Tag Archives: Rosters

As I recently mentioned, NBA 2K17 is one of my all-time favourite basketball video games, so it’s always cool to see new mod releases for it all these years later. Thunder Shaq has released work-in-progress 2009 and 2011 season roster mods, which you can check out at the links below. For further previews and potential updates, keep an eye on the release topic here!

Thunder Shaq
2008-09 Season (WIP)
2010-11 Season (WIP)

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 aspects of retro content in older basketball video games that is underrated.

Retro content has been a staple feature in basketball games for decades now. It’s one of the best additions in sim and arcade titles alike, as it’s a blast to play with the stars of yesteryear in addition to the current generation of players. The amount of retro content has steadily increased since it was introduced, progressing from historical All-Star teams to retro NBA teams and All-Time legends squads. With the addition of MyNBA Eras in NBA 2K23 (and its return in NBA 2K24), it’s fair to suggest that these days we have more retro content than ever before.

With that being said, retro content has indeed been around for a long time, and an admirable effort was made with it in many old games. In fact, while the quantity of retro content in basketball games has never been higher than it is in NBA 2K23, we can certainly point to ways that older favourites boasted better quality. If nothing else, there are some aspects of the retro content in older basketball games that are quite impressive, and not just for their era. In fact, I’d go so far as to call them underrated, or certainly underappreciated, especially as they made the most of the resources that were available to them at the time. Let’s take a look at five examples of these aspects!

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I’m a bit late in posting these NBA 2K23 mod releases, but it’s important to note that even with NBA 2K24 right around the corner, some cool stuff is being made for last year’s game. That includes a new FIBA roster from Shuajota, and an updated Suns jersey from pinoy21, which you can find at the links below!

Shuajota
FIBA 2K23 Roster

pinoy21
Phoenix Suns 2023-24 Jersey (pinoy21) (Updated to v3.0)

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.

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 some noteworthy and recurring inaccuracies that we’ve found in basketball video games over the years.

Licensed sports titles are judged differently to other genres of video games. Because they’re aiming to depict a real sport played by real athletes, we expect accuracy. Even in arcade games with all of their breaks from reality, there’s an expectation that the players will resemble their real life counterparts, and that their ratings will reflect their strengths, weaknesses, and overall style of play. The bar is set much higher in sim titles, especially as technological improvements have led to increasingly realistic graphics and gameplay. Above all, we expect attention to detail.

Of course, none of us are infallible, and thus human error is inevitable. As anyone who’s ever worked on a roster mod can attest, it’s all too easy to overlook a jersey number, neglect a needed ratings update, or forget to double-check the spelling of a newly-added player’s name. That’s not even getting into leaving a necessary file out of the update, or any other technical mistakes! Still, it’s interesting to discover some of the inaccuracies that made it into the default rosters, especially before official roster updates were commonplace. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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In case you missed it, Dee and I both uploaded a couple of new reels to the NLSC YouTube channel over the past week. Dee shared some highlights from a game of NBA 2K19 using an All-Time Fantasy Draft Roster, while mine are from a game in NBA Live 18 Ultimate Team.

Specifically, my reel focuses on Patrick Ewing, who celebrated his 61st birthday over the weekend. I decked out my squad with New York Knicks jerseys for the occasion, and surrounded Ewing with teammates spanning his career with the Knicks, Seattle SuperSonics, and Orlando Magic, as well as his appearances on the Dream Team and East All-Stars. As much fun as I’m having playing with a makeshift 90s All-Stars squad, I enjoyed changing it up to celebrate one NBA Legend in particular!

Once again, Dee’s reel showcases an All-Time Fantasy Draft Roster that he and his brother are playing with in NBA 2K19. The game features the Chicago Bulls taking on the Charlotte Hornets, with some familiar faces obviously in unfamiliar places! Amar’e Stoudamire, Damian Lillard, Julius Erving, Mark Price, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joe Johnson, Charles Barkley, and other stars produced a dazzling array of highlights.

Check out the highlights from my NBA Live 18 Ultimate Team game and Dee’s NBA 2K19 All-Time Fantasy Draft showdown below! Be sure to subscribe to the NLSC YouTube channel for more basketball gaming content, and as always, feel free to hit us up with any suggestions of games that you’d like to see us play.

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Today’s NBA Live 2005 mod releases feature the latest 2023 season updates from Swishnet, including rosters, player and coach faces, and custom settings. Check them all out at the links below!

