Wayback Wednesday: 30 Facts About NBA Live 95

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 sharing 30 fun facts about NBA Live 95, in honour of the PC version’s 30th Anniversary.

Can you believe that it’s been some 30 years since NBA Live 95 came to PC? The calendar says so and the maths checks out, but it’s still tough to get my head around! In any case, three decades have passed since EA Sports’ basketball games made a triumphant return to PC, and in doing so, ultimately inspired the creation of the NLSC and our modding community. With that in mind – and since we didn’t end up running any “official” 30th Anniversary of NBA Live content last year – it’s only appropriate that we mark the milestone with another look back at this iconic game.

Obviously, between Wayback Wednesday, our previous anniversary content, and other features, I’ve covered NBA Live 95 rather extensively at this point. A game of its quality and importance deserves its due though, especially on an anniversary. And so, I’ve decided to compile 30 fun facts about NBA Live 95 to celebrate the occasion. As you can imagine, it’s difficult to find 30 things about the game that haven’t been said before, but there are a few points of interest that aren’t talked about all that often. Hopefully, some will be news to you! Let’s take a look back…way back…

NBA Live 95 was originally going to be called NBA Showdown 95

As per The Cutting Room Floor, unused copyright text buried in the Genesis version of NBA Live 95 reveals that it was originally titled NBA Showdown 95, taking a cue from its predecessor. With so many name changes during the run of the NBA Playoffs series, it certainly made sense to settle on consistent branding. When I spoke to Rod Reddekopp, he confirmed that the name change was made in part because they were reinventing the series so drastically, but also because Live rhymed so nicely with 95! Still, it’s funny to think it could’ve been the NBA Showdown series instead. I’d say they made the right call; NBA Showdown Series Center just doesn’t sound as good!

EA Canada Takes Over Development

Electronic Arts didn’t just change the name of their sim basketball series with NBA Live 95; they also moved development to a different studio. The NBA Playoffs series had been developed at EA’s San Mateo studio in California, but with NBA Live 95, EA Canada – credited as Hitmen Productions – took over the reins. They continued to develop the NBA Live series right through to NBA Elite 11, though some versions were outsourced to other studios. After NBA Elite 11’s cancellation, development moved to EA Tiburon in Orlando for the attempted reboot with NBA Live 13, which of course was also canned. EA Tiburon went on to develop NBA Live 14 through 19.

Debut of the Iconic Isometric Camera

One of the biggest (and immediately noticeable) changes from NBA Showdown to NBA Live 95 is the camera angle. Since Lakers vs. Celtics, the NBA Playoffs series had stuck with a horizontal, broadcast-style view. However, as NBA Live 95 used a modified version of FIFA International Soccer’s engine, it adopted a similar isometric angle that provided a broader view of the action, while simulating a 3D perspective. The change proved to be extremely popular, so even as future games made the jump to full 3D and added a variety of camera settings to choose from, the isometric angle was retained. Indeed, NBA Live 96 PC dubbed it “Classic Cam” the very next year.

Two Resolutions on PC

Like the SNES and Genesis releases, NBA Live 95 PC only uses the isometric camera angle. However, it offers greater flexibility when it comes to the view of the court. In low resolution mode, the camera is zoomed in on the action, but the graphics aren’t as crisp. High resolution mode is obviously much sharper, and also provides a far wider view of the court, but the players are noticeably smaller. To that end, many gamers back in the day opted to play in low-res mode, even if their computers could handle the high-res setting! In addition to being an option in the game’s settings menu, you can switch between high and low resolution mode during gameplay by pressing F9.

Three different versions of NBA Live 95, three different rosters

Perhaps you remember NBA Live 95 as having final 1994 season rosters, essentially being set in the previous season like earlier releases in the NBA Playoffs series. Or maybe, you remember it having a handful of offseason moves, Eddie Jones as the lone Class of 1994 rookie, and an updated 1995 season schedule. Then again, you might recall the game being updated for the 1995 campaign, accurate as of February 23rd. It all depends on whether you grew up playing the Super Nintendo, Sega Genesis/Mega Drive, or PC version respectively! Back in the 90s, and even into the early 2000s, it wasn’t uncommon for different versions of the same game to feature different rosters.

