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Wayback Wednesday: Our First Wishlist & How Far Games Have Come

Wayback Wednesday: Our First Wishlist & How Far Games Have Come

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 our very first Wishlist compiled for NBA Live 98, and how far basketball games have come since then.

On February 6th 1997, our founders submitted a Wishlist for NBA Live 98 on behalf of the community. It’s fun to look back at those suggestions now, and see just how many of them have been implemented in subsequent games. NBA Live was able to grant several of those wishes, and as NBA 2K became the premier brand in sim basketball titles, it also introduced features that once seemed like pipe dreams. Of course, going down that Wishlist, we can also see some ideas that unfortunately fell by the wayside after debuting, as well as some suggestions that weren’t so great.

Since Monday marked the 26th(!) anniversary of that very first Wishlist, I thought it’d be fun to go through it section by section, discussing what did eventually make it into video games, what still hasn’t, and in hindsight, what weren’t such great ideas. I believe it will demonstrate that feedback is (or certainly was) never in vain, as well as how far basketball video games have come as far as content, features, and mechanics. It may not always have been as we originally envisioned, but our wishes have indeed come true. Let’s take a look back…way back…

Top Wishes

NLSC THRILLHO 3v3 Pro-Am Court

  • Add ability to save in the middle of a game
  • Add ability to save replays
  • Add ability to play over the Internet, either using a built-in solution or Kali or Kahn
  • Add polygon player introductions of the starting five on the courts just like in the NBA, i.e. first the bench players come in, then it gets dark, laser show starts, starters will be announced with court depending music (if possible, use the Bulls announcer Ray Clay for that)
  • Add ability to call timeouts and make substitutions in the middle of the game without having to go the game setup screen, maybe by pressing ‘T’ to call a Timeout and ‘S’ to make a substitution

Basically, we have (or have had) all of these things in NBA Live and/or NBA 2K! As tech continued to improve in the late 90s/early 2000s, elaborate introductions became commonplace. We can call timeout without pausing the game, and make on-the-fly changes to lineups, strategies, and so on. Online play is obviously huge now, and NBA Live 99 actually had modem-to-modem play. Ray Clay is the PA announcer for retro Bulls teams in NBA 2K23, and various titles have allowed us to save replays (as has built-in functionality in modern consoles). Mid-game saving has come and gone unfortunately, but it was still a wish that was granted, if only for a short time.

In hindsight, it’s funny that the Top Wishes in our original Wishlist for NBA Live 98 didn’t really address any gameplay issues. I actually didn’t contribute to it at the time – I didn’t discover the NLSC until August that year – so I’m not sure what the thought process was. I’m guessing it was about spotlighting some of the biggest quality of life and feature improvements, leaving the gameplay feedback to its own section. It’s also funny to think that online head-to-head was once a novelty, and not just a standard feature in a basketball game! With all of the connected modes in titles over the past couple of generations, that’s certainly changed, albeit for both better and worse.

Before the Game

National Anthem Pre-Game Cutscene in NBA 2K23

  • Add polygon player introductions of the starting five on the courts just like in the NBA, i.e. first the bench players come in, then it gets dark, laser show starts, starters will be announced with court depending music (if possible, use the Bulls announcer Ray Clay for that)
  • Add an Option to go to the Pause Screen before the game, i.e. not having to go the Tip-Off and press ESC then
  • Show ALL information on the players, i.e. birthdate, birthplace, etc.

Once again, player introductions and other pre-game pomp and circumstance have been added over the years. Of course, in NBA 2K, we even have a virtual pre-game show with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny Smith providing voices for their in-game selves. There have also been facilities to change lineups and strategy before the game, or while loading into it. The last point about showing all player info is a bit of a strange suggestion, depending on how you look at it. NBA Live and NBA 2K have both done an admirable job of replicating pre-game presentation since our NBA Live 98 Wishlist was submitted, so I’d say that in broad strokes, it’s been done.

