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Wayback Wednesday: Somersault Dunks in NBA Jam TE

Wayback Wednesday: Somersault Dunks in NBA Jam TE

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 the somersault dunks in NBA Jam Tournament Edition.

One of the joys of hitting the virtual hardwood is discovering all the moves that you can pull off, and the variety of animations on offer. It’s something that we can take for granted now that hoops titles boast thousands of animations and an array of signature styles. Back when games were far more limited in what they could feasibly include, it was a thrill to discover new moves that we didn’t expect to see. Dunks were of course the premiere highlight, and we all have slams that we’re partial to in our favourite basketball video games.

There are many spectacular slams that I enjoy seeing thrown down by the players I’m controlling, but when it comes to NBA Jam Tournament Edition, I’m particularly fond of the somersault dunks. As a 90s kid who loved basketball and video games, they represented the pinnacle of highlights in a title that was all about over-the-top high-flying dunks. Even when I go back and play NBA Jam TE today, I’m excited whenever I see a player going into a somersault as they leap into the air. I’m sure I’m not alone in appreciating the soaring somersault dunks of NBA Jam TE, so let’s take a look back…way back…

Some of my fondest basketball gaming memories involve playing co-op with my cousin in the school holidays from the mid 90s through to the end of high school in the early 2000s. NBA Live was our simulation title of choice, leading to countless hours playing through seasons and franchise games. We loved arcade hoops as well, and got our fix from the PC version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition. One of our goals was to not only defeat but also play with every NBA team, and sit atop the arcade ladder. In doing so, we enjoyed keeping a record of our stats and progress through our campaigns, not to mention pulling off as many highlights as possible.

Shawn Kemp Somersault Dunks in NBA Jam TE PC

To that end, we made up spreadsheets and printed them off to use as checklists, and had dozens and dozens of sheets of paper documenting the box scores of memorable games. In addition to copying down the stats from the post-game screen, we’d also document our favourite plays. I recall making a note after a game in which I was able to block Dennis Rodman’s dunk with Scottie Pippen; not always an easy feat with the collision detection and stat tracking of the PC version! Another stat that we often kept track of was how many somersault dunks we were able to complete in a game. Given their rarity and the AI’s tendency to knock down dunkers, they were an achievement!

There are a few different somersault dunks in NBA Jam TE, with two main types of such slams. In the first variety, a player holds the ball behind their head akin to a back scratcher dunk, and kicks their legs up backwards. In the second variety, they scrunch into a cannonball and tumble through the air, holding the basketball in front of them. The first variety is split into dunks where players somersault on the way up and hold the pose on the way down, and ones where they leap up in the pose and somersault on their descent. The second variety includes one with a lower and slower leap and spin, as well as one where they rocket high into the rafters for a soaring somersault slam.

The fact that I can picture the different styles of somersault dunks all these years later should tell you just how obsessed I was with them as a kid! Indeed, I even created a spreadsheet to document all the styles of dunks – not just somersault slams – and the rating required to perform them. Unfortunately, that was several computers and hard drives ago, and none of my oldest backups preserve any files from that time, so that spreadsheet has been lost for over two decades. I’m sorely tempted to put aside some time to map out all of those ratings and their corresponding dunks again so that we have that resource for posterity, and honestly, I’m not going to rule out giving it a try.

Latrell Sprewell Somersault Dunks in NBA Jam TE SNES

With that being said, just as I remember the “dunk from anywhere code” for the SNES version of NBA Jam TE – Left, Right, A, B, B, A – I do vaguely recall the thresholds for somersault dunks. Players with a Dunk rating of 5 can perform the back scratcher variety of tumbling throwdowns, albeit rarely. From memory, a rating of 7 is the threshold for the low-flying cannonball style slam. As the premiere dunkers in the game, players with a rating of 8 or 9 are able to perform all dunks, with 9s having the best chance to soar into the rafters for the rarest type of somersault dunk. Being On Fire also appeared to boost Dunk ratings and temporarily expand a player’s repertoire.