Player Absences

Since the 16-bit versions feature final 1994 and offseason 1994 rosters, Michael Jordan’s absence is obviously accurate. The PC release also predates his comeback, so even if licensing weren’t an issue, he wasn’t an active player at that point anyway. However, while Charles Barkley was in the NBA, his decision to withdraw from the NBAPA’s licensing agreement meant that NBA Showdown marked his final official appearance until NBA Live 98. Meanwhile, David Robinson had to be removed from the PC version, as he became exclusive to NBA Action ’95 when he signed on to be its cover player. All three players were frequently added to the PC version via mods.

The First Roster Players in NBA Live

NBA Live wasn’t the first basketball game to use Roster Players – later releases of Tecmo Super NBA Basketball had to replace Michael Jordan with one – but Roster Players were used in a couple of versions of the first NBA Live. The Genesis version, partially updated during the 1994 offseason, had to replace several departing players and unsigned rookies with Roster Players, leading to some very thin rosters. There’s just one Roster Player in the PC version, namely David Robinson’s stand-in on the West All-Stars. The Admiral was replaced by fellow Hall of Famer Moses Malone in the Spurs’ starting lineup, though Moses had played his final NBA game by that point.

At Last, a Turbo Button!

A common oddity in early sim basketball games – at least in hindsight – is the lack of a turbo/sprint control. The NBA Playoffs series was no exception here. Blowing by a defender in those games required using a quick player and diagonal movement for a speed boost. It worked well enough in the early days of basketball games, but as NBA Jam proved, a manual turbo control was the way of the future. The addition of a turbo button in NBA Live 95 is one of the biggest factors in it feeling like such a huge jump in the space of a year, speeding up the game and making explosive moves possible. Of course, the developers were still figuring a few things out with the new controls…

Only the Super Nintendo Version had a Steal Button

I made a whole video about this if you’d like the full back story on the technical details, but basically, thanks to limitations with controllers on PC and Genesis, only the SNES version has a steal button. With the standard Genesis controller having three buttons, and support for two two-button joysticks via a splitter on a single DA-15 game port on PC, gamers on those platforms weren’t guaranteed to have enough buttons. The workaround was to have players automatically swipe at the ball when in position, and allow full joystick movement to trigger turbo on PC if a third button wasn’t available. Once PC releases were Windows-only, this was no longer an issue.

In-Game Playcalling Debuts

While only the SNES release boasted a steal button, all three versions of NBA Live 95 featured playcalling during gameplay. Plays couldn’t be called during a possession – that would come in NBA Live 96 – but you could now choose the offensive set to run before inbounding the ball. On Genesis, this involved holding down turbo and a direction on the D-Pad to select a play. On PC, the shoot button was the modifier to call plays with directions while inbounding. On SNES, either the L or R button was held in conjunction with the D-Pad. I have to admit that I’ve often overlooked this ability when playing NBA Live 95, whether it was the PC or Super Nintendo version!

Offline Team Play

A majority of gamers who grew up with NBA Live 95 probably recall playing with one or two players. However, the PC version supports up to four players: either two on joysticks using a splitter, one on the keyboard, and one on mouse, or up to four joysticks if you had two DA-15 game ports. The Genesis version also supported four players with the “4 Way Play” adapter, which was developed by EA. A total of five players could play the SNES version using the Super Multitap though, potentially teaming up against the CPU. Obviously modern games have taken the concept to a new level with online team play, but five users on a side is a decades-old idea.

More Gameplay Options Than Before

Beyond the difficulty, quarter length, injuries, and general Simulation/Arcade setting, the NBA Playoffs series didn’t offer any options to customise the gameplay. NBA Live 95 greatly improved upon this with the ability to alter the frequency of offensive and defensive foul calls, enable and disable rules independently, switch injuries and fatigue on and off, keep the game competitive with the CPU Assistance option, leave shot success purely up to ratings or retain influence with release timing, and even have the action go into slow motion on dunks. Not only did NBA Live 95 play and feel better on the virtual hardwood, but we could tweak the experience to our liking.

