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# 6 NBA Live 95
1994
EA
16 Bit
 NBA Live was not the first attempt at five on five NBA basketball, but it was definitely the best. After the success of "One On One", EA decided to try its hand at 5 on 5 with detailed NBA players in 1990. That game was "Lakers vs. Celtics", a game that only modeled the playoff teams in a side-scrolling basketball simulation. Although the players were very detailed for their time, the game moved at a snail's pace. Despite the graphics and the player detail, the players moved like they were just barely jogging. This problem would persist with two more releases (Lakers vs. Bulls and Bulls vs. Blazers). The problem remained the sloooooooooooooooooow speed of the games, and the fact that it only had tournament play.
Now, in 1993, NBA Showdown 1994- the last game to use the "Lakers vs. Celtics" engine, got a speed increase in a big way, and full season with stat-tracking was implemented. Despite the speed increase, the engine was still showing its age on the graphics and animations end.
Then, in 1994, EA kicked their NBA hoops sim in the rear with a brand new engine and a brand new view. NBA Live 95 was born. Finally, 5 on 5 NBA basketball felt "good". The players moved at realistic speeds (which is to say, "fast"), and the game was extremely well animated. It was a game that was everything that the "Lakers vs. Celtics" engine wasn't. Fast. Fluid. Fun. NBA Live 95 played one hell of a game of basketball, and set the standard for all hoops sims to come. The series would see no competition for nearly 7 years of uncontested excellence. Not until Sega's NBA 2K series was the quality of the series spawned by NBA Live 95 even touched.
However, NBA Live on 16 bit became famous for another reason. EA made a very big nod to simulation/roster freaks that was never really advertised about the game. Incoming rookies and players not in the NBA Players Association could often be created by simply typing the correctly spelled first name into the create-a-player menu. For instance you could type in the first and last names of any incoming rookie (for that year) not in the game and the game would fill in all the fields correctly, such as height, weight, college, abilities, stats, and the player would look correct! In NBA Live '97, typing in "Michael Jordan" would put His Airness in the game even though he wasn't paid to be there. Very edgy, VERY gray-area legal...but roster freaks LOVED that EA deliberately hid missing players in the game like that. It can be argued that the "roster updater" phenomenon was created with NBA Live because of this feature. It was one hell of a basketball game, and it influenced every console hoops game to come.
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