Swishnet
Swishnet’s 2022-2023 Roster
2022 Coach Update
2022 Player Face Update
Swishnet Game Settings

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.

From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #486 of the NLSC Podcast!

As we await the next round of news and previews, how hyped are we for NBA 2K24? Along with the community, we rate our excitement on a scale of one to ten. Of course, some of us break the scale in both directions! We also recap what we’ve been playing this past week, including a surprising session of NBA Live 18, testing out a work-in-progress mod for NBA Live 08, throwing it back with NBA Basketball for Intellivision, and tackling a tough challenge in NBA Jam: On Fire Edition. There’s also some more virtual hardwood elitism on Twitter to push back on, and the reveal of some interesting clutch ratings in this week’s mailbag trivia.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:21:44 — 56.5MB)

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 a look at how NBA 2K24 can win me over.

Around this time last year, I discussed how NBA 2K23 could possibly break NBA 2K14 PS4’s monopoly over my basketball gaming sessions, and make a far better impression than NBA 2K21 and NBA 2K22 did. It was interesting to go back and read what I’d written now that NBA 2K23 is approaching the end of its life cycle, and NBA 2K24 is on the horizon. After all, NBA 2K24 will also be competing with my entire collection and a preference to diversify my virtual hardwood experiences, so once again, simply being the latest release won’t be enough.

While my criteria are essentially unchanged, my expectations have naturally been shaped by what happened with NBA 2K23, and the apparent direction of the series. As was the case last year, I must emphasise that these are personal preferences that will determine my level of enjoyment, and inclination to play NBA 2K24 over other games. NBA 2K24 is going to be highly successful regardless, and my opinion of it won’t impact its fortunes either way. I can only speak for myself, and I don’t pretend otherwise. With that being said, I do stand by my criteria and suggestions. I hope that I am impressed by NBA 2K24, but it will have to surpass what NBA 2K23 did.

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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 frustrations that sadly didn’t have a good workaround.

We’ve been able to do some rather ingenious things in our community thanks to mods. Missing players have been added, mistakes in the default rosters have been corrected, and when we’ve discovered compatible files, we’ve been able to swap assets between different games to create our own fixes. This includes adding better net animations to NBA Live 06 PC, restoring access to the traditional reorder roster menu in NBA Live 07’s Dynasty mode, and even being able to access the hidden Player Lock option in NBA Live 08. Where official updates have fallen short, we’ve had good workarounds.

Unfortunately, that hasn’t always been possible. There are some frustrations that we simply haven’t ever been able to resolve. Even when a workaround has been devised, it hasn’t satisfactorily fixed the issue despite our best efforts. This is why I’ll always push back on the “stop whining” rhetoric that shuts down constructive feedback. Just because there is a workaround, it doesn’t mean it’s a desirable solution, and that the issue shouldn’t be addressed either in a patch or the next game. Additionally, one of these frustrations did once have a good workaround, but its disappearance suggests that it wasn’t ideal long-term. Whatever the case, these issues lack good solutions.

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In the wake of the cover reveal, 2K has also released some first look screenshots of Kobe Bryant in NBA 2K24; one of young “Frobe”, and one of prime Mamba from the 2000s. You can check out both screenshots below, as well as in the Screenshots section of our newly-launched NBA 2K24 hub!

As a number of people have noticed, the older Kobe is wearing an NBA Finals patch on his jersey. The NBA 2K Leaks & Intel Twitter account – which has been extremely reliable in recent years – has stated that there will be a Mamba Moments mode in NBA 2K24, which will basically be a Kobe Bryant version of The Jordan Challenge. The NBA Finals patch certainly seems to back that up, and suggests the possibility of at least one new classic team.

The Intel account also mentioned a new Next Gen feature called ProPLAY. This tech will reportedly directly translate NBA footage into gameplay to deliver authentic animations and movement. Combined with their leak of a blurb about MyCAREER in Current Gen/Old Gen, this seems to confirm that the PC version will be identical to the PlayStation 4/Xbox One version once again. The Neighborhood will be returning in that version, along with streamlined quests. Keep in mind that this hasn’t been officially announced, but the account’s track record for accuracy has been exceptional.

There’s also a tidbit about a new salary cap mode in MyTEAM, revamped controls and roster authenticity, and the continued inclusion of WNBA content. The release date is September 8th 2023, as also confirmed by ESPN. The ESPN article also mentions crossplay, though no further details are available at this time.

