’s assortment of poster dunks, flashy passes, and clutch plays!

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.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #423 of the NLSC Podcast!

International Basketball 2009 may be one of the top three worst hoops games we’ve ever played, but on the bright side, it’s given us a new catchphrase! We also threw it way back this week by revisiting NBA Basketball for Intellivision, while having some more fun with NBA Live 2001 and NBA Hangtime over Parsec. In this week’s NBA 2K14 MyCAREER update, a two-time champion is traded, and Terry Hanson continues to impress. As for NBA 2K19 MyLEAGUE with the 1995 season mod, it continues to be a blast, with plenty of trash talk! The mailbag also returns this week as we discuss your suggestions for future content, as well as our Holy Grails of basketball video game collecting.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:29:50 — 62.0MB)

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 my thoughts on sim basketball games adopting fantasy concepts.

The concept of “sim” in basketball and sports gaming raises many questions. Just how much realism should a game strive for? For that matter, what is “sim”? Obviously it implies realism, but just how closely should it resemble reality? Does it mean accurate down to the last detail, or can it take some liberties for the sake of accessibility and enjoyment? It’s a balancing act that sim games have been attempting for decades now. From a gamer’s perspective, we can sometimes tailor the experience through the use of gameplay sliders, but they aren’t available in all modes.

Of course, when it comes to fantasy concepts in sim games, the issue goes beyond the action between the lines. Franchise modes are based on real aspects of the NBA, but they invite us to create our own reality with fictional results and player movement. When we place ourselves into the games to play out a career and participate in the connected online modes, it’s indulging a fantasy. Realism also goes out the window with the card collecting modes, where we can assemble fantasy lineups with players from different decades. Even the All-Time and All-Decade teams count as fantasy concepts in sim games! The question is: can we, or indeed should we, draw a line?

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #421 of the NLSC Podcast!

We love sim basketball titles, but we also have a great deal of affection for arcade games as well. Recent sessions with the underrated NBA Hangtime, and a brief stream of NBA Jam: On Fire Edition, lead us to reflect on some of the best and worst releases in the genre. As always, we also catch up on other games we’ve been playing over the past week, including NBA 2K22, NBA Showdown, and NBA 2K14. One of us has also added a true gem to their collection, leaving the other to feel a tad envious! In this week’s mailbag, we’re talking about our go-to plays in various basketball video games, and one-off hoops titles that deserved a sequel (or possibly even a series).

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:16:54 — 53.2MB)

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!

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 come courtesy of nine different games, spanning several platforms and generations. Not surprisingly, our College Hoops 2K8 Tournament has produced more Top 10-worthy highlights, as it heads towards an epic conclusion. Perhaps more surprising is another appearance of the NBA Elite 11 Demo, but I’m sure that you’ll agree it’s a spectacular moment! NBA 2K22 and NBA 2K14 continue to produce some dazzling dunks, while NBA ShootOut 2004 makes its first appearance in the countdown with a slam of its own. In short, the community made some fond memories across a variety of titles this week, and that’s always awesome to see.

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 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 3 in an ongoing series where I look at players who only appeared on certain teams in video games.

Yes, it’s time to take a look at another five players who only made appearances for certain teams on the virtual hardwood! As much as old basketball games can serve as interactive almanacs, they do lack context that tells the whole story. The snapshot of the NBA that they preserve may just be a fleeting moment, which doesn’t always make them a reliable reference. Of course, if you’re working on a retro roster project, you’ll probably be using a resource such as Basketball Reference instead. Then again, it’s not infallible, either.

Indeed, one of the players that I’m discussing today had a “phantom stint” that isn’t adequately explained over on Basketball Reference. On top of its inclusion in a video game serving as a reminder, this article will probably end up being one of the few places online that mentions it; hooray for search engine visibility! It’s not the only interesting story though, and the five players that I’m covering here in Part 3 are not the final examples of players who are members of the Phantom Stint Club. That means more instalments of this series in the future, but for now, here are five more stints seen only in games. A couple of the names will probably be a surprise!

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #417 of the NLSC Podcast!

Our College Hoops 2K8 Tournament is set to tip off! Talking about college basketball games leads us to ponder whether EA Sports’ best move would be to revive their NCAA series before they attempt another comeback with NBA Live. We also reflect on the madness of collecting retro basketball games, the size of our respective collections, and the current prices in retro video game stores and on eBay alike. We’re also interested in spending more time with a cancelled Sega Genesis game starring Shaquille O’Neal that was leaked a few years back. This week’s mailbag topic is all about picking our All-Virtual Hardwood teams. We share our selections, along with the community’s picks.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:37:03 — 67.0MB)

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!

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 basketball gaming on the Nintendo 64.

For basketball gamers who are at the tail end of Generation X, or Millennials/Gen Y folks like me, we’re starting to experience milestones that remind us that we’re getting older. Realising we’re coming up on the 30th Anniversary of the Chicago Bulls’ first championship – an event that was just a few years old when I really got into basketball – is a good example. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of NBA Live over the past two years is another. We’re also starting to see a lot of classic consoles that I recall being one of the systems to own back in the day, now reaching significant anniversaries.

To that end, the Nintendo 64 turns twenty five this week, being released in Japan on June 24th 1996 and North America on September 29th. It wouldn’t be released in Europe or Australia until March 1997, and I didn’t actually own the console until I received it for my 13th birthday in October that year. Nevertheless, it’s the 25th Anniversary of the debut of the Nintendo 64, so it only seems appropriate to reflect on the history of basketball gaming on the console. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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