Hi everybody. I went on a long hiatus, sorry about that. but these past 2 months I started working on this project aggressively again.
when I first started this project I actually never played the PS1 version before, I just assumed it was a great port because the graphics looked nice so I thought it'll be the perfect candidate for a mod. But now after playing it a lot I realize there's a lot of errors and differences in the game compared to the Arcade version. Probably due to it being a PS1 launch title.
The good news is I was able to correct most of the errors that's been bothering me. Initially I was just going to do a Roster update with today's players, but now I'm thinking about releasing a Improvement Patch that will include fixes, new gameplay mechanics and also include a handful of new players like Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, The Incredible Hulk, Super Mario, Mike Tyson, and Snoop Dogg just to give a taste of things to come.
That way I can put something out in like December, and while that's out I can continue working on the 2k21 Roster update which will be available later.
So here's a breakdown of some of the errors I spotted:
The first one is the Attributes color:
The PS1 ver got red for high stats, green for average, and white for low. In the arcade version it's supposed to be Green for high, white for average, and red for low.
It's a minor error but I was able to correct this
Next is a graphical glitch where they used the wrong head sprite for when a player is pushed to the floor from this angle:
As you can see, it uses the wrong head sprite. Luckily there's a unused head sprite for each player, so I was able to swap this head out with the unused sprite. I just need to edit the image so it matches. here's the unused sprite:
I haven't implemented a new sprite yet. I'll have to modify all the players sprite sheet. There's probably a easier way to do this by rotating the perfect side view head but I haven't figured it out yet so this will do for now. If I could do that, I believe it's possible to use the unused sprite for new content in the game.
Like imagine the bench players having the player substitution faces like in NBA Jam On Fire edition. I also imagine it'll be possible to re-create the Backboard glass breaking effect by using the unused head sprite. since there's 4 players on screen, that means 4 unused 32x32 sprites we can manipulate. I'm just fantasizing though and this is beyond what I'm capable of doing at the moment.
The next error is the ability to deliver posterizing dunks where you can send opponents falling to the floor when doing a monster jam. This effect was in the Arcade version but it's missing in the PS1, Saturn, Snes, and Dos ports. It is in the Sega Genesis, 32x and Atari Jaguar ports however.
The effect is still in the PS1 version but it's only activated when players are doing layups rather than dunks. It's supposed to be the opposite.
Here's a example:
https://youtu.be/GlzyRgywJrM?t=603My theory is they most likely got it backwards due to rush development. A lot of things seem backwards in this game, the CPU difficulty is one of them lol I didn't notice this effect was missing until March 2020 when I added Jordan into the game. It%u2019s one of those subtle things where u feel like something is missing but u can%u2019t quite put your finger on it. I watch a lot of NBA Jam comparison videos too and none of them mentioned it.
Thankfully after many hours poured in, I was able to re-enable the effect
.
Here's a clip of it in action:
https://youtu.be/UvSEPsFr4nM?t=268I disabled it for layups too so now it's more similar to the arcade. I'm glad I was able to fix this because I'm not sure I would put it out knowing that it was missing lol I'm a bit of a quality freak and I'm real stubborn.
What's interesting is Acclaim released a followup game called College Slam which uses the same NBA Jam engine and all these errors are still present in the game. You would think that they would have fixed it considering they added new functions in the game such as a Alley Oop feature which btw, while digging in the NBA Jam source code I was able to find unused animations like this one:
Turns out they used these frames in College Slam for the Alley Oop dunks. I might attempt to restore the dunk in NBA Jam at a later date.
Lastly, here's some other errors/differences that I haven't figured out yet but it's really minor.
During gameplay, the Player's names and Ball indicator are overlayed on top of the action like so:
It's supposed to be behind the players and backboard like this:
I'm pretty sure these are fixable. I'll attempt to fix them later. I also notice the players take longer to in bound the ball compared to the Arcade version. I would like to fix that too to have faster paced game play.
I also want to add the ability to slow down the game a bit to match the Arcade speed. I might add a option in the Juice mode where i modify the function to make it slower. The game is fast enough as it is, i can't think of anyone who would want to play it faster.
Another idea I'm considering is replacing the sounds with the Arcade sounds and voices. Maybe I'll release a patch titled NBA Jam Arcade Edition lol
I believe it might be possible to add all 30 NBA teams in the game. I remember a while back I able to modify the roster to add any player on any team. Like I can put John Stockton on the Spurs. Well the game has 29 teams including the Rookies and All Stars, so I would just need to be able to somehow overwrite existing code/functions in the game to add 1 new team, then I can modify the roster on the teams using the Rookies or All-star line up. My idea is to have the Western Conference champion Lakers on the left edge of the screen and Have the Eastern Conference Champs Miami on the East.
Of course I'm not going to be the one to do this, I'm merely just amateur but maybe there's a gifted programmer or reverse engineer expert who might take up the task. I have tried overwriting some functions in the game where I redirect it to a different address and it worked. So my idea is to if someone can wipe out large sections of code and write new functions in then it might work.
But then some might scoff at the idea of deleting code in the game, but the thing with NBA Jam is there's actually a lot of cheat codes in the game that most people don't use or dont care for like the Shot Percentage code, the mammoth head size code, the code where you push an opponent down and both teammates fall, so if i can replace those with more appealing features then that'll be awesome.
Anyway sorry for the lengthy post lol. just unleashing some ideas. Oh and one thing I really want to fix it the absurd CPU difficulty. They either play extremely cheap or they're just retarded. hopefully there's a way to rebalance it.
November 28, 2020, 08:48:05 am - (Auto Merged - Double Posts are not allowed before 7 days.)
IMO the best NBA Jam game is the arcade version of NBA Maximum Hangtime. I wish someone would hack that with modern players and teams. That would be increbible.
Anyways, as for this hack. Is there any way to make the names of the teams smaller to fit more per column/row?
I'm thinking about modding NBA Hangtime after this. I was thinking of calling it Waifu Basketball lol I would like to completely reskin the game with entirely new graphics and have the players be anime style women.
personally I have more fondness for NBA Jam. I remember playing it at the arcade as a child envisioning myself being in a actual NBA game. I love the broadcast feel of it, the announcer's voice gave it a lot of charm, and despite the over the top dunks, there were a sense of realism to it during the time.
I like Hangtime and I agree it's the better game but it didn't really capture the same magic for me. It felt more cartoony. And nothing against Vin Baker but i thought his motion capture was too stiff. i really hate how the players just stand straight during idle animations.
And is it just me or does hangtime feel a bit broken? Like you can literally just push all players attempting to dunk if you have a tall player. It kinda defeats the purpose of blocking if we can do that. in NBA Jam you can do it also but it doesn't work as much.
Great game though, I hope I will be able to mod it. I might patch College Slam too with the fixes above, and then add the Shohoku team from Slam Dunk in there. I haven't played College Slam yet but I've been watching some videos online and I like how you can customize the team names and players. It also seem to have fixed the Absurd AI in NBA Jam.
Topic: NBA Jam 2K20 PSone Mod (Read 6992 times)