NLSC Your source for basketball video games.
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 iconic call of THREE in early NBA Live games, whenever we splashed a shot from downtown.
Video game nostalgia goes way beyond what we did on the sticks. It’s the fun bonus content, and features that we couldn’t find in any other game; even ones from the same series. It’s the distinctive art styles, leading to menus and an overall aesthetic that’s a definitive time capsule for an era. It’s the catchy main menu themes and in-game music that still pop into your head decades later. And while we’re talking about auditory nostalgia, it’s also the iconic sound effects. Collecting a coin as Super Mario, Scorpion’s spear in Mortal Kombat, obtaining an item in Zelda…the list goes on.
In the early NBA Live games, one of the most memorable sound effects was the PA Announcer’s exclamation of “THREE!” whenever you nailed a three-pointer. Whether it swished home or finally dropped in after rattling around on the rim, a trey was made all the more satisfying by that excited call. Dee brought it up when we were talking about NBA Live 95 on Episode #561 of the NLSC Podcast, and as we reflected on that nostalgic sound from our early days on the virtual hardwood, I knew that I had to cover it for Wayback Wednesday. Let’s take a look back…way back…
Considering some of the criticisms that are levied at the modern NBA from fans who have been watching basketball for a long time, it may sound strange that many of us are so nostalgic for something involving three-pointers. However, the belief that older fans despise or don’t appreciate shots from downtown is a misconception. Of course three-pointers can be exciting, and demonstrate great marksmanship when players are knocking them down. It’s the chucking and overreliance on the three to the detriment of the sport that we dislike. A well-timed trey that makes the net explode is beautiful to see, but teams missing a combined seventy three-point attempts definitely is not!
At the same time, it’s funny how the modern NBA reflects classic video game strategy as far as ignoring the midrange. Sure, anyone who wanted to play sim was trying to post up and take midrange jumpers as much as possible, but for many gamers, their offensive strategy comprised of trying to get high percentage shots at the rim, or the extra point from beyond the arc. In other words, analytics have devised a gameplan that kids playing video games in the 90s might’ve advised! It did make sense on the virtual hardwood, though. Jumpshots weren’t always reliable, so if you couldn’t get a dunk or layup, it made sense to go big on a three if you were taking the risk anyway.
In another case of life imitating art, those early NBA Live games predicted logo threes and other such long bombs. In a head-to-head game over Parsec, Dee utterly destroyed me with Dan Majerle, lighting me up with long pull-up threes and a casual rainmaker from halfcourt that hit nothing but net. Similarly, in a co-op game, Steve Kerr led a furious rally for us, pulling out an unlikely win with a barrage of treys in the final minute. All of them were of course accompanied by that enthusiastic cry of THREE. Those shots still would’ve been exciting without it, and the sound of a swish alone is music to the ears of a hardcore hoop head, but that THREE really was special.
There is an obvious factor at play here. Outside of the famous “E…A…Sports…it’s in the game!” during boot-up, that THREE is the only voice clip in the console versions of those early NBA Live games. The PC versions added voiceovers during pre-game, halftime, and post-game screens, but during gameplay, there was no commentary until Verne Lundquist came along in NBA Live 98. As such, hearing that call of THREE whenever we hit one was the closest thing we had to play-to-play in those early NBA Live titles! Those games are still a blast without it, but full commentary becoming commonplace as the decade progressed was undoubtedly a welcome improvement.
Of course, the THREE that you hear in your head when you think back to those early NBA Live titles depends on the game and the platform you played it on. In the 16-bit releases, the audio was naturally compressed to fit on a cartridge, so it’s slightly lower and muffled. On PC and PlayStation, which both used CD-ROMs, the THREE was clearer and higher in quality. Whichever one you recall however, it’ll bring back so many memories of treys tickling the twine. It was a sweet sound to hear whenever you were the one shooting the lights out from distance, but a devastating dagger when on D. It’s no “Boomshakalaka” or “He’s on Fire”, but it still carried plenty of emotion!