During Gameplay

Tim Duncan Dunking in NBA Live 2000

  • Add ability to save in the middle of a game
  • Add ability to save replays
  • Add ability to play over the Internet, either using a built-in solution or Kali or Kahn
  • Add ability to call timeouts and make substitutions in the middle of the game without having to go the game setup screen, maybe by pressing ‘T’ to call a Timeout and ‘S’ to make a substitution
  • Improve Auto Subs, i.e. Substitution based on foul trouble, fatigue, performance, and defensive match-up, which could be done by adding a Playing Time Rating and/or have two positions assigned to a player or having only C, F, G and variations of these as positions; also when you’re way behind or in front of the other team, put the Starters out and the Bench Players in (optional)
  • Make Dunks get blocked less, especially in All-Star Mode
  • Reduce the center domination
  • Include a bigger variety of dunks, including off-the-glass, double-pumps, wrapping it around the rim
  • Have the rim bend when performing a dunk
  • Add ability to see sideline crowd, commentators, coaches (walking and shouting) and bench players (all with emotions on the game)
  • Add cheerleaders and mascots to the sideline
  • Add ability to see refs run and actually make hand gestures on calls
  • Add ability to see subs walk in and off the court
  • Add Individual player stat-recaps during the game, i.e. FG’s Made, FG%, etc.
  • Improve the “Current Run” feature so that it will not only be displayed when there’s a xx-0 run, but also a xx-2 or so
  • Add a play-by-play commentator to comment on the action that’s going on, just like in NHL 97 and Full Court Press
  • Add more crowd chants like “D-Fence”
  • Have the crowd react more to the game flow, at the moment it makes no difference whether you’re behind or in front
  • Have the Players calling out the plays audibly
  • Don’t let Flagrant Fouls and Injuries depend on each other always, i.e. Flagrant Fouls without an Injury
  • Ability to let the user pick the Player to go for the Free Throw after Flagrant and Technical Fouls
  • Don’t let the ball go in that often when you get fouled while making a shot attempt
  • Improve the passing (no two-handed overhead passes when your teammate is standing next to you, etc.), maybe by adding a Passing Rating
  • Improve the ability to the computer controlled players on the user’s team when the ball is loose on the floor, i.e. after a rebound or check
  • Change the flat crowd to a ‘real’ crowd
  • Make the courts even more authentic, most are too dark and are missing some details
  • Add higher vertical leaping
  • Add Off-the-glass Alley-Oops
  • Add more layup animations including scoops and runners and a fade-away jumper
  • Improve Tip-In and Player-Waving-For-A-Pass Animations
  • Add One and two handed board taps on lay-ups and blocks
  • Improve spin and cross-over animations
  • Add Signature Moves, i.e. Pippen doing his tomahawk
  • Show replays not only of tip-ins and dunks, but also of great blocks and assists
  • Allow dribbling and shooting with the opposite hand
  • Add Computer fast-breaks
  • Reduce wrist slap fouls
  • Reduce the stopping of players to catch a pass on a break
  • Add lead passes
  • Add No-look passes
  • Add ability to get off shots with 0.2 secs left on clock, which is the least possible amount of time to get off a shot in real life
  • Make players move/wiggle when they line up around the paint during a free throw
  • Add ability to save a complete game
  • Add a “Restart Game” option
  • Improve player animation so that their hands don’t go through the board
  • Make blocking easier for the user
  • Improve instant replay so that it shows a made basket on a foul
  • Improve the scoreboard on the court so that it keeps updated scores during the game, instead of 000 all the time.
  • BUG FIX: No longer allow the user call Time-outs of the CPU controlled team
  • BUG FIX: Fix that the announcer sometimes says “That’s his xx Personal” twice instead of first saying “Foul to No. xx,..”
  • BUG FIX: Fix that when you’re playing with Custom Teams, in the 4th Quarter you’ll suddenly only have 0 Fouls to give when you have more
  • BUG FIX: Fix the jerseys of the custom Jammers/Slammers, at the moment the Jammers have the Slammers logo and vice versa
  • BUG FIX: Fix the Blockers court as the rim shadows are not displayed correctly at the moment

This is the longest part of the Wishlist, containing several great suggestions. Here’s the cool part: we’ve seen basically everything on that list come to pass! Some of the improvements began as soon as NBA Live 98, including expanding the Custom Team options. Beyond those NBA Live 97-inspired bug fix suggestions though, as games have become more advanced, we’ve seen all the in-game presentation ideas that are on the NBA Live 98 Wishlist. More stats overlays, players walking on and off the court during subs, detailed introductions and cutscenes, and full commentary, are all staples of the genre now. Coaches, cheerleaders, mascots, and 3D crowds are also the norm.

Animation variety has improved as technology did, with increasing accuracy. That includes signature animation packages, from jumpshots and dribbling to dunks and layups, and even player-specific celebrations and running styles. There are off-the-glass alley-oops, no-look and other fancy passes, better rim physics, proper shot and scoring distribution, on-the-fly substitutions and strategy adjustments, improved fast break and substitution logic, and superior defensive mechanics. Crowds have become more responsive to the action, and automatic replays resemble broadcast presentation. We can restart games without quitting to the menu, and injuries don’t depend on fouls.

