Wayback Wednesday: NBA 2K7 Retrospective (Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3)

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Tom Gugliotta & Basketball Video Games

There are some well-known examples of players whose history with basketball video games is interesting and unusual. It seems such a weird and unfathomable situation nowadays, but back in the 90s, Roster Players were frequently a necessity due to the absence of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, owing to them retaining the rights to their likenesses. Shaquille O’Neal was also briefly exclusive to NBA Live, and even David Robinson once required a stand-in. Of course, I also enjoy delving into virtual hardwood trivia concerning far more obscure players, such as Junior Harrington.

Now, on the scale of obscurity to all-time fame, Tom Gugliotta is probably closer to the likes of MJ, Chuck, Shaq, and The Admiral than he is to Harrington. That is to say, if you were to ask long-time basketball fans and history buffs, they’d be far more likely to recall Googs than Junior. With that being said, like so many players of yesteryear that were very good but not all-time greats, Gugliotta doesn’t get talked about enough. That’s unfortunate from a basketball standpoint, but his career also resulted in some fun NBA video game trivia. Let’s take a look back…way back…

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: EA Sports Cover Players in NBA Live 16

Did you know that every single NBA 2K cover player is available to play with in NBA 2K24? Between the cover players that are still active and the game’s array of classic and All-Time teams, they’re all accounted for. Obviously, we haven’t had a new NBA Live since 2018, but even then, NBA Live 19 didn’t include every cover player in the history of the series. On top of that, a couple of the cover players that were included in NBA Live 19 were nevertheless retired, and thus exclusive to the collection of Legends in Ultimate Team.

If we want to find the last NBA Live game that featured a healthy selection of players who appeared on the cover of EA Sports’ long-running basketball sim series, we must go back a few years to NBA Live 16. In fact, not only does NBA Live 16 feature a number of NBA Live cover players, but also players who graced the covers of EA Sports’ college basketball titles. And so, I thought it might be fun to spotlight those cover players who are readily accessible in NBA Live 16, wearing EA Sports jerseys in the game’s practice mode. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: The NBA Live Toolkit

In some respects, roster editing in basketball video games has come a long way. We have access to animation packages, salary data, and other attributes that used to be hidden. At the same time, the in-game roster customisation tools still have many of the same drawbacks as they did in much earlier games. There are still attributes and bio data that we can’t edit or add for created players, or even modify for original players. Placeholder players are still difficult to deal with, as they’re not completely customisable. To make truly detailed roster mods, we need external editing tools.

Fortunately, talented people in the community have been able to step up and develop roster editing tools throughout the years. It began with our founders’ editors for the early NBA Live games, Vl@d took on the challenge for the burgeoning NBA 2K modding scene, and Looyh continues to carry the torch today. It hasn’t been easy, with executable and save files needing to be mapped and decoded. However, editing roster files did become easier with the adoption of the DBF format, and the process was further simplified by the NBA Live Toolkit. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: The Evolution of Roster Mods

As technological improvements have led to the development of bigger and better basketball video games, our expectations have changed. What were once cutting-edge graphics are no longer impressive. What was once a deep and engaging mode now seems shallow compared to what’s available in a newer game…usually! This isn’t to say that old games are bad and not worth playing. I wouldn’t be diving into basketball gaming history, or advocating for retro gaming, if I didn’t see value in older titles! Still, we always want to see the genre make advancements, so the bar does get raised.

The same goes for modding over the years. While we made some fantastic roster mods for the early NBA Live games on PC, there were limitations to what we could change and include. As it became easier to modify textures and models in addition to player and team data, there was an expectation that roster mods would become more comprehensive. This led to a golden age of NBA Live modding that has since been continued with the NBA 2K series, but in some ways, it’s also been detrimental to the hobby. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Classic Teams in EA’s NCAA Basketball Series

It’s March Madness once again, and for long-time basketball gamers, that means our thoughts turn to college hoops titles. It’s been over a decade since we’ve been able to hit the virtual NCAA hardwood, at least without the aid of mods or retro gaming. As someone who grew up in a PAL region, I wasn’t able to play college basketball video games for many years. Indeed, it wasn’t until I was gifted a PlayStation 3 in 2019 and tracked down a few games from 2K Sports’ College Hoops and EA Sports’ NCAA Basketball series that I was finally able to experience them for myself.