Visible Ratings

As innovative as the NBA Live series has been, they were beaten to the punch on a few ideas. To that point, Tecmo Super NBA Basketball, NBA Jam, and a couple of other games, all featured visible player ratings before NBA Live 95 did. Nevertheless, NBA Live 95 removed any ambiguity about player abilities that might’ve existed in its predecessors, openly rating their skills from 50-99 (a bar in the Genesis version) on top of displaying their previous season statistics. It seems like such an obvious feature to have in a sim game nowadays, but there was a time when games hid player abilities behind stats. Fortunately, NBA Live 95 left that trend behind in EA’s basketball titles.

Hidden Content in the Genesis Version

The original moniker of NBA Showdown 95 isn’t the only interesting tidbit that’s tucked away in the Genesis version of NBA Live 95. Using a cheat device such as an Action Replay, it’s possible to access a hidden animation test. It doesn’t have much of a practical use, but it’s something to mess around with! You can also access a demo version of what was then EA Sports’ latest golf game by entering REFLOG (that’s “GOLFER” backwards, obviously) as a username. That REFLOG code and hidden golf game is only in the Genesis release, contrary to erroneous online cheats listings that saw me unsuccessfully trying it again and again in the SNES and PC versions!

Jump Straight to the Action

Interestingly, there are no secrets in the PC version similar to the hidden content in the Genesis release. There is a shortcut that gamers were quick to discover, though. On the matchup screen during the pre-game introductions – i.e. the one that displays the cityscape for the home team – right-clicking will skip the rest of the sequence and take you immediately to the tip-off. NBA Live 96 PC then added a “Tip-Off” button to this screen to give gamers a clear way to quickly jump into gameplay, though the right-click shortcut also still worked. The shortcut continued to work until NBA Live 99, where it was no longer needed as those pre-game introduction screens were removed.

Roster Customisation was Exclusive to PC

When I say roster customisation, I’m talking about being able to move players around outside of trades in Season mode. The ability to trade any player in the game, and thus alter the default roster for exhibition play and future Season mode games, was added to NBA Live 95 PC along with the updated 1995 season rosters. Notably, there’s no Create-a-Player function, though that feature would be added in NBA Live 96. NBA Live 96 also added the ability to modify the default lineups in the Teams menu, which in NBA Live 95 only served as a way of viewing the rosters for every team. The only way to change team lineups was through trading back and forth, or external editing.

Modding Rosters in NBA Live 95 PC is Tough

Speaking of roster editing, NBA Live 95 is one of the toughest PC releases to mod! Renaming players required editing existing text strings – usually player names, but other text could also be used – and assigning it as their name. Modders had to be very careful not to overwrite any text strings that were shared by multiple players, or else they’d all end up with the new name! Reordering lineups in the editor could cause problems with custom roster files created by the game, and blanking out portraits interfered with stats in season mode, so it was extremely easy to create buggy rosters. Nevertheless, we made it work, and it tipped off decades of modding at the NLSC!

The PC Version Was (Mostly) Updated for All-Star Weekend 1995

In addition to including midseason rosters and the Class of 1994 rookies, NBA Live 95 PC also accounted for the 1995 All-Star Weekend in Phoenix. The court has been updated from Minnesota – the location of the 1994 All-Star Weekend that was used in the console releases – and the rosters reflect the 1995 squads…for the most part. As mentioned, David Robinson was replaced by a Roster Player. The similarly absent Charles Barkley was replaced by Karl Malone as a starter, and Cedric Ceballos is on the bench despite missing the game due to injury and being replaced by Dikembe Mutombo (who is also on the team). The jersey colours also reflect the 1994 designs.

