• Category Archives Arcade
  • Retro Games » Arcade
  • NBA Jam Extreme (1996)

    Source: GamePro – January 1997

    NBA Jam Extreme was first an arcade game that was released in December 1996 with home versions for the PlayStation, Saturn and Windows 95 coming about a year later. As you can probably tell from the name, this is a basketball game and it is based on the 1996-97 NBA season. This was not the first game in the NBA Jam series but it was the first created by Acclaim. Previous NBA Jam games had been developed by Midway and then ported to home systems by Acclaim. I guess this was because of legal wrangling with the name because Midway also continued releasing basketball games with NBA Hangtime. Graphically, NBA Hangtime resembled previous NBA Jam games than NBA Jam Extreme did.

    The last basketball game I spent significant time playing was One-on-One on the Commodore 64. That game featured Larry Bird and Dr. J. playing half court basketball. While the graphics were simplistic and game play a bit slow, it still managed a lot of depth and subtlety and was a blast to play. As far as the NBA Jam series, to me it seemed to peak with NBA Jam: Tournament Edition which was also an arcade game and was ported to a whole bunch of home systems.

    However, NBA Jam Extreme did add a variety of new things. The most obvious was that it was the first game in the series to feature 3D graphics. Meanwhile, NBA hangtime maintained the 2D graphics of its NBA Jam predecessor. Other changes included an expanded roster featuring a total of more than 160 NBA players, an “extreme” button which was essentially an enhanced turbo button that was found in previous iterations of the game, and other game play changes.

    NBA Jam Extreme received mixed reviews. The graphics were solid and there were a lot of new features but as an early 3D game, it had early 3D game problems. Most notably with the camera angle being something less than desirable. The game also had a slower pace and the home versions suffered from long load times. NBA Hangtime was generally considered to have better game play. However, if you are an NBA fan and someone who like video game basketball, this wasn’t a game you would want to miss. The game is of similar quality on whichever platform you choose, however the PlayStation version probably edges out the other versions as the best home conversion.

    This isn’t a game you will find a re-release for and because of licensing concerns it’s extremely unlikely you ever would. That leaves tracking down an original or using emulation if you want to give this game a try. There have been a number of sequels including NBA Jam 99 (Nintendo 64, Game Boy Color), NBA Jam 2000 (Nintendo 64), NBA Jam 2001 (Game Boy Color), NBA Jam (2003 for the PS2 and Xbox), NBA Jam (2010 for Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360) and finally NBA Jam: On Fire Edition (PS3, Xbox 360) in 2011. After that, the series seems to have died out.


  • Tekken 2 Arcade/PS1 (1995)

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/682114867211255808/atari5200controller-tekken-2-arcadeps1-1995

    Tekken 2 is a 3D fighting game released by Namco in arcades in 1995. A PlayStation version was released the following year in 1996. This was probably near the height of the 3D fighting game craze and Tekken 2 was well reviewed and very popular. Around 40,000 arcade units were sold along with 5.7 million PlayStation copies. The arcade version used the Namco System 11 board which was developed based on a prototype of the PlayStation so the two versions are almost identical in terms of graphics and game play. While the 16-bit generation of game consoles came pretty close to arcade perfection, the 32-bit generation of home consoles were arcade perfect or so close it didn’t matter in most cases and this is a big reason there isn’t much in the way of major arcade releases today.

    Tekken 2 continued the same basic formula as its predecessor. Controls were mostly the same though there were some new moves for some characters including attack reversals, back throws, chain-throws, a sidestep and a few others. There were eight new characters as well, in addition to 17 characters returning from the previous game. Interestingly, the arcade version only had ten playable characters initially with others becoming available with updates. The home version introduced some new game playing modes such as Survival Mode, Team Battle Mode and Time Attack Mode that became a standard through later iterations of Tekken. As with the arcade version, only ten playable characters were available at first. However, additional characters could be unlocked by completing the arcade mode with various characters.

    Tekken 2 was almost universally praised and received a variety of awards from various game publications including Gamest Awards, GamePro, EGM, and GameFan among others. If you are a fighting game fan then it is almost certain you have played this one before or at least one of the others in the series. If not, what are you waiting for? Even if it isn’t your favorite, it was a big influence on fighting games that followed. For the most part, I tended to only play the Soul Blade/Soul Calibur series as far as 3D fighters are concerned and I still prefer 2D fighting games to the extent I play fighting games at all.

    In addition to the original PlayStation release, Tekken 2 was also included as a playable bonus in Tekken 5 for the PS2 and it was available as a download for the PS3 and PlayStation portable. If you happen to live in Brazil or Mexico then you could also get it via Zeebo which was a game device/service with which games were downloaded. Tekken 2 was followed up with Tekken 3 in 1996, Tekken Tag Tournament in 1999, Tekken 4 in 2001, Tekken 5 in 2004, Tekken: Dark Resurrection in 2005, Tekken 6 in 2007, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 in 2011 and Tekken 7 in 2015. I don’t think I’ve played any of them past Tekken 2 or possibly Tekken 3.


  • Area 51 (Atari)

    https://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/663029109539078144/i-was-today-years-old-when-i-learned-that-the

    Area 51 is an arcade game that was released by Atari Games in 1995. It is a light gun shooter game in which the player takes the role of a soldier taking part in an operation to prevent aliens from taking over Area 51. You must make your way through various sections of Area 51 including warehouses and tunnels. The ultimate goal is to set activate the nuclear self-destruct mechanism.

    Atari Games was in pretty bad shape at the time and Area 51 really was a last ditch effort to turn their fortunes around. Fortunately for them, it worked. While Area 51 received more or less mediocre reviews from critics, it was loved by players and was among the most successful games of its type. It spawned both a direct sequel (Area 51: Site 4) and sort of a spinoff that was the same type of game using the same hardware but with a different setting (Maximum Force).

    The hardware itself is a bit of an interesting story. Originally, the plan was to stream game data from a CD-ROM. However, due to speed limitations, this would have meant that only a letter-box display was possible. So instead, it was decided to use modified Atari Jaguar hardware and a hard disk drive. Only Area 51 and Maximum Force were released on this hardware however there were a few other games developed but never released.

    Ironically, these games were never ported to the Jaguar despite running on practically the same hardware. Apparently Atari Games decided that the Jaguar was no longer a viable platform at that time, even though this was 1995, the same year the Jaguar CD was released. Seems a shame as it would have been a perfect 1st party exclusive to breathe life in the Jaguar, but then Atari only supported the Jag in a half-assed manner. At any rate, ports were released for Windows, PlayStation and Sega Saturn.

    If you do want to give this one a try, the arcade version is of course the best. But if you want to play on a home console then the PlayStation version beats out the Saturn version. Light gun fans should definitely give this one a try if you have never played it.