Beyond a sufficient rating, positioning was also important. Dunks are triggered from specific angles and distances, in order to be contextually appropriate. Without a full breakdown of the code, I can’t specify the exact coordinates, meaning that I’m going off of anecdotal evidence. To that point, I can’t say with complete certainty whether or not the amount of turbo meter remaining is a factor. Anecdotally however, I’ve observed that with the exception of the back scratcher somersault on the way up, the somersault dunks are generally triggered while on a beeline to the hoop, with a take-off point in the midrange. A full or nearly full sprint meter definitely doesn’t hurt.

I’d suggest that the frequency of somersault dunks was quite fair. Again, I don’t have the exact numbers to share – if anyone decodes this stuff, I’d absolutely love to hear about your findings – but in my experience, they happened often enough that we’d get to see great dunkers pull them off, while still being rare enough to feel special. Of course, there was no guarantee we’d see one every single game, even when using players with a Dunk rating of 9. As I mentioned, this led to disappointment when one would be triggered, only for the AI or a savvy human opponent to knock you down before your player could slam it home! It’s why I always documented successful ones.

Monster Jam by Larry Johnson

When super dunks were enabled – either through the cheat code or the legitimate powerup – somersault dunks could be triggered from a wider variety of angles, including from a standing start in the backcourt. They were still one of the rarer dunks to perform and required the appropriate Dunk rating, but if nothing else, you could avoid some of the shoving that inevitably happened as you approached the paint. It looks awesome when a player who is On Fire somersaults the length of the court before dunking, smoke and flames trailing behind them before they punish the rim! It can get boring playing with cheats however, so I’d recommend using them sparingly.

While sim games have introduced some breathtaking dunk animations that definitely rank up there for me, when it comes to arcade titles, I’m not sure that anything has surpassed the excitement and enthusiasm I have for the somersault dunks in NBA Jam TE. That’s not to say there haven’t been some strong candidates. I love jumping off a teammate for a helicopter dunk in NBA Street Homecourt, and EA’s two NBA Jam games both have their own fun somersault slams. However, even though those titles are newer and have superior animations, it’s tough to beat those dunks from NBA Jam TE. Their rarity, and the satisfaction of completing one, truly did make them special.

And of course, there’s the nostalgia factor. Like the isometric angle in NBA Live 95, they’re a fond memory from my earliest forays onto the virtual hardwood. They also represent a time before we were concerned about players having their own signature animations, and other details that are important, but can also be distractions. They’re a memory from a time before grinding and microtransactions; before the elitism and gatekeeping of the competitive scene. Back then, several publishers were throwing their hat into the ring with NBA titles, and there were a handful of excellent releases on top of some mediocre and below average games that were still interesting to play.

Glen Rice Somersaulting in NBA Jam TE

Somersault dunks are also a perfect example of the kinds of things that make us say “Did you see that? How awesome was that?” when we’re playing a basketball video game for the first time. They’re the things that we’d excitedly talk about with friends at school after seeing them happen. “You’ve gotta play NBA Jam! I was using Scottie Pippen, and he somersaulted off the screen then came back down and dunked it!” And of course, that would lead to discussions of which players could do it, and whether it could be done on cue. There was a mystery to video games before the explosion of the World Wide Web, with all of its access to their secrets and details on inner workings.

Of course, that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Rumours and hoaxes abounded in those days, and while the internet can absolutely spread misinformation, it’s been effective in debunking video game myths as well. It’s also provided a platform to investigate and educate when it comes to coding and game design. Even as a kid, I could map dunk ratings to animations simply by playing, and develop a rough idea of the areas in which specific dunks could be triggered. As I said though, I’d be fascinated to finally learn the exact coordinates, frequencies, and other trigger conditions, all these years later. It’d be interesting to know just how accurate my observations actually were!

Even without that inside information of course, the somersault dunks of NBA Jam TE remain one of my favourite memories on the virtual hardwood. It’s been years since I excitedly jotted down my stats and the number of somersault dunks, but nevertheless, I’m still delighted whenever I see a player launching into one. Needless to say, even though I’ve seen plenty of them thrown down over the years, I’m still disappointed whenever I’m unlucky enough to have a player get stuffed by the rim, or be knocked to the floor at the last second. As they say though, there’s no reward without risk, so no matter how dangerous it is, I’ll never pass out of a somersault dunk attempt!

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