NBA Jam

NBA Jam T.E.
NBA Jam
NBA Jam
NBA Jam T.E.
NBA Hangtime
NBA Jam T.E.
NBA Jam Extreme
NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC
NBA Jam '99
NBA Jam
NBA Jam T.E.
NBA Jam T.E.
NBA Jam
NBA Street

Arcade
Arcade
Genesis
Genesis
Genesis
PlayStation
PlayStation
PlayStation
Game Boy Color
Game Boy
Game Gear
PC
Super Nintendo SNES
Playstation 2

NBA Jam Tournament Edition--Arcade (version 3.0)

Portland is my team. Clyde Drexler and Terry Porter provide dunks, steals, 3-pointers, and speed. Cliff Robinson is the 3rd player and Harvey Grant the Extended Roster player, but I don't use them much unless I find Porter is getting a lot of his shots blocked.

I bought this at an amusement auction which also featured pinball machines, various gambling machines, and some vending machines. I think it was a steal, maybe due to the cardboard border around the monitor which had come loose and was covering part of the screen. I plugged it in and tested it out before the auction and knew it was fine, but apparently I was the only one who did that. Anyway, I thought it was a great bargain at $175. (If you think otherwise, please, don't tell me.) There was a non-Tournament Edition NBA Jam there that I cosidered in equivalent shape--although perhaps the monitor was larger--that went for $425 a few minutes before this one. Check out the initial game use stats.

This game has rosters from the 1993-4 season, which is recent enough that many of the players are still around, although most aren't on the same team anymore. In fact only Utah has substantially the same players today.

Improvements over the original NBA Jam:

Three players for most teams.
Ratings in more categories.
All-Star team available if you defeat all 27 regular teams. (Toronto and Vancouver hadn't yet joined the league at this point.
New dunks!

I have the boards for the original NBA Jam arcade game that I can plug in and play, but they are currently unplugged. I need to get it set up so I can switch back and forth easily.

NBA Jam, NBA Jam T.E., and NBA Hangtime--Sega Genesis

NBA Jam has 1993-4 rosters, 2 players per team. This was the one that got me hooked. I hadn't played it in the arcades, but I bought it for the Genesis and loved it.
The only problem with this game is you have to have a 5 or 6 point lead going into the last few seconds or you'll lose. The computer team will go nuts to steal the ball, plus they will make the last shot from ANYWHERE on the court. Many a game has been lost to a desperation shot from the opposite free-throw line.
Beat all 27 teams (no Toronto or Vancouver) and you play from then on in Juice Mode which is much faster.

NBA Jam T.E.--I don't own this. I'll probably get it sometime to complete the collection.

NBA Hangtime (Apparently some licensing issues caused a name change for this installment) has 1995 rosters and five(!) players per team. Gameplay is the same, although you do have to go into the Options screen every time you play to make the control right. The TURBO button has to be between PASS and SHOOT! How else can you hit TURBO & PASS or TURBO & SHOOT at the same time? If it's in the middle you can hit both with your thumb--does anyone really hold the Sega pad in such a way that two fingers are on top for the buttons?

NBA Jam T.E., NBA Jam Extreme, and NBA Showtime: NBA on NBC--PlayStation

T.E. on PlayStation was fun, but it had one problem--it was way too hard! There was some claim that the difficulty settings had been done backwards so you should set it on Hard to actually be playing Easy, but I was never convinced. Got too frustrating not being able to figure out where the medium difficulty was, so I sold it.

I had high hopes for NBA Jam Extreme, but was not happy with it. Lots of players--6 per team, and 1997 rosters, but who really cares if it's not fun to play? The NBA Jam games had always been so easy to just dive right in and have fun with before this one.
Plus it was really ugly.

NBA Showtime is everything NBA Jam Extreme should have been. This was done by Midway, not Acclaim--which continues to make NBA Jam games now, but I have to consider NBA Showtime another installment in the series. Control is exactly the same, with some extras and a much more natural 3D feel. I haven't taken the time to make the roster list to put here, or the codes to put in at the Matchup screen. They are basically the 99-2000 rosters, with a few glitches (Smith is on Portland, but Pippen is still on Houston.)

I like to play as the Kings or Blazers, and usually put in the following codes, just for fun:
        ABA, then right--ABA ball
        basketball, Midway, Midway, then down--Show your hot spot until found.
        Midway, Midway, basketball, then down--Show each shot's percentage.

NBA Jam '99--GameBoy Color

Very similar to NBA Jam T.E. for Game Gear. Has the same control problem due to the need to use the Start button when playing. I'm not done making the roster list for this one.