I have to tell you, that’s been a blast! While the NCAA mods for NBA Live and NBA 2K have been fantastic, there are some aspects of college basketball that they can’t quite capture. The on-court experience in NCAA Basketball and College Hoops back in the day was impressively authentic, and a fun change of pace from the NBA titles. Even without adding real player names, I really enjoy them. However, something that has really captured my attention in NCAA March Madness 08 and NCAA Basketball 09 is the classic teams. Not only are they great bonus content, but they also had long-lasting ramifications on basketball gaming. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Timberwolves Franchise in NBA Live 2003

I’ve had a number of memorable franchise and career mode games over the years. My Dynasty games with the Chicago Bulls in NBA Live 2004 and NBA Live 06 are among my all-time favourite basketball gaming experiences. Likewise, I had a blast with MyCAREER in NBA 2K13, NBA 2K17, and NBA 2K19, and I’m still playing through the mode in NBA 2K14 for PlayStation 4. At the same time, I’ve had some games where I haven’t achieved completion or closure, such as my 1998 season in NBA Live 96 PC, and my Sacramento Kings Franchise in NBA Live 2002.

My Franchise with the Minnesota Timberwolves in NBA Live 2003 PC is another example of a “failed” game. Of course, labelling such games as “failures” probably isn’t the right way of looking at things. I’d actually like to delve into that topic in more depth sometime, but my Timberwolves Franchise does stand as an example of how completion is what we make it. Or, to put it another way, as long as it was fun while it lasted, it’s ultimately neither a failure nor wasted time. That Franchise was certainly memorable for me even if it wasn’t successful, so let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Basketball Game Manuals

It’s getting harder to reminisce about physical media without sounding incredibly out of touch, and far older than I am. However, as consumers battle corporate giants over digital ownership and bemoan the disappearance of content from streaming services, I believe that more and more people are beginning to understand why many of us have been clinging to physical media for as long as we can. It’s not simply a case of wistful nostalgia, or a refusal or inability to get with the times. While digital media has the advantage of convenience, physical media offers posterity, and tangible ownership.

But yes, there’s also undeniable nostalgia with physical media, particularly video games. There was something special about going to the video store, browsing the shelves for a game to rent, and choosing one that would be yours to play…at least temporarily! Needless to say, it was even better when you bought a game. Not only was there no time limit to the fun, but you also had the box or case to admire. And inside the box or case, depending on the game, there were manuals, maps, charts, and so on. We’d enthusiastically pore over these materials well before we even dove into gameplay, including hitting the virtual hardwood. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Alternate Jerseys & Retro Gaming

One of my pet peeves with the modern NBA is the new approach to jerseys that was adopted when Nike got the uniform contract back in 2017. Sure, we saw the end of those terrible sleeved jerseys that adidas brought in, but it also resulted in a major shakeup to uniform designation and nomenclature. Instead of dedicated home and away jerseys, we have Icon and Association uniforms, with teams choosing which to wear at home and on the road. There are so many alternate jerseys these days from City to Earned Edition uniforms, with designs of varying quality.

What bugs me the most about the current approach to alternate jerseys is that they’re often worn as frequently as the Icon and Association uniforms; or at least, it certainly feels that way. That makes them less special than when they were Sunday uniforms, or otherwise only worn for a handful of games as a change of pace. Given how often some teams wear their City or classic jerseys, it makes you think that maybe those should be the primary uniforms! Grumpy grumbling aside, this approach has given me more of an appreciation for some of those old alternate jerseys, to the point where I’ll frequently use them when I’m retro gaming. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting the NBA Live 96 PC Rosters

Have I mentioned that old basketball video games can be interactive almanacs? I believe I have, once or twice! It’s one of the things that I enjoy the most about retro basketball gaming, on top of the nostalgic throwback gameplay of course. As I’ve noted on several occasions, sim titles capture a snapshot of the league at the time they were released. This includes interesting trivia such as phantom stints, familiar faces in unfamiliar places, and familiar faces back in familiar places, to name just some of the examples that I enjoy keeping my eye out for.

I’ve previously revisited the rosters in NBA Live 2002, NBA Live 95 (both PC and Super Nintendo), and NBA Live 99 PC (with the official update). Those were fun trips down memory lane, but I’m even more excited to revisit the rosters in NBA Live 96 PC. It’s one of my all-time favourite basketball games, and while I sunk countless hours into it playing with my 1998 season roster, I also spent a considerable amount of time with the default lineups. It’s also helped me out with modding, and even in answering trivia all these years later! Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Failed Franchise & Season Games

Over the years in Wayback Wednesday, I’ve reminisced about several of my most memorable franchise, season, and career mode games. While they all represent fun times on the virtual hardwood for me, they haven’t been equally successfully as far as completion is concerned. Games where I’ve played through an entire season on twelve minute quarters stand out as the times I’ve really been hooked on the experience, but they’re arguably the exception rather than the rule. There are far more titles that I’ve never finished a single season in, than ones where I’ve had multi-year games.

