Back in December, I wrote an article about Jay-Z's forgotten cameo in NBA Live 07. I received some nice compliments from people who enjoyed learning about that for the first time, as well as some suggestions to look back at Jay-Z's involvement as an executive producer on NBA 2K13. That topic was actually already on my list of ideas for Wayback Wednesday features, but since it's been requested, I figure there's no point delaying it any further. After all, it's even better if I can cover these topics when there's interest, and to that end, I'm open to suggestions!
For now though, let's focus on Jay-Z and his role with NBA 2K13. Obviously, the rapper wasn't actually spending hours coding at Visual Concepts' studio in Novato, but as it turned out, he had a significant impact on the game. His title also briefly inspired a trend in our modding community. Let's take a look back...way back...
Andrew wrote:It's definitely gaudy, and that's not for everyone. I think I came to like the game so much that I got used to it, but the aesthetic is neither the best nor a personal favourite. I do like the intro and outro videos during gameplay, as well as the main intro video for the game.
Lady Culture wrote:Andrew wrote:It's definitely gaudy, and that's not for everyone. I think I came to like the game so much that I got used to it, but the aesthetic is neither the best nor a personal favourite. I do like the intro and outro videos during gameplay, as well as the main intro video for the game.
Brings back such horrible memories I wish you didnt write this article. They would have literally been better off flushing money down the toilet.
[Q] wrote:If I remember right, this led to 2k going back to the well a few times as they had famous guests pick the songs on the soundtrack for the next couple of years, correct?
The NBA 2K18 servers are no more. Well, I imagine they're still physically around. It's highly unlikely that 2K instructed someone to take a sledgehammer and go all Triple H on them, rather than just switching them off. The point is that online support has ended, which means MyTEAM, the first version of The Neighborhood, and all other connected content is gone. With this infamous release being officially put out to pasture, I believe it's an apt time to offer up a final take on the game, and reflect on its legacy.
I know that it's fairly recent by Wayback Wednesday standards, but it was released going on three years ago, which is about how old the All-Time College Teams DLC for NBA 2K17 was when I covered it. Besides, NBA 2K18 came out last decade, and that makes it sound old, right? Hey, it's my feature, and I'll bend the rules if need be! In any event, a retrospective of this controversial game feels quite timely, so let's take a look back...not too far but still wayback...
Once techniques have been discovered in our modding community, we're usually able to reuse or adapt them as new games come out. The question has always been whether or not the existing tools can still be used, and if not, will anyone be able to update them or create new ones. After all, we have far more modders than programmers in the community, and indeed in recent years, many of our most useful tools have come from elsewhere. This wasn't always the case, though. Although modders have always outnumbered tool creators, there still used to be a handful of the latter.
Our founders, Tim, Lutz, and Brien, created a bunch of useful tools for editing the PC versions of NBA Live. However, they weren't the only programmers breaking down the games and providing a means of modding them. Case in point: the NBA Live 97 Team Editor, created by Mark Paris. Although Tim's editor was more than sufficient for making roster updates for the game, the NBA Live 97 Team Editor was a very handy companion tool. Let's take a look back...way back...
Despite its influence on the NBA and the sport in general, the American Basketball Association doesn't have a lot of representation on the virtual hardwood. It makes sense as the National Basketball Association became the dominant "brand" when it exploded in global popularity in the 80s and 90s, by which point the ABA had long been absorbed in the 1976 merger. Although it's not exactly forgotten, its history is somewhat glossed over in favour of celebrating the NBA's heritage. Of course, that's not altogether surprising; as the old saying goes, history is written by the winners.
Still, given that the NBA does pay homage to the ABA and adopted some of its ideas including the three-point line (though Abe Saperstein's American Basketball League did it first), it's strange that it doesn't have much of a presence in video games. The ABA had been gone for around two decades when I was getting into basketball and basketball video games, but I recognise its importance and would love to see it celebrated in gaming as well. What have we seen so far? Let's take a look back...way back...