Like other staples of the early NBA Live games, such as the T-Meter for free throws and many of the player head models, the THREE actually traces its roots back to the NBA Playoffs series, appearing as early as Bulls vs. Lakers. I wasn’t aware of this until many years later, as my introduction to EA Sports basketball games was with NBA Live 95 for SNES. As I’ve said before, it’s interesting when you go back and play an older game after being introduced to its successors, and encounter a familiar feature in its earlier form! In any case, while it sounded different depending on the game and platform, the THREE added a satisfying touch to the in-game presentation.
It certainly made hitting a three-pointer feel like an event in the early NBA Live titles and their predecessors, which it kind of was. Once again, jumpshots weren’t always as reliable as they should’ve been in older games, and there were no mechanics akin to Green Releases that meant guaranteed buckets. While it was possible to hit some truly crazy threes in the early NBA Live games, it was also frustratingly common to brick good, wide-open looks from a reasonable distance. It didn’t help that in some games, the player indicator seemed to be considered part of the player’s feet. In addition to making it easy to step out of bounds, this also led to “toe-on-the-line” two-pointers.
Because the dice roll on jumpshots felt so unforgiving at times, I remember all kinds of speculation and advice on how to maximise the chances of success both inside and outside the arc. As per so many of the manuals, it was advised to release the shot at the top of your jump, but other tricks included pump faking to set your feet, holding (or not holding) turbo while you shoot, and varying where you shoot from and how – on the run, stationary, or catch-and-shoot – depending on the player. I have a feeling at least some of them were placebo effects, though players may have indeed had hidden hot spot and other such shooting attributes that have yet to be mapped in those games.
However, when you became proficient at timing your release, the stars aligned, and the PA Announcer cried “THREE” as you drained the triple, it was magic! Most of us were probably more trigger-happy from downtown than real NBA players were at the time, and it was all too tempting to start chucking them when you needed to score in a hurry; again, in hindsight, basketball video games were a harbinger of what the NBA would become beginning in the mid 2010s! At the same time, if you play smart, pick your spots and take good shots, and play tight defense and rebound the ball, many of those old games will yield positive results, often proving to be surprisingly realistic.
With that being said, the CPU in those early NBA Live games has a tendency to start chucking threes if it finds itself behind late in the game. In fact, even in some of the NBA Live games from the early 2000s, the AI tends to panic with desperation threes if it trails by double digits as the final buzzer is beginning to loom. Sometimes this strategy works of course, which undoubtedly encouraged us to take a page out of the CPU’s playbook. When you know that it’s coming though, it’s easier to defend, and you’ll likely rack up a ton of blocks. Other than games where desperate times called for desperate measures though, the AI’s three-point attempts tended to be true-to-life.
The 16-bit versions of NBA Live kept the iconic THREE through to the final release, NBA Live 98. However, the addition of full PA Announcer audio in the PC and PS1 versions of NBA Live 97 replaced the call in favour of a more authentic “(Player), for three!” when knocking down a three-pointer. It was the right move as the developers focused on platforms with more storage space and processing power, which allowed the series to become deeper and more realistic. With full play-by-play right around the corner, a detail that had been in the games since Bulls vs. Lakers was showing its age. At the time, I don’t think many gamers really missed hearing that familiar “THREE”.
Mind you, nostalgia is something that has to develop. When we’re hoping to see the games get better and better, it’s difficult to appreciate the early iterations of features until we go back and are reminded of so many good times on the virtual hardwood. From gamewinning threes, to barrages of timely treys, to that Hail May heave from almost full court that remarkably swished through the net, that THREE accompanied so many of our most dazzling shots in early NBA Live games. It would be out of place in a modern title, or even the releases from just a few years later, but when we dust off one of those old favourites, hearing that call is guaranteed to make us smile.
And, at the end of the day, that’s what retro gaming is all about! It’s not a cry for help, or a sign you’re stuck in the past, or immature, or anything of that nature. It doesn’t mean that you want all new games to be exactly like old ones; not in terms of having primitive tech and fewer features, anyway. It’s creating new fond memories with a venerable old favourite, or just taking a short trip down memory lane. Whichever you prefer, it’s up to you. Either way, when we revisit classic games, these little details – from intro videos to unique menus to the THREE that made three-pointers feel like an even bigger deal – remind us of what ignited a lasting passion for basketball gaming.