Jersey Swaps in Portraits on Console

To save space, only players in the starting lineup have portraits in the SNES and Genesis versions. As such, only starters can be traded in Season mode. The portraits also consist of placing the players’ heads on an array of generic matching shoulder models. This is very obvious when the same shoulders are used for multiple players during starting lineup introductions, but it allows for traded players to wear the correct uniforms. Incidentally, if a bench player is the Player of the Game, then his jersey will be displayed on that screen in place of a portrait. Similarly, if a bench player and a starter are named the Players of the Half, they’ll both be represented by their jerseys.

PC Portraits

Thanks to the storage space afforded by CD-ROM, NBA Live 95 PC furnishes every player (except the Roster Player) with an individual portrait. However, most of the veterans have portraits from Media Day 1993, such as Horace Grant still wearing a Chicago Bulls jersey despite signing with the Orlando Magic in the 1994 offseason. Likewise, Dominique Wilkins and Danny Manning are still wearing their Hawks and Clippers uniforms, even though they were traded for each other the year prior, and then signed with the Celtics and Suns respectively. Interestingly, a majority of the portraits were reused in NBA Live 96, before new ones were added in NBA Live 97.

No, You Can’t Shatter the Backboard

Some long-time fans have erroneously recalled being able to shatter the backboard in NBA Live 95. You can’t, but the confusion no doubt stems from the fact that it is possible in Coach K College Basketball, which runs on the same engine as the 16-bit version of NBA Live. This is also where I admit that I was still learning basketball strategy and lingo when I first played NBA Live 95, and I thought that the “Crash Boards” option turned on the ability to shatter the backboard; no wonder my teams grabbed so many offensive rebounds, and gave up a few too many fast breaks! In any case, it’s Coach K where you could pull down the rim (and then dunk on it anyway).

Hand Check, or Blatant Shove?

Speaking of still learning all the ins and outs of basketball when I was first playing NBA Live 95, it certainly gave me the wrong impression about hand checking! Rather than simply impeding your opponent with hand placement, in NBA Live 95 it’s more of a deliberate shove, risking a foul (or indeed, being a way to intentionally foul). It can be used carefully to bully opponents with physical play, though it’s most effective in the SNES version which actually has a hand check button. And of course, if you weren’t in the mood for realism, you could turn off fouls and get a ton of steals, NBA Jam-style. As Rod Reddekopp told me, the developers themselves enjoyed doing that!

A Generic Court for Alternate Venues

Season mode in the PC version of NBA Live 95 contains a detail you won’t find in the console releases. Games from the 1995 season that were played outside of the usual NBA arenas – from the Trail Blazers and Clippers opening the year in Japan to the Celtics hosting at the Hartford Civic Center – are correctly noted on the schedule. Not only that, but those games are played on a generic court, rather than the team’s normal home floor. However, the two games in Japan are erroneously listed as taking place in Tokyo, rather than Yokohama. NBA Live 96 PC also reflected the alternate venues, though due to a bug, those games were all played on the Vancouver Grizzlies’ court.

Two New Custom Teams

NBA Showdown introduced two custom teams – the Slammers and Jammers – which allowed gamers to assemble fantasy squads. They were joined by two defensively-named teams in NBA Live 95: the Blockers and Stealers. Despite these four themed monikers, there were no restrictions on the types of players you could choose for each squad, making the branding purely cosmetic. The Slammers, Jammers, Blockers, and Stealers remained in the series until NBA Live 98, when a more in-depth custom team feature was implemented. NBA Live’s custom teams allow for duplicates, not only across the four squads, but also an entire roster filled with clones of the same player.

Fathers & Sons

Several players in NBA Live 95 have sons who have since gone pro: Dell Curry (Steph & Seth Curry), Glen Rice (Glen Rice Jr.), Patrick Ewing (Patrick Ewing Jr.), Scottie Pippen (Scotty Pippen Jr.), Ron Harper (Ron Harper Jr.), Tim Hardaway (Tim Hardaway Jr.), Greg Anthony (Cole Anthony), Mark Davis (Trayce Jackson-Davis), Winston Garland (Darius Garland), Harvey Grant (Jerami & Jerian Grant), Juwan Howard (Jett Howard), Gary Payton (Gary Payton II), Larry Nance (Larry Nance Jr.), Doc Rivers (Austin Rivers), Glenn Robinson (Glenn Robinson III), Gerald Wilkins (Damien Wilkins), Terry Davis (Ed Davis), and John Stockton (David Stockton).