We've just passed the trade deadline for the 2020 season, and saw a flurry of activity. In the wake of all the deals that went down, several players have been cut, many of whom will no doubt attract some interest on the open market. All of these transactions will be taken care of in NBA 2K20, which receives regular official roster updates. We're also able to update rosters ourselves, and that's something we've obviously been doing for years in our community, for both NBA Live and NBA 2K. Of course, over a decade ago, official roster updates weren't as common.
If we go back even further, we'll find a lot of games that didn't receive any roster updates post-release, as well as titles that didn't have roster customisation features. This was true of NBA Jam and its sequel NBA Jam Tournament Edition, which were stuck with out-of-date rosters once trades and signings occurred. Well, sort of. There were changes in different revisions and releases of the NBA Jam games, and on at least one occasion, an update resulted in an error due to a cancelled trade. It's an interesting situation, so let's take a look back...way back...
I've previously covered throwback jerseys in basketball games, noting that their inclusion also marked the arrival of uniform selection options. Before the addition of jersey selection screens, teams with secondary road uniforms would wear them at random in exhibition play, or on Sundays in Season or Franchise modes. In the PC versions of NBA Live, we were also able to manipulate the files to switch them in and out, but it was far less cumbersome once we could easily choose which uniform we wanted a team to wear via an in-game option.
The ability to switch between a selection of alternate and retro jerseys for every team was (and is) a great feature. After NBA Live 2003 introduced the functionality, we were keen to see more content in NBA Live 2004 and beyond. New retro uniforms would indeed be added in future games, but the expanded selection also saw the introduction of unlockable jerseys. The concept has since fallen out of vogue, but for a while there, it was a standard feature in both NBA Live and NBA 2K. Let's take a look back...way back...
In a couple of previous Wayback Wednesday features, I recalled some of the players that stick in my mind in large part thanks to basketball gaming. Making roster updates for NBA Live is unquestionably a factor here, as I ended up spending a lot of time looking at names, researching players to create them and edit their ratings, or simply moving them around from team to team. After I stopped making rosters, I found that I was far less familiar with players at the end of the bench, and even some of the lesser-known rotation players on basement teams.
That's led to me being able to remember benchwarmers and other somewhat obscure players from the 90s and 2000s much easier than I can name certain current players. I expect that will change somewhat now that my current roster update for NBA 2K11 is taking shape, but growing up with basketball games has embedded a number of role players from yesteryear in my memory. I figured this would become an ongoing series when I posted the first article last year, and indeed, I have another list to share with you all today. Let's take a look back...way back...
Our journey to the league in NBA 2K's career modes has taken many forms. We've played in Rookie Showcase games, guided Freq from high school through to the pros, experienced a college career with Pres, and took a long road through China and the G League as AI. We've even made it to the NBA after leaving basketball behind to be a DJ, and then drawing attention in a streetball tournament. The Draft Combine has been featured in a couple of stories (including NBA 2K20's tale), serving as another way to prove ourselves on the virtual hardwood and raise our Draft stock.
In the very first iteration of career mode - then called My Player - the combine was the starting point for the whole experience, tipping things off before the full game was even released. The NBA 2K10 Draft Combine offered gamers a sneak peek at the mode as well as an opportunity to get a head start, though only on console. Let's take a look back...way back...
It's funny how you don't always feel the passage of time until you think about how long ago a certain event was. I felt it in 2008, when it had been ten years since the Chicago Bulls' last championship. I felt it in 2011, when the Bulls celebrated the 20th Anniversary of their first title. It recently occurred to me that I'm now the same age that Michael Jordan was when he won that sixth ring in 1998. And yes, it strikes me that a whole decade has passed and hundreds of players have come and gone, as I continue to work on a current roster for NBA 2K11.