Of course, as I’ve noted before, completion is what you make it when it comes to the annual sim titles. Unless you stick with a single game for more than a year, it’s tough to get the full multi-year experience in franchise and career modes; especially when you opt for full length seasons on twelve minute quarters without simulating! Even in the games where I didn’t finish the season, I still had a ton of fun. With that being said, there are also franchise and season mode games that I abandoned very quickly. To that end, this week I’m reflecting on some “failed” games, and pondering the concept of “failure” in that context. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: 90s Teams in NBA Live 2002

Minimalist modding has become a staple of my retro gaming. It’s a way to indulge nostalgia in multiple ways: the mechanics and aesthetics of my chosen game, the teams that I assemble, and the process of modding. I do also enjoy simply playing with the default rosters, or a roster update set in the same season as the game, for a more authentic step back in time. However, the creativity of minimalist modding so often steers me towards discovering what I can do with the content that’s available in any game that I’ve chosen to revisit.

In games such as NBA 2K6 and NBA Live 10, it’s difficult to go back to the 90s with any makeshift classic teams, at least without creating a bunch of players. After all, by that point, most the stars and role players who were active in the 90s had retired. Not all of the big names had signed on to be Legends around the time of NBA 2K6, and NBA Live 10 doesn’t have any historical teams or players at all. However, since NBA Live 2002 came out closer to the 90s and includes several stars from that decade, is it possible to cobble together some retro teams? Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: The Jail Blazers & Video Games

When my cousin and I were looking to move on from our 1995 Season in NBA Live 95 PC and dive into the all new Franchise mode in NBA Live 2000, we obviously had to choose a team to play with cooperatively. In the interest of neutrality, we opted not to use either of our favourite teams (the Chicago Bulls and Seattle SuperSonics). After discussing it on the phone – this was the year 2000, after all – we ultimately went with the Portland Trail Blazers, and agreed on a few trades. I set everything up ready for his arrival in the school holidays, and we won the title playing a 28-game season.

It’s one of my favourite memories, both of basketball gaming and hanging out with my cousin as a teenager, but why the Portland Trail Blazers? Neither of us had an attachment to the club, and there were other teams that could’ve been just a fun. Well, while the off-court incidents that branded those early 2000s Trail Blazers the "Jail Blazers" may have caused a number of legal headaches and chemistry problems in real life, on the virtual hardwood, they had some deep rosters that were enjoyable to play with, as well as reshape with trades. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: 2024 in NBA Live 10

Even though the game will soon turn fifteen, I still love firing up NBA Live 10. It’s not always my first choice as it was during my big retro kick with it back in 2021, but it remains a favourite. Indeed, I’ve enjoyed it far more in recent years than I did when it was new! My obsession with NBA Live 10 a few years back – and I use that word in a positive way – inspired several Wayback Wednesday features. From celebrating the retro jerseys to exploring some famous “What If” scenarios, I was indulging nostalgia on multiple levels; something that I always love to do with basketball video games.

In June 2021, I profiled the players in NBA Live 10 who were still active, taking screenshots of them on their contemporary teams. Three years later, some of those players have retired, while others are still in the NBA but have moved on to a new team. As I mentioned in my previous article, there’s not a lot to work with as far as creating a current roster – though there are intriguing possibilities with emulation and the PlayStation 3 version – but it’s still fun to bring the present day to an old favourite, if only in a limited way. So, which players in NBA Live 10 are still active as of 2024? Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Alternate Venues in NBA Live

Whenever I revisit old games, whether it’s to produce a Wayback Wednesday feature or just for my own enjoyment, it’s always a delight to discover – or recall – a detail that I didn’t expect to see. After all, it’s easy enough to forget how long certain features have been around, or the lengths that games went to for authenticity even before the deep modes we now have were feasible. They’re great examples of how those classic titles were the products of developers pushing technology to the limit, while trying to make the best possible basketball game for enthusiastic hoop heads.