Once again, some of these improvements began with NBA Live 98 and its immediate successors, and NBA 2K obviously became the gold standard as far as sim gameplay as the 2000s wore on. In fact, if you go down that list, basically everything it asks for is present and accounted for as of NBA 2K23! The only item that isn’t a function of modern titles as such is an ability to save a complete game, but through the in-built recording on consoles, devices such as Elgato, and apps like Bandicam and Action, it is still quite feasible. From a gameplay perspective, the deep and realistic game that was envisioned in our NBA Live 98 Wishlist has come to fruition over the years.

Quarter Break/Halftime

Studio Shows Were a Wishlist Staple

  • Add an option to not go back to the game directly between quarters, but dropping to the “Pause” Screen instead to make substitutions
  • Add Half-time updates including scores from around the league and highlights from the current game, maybe show the ones that the user saved during the game
  • Add Polygon-based cheerleaders and mascots instead of the videos which you’ll only view once anyway

The video montages that we used to be able to view at halftime were phased out. Ironically, there’s some nostalgia for them now, though I’d suggest they aren’t truly missed in newer releases. In their place are detailed halftime shows, which as the Wishlist indicates, is something we did want to see. Going to a pause screen between quarters and at halftime is something that some games in the late 90s through to mid 2000s did feature, but it’s actually fallen by the wayside since. On the other hand, we can make adjustments before the action resumes, and can always pause if we’re in need of some more time. To that point, we don’t really miss that approach to breaks.

Controllers

Freestyle Control Dribbling in NBA Live 2003

  • Add the option to allow keyboard control for two players
  • Add a cross-over dribble button (maybe both joystick buttons simultaneously)
  • Add a steal button
  • Add a spin move button
  • Add a cross-over in front, between the legs, and behind the back all controlled by one button press and a controller direction
  • BUG FIX: Make the GrIP Support work correctly
  • BUG FIX: Get rid of that problems with the UserLogs

Some of these suggestions are quite clearly relics of their era, and issues that were specific to NBA Live 97. To say that the controls in basketball video games have come a long way is a massive understatement! Keyboards have been essentially phased out in the PC version, as the controls are designed around a dual analog gamepad. Even before that of course, we did have buttons for dribbling moves, and NBA Live 98 PC thankfully finally added a dedicated steal button. The suggestion for performing specific dribbling moves was a good one, though the addition of Freestyle Control proved that there was an even better way to give us control over ballhandling.

Season/Playoff

Franchise Mode Schedule in NBA Live 2000

  • Simulate the stats from other teams according to the Quarter Length you have in the season
  • Ability to play as more than one team during the season
  • Add long term injuries, even between game injuries
  • Add crowd excitement in the stadium after winning the championship at home, with confetti, noise, crowd rushing the floor, etc.
  • Put “NBA Playoffs” and “NBA Finals” logos on the floor
  • Add a Player Of The Week and a Player Of The Month
  • Recalculate the Players’ Ratings based on seasonal progress, i.e. FG, FT and TP shooting
  • Add an end of season draft
  • Have the Team stats carry over to a new season (96-97 stats carried over to a new 97-98 season)
  • Allow the CPU to make trades and FA signings for its teams
  • Let players have real slumps during the season
  • BUG FIX: Have both announcers correctly say “Eastern Conference” when you play a team of the Eastern Conference instead of saying “Western” at the moment
  • BUG FIX: Have both announcers correctly say the Other Locations, as at the moment they say “Tokyo, Japan” instead of “Maple Leaf Gardens”
  • BUG FIX: Have the arena announcer correctly say “Welcome to Game X OF the [whatever]” instead of dropping the “of” in the sentence as it is currently

These suggestions may look quaint now, but at the time, they were great ideas that demonstrate an interest in deeper features and multi-season play. As is the case with the Gameplay Wishlist for NBA Live 98, through the introduction of franchise modes, we have all of these features in some form. NBA Live added (and then removed) the ability to play with more than one team, but it’s there in NBA 2K23. There are options for sim quarter lengths, and stats normalisation. CPU trades, the annual rookie Draft, free agency, player progression, lengthy injuries, hot and cold streaks, proper Playoff presentation and atmosphere, championship celebrations…we’ve seen it all added!

Not only that, but we’ve gained the ability to start in the offseason and redo the Draft, begin from the current date on the real NBA calendar, expand the league, customise the teams, and now even play in historical eras. Games have also expanded beyond single season, Playoffs, and franchise modes into single player career experiences, as well as the card-based fantasy team modes of MyTEAM and Ultimate Team. I don’t want to downplay the depth of those classic games and the fun we had with them, but modes are bigger and better than most of us could’ve imagined or expected. There have been some questionable design choices, but our wishes came true and then some.

