NBA Jam Tournament Edition

NBA Jam Tournament Edition is a basketball video game developed and published by Midway for arcades in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series. The project leader for this game was Mark Turmell.

NBA Jam was the third basketball video game released by Midway, after TV Basketball (1974) and Arch Rivals (1989).^[5] The gameplay of NBA Jam Tournament Edition is based on Arch Rivals, which was also a 2-on-2 basketball game. However, it was the release of NBA Jam Tournament that brought mainstream success to the genre.

The release of NBA Jam popularized a subgenre of basketball games which were based around fast, action-packed gameplay and exaggerated realism, a formula which Midway would also later apply to the sports of hockey (NHL Open Ice and later NHL Hitz), American football (NFL Blitz), and baseball (MLB Slugfest).

Gameplay – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

The game employed an exaggerated, over-the-top style, demonstrated by the player dunking from superhuman heights.

NBA Jam Tournament Edition, which features two-on-two basketball, is one of the first real playable basketball arcade games and is also one of the first sports games to feature NBA-licensed teams and players, and their real digitized likenesses.

A key feature of NBA Jam Tournament Edition is the exaggerated nature of the play – players can jump extremely high and make slam dunks that defy both human capabilities and the laws of physics.^[6] There are no fouls, free throws, or violations except goaltending and 24-second violations.^[6]

This means the player is able to freely shove or elbow opponents out of the way. Additionally, if a player makes three baskets in a row, the character becomes “on fire” and has an unlimited turbo and increased shooting precision.^[6] The “on fire” mode continues until the other team scores, or until the player who is “on fire” scores four additional consecutive baskets while “on fire”.

The game is filled with Easter eggs, special features, and players activated by initials or button/joystick combinations. For example, pressing A five times and right five times on any Genesis controller will activate “Super Clean Floors”.

Featured teams and players – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

The original arcade version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition features team rosters from the 1992–93 NBA season and the console versions use rosters from the 1993–94 NBA season. More up-to-date rosters were available in subsequent ports released for the Sega CD, Game Boy, and Game Gear in 1994.

Midway did not secure the license to use Michael Jordan‘s name or likeness (as Jordan himself owns the rights to his name and likeness and not the NBA), and as such he was not available as a player for the Chicago Bulls or any other team.

Another notable absence from the home versions is Shaquille O’Neal, who was in the arcade version as a member of the Orlando Magic (and who later followed in Jordan’s footsteps in buying his name and likeness from the NBA). New Jersey Nets guard Dražen Petrović and Boston Celtics forward Reggie Lewis, both of whom died after the release of the arcade version, were also removed from the home versions.

A limited edition version of the game with an additional team composed of Gary Payton and Michael Jordan was developed primarily for Jordan and Payton’s personal use.^[7]

During development, Godzilla and Bart Simpson were planned to be secret characters, but were ultimately scrapped.^[8]

Development – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

The game was devised after Midway’s previous arcade release Total Carnage failed to meet sales expectations. Lead designer and programmer Turmell wanted to develop a game with a wider appeal and decided to mix the digitized graphics of some of Midway’s previous titles to create a title similar to Midway’s previous basketball game Arch Rivals. Midway was able to procure a license from the NBA, paying royalties of $100 for each unit sold.^[9]

The NBA initially reacted negatively to the game feeling that an arcade game was wrong for the branding; however, after a second pitch, they eventually became convinced of its potential.^[10] In one of Midway’s original pitch videos to the NBA, they stated that they planned on including various additional features.

These included different camera angles, tips from coaches, instant replays and a first-person view on fast breaks. None of these features were included in the final game. The graphics for the NBA players were created from digitized video footage of several amateur basketball players, including future NBA player Stephen Howard. These players were available as secret characters in certain versions of the game.^[11] Turmell recounted, “My big ideas in NBA Jam were to do the spectacular dunks and two-on-two basketball, but the whole game was very much a team effort. For instance, someone else came up with the idea of attributes, giving different players different abilities.”^[12]

NBA Jam was the third basketball video game released by Midway, after TV Basketball (1974) and Arch Rivals (1989).^[5] The gameplay of NBA Jam Tournament Edition is based on Arch Rivals, which was also a 2-on-2 basketball game. However, it was the release of NBA Jam Tournament Edition that brought mainstream success to the genre.

Development – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

orts and sequels – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

The NBA Jam games were ported to many home video game consoles and PC, published by Acclaim. The console versions were well known for featuring many new secret characters; the home versions of Jam T.E. even allowed the player to use then-President Bill Clinton, First Lady Hillary Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, and, on the Atari Jaguar version, Atari‘s Vice President of Software Development Leonard Tramiel.

Acclaim later ended up winning the exclusive rights to use the NBA Jam name, and without Midway’s involvement, released a sequel, NBA Jam Extreme, in 1996. It features 3D graphics and Marv Albert doing commentary. The game received mixed reception. Acclaim continued to use the NBA Jam name on subsequent console games until the company closed in 2004, although the games were only mildly popular.

Other Midway sports series – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

Midway also applied similar themes and designs to their other sports games, beginning with the 1996 hockey game NHL Open Ice^[19] and the American football game NFL Blitz, which proved to be a major success. Midway had also developed Power Up Baseball around 1996 based on the same concepts as NBA Jam, but it was cancelled as they found the game did not test well due to the large number of paid plays users would need to complete one game, among other issues.^[20]

Reception – NBA Jam Tournament Edition

The game became exceptionally popular, and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release.^[9] In the United States, it topped the monthly RePlay charts for upright arcade cabinets from April 1993^[33][1][34] through summer^[35][36][37] to October 1993.^[38][39]RePlay listed it as America’s top-grossing arcade game of Summer 1993.^[40] The game’s US revenue in 1993 exceeded the $300 million ($610 million adjusted for inflation) domestic box office gross of the film Jurassic Park the same year.^[41][42]

NBA Jam was America’s highest-grossing arcade game of 1993. Individual machines at the time were earning up to $2400 per week, setting the all-time record for the highest per-unit arcade earnings in the United States.^[43][44] In Japan, Game Machine listed NBA Jam on their August 15, 1993 issue as the fourth most successful upright arcade unit of the month.^[45] The game grossed over $1,000,000,000 (equivalent to $2,026,000,000 in 2022) worldwide in its first twelve months.^[46] As of 2012, the arcade game has sold more than 20,000 arcade units and generated a lifetime revenue of $2 billion.^[9]