Today marks another milestone. It's been twenty five years - or a quarter of a century, if you want to make it sound even more impressive - since Michael Jordan ended his first retirement from the NBA. MJ famously announced his return in two words: "I'm Back". His return would ultimately expand his resume and bolster his claim to being the Greatest of All-Time, producing many more memorable moments along the way. It also had a noteworthy impact on the virtual hardwood. Let's take a look back...way back...
Taken third overall in the 2006 Draft, Adam Morrison's career was short, individually unspectacular, but yielded two championship rings as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2009 and 2010. The 2006 NCAA scoring leader, WCC Player of the Year, and NABC Co-Player of the Year didn't quite live up to the hype in the NBA, but he did become a fan favourite and an inspiration for several memes. In that regard, he ranks up there with the likes of Brian Scalabrine and Joel Anthony. Of course, when you think about it, that's actually a rather disrespectful practice on our part.
After all, they were players who were good enough to play professionally, and make it to the NBA. To reduce their careers to a punchline is to sell short their hard work, not to mention the fact that they're still better at basketball than 99% of the population. A knee injury derailed Morrison's career in just his second season, an often-overlooked factor when people label him a bust. As I said, he entered the NBA with a lot of hype, and it's why EA Sports tapped him to appear in commercials for NBA Live 07. Those happen to be some of my favourite trailers, so let's take a look back...way back...
On several occasions, I've mentioned that video games serve as wonderful time capsules for the NBA. They're a snapshot of the league at the time they're released, preserving the rosters, team branding, and the rules and formats of the era. When you revisit an old NBA video game, you're often reminded of players' brief and forgotten tenures with certain teams, "What If" scenarios and lineups that never lived up to the hype, and the jerseys and logos that you both loved and hated. In a way, old games can act as interactive almanacs, and are a fun way to revisit NBA history.
With that in mind, basketball video games preserve different eras and milestones in the real NBA as much as they're a timeline of gaming and technology. In many of my Wayback Wednesday features, as well as my 25th Anniversary of NBA Live articles, I've reflected on how various titles have represented an evolution in the genre, and the improvements that are noticeable from year to year. On this occasion, I'm looking at how they represent NBA milestones and significant changes in the league, as well as the way those events make them dated. Let's take a look back...way back...
As I've mentioned before, Wayback Wednesday features are a lot of fun for me as I've not only been able to revisit old favourites, but expand my collection and play some games I never got around to playing when they were new. It's always interesting how they all hold up. Some are just as I remembered them, for better or worse. Others are better than I recalled, while more than a couple have aged badly. When it comes to the old games I'm playing for the first time, I'll appraise them on the same scale. There are ones I wish I'd played more of, while others were definitely worth skipping.
And then, there's Fox Sports NBA Basketball 2000. It's one of the bad ones, and not just because it's aged like milk. Even when compared to its contemporaries, such as the fantastic PC version of NBA Live 2000 - and yes, even the disappointing NBA Inside Drive 2000 - it's noticeably inferior. Here's the thing, though. Usually, bad basketball games are frustrating or off-putting to play. Fox Sports NBA Basketball 2000 is bad in ways that are hilarious, to the point where the humour of the situation makes it unintentionally entertaining. Let's take a look back...way back...
With the NBA season on hiatus, a lot of the conversation on Twitter has turned to historical debates and reminiscing. I've seen a couple of recent threads talking about big names who had brief stints with teams that are often overlooked and forgotten. Those Tweets have taken the form of facetious captions describing these familiar faces in strange places as a legend of the team in question, sometimes with a photo for emphasis. It's an apt way of describing the oddity of those stints, many of which we'd rather pretend didn't happen (or at least, claim to).
They did happen of course, and we've got the photos, footage, and records to prove it. We've also got basketball video games, which as I've grown fond of saying, act as time capsules and interactive almanacs. In a previous Wayback Wednesday article, I noted how video games have marked various milestones in NBA history. This time, I'm reminiscing about the weird stints of well-known players, and the games we saw them in. Let's take a look back...way back...
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