As far as the early NBA Live games are concerned, those details demonstrate why EA Sports’ series became the brand leader in the genre, and that being an authentic sim was absolutely the goal. There are numerous examples of this, many of which I’ve discussed in previous retrospectives, but a cool one that flies under the radar is the use of alternate venues in the Season modes of early NBA Live games. It wasn’t necessary to reflect this aspect of the NBA season on the virtual hardwood – especially as it’s easy to miss – so it’s awesome that the games did. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Updated Releases & Unusual Editions

Official patches are a touchy subject in gaming discourse nowadays. Many gamers believe that games are released with less polish because they can be fixed post-launch with patches, including day one updates. Gamers have also grown weary of constant updates, especially when patches are often several gigabytes in size. These concerns and criticisms are understandable, and I generally share them. At the same time, it’s inevitable with games becoming larger in scope. Furthermore, it’s preferable to a time when games rarely received patches on PC, and never received them on console.

Of course, even before patches existed in their current form and were generally PC-exclusive, games did receive fixes and updates. From different revisions of arcade ROMs to a second run of discs and cartridges containing a newer version of a title, many games back in the day received updated releases. This included being re-packaged as some kind of special edition: classics and bestseller lines, compilation packs, and so on. To that end, there have been some updated releases and unusual editions of basketball games over the years. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Roster Updates for NBA Full Court Press

While Microsoft's NBA Inside Drive series was respectably popular in the early 2000s, many long-time gamers may forget about its predecessor, NBA Full Court Press. It's understandable, of course. Its name didn't spawn a series of titles like Inside Drive, Live, 2K, ShootOut, and so on, and it was also exclusive to PC. Additionally, although it has its strong points and it's interesting to revisit it today, it didn't have the best gameplay or most well-designed modes. I'd suggest that Microsoft made similar mistakes with NBA Inside Drive 2000, before the series took a big leap with 2002.

One of the interesting aspects of NBA Full Court Press is that it was a 1997 season title that featured 1996 season rosters. A few years earlier, it wouldn't have been unusual for a game to launch without updated lineups and a new rookie crop, but that approach had fallen out of vogue by 1996. I've previously covered NBA Full Court Press with a retrospective back in 2018, but the issue of its outdated rosters deserves another look; especially because there were actually some official roster updates that I neglected to mention! Let's take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: The Timeline of NBA Jam TE PC & PS1

It’s interesting how many of us who grew up playing video games in the 90s can have different memories of the same title, depending on which platform we played it on. These days, multi-platform releases tend to be identical for the most part. Even when it comes to the cross-generational NBA 2K games these past few years, there are familiar gameplay mechanics in the eighth and ninth gen versions, not to mention shared roster updates and seasonal content. Conversely, back in the 90s, staggered release dates for the same title across various platforms led to interesting differences.

The various iterations of NBA Jam provide some fun examples. Depending on which revision was present in your local arcade, or which home port you played, you’ll recall different squads. These revisions and updates continued with NBA Jam Tournament Edition, infamously resulting in the fourth arcade revision including a cancelled trade. NBA Jam TE was ultimately updated through two NBA seasons by the time the final home ports for PC and PS1 were released, with that timeline leading to an interesting evolution in the rosters and team branding. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: 2K Pro-Am Predicts Future Designs

Allowing gamers to customise the branding for their 2K Pro-Am squad has had mixed results. It’s a fantastic idea that enhances the mode, inviting creative designs. For less mature members of the community however, it’s encouraged edgy shock humour and creative workarounds of the profanity filter. When NLSC THRILLHO was active in the 2K Pro-Am scene, it was always a roll of the dice as far as the designs we’d see whenever we loaded into a road game. No, we weren’t tearfully offended, but we did roll our eyes at immature humour that rendered our screenshots and clips unusable.

Mind you, sometimes the edgelord jokes and images that bypassed the content filter were the least of our worries. Again, we’d just roll our eyes, scoff, and then get down to business. That wasn’t as easy with the messy designs that were such an eyesore that it was disorienting trying to keep up with the action, as players blended into the court and similar jersey colours made it difficult to tell teammates from opponents. To that point though, some of those designs that we encountered in 2K Pro-Am in NBA 2K16 and 2K17 predicted the future of NBA branding! Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: NBA Live on Seventh Gen

As of writing, I’m not confident that NBA Live will ever return. I scoffed at rumours that NBA Live 20 would be cancelled, especially after NBA Live 18 and 19 garnered a more positive reception, leading to a loyal following that continues to this day. The game was indeed canned though, and despite assurances that the developers and EA Sports brass were pleased with the progress and intended for the series to return, that has yet to materialise. Frankly, I’ll be ecstatic if I’m proven wrong and these words age like milk in the near future, but I’m not getting my hopes up.

