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4,675 Videogames: 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Manufacturers | Top 100 Videogames | See All 18,125 International Arcade Museum coin-operated listings
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NBA Jam
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4,675 Videogames: 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Manufacturers | Top 100 Videogames | See All 18,125 International Arcade Museum coin-operated listings
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Manufacturer:
Midway Games Year: 1993 Class: Wide Release Genre: Sports Type: Videogame Monitor:
Number of Simultaneous Players: 4 Maximum number of Players: 4 Gameplay: Either Control Panel Layout: Multiple Player Controls:
Sound: Amplified Mono (one channel) |
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NBA Jam DescriptionWe have all seen it: two-on-two basketball with digitized images of real NBA players, and no referee. Monster dunks and announcers, and a LOT of fun!Cabinet InformationThe cabinet shipped with a large closeup of a basketball and a huge NBA logo as the sideart. There are multiple control panels, most of which look like the floor of a basketball court. Some have the INBA JamI logo printed on them along with PassShootTurbo over the buttons and red or blue in the circle at the foul lines, while some are just a plain court with white lines. INBA Jam Tournament EditionI may have shipped in some of these cabinets as well, but a seperate dedicated cabinet also existed for the upgrade.Cheats, Tricks, Bugs, and Easter EggsThere are tons of hidden player and secret powerup codes. Among the more popularULLIMJT Mar 22 Mark Turmell, lead designer and the most powerful character in the gameLISAL Feb 1 Sal DiVita, artistLISL_ Jun 24 Shawn Liptak, programmerLITWG Dec 7 Tony Goskie, animatorLIRJR Jan 17 Jamie Rivett, programmerLIWIL Jan 1 Willie Air Morris, player modelLIHOW Jul 15 Stpehen Howard, player modelLISNO Jan 3 Sheridan Oursler, Midway stafferPSince Mark Turmell is a Detroit Pistons fan, he sweetened the arcade code to give them a slight advantage over their regional rivals, the Chicago Bulls. Turmell said in an interview, If it boiled down to a lastsecond shot, forget about it the Bulls would IneverI score.ConversionThe NBA Jam hardware became the cornerstone for Midways action sports games. This cabinet can be upgraded to INBA Jam Tournament EditionI, INBA HangtimeI or IMaximum HangtimeI, IOpen Ice 2on2 ChallengeI, INFL BlitzI and its two upgrades, and INBA Showtime NBA on NBCI. IBlitzI and IShowtimeI use 49way joysticks. This cabinet will also run 4player JAMMA boards by other manufacturers e.g. ICaptain AmericaI, ITeenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesI and many more.Game IntroductionPlayers choose an NBA team, each with two or three superstar players (or at least their digitized faces), and play a side-scrolling basketball game, split into four quarters (each new 3:00 quarter is a buy-in). Players can also enter their initials to keep track of their progress, which encouraged repeat business. In addition to high-flying dunks and rainbow three-pointers, players can push each other to the ground without being called for fouls -- much like Midway's earlier game, Arch Rivals.Game PlayIf any one player scores three consective baskets, he or she is considered "on fire" -- a fire animation accompanies each shot, the peron's Turbo meter does not diminish, goaltending is never called, and his or her accuracy goes way up. This continues until a player on the opposite team scores a basket, or until the computer decides the hot streak has gone on too long.MiscellaneousRELATED INBA Jam ExtremeI AcclaimVAPS Arcade CensusThere are 6,975 members of the Video Arcade Preservation Society / Vintage Arcade Preservation Society, 4,013 whom participate in our arcade census project of games owned, wanted, or for sale. Census data currently includes 65,105 machines (3,796 unique titles).Very Common - There are 130 known instances of this machine owned by NBA Jam collectors who are members. Of these, 27 of them are original dedicated machines, 21 of them are conversions in which game circuit boards (and possibly cabinet graphics) have been placed in (and on) another game cabinet, and 82 of them are only circuit boards which a collector could put into a generic case if desired. For Sale - There is one VAPS member with a NBA Jam machine for sale. There are 1 VAPS members with extra NBA Jam circuit boards for sale. VAPS members are totally independent of VAPS and the International Arcade Museum, and we are unable to recommend, endorce, or guarantee any person or company selling games or game parts. Wanted - There are 8 VAPS members currently looking for NBA Jam. There are 3 VAPS members looking for NBA Jam board sets. This game ranks a 67 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often seen, 1=least common) in popularity based on census ownership records. This game ranks a 27 on a scale out of 100 (100 = most often wanted, 1=least common) in popularity based on census want list records.
TechnicalThere are seperate connectors on PCB for the third and fourth player controls. The same hardware is used for this games as in other games of this era, like IMortal KombatI. A seperate audio board is required for sound.TriviaINBA JamI was the first licensed sports coinop video game ever. Originally, the NBA was not keen on the idea, as they did not want the wholesome NBA logo to be seen in seedy coinop locations like bars or strip joints. However, once the Midway team showed them some preliminary footage of the game, they were thrilled and gave it a green light. The success of Jam paved the way for future officiallylicensed sports arcade games.PDuring its original arcade run, INBA JamI earned profits of 1 billion dollars roughly three times the take of the movie IJurassic ParkIPThe highflying dunks were performed by Willie Morris Jr., a bouncer at a Chicago club. Morris has returned to do motion capturevideo tape work for Midways other two basketball games as well.PDue to his seperate and expensive licensing agreement, Michael Jordan is not in the game, and has not appeared in any Midway basketball coinop to date.PThe game was a big hit with the players themselves Shawn Kemp and Shaquille ONeal own or owned machines. After the success of the first game, Gary Payton sent his photos to Mark Turmell and asked to be put into the next gamePThe addition of the designers as secret players was merely an injoke with the design staff, but ultimately became a huge part of the games appeal and earnings. We had to chop the heads off the models we videotaped to put the real NBA plauyers heads on, said Turmell in a 1994 interview with SLAM magazine. So we thought, Shoot, we might as well paste our own heads on there, too. It was supposed to be just for us when we play at home or in the office we did not intend for it to become a selling point. But it did. Turmells own secret character is tall, Im as fast as Spud Webb and I can shoot as good as Pipped.PThere were rumors about the cheerleaders being playable characters in the original IJamI. On the record, Turmell said they are in there, but their codes were intentionally complex and their existence did not please the NBA, so the information has never been released. To date, no valid codes to play as female characters have been found. However, there are cheerleader codes for INBA Jam TEI.PSince the name NBA Jam is owned and controlled by the NBA, Acclaim later aquired the license and made a 3D coinop version, INBA Jam ExtremeI, which was not successful. Acclaim still uses the Jam name for its line of home console NBA games.PThe original NBA Jam cabinets with the ver 1.0 code contains a secret Battlezonestyle that can be played without using money This secret was deemed unethical by many of the video game magazines of the time and magazines like EGM and Gamepro we specifically asked not to publish this code, both magazines agreed and to this date it is the only video game code that is considered taboo by the press.PThis minigame was removed in the next update of the machine code.Legacy
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