NBA Jam--GameBoy

NBA Jam on the GameBoy has 1993-4 rosters, 2 players per team. Hard to see (especially on the regular GameBoy, better on the GameBoy Pocket) when things move fast. Two buttons just doesn't cut it for NBA Jam, and using "alternate" buttons like Start and Select is tough because they just aren't in the right places. However, this is actually pretty fun.

NBA Jam T.E.--Game Gear

Some fun features, like 9 point shots, plus the players look so much better in color than they do on the GameBoy. More than the other games of the series, this one is most fun when "Tournament Mode" is off (which means victories don't count towards your goal of defeating every team,) since then you can do various codes or just use the "Powerup" or "Hot Spots" options.

Button difficulties similar to the Gameboy, using 'Start' as a playing button is a little unwieldy and makes my hand ache. You also you never know when you'll want to pause a game and since the Start button is already used for something else, well...you press all 3 buttons at the same time to pause, which is hard to make work.

Three players per team, plus a rookie team, from 1994-5. Here are the rosters.

NBA Jam T.E.--PC

Same extra features, like 9 point shots, as the Game Gear. Haven't got to try this out much yet, so my analysis is still pending here. Part of the reason for that, though, is simply because it's so much easier to flip on a console and play, compared to the PC.

I'm compiling the rosters for this still.

NBA Jam--Super Nintendo

Rented it once. Was slower than the Genesis version, and therefore not as much fun.

NBA Street--Playstation 2

Spiritual descendant of the NBA Jam series. Absolutely beautiful, excellent create-a-player mode. Leave it to EA Sports BIG to add tricks to the game. You build up points for every cool thing you do, eventually earning a Gamebreaker shot that amost always goes in and also removes a point or two from your opponent.
Lots of nice features. City Circuit mode has you challenging NBA and Street players on their home courts, and taking a player from the other team if you win! Hold the Court mode has you trying to build up a streak and reach a certain number of trick points on each court.
Great non-NBA players add a lot: 3LW is a group of 5-foot tall female singers who are fun to beat buddies with, the Magma Man stands out because he's just huge and cool-looking.
As usual, lots of secret codes for bonus effects.

I continue to add new info to this page all the time.

Any comments, suggestions? Send me an email.

NBA Jam has 1993-4 rosters, 2 players per team. This was the one that got me hooked. I hadn't played it in the arcades, but I bought it for the Genesis and loved it. The only problem with this game is you have to have a 5 or 6 point lead going into the last few seconds or you'll lose. The computer team will go nuts to steal the ball, plus they will make the last shot from ANYWHERE on the court. Many a game has been lost to a desperation shot from the opposite free-throw line. Beat all 27 teams (no Toronto or Vancouver) and you play from then on in Juice Mode which is much faster.
NBA Jam T.E.--I don't own this. I'll probably get it sometime to complete the collection.
NBA Hangtime (Apparently some licensing issues caused a name change for this installment) has 1995 rosters and five(!) players per team. Gameplay is the same, although you do have to go into the Options screen every time you play to make the control right. The TURBO button has to be between PASS and SHOOT! How else can you hit TURBO & PASS or TURBO & SHOOT at the same time? If it's in the middle you can hit both with your thumb--does anyone really hold the Sega pad in such a way that two fingers are on top for the buttons?

T.E. on PlayStation was fun, but it had one problem--it was way too hard! There was some claim that the difficulty settings had been done backwards so you should set it on Hard to actually be playing Easy, but I was never convinced. Got too frustrating not being able to figure out where the medium difficulty was, so I sold it.
	I had high hopes for NBA Jam Extreme, but was not happy with it. Lots of players--6 per team, and 1997 rosters, but who really cares if it's not fun to play? The NBA Jam games had always been so easy to just dive right in and have fun with before this one. Plus it was really ugly.
NBA Showtime is everything NBA Jam Extreme should have been. This was done by Midway, not Acclaim--which continues to make NBA Jam games now, but I have to consider NBA Showtime another installment in the series. Control is exactly the same, with some extras and a much more natural 3D feel. I haven't taken the time to make the roster list to put here, or the codes to put in at the Matchup screen. They are basically the 99-2000 rosters, with a few glitches (Smith is on Portland, but Pippen is still on Houston.) I like to play as the Kings or Blazers, and usually put in the following codes, just for fun: ABA, then right--ABA ball basketball, Midway, Midway, then down--Show your hot spot until found. Midway, Midway, basketball, then down--Show each shot's percentage.