That’s the NBA 2K24 info that’s currently circulating, along with the first look Kobe screenshots. What are your thoughts? Share them in the comments below, as well as join in the discussion in the new NBA 2K24 section of the Forum! Once again, I’ll be aggregating news throughout the preview season, and Dee and I will be breaking it down with our commentary on the NLSC Podcast.

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From courtside of the virtual hardwood, it’s Episode #484 of the NLSC Podcast!

The community has spoken: whether it comes from EA Sports, 2K Sports, or indeed both, many of us are very keen to see a new college basketball game! From licensed players and gameplay to presentation and features, we join the community in discussing our expectations for a hypothetical NCAA title. Elsewhere, we’ve noticed a couple of Tweets attempting to rehabilitate NBA 2K18’s image. Naturally, we have a few thoughts on that! We also discuss Damian Lillard’s trade request and big contracts for NBA role players, react to the recent separation of EA Sports and EA Games, and open up this week’s mailbag for some NBA 2K17 Overall Ratings trivia.

Download or play on your mobile device/tablet: CLICK HERE (Running time: 1:12:06 — 49.9MB)

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!

Fantastic news for NBA 2K19 gamers who have been waiting to play with more Classic Seasons! Stildo33 has updated the project with a roster for the 1996 season, which was of course a very memorable campaign. In case you missed it, the 1987 and 1995 seasons have also been added since my previous bulletin, meaning that the project now features a decade of rosters!

As with the other rosters in the NBA 2K19 Classic Seasons project, the 1996 mod is a comprehensive retro conversion. It features accurate player faces, along with proper jerseys, courts, and logos. A ton of effort has gone into the ratings and tendencies, as well as the suggested slider tweaks, to provide an authentic retro experience. Indeed, if not for the quality of the graphics, it’s all too easy to forget that you’re playing a game originally released for the 2019 season! Details such as the NBA on NBC scoreboard definitely help as well.

Note that both the rosters and art pack are distributed the old fashioned way, so the servers being offline isn’t an issue. However, in order to play with the 1996 rosters, you’ll need to download the entire pack again. You can find it here in the NBA 2K19 Modding section of the Forum, along with previews, installation help, and news on further updates. Congratulations to Stildo33 and company on another outstanding release!

Today’s NBA 2K23 mod releases include updated 2023 offseason rosters from Shuajota, and a new Brooklyn Nets City jersey by pinoy21. Check them out at the links below!

Shuajota
2023-2024 DNA ULTIMATE ROSTER

pinoy21
Brooklyn Nets City Jersey 2023-2024 (pinoy21)

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 player absences in various basketball video games that you may not remember.

What’s a sure sign that someone has been playing basketball video games since the 90s? They remember a time when sim titles weren’t guaranteed to feature every player in the NBA! These days, the agreement with the Players’ Association allows all active players to be represented in licensed video games. Roster updates will take care of anyone who’s missing at launch, adding new players as the season progresses. Back in the day, we had to resolve player absences ourselves, either by customising our own rosters, or downloading community-made updates whenever possible.

Even if you don’t remember those days from personal experience, you’ve probably seen and heard people like me talking about them! As such, prominent examples of player absences like Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley are well-known. There have been some other noteworthy player absences through the years however, some of which have likely been forgotten. Since I enjoy NBA and basketball game trivia, I’m sharing five examples of potentially overlooked player absences that I recall. Please note that I’m referring to players who were absent when they were still active in the league, so historical players that remain unlicensed in NBA 2K don’t count here.

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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 my 1998 season roster mod for NBA Live 96 PC.

It’s overwhelming to think that the NLSC has been around for more than a quarter of a century! Our founders tipped things off in 1996, I took over in 2001, and we’re still around all these years later. Through all the ups and downs, moving to different hosts, and putting up with some nonsense along the way, we’ve managed to outlast a ton of websites. We’ve also outlasted more than a couple of basketball video game series (and indeed, video game studios and publishers). Unfortunately we’ve lost some mods and resources along the way, but we’ve still got some fun stuff from the early days.

To that end, our archives have preserved some of my earliest roster mods for NBA Live 96 PC. Upon discovering the NLSC in 1997 and all of the work that people in the community were doing, I was inspired to try my hand at some modding as well. I released that work through my own site – the NBA Live Domain – and felt immense pride when our founders added it to the database of mods on the NLSC. How do I feel about those mods today? It’s been a while since I’ve played with or taken a long look at them, so I thought I’d start by revisiting my 1998 roster for NBA Live 96, which I actually co-credited to my cousin Clinton. Let’s take a look back…way back…

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