There Was Actually a PC Demo

I need to make a correction to the old NBA Live 95 FAQ by Yaron that can still be found over on GameFAQs, and was also officially mirrored here on the NLSC for a time. The FAQ states that there was no PC demo for NBA Live 95, but there was in fact one, which I managed to track down around ten years ago. To be fair, it seems it was only distributed via demo discs that came with magazines, so it understandably flew under the radar. Eventually, one of those CD-ROMs was ripped and uploaded to archive.org. So, not only does an NBA Live 95 demo featuring an abbreviated game between the East and West All-Stars exist, but it’s now readily available to download!

Interesting Quirks

Even though NBA Live 95 plays a great game of virtual basketball – you may actually be surprised by how well it holds up – it does have some interesting quirks. On PC, you can force cheap turnovers by crowding a player inbounding the ball, which will often cause him to throw the ball out of bounds. The CPU also has a habit of firing up threes indiscriminately when it falls behind by a large margin. Shooting fouls are a bit scarce in the SNES version, while steals and turnovers come too easily. Fatigue is also a tad harsh on shorter quarters. Although they ultimately didn’t prevent the game from being a classic, these idiosyncrasies do stick in the mind of long-time hoops gamers.

It Was Very Well-Received

To that point, despite those quirks and room for further improvement, NBA Live 95 was highly-regarded in its day, and for good reason. Reviewers noted the additions and improvements over NBA Showdown, and awarded it high scores. Game Players magazine also named the SNES version “best sports game” in their January 1995 issue, while Computer Gaming World declared NBA Live 95 to be the 57th-best PC game of all-time in 1996. Despite beginning to fall out of vogue and be seen as “retro” by the late 90s, it’s always been fondly remembered in our community for its great gameplay, appealing style, and role in tipping off the modding scene at the NLSC.

A Cameo in NBA Live 06 PS2

Unsurprisingly, when NBA Live was still on top – in sales if not always critical and fan reception – they were far more enthusiastic about celebrating anniversaries and milestones! To that point, to celebrate the (sort of) tenth anniversary of the series, the PlayStation 2 release of NBA Live 06 included an emulated version of NBA Live 95 for Sega Genesis. In order to avoid any issues with licensing rights for the myriad of players who were no longer in the league, everyone was renamed (usually with punny monikers like “Justin Thyme”) and given a fictional appearance. Unfortunately, this fun anniversary bonus was only included in the NTSC version of NBA Live 06 PS2.

NBA Live 95 Remains Playable in 2025

Thankfully, there’s a better way to play NBA Live 95 today! Obviously, as long as you have a working SNES or Genesis/Mega Drive and a functioning cartridge, it can be still played on original hardware. Emulation of those two consoles was basically perfected a long time ago, and that certainly may be more convenient now! The PC version is also playable on modern Windows using DOSBox or a forked project such as DOSBox-X, though that requires a little more technical know-how. Naturally, all three versions do show their age, but as such a fantastic game that was a huge step forward, I believe it’s still worth playing today. As such, it’s fortunate that we can.

Once again, I hope that at least a few of these facts were new to you, or provided some further insight into NBA Live 95! I’ve definitely enjoyed finding out more about it and other games over the years, especially when it sheds light on why certain design choices were made. Beyond indulging my enthusiasm for retro gaming, that’s one of the main reasons why I produce my Wayback Wednesday features! As for NBA Live 95, between being part of my introduction to basketball gaming and the inspiration for our founders to create the NLSC, it’ll always be a personal favourite. No matter which version and how many years go by, NBA Live 95 will always be worth talking about.