We Reminisce: NBA Jam
As EA Sports and 2K Sports scramble to produce the most realistic NBA video game it is important to remember where we came from. In the early 90s Midway developed their NBA video game franchise, NBA Jam. The games were 2 on 2 and pitted the NBA’s best (with the exception of His Airness) against one another. Even though you couldn’t play with the best player in the world, the proper cheat codes allowed you to play as Vice President Gore and President Clinton. NBA Jam included some of the best basketball sayings of the era such as, Boom-shaka-laka, Slam-a-jamma, From Downtown and most famously He’s On Fire. The ridiculous dunks and on court hot spots didn’t make the game realistic but it made the Stockton-Malone connection all the more entertaining.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:24 pm
Gunner J. Matthews says:
Easily my favorite basketball game of all time. I dont know why Jordan wasnt in any basketball game ive played
December 10th, 2009 at 12:34 pm
Ducky The Truth says:
NBA JAM = Air Dawg (The random white kid with UPS!!!)Jordan was in the earlier version(s) of NBA Street… This game did (and still does) go hard. Houston Rockets (The Glide and The Dream).
December 10th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
BiG ShoT BoB says:
Yeah this game basically turned into NBA street. But yeah I used to love this game too.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:44 pm
Big B says:
It must be the shoes!!!!!!!!!!!!! Loved that game, I wish I could dunk from half court and light the mesh on fire.
December 10th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Celts Fan says:
GREAT game. It was between this and Arch Rivals (how could you not love a game where you could punch people to steal the ball?) as my favorite basketball game ever waaaaaaaay back then… and I think it still is.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
nerditry says:
I remember that Jordan had his own video game licensing agreement which kept him out of anything done via NBAPA.
So instead of MJ in NBA Jam, we got “Michael Jordan: Chaos in the Windy City,” which was a side-scrolling action game that was just crappier than Shaq Fu.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:26 pm
SparkyJ23 says:
Sonics – Peyton and Kemp FTW
December 10th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Ducky The Truth says:
SHAQ FU on the Genesis or Super-NES… Classic(dull moments but was still good).
December 10th, 2009 at 1:33 pm
Kermit The Washington says:
Kemp/Payton best duo…and Glen Rice/Alonso Mourning for the Heat was nice too, if I remember correctly. Funnest basketball game ever.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
92021SpurMD says:
The team to beat on this was Tim Hardaway/Chris Mullin of the Warriors. Fools could drop threes all day. Tim from the top of the key, or Chris from the top of the screen was all day!! “he’s heating up/HE’S ON FIRE” BTW, MJ was in Tecmo Basketball, I call that the best “full NBA” game on NES.
December 10th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
NTstateOFmind says:
@#2, lol @ the air dog comment
Bulls and Hornets had the best squads in that game all day
December 10th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
BRUCE says:
Shawn Kemp can make NBA Jam dunks in real life, well at least some of them. Him and Baby Jordan!
December 10th, 2009 at 1:57 pm
Ekstor says:
I always played either Hornets (LJ & Mourning) or Hawks (Nique & Stacey Augmon). The Lakers are my team, but it was hard to get excited about Vlade and Peeler!
December 10th, 2009 at 2:00 pm
BiG ShoT BoB says:
What about Pat Riley’s Double Dribble? LOL
December 10th, 2009 at 2:08 pm
T says:
I still play this game weekly with my buddies on my old Sega Genesis. There’s a glitch on mine where if you pump fake real fast and then move the player towards the hoop, you can keep goin without picking up the ball. And1 style.
December 10th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
LakeShow84 says:
To this day when we hoop and one of us catches fire we yell
HES ON FIRE!!!!!!!
lol
December 10th, 2009 at 2:54 pm
Brown says:
Jordan was in NBA Showdown, the first EA Sports basketball game. The only shot that didn’t go off the backboard was a dunk or a corner three.
I’d love to hear Marv Albert break out a boom-shaka-laka during an actual game. That would be classic.
December 10th, 2009 at 5:14 pm
martin says:
funny…
detlef schrempf was the 3rd guy for sonics
December 10th, 2009 at 5:47 pm
ab_40 says:
ah the game gear haha.
there is a pattent on michael jordan his name thereforo he wasn’t in the game
December 10th, 2009 at 8:59 pm
BRUCE says:
I play it on my brother Wii at times.
I still own the CPU!
December 10th, 2009 at 9:07 pm
Fallodaldr says:
Jordan was in some of the 2k games the two years he was with the wizards. Since since he was inthe NBA at the time they were allowed to use his image. So you got the 80s, 90s, and 2000s versions of him.
December 10th, 2009 at 9:30 pm
King says:
The best team was a toss up between bulls ( Pip and Ho grant) or the hornets ( Zo and LJ)
December 11th, 2009 at 3:29 am
Art says:
Didnt know its available on Nintendo virtual arcade! Is that true?
December 11th, 2009 at 4:18 am
Atom says:
Rockets and Sonics were dominant. Hornets were pretty nice too.
The Stockton-Malone connection still wasn’t particularly exciting though. Stockton couldn’t get off the ground and Malone was kind of slow. He definitely had the power to knock fools over, and he could finish pretty nice, but I dont remember his shot blocking being up to par.
December 11th, 2009 at 7:15 am
Sweet English says:
It was all about NBA Jam Hangtime on the N64.
Double frontflip dunk, throw the ball up in the air and let your brother throw it down with a triple frontflip jam.
Missed a lot of good players though (Jordan, Johnson, Ewing, Bogues, Barkley etc) ‘cos they were all under media contracts from ‘Space Jam’. Apparently they were going to make a space jam game, but it never happened.
But they had a ‘create a player’ so i just made em up.
And there was a cheat to change dennis rodmans hair colour.
December 11th, 2009 at 8:19 pm
DVIDS says:
Stockton-Malone was the best combo on the game. Malone was a max player on offense and defense and Stock had range for days. If either one of them caught fire it was game over.