Of course, NBA Live’s downfall began long before those PlayStation 4 and Xbox One releases. The series struggled mightily during the era of Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 -aka the seventh console generation – culminating with the cancellation of NBA Elite 11 that caused lasting damage. These events are well-known to long-time basketball gamers, though I’d suggest there are some misconceptions; specifically, that the series was never good, that there was nothing good about the seventh gen NBA Live games, and that the series failed because it was too “arcade-y”. In the interest of a clearer picture of NBA Live’s seventh gen collapse, let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Revisiting My NBA Live 2003 Roster Updates

I haven’t maintained a current season roster update for any version of NBA Live – or any basketball video game period, for that matter – since the 2013 season, when I was still regularly working on NBA Live 2005 through 08. That’s a little over eleven years at this point, which is scary because it doesn’t feel like it was over a decade ago! To that point though, it’s been over twenty years since I released current roster updates for NBA Live 2003 PC. Sure, the maths and the date on the calendar checks out, but it just doesn’t feel real sometimes!

In any case, since it’s been some twenty years since I wrapped up those 2003-2004 roster updates for NBA Live 2003, and the once far-off 2023-2024 season has come to a close, it seems like a good time to reflect on that project from the heyday of NBA Live modding (or patching, as we called it at the time). Roster mods have come a long way since then, and indeed, it wasn’t long after NBA Live 2003 that I committed to making more detailed current season updates with the help of various contributors. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Herb Williams & The New York Knicks

When we think of players who are synonymous with the New York Knicks, I feel quite confident in saying that Herb Williams probably isn’t the first one that comes to mind for most people. NBA history buffs will likely recall Willis Reed, the Finals MVP on both of the Knicks’ championship teams in the 1970s, or his teammate Walt “Clyde” Frazier. Obviously, Patrick Ewing will be a popular choice, being an All-Star and the franchise’s all-time leader in twenty categories. Carmelo Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire might be the first Knicks that younger fans think of.

If tasked to keep naming Knicks, then players like Charles Oakley, John Starks, Dave DeBusschere, Bill Bradley, Anthony Mason, Earl Monroe, Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell, Bernard King, Micheal Ray Richardson, and Dick Barnett will be on the list. Marcus Camby, Kurt Thomas, Charlie Ward, and even Phil Jackson will possibly get a mention. These days, Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle will probably be brought up as notable New York Knicks long before Herb Williams is. This is understandable, yet at the same time, Williams can claim one of the longest tenures in the history of the team, which produced some interesting stories. Let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: Basketball Trading Cards

As a young, newly-minted hardcore basketball fan in the mid 90s, I couldn’t get enough of the sport. I indulged this new love of hoops in a variety of ways. At school, I hit the blacktop with my friends as often as we could, with at least three or four of us bringing our own ball most days. I eagerly anticipated the Game of the Week and every episode of NBA Action, either staying up late or setting the VCR to record them. Obviously, I played basketball video games, especially NBA Live, NBA Jam, and World League Basketball. And yes, I collected basketball trading cards, too.

Trading cards, basketball or otherwise, are indeed still a thing. It’s actually cool to see, given that online resources and a move away from physical media in general easily could’ve rendered them an outdated concept. I haven’t actively collected cards in a long time, but in the early years of my basketball fandom, I enthusiastically bought packs whenever I could. There’s also a connection to basketball gaming here, as they were once handy sources of information when creating roster mods. They’re certainly nostalgic for many of us basketball fans, so let’s take a look back...way back...

[Andrew]

Wayback Wednesday: NBA 2K7 Retrospective (Xbox 360 & PlayStation 3)

As someone who grew up with NBA Live, my familiarity with the series and a sense of brand loyalty often made it difficult to give other games a fair chance. Over the years, I’ve become a fan of the NBA 2K series, and have also enjoyed collecting and revisiting other titles that were competing with the NBA Live games that I played. It’s been rewarding to give them a second look – or in some cases, a first look – with fresh eyes and more of an open mind. I’m far more willing to adapt to a different style of controls than I was when the latest NBA Live was still my game of choice.

It’s why all these years later, I found myself on an extended retro kick with NBA 2K6. Indeed, it’s retroactively become one of my favourite games, and to this day, I enjoy keeping it in the rotation whenever I feel like changing up what I’m playing. With that in mind, I’ve been giving other NBA 2K games from that generation another look, to see if any of them capture my imagination as NBA 2K6 did. To that point, has its immediate successor, NBA 2K7, also succeeded in becoming one of my favourites? Let’s take a look back...way back...