Player Creation/Custom Teams/Rosters

Ratings Limit in Create-a-Player (NBA Live 2000)

  • Add option to have more created players (500)
  • Add ability to use your own portraits (if that is not possible, fine-render the facial feature you assigned to a player and Add the jersey of the team he’s on)
  • Have the announcer try to pronounce the names of the created players, i.e. by letting the user pick any names that are already in the game
  • Add ability to record your own sound files
  • Add ability to move any player you want to the IR, even when the team is not full
  • Add true custom teams including the ability to name them and pick and edit uniforms and courts
  • Add option so that players on the Custom teams wear their own teams home and away uniforms as the rookies do in the Schick Rookie Game
  • Allow to edit the user stats for a player when he creates someone with Years Pro greater than 0
  • Include an Editor to allow editing of all ratings of all players in the game

This part of the Wishlist is a mixed bag. Some of these suggestions are still present as of NBA 2K23, some have come and gone from NBA Live and/or NBA 2K over the years, and some have yet to be implemented. Obviously, we’re able to edit all player ratings these days. In fact, NBA Live 98 delivered that wish later that year! It also brought in fully customisable teams, though they were gone by NBA Live 2001. NBA 2K retains that functionality as part of rebranding in MyNBA and MyLEAGUE, but not in roster editing. No game has allowed up to 500 created players or custom audio, though there is a bank of names that created players and career mode avatars can use.

Player renders in place of real portraits did become the norm, and have essentially replaced the “No Portrait Available” approach. It’s impossible to input career stats for created players, or modify the stats and records of original players. NBA Live 2001 and 2002 did actually allow players to be placed on the injured reserve even when a team wasn’t full, as long as they were still left with eight active players. I’d argue that roster editing is probably the aspect of basketball video games that’s seen the least amount of evolution since 1997, which is why external modding tools on PC are vital. With that being said, some of these ideas have been added, if only for a game or two.

All-Star Game

Josh Smith in the Dunk Contest (NBA Live 2005)

  • Add a slam dunk contest like in the classic EA Game Jordan vs. Bird
  • Add a three-point contest
  • Add option to select the players for the All-Star game either by the user and/or the CPU, based on their performance in the season you’re playing (maybe let the user pick the starting five, the CPU will announce the bench players)
  • Add a $1.000.000 Half Court Shot

The Three-Point Shootout was added in NBA Live 98, disappeared from the PC and PlayStation 2 versions of NBA Live 2001 while remaining in the PlayStation releases through NBA Live 2003, and then returned in NBA Live 2005 as part of the full All-Star Weekend mode. It brought the Slam Dunk Contest with it, and to this day, it’s the best take on the event. Unfortunately we weren’t able to customise All-Star lineups, but the teams were selected automatically in Season and Dynasty games based on performance. The $1 Million Halfcourt Shot was never implemented – there was probably never any real need for it – but we did get the Rookie Challenge as well.

Funnily enough, this is something that NBA Live has still done better than NBA 2K. Visual Concepts have taken quite a few ideas that debuted in EA Sports’ series and done them better, or at least just as well. The All-Star Weekend isn’t one of them, from the dunk contest mechanics to the fact that it isn’t available as a standalone mode outside of MyCAREER and MyNBA/MyLEAGUE/MyGM. Unfortunately, EA also dropped the All-Star Weekend mode from NBA Live 10 onwards, which in hindsight was probably a red flag. Nevertheless, the All-Star events were established as staple wishes from the very beginning, and it paid off in NBA Live 2005 through to 09.

German Version

NBA 2K22 Cover Player Dirk Nowitzki

  • Add Frank Buschmann and Michael Koerner from the German Channel DSF as the announcers and commentators, the current German announcer and commentator are not that good, in the game it sounds like they’re reading directly from the paper
  • Improve the translations, a lot of stuff is NBA specific and is not translated to German anyway, since most (if not all) of the people in Germany that like the NBA speak English

I can’t really comment on the non-English versions of any NBA Live or NBA 2K titles, beyond noting that NBA 2K still offers a Spanish commentary pack as free DLC. Obviously there have also been region-specific cover players, but as far as the quality of translations, I don’t have any insight there. On a somewhat related note, I can talk about living in a PAL region, and having NBA Live use the metric system instead of imperial measurements. That was an annoyance in NBA Live 09 and 10 that did get fixed in NBA Live 14 and 15, only to become an issue again thereafter. Thankfully it’s a presentation option in NBA 2K, and it also defaults to imperial.

