Tag Archives: ROM Hack

Emulation continues to open up new modding possibilities, such as the latest release from wiscard_rush: a ROM hack for Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside for Nintendo 64, which rolls the game back to the 1996 season! This includes accurate player information and starting lineups, and as a fun touch, also changes the name to Nick Van Exel in NBA Courtside. Given that we did see some unexpected choices for cover players back in the mid 90s – such as Sam Cassell for the original NBA ShootOut – I definitely enjoy that detail!

Download the 1996 season ROM Hack for Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside at the link below. You can also check out a video preview of the project here. Shout out to wiscard_rush for the release, and further demonstrating the expanded modding possibilities that emulation is now facilitating. It’s fun to know that we can tinker with another game that’s an old favourite among long-time virtual hoop heads. If you’re in the mood for some more NBA Courtside content, you can also check out my old video retrospective, as well as a look at the game’s interesting midseason rosters.

wiscard_rush
Nick Van Exel’s NBA Courtside (1995-96 Season ROM Hack of Kobe Bryant in NBA Courtside)

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.

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 basketball games that you may not be aware that we can mod.

When we were founded as the NBA Live Series Center all the way back in 1996, the focus of our modding community was naturally the NBA Live releases on PC. When NBA Live went console-only and NBA 2K came to PC, we turned our focus to that series. Basically, we’ve primarily focused on the brand leader that’s releasing on PC, but we’ve long been open to supporting mods for other games as well. There haven’t been as many of those releases – at least not around these parts – but modders have branched out into other titles, such as johnz1’s efforts for NBA Jam: On Fire Edition.

To that point though, there have been some other hoops titles over the years that can be modded. A focus on NBA Live and NBA 2K, and the general lack of popularity of these games, are the main reasons we haven’t seen fit to mod them. Nevertheless, they can be tinkered with to some extent, even if it’s simply renaming players. With more and more enthusiasm for retro basketball gaming and modding nowadays, there might be niche interest in furnishing them with a simple mod or two. Even if there isn’t quite enough interest to warrant any major public releases, the knowledge that we can mod these overlooked games could always spice up our retro basketball gaming sessions!

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