Some extras you might want to consider putting in

Magic Johnson & Larry Bird in NBA 2K12

  • Add all NBA Players, especially Jordan and Barkley
  • Add a higher variety of difficulty levels
  • Add fights
  • Add ability to change uniforms and All-Star Game courts
  • Add ability to play any quarter length you want
  • Make an ‘official’ patch that keeps up with the latest trades and offer it from your Web Site or via an Auto-Update-The-Rosters Function
  • Add 1-on-1, 2-on-2, and 3-on-3 games, this could be accomplished by a special option that allows less than 8 players on the team – add fun and interesting hidden codes
  • Add ability to save ALL settings in the User Log, i.e. the Crash Boards Option
  • Improve the coding to make the game run fast without needing a super high-end machine
  • Add a Pause Key which only pauses the game without dropping back to the Pause Screen
  • Add great teams from the past, like the ’93 Bulls, the ’83 76ers, and an All-Time East Team and an All-Time West Team
  • Add ability to create your own Offensive/Defensive Sets
  • Let the players have real minds, for example like a dialogue box popping up and a player demanding to be traded
  • Have a dialog box come up and allow a player’s number to be changed when a player gets traded and his jersey matches the same number on the team trading to
  • Let the user call plays when the CPU controls both teams, just like a coaching mode
  • Add a season mode in which you are the manager, you pick players, calculate costs, put prices for games, etc.
  • Add black shoes
  • Add second away jerseys for the teams
  • Add different lengths of hair and style for the players
  • Add support for 3D Accelerator Graphic cards
  • Add native support for Pro AudioSpectrum 16 sound card under DOS
  • Add more commentators, i.e. Johnny Kerr and Tom Dorn
  • Use Shawn Kemp for motion-capturing the Dunks
  • Add more localized versions, i.e. Spanish

These miscellaneous suggestions both capture a snapshot of the NBA and gaming in 1997, and present a window into the future of the genre. Charles Barkley would return to the virtual hardwood in NBA Live 98 and other 1998 season titles, though Michael Jordan did not. He was included as a Legend in NBA Live 2000 through to NBA Live 2004, was active in games as a member of the Washington Wizards in 2002 and 2003 season titles, and of course has since been celebrated with the Jordan Challenge in NBA 2K11 and NBA 2K23. The original Jordan Challenge also brought classic teams into the game, and that historical content is now a staple of the rosters in NBA 2K.

Official roster updates also became standard once online connectivity and permanent storage was viable on PC and console alike. Management features have become a part of franchise modes, more so in NBA 2K. We now have multiple commentary teams, an array of alternate and historical jerseys for every team, new difficulty levels, and more quarter length options. NBA Live 97 was the last DOS release, while NBA Live 98 was the first to utilise 3D acceleration. NBA 2K has featured a Coach mode in the past, there have been 1-on-1 games and other options that are still present in Blacktop, and we’ve also seen various All-Time and All-Decade teams featured in both series.

Michael Jordan & Shawn Kemp in NBA 2K23

A pause function without a pause screen is something of an antiquated idea and not really necessary, which is probably why we never saw that. As I noted, we haven’t had much in the way of in-game customisation when it comes to the All-Star Game, but again, rebranding has become a part of NBA 2K’s franchise modes. Authentic shoes have been added, along with more hairstyles and so forth for created players. Player personalities and chemistry have been implemented to some extent, though few games have prompted manual jersey number changes following transactions. Finally, the NBA has made it clear that fights and unsportsmanlike technicals are a no-go.

Combing through our NBA Live 98 Wishlist, it’s fantastic to see how many ideas have come to fruition in NBA Live, NBA 2K, or both. Once again, some of those items were seen as soon as NBA Live 98 or NBA Live 99, and as the years passed, we saw sim basketball games expand well beyond their venerable but far more primitive predecessors. It may not be exactly how we all originally envisioned those wishes, and suggestions such as Shawn Kemp performing motion capture or improved keyboard support are definitely signs of the time. Nevertheless, the basic ideas for improving controls, gameplay, modes, and overall depth ultimately did have merit.

Fortunately, it would seem that the developers agreed with us basketball gamers on many points. It’s impossible to say what was the result of our Wishlists and what was simply the inevitable direction of basketball and other sports video games, but many developers over the years have spoken to the importance of gamer feedback. Not every wish will be granted – immediately or in the future – but again, when we look back at the games we were dreaming of in the mid to late 90s, those experiences are now within our grasp. With that being said, there are still a few untapped ideas, 26 years later. If we can get them into NBA 2K24 and beyond, better late than never!

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