NBA Jam is a 1993 basketball video game developed and published by Midway for arcades. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series and the third basketball video game released by Midway, after TV Basketball (1974) and Arch Rivals (1989). The gameplay of NBA Jam is based on Arch Rivals, being primarily based around a 2-on-2 basketball game.

Development on the game came to fruition following the financial failure of Midway's Total Carnage (1992). The aim of the project was to create a game with wide appeal, focusing on mixing digitized graphics with Midway's previous basketball game, Arch Rivals (1989), and Midway securing a license from the National Basketball Association (NBA); The association initially expressed skepticism at Midway's pitch which emphasized Arcade gameplay but Midway executives eventually convinced them of its potential. Acclaim acquired the publishing rights to port the game to home consoles.

The game was released in arcades in April 1993, with many releases on consoles in the following years. NBA Jam was a critical and commercial success, and it has been cited by critics to be among the greatest video games of all time. The game totaled 6 million units worldwide across SNES and Sega Genesis as of 2019, while the arcade cabinets shipped over 20,000 units as of 2012, totaling over $2 billion in lifetime revenue. Its release was regarded as being highly influential to the Sports genre. NBA Jam popularized a subgenre of basketball based around fast action and exaggerated realism which developer Midway eventually applied to other Sports in the genre. Several aspects like the implementation of several of its catchphrases also became prevalent in Basketball culture in the years following its release.

Gameplay

NBA Jam is a two-on-two basketball video game featuring NBA-licensed teams and digitized likenesses of real players. Gameplay is exaggerated instead of realistic: players can jump extremely high and make slam dunks that defy both human capabilities and the laws of physics. There are no fouls, free throws, or violations except goaltending and 24-second violations. 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. 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 contains many 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". This feature causes characters to fall if they run too fast or change direction too quickly. Players can also enter special codes to unlock hidden players, ranging from US President Bill Clinton to Hugo, the Charlotte Hornets mascot. On the arcade machine, there is also a hidden "tank" game that allows the player to drive a tank and shoot enemy tanks for a minute. Just before the court is shown at the start of a game, joysticks 1 and 2 must be moved down and all six of their buttons held down.

Teams and players The original arcade version of NBA Jam has 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.

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

Development The game was devised after Midway's previous arcade release Total Carnage failed to meet sales expectations. Lead designer and programmer Mark 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 arcade cabinet sold. 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. 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. 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."

In 2008, Turmell confirmed a long-held suspicion that the game had a bias against the Chicago Bulls. According to Turmell, a Detroit Pistons fan, the game was programmed such that the Bulls would miss last-second shots in close games against the Pistons.

Iguana Entertainment handled the conversion of the game to home consoles. According to Iguana president Jeff Spangenberg, including the time spent on learning the then-new PlayStation hardware, the PlayStation version took six months to develop. The Sega Saturn version took longer to develop, in part because of the greater complexity of the hardware, but also because Iguana Entertainment did not have access to the Sega Graphics Library operating system (which was used to facilitate the Saturn versions of Virtua Fighter 2 and Virtua Cop, among other games). The Game Gear and PlayStation ports were programmed by Iguana UK employee Chris Kirby, with the Sega Saturn version coded by Darren Tunnicliff. Steve Snake, who would later create the Genesis emulator Kega Fusion, made the 32X version.

The game was written entirely in assembly language. The game had a marketing budget of $10 million.

Tournament Edition An update named NBA Jam Tournament Edition (commonly referred to as NBA Jam T.E.) was released in arcades. NBA Jam T.E. included updated rosters, new features and Easter eggs combined with the same gameplay of the original. Jon Hey created new music specifically for NBA Jam: T.E. to replace the original NBA Jam music. Teams now consisted of three players (though only two could be on the court at any time; in practice, the extra player meant greater variety in lineups), with the exception of the new "Rookies" team, which consists of five players, all picked in the 1994 NBA draft. Players could be substituted into the game between quarters. The game also featured new hidden teams and secret playable characters. Early versions of the game included characters from Midway Games's Mortal Kombat games. Players were also assigned more attributes, including clutch and fatigue levels. In addition, the game also introduced features such as a "Tournament" mode that turned off computer assistance and on-court hot spots that allowed for additional points or special slam dunks.

The test version of NBA Jam Tournament Edition included eight hidden characters which were taken out of the final version at the request of the NBA: Elviscious, Grim Reaper, Kongo, Raiden, Reptile, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Tim Coman. Midway also stated they would update all test version cabinets to remove these characters.

In addition to the arcade version, NBA Jam Tournament Edition was ported to the Super NES, Genesis, 32X, Game Boy, Game Gear, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Atari Jaguar, with the PlayStation port serving as a North American launch title.

After Acclaim produced 250,000 Genesis cartridges, the developer learned that the flash memory used for savegames only works if games are played in a specific order. After attempts to repair the cartridges failed, Acclaim included a flyer advising customers of "AutoStat" functionality that requires playing two games using initials "XXX" and "NBA" to initialize the cartridge, turning the flaw into an undocumented feature.

Ports 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.

In 2020, as part of their Arcade 1Up line, Tastemakers LLC released a three-fourths-scale replica of the original NBA Jam cabinet featuring emulated versions of the original arcade game, along with Tournament Edition and Hangtime, with newly added online play.

Reception

The game became exceptionally popular and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release. In the United States, it topped the monthly RePlay charts for upright arcade cabinets from April 1993 through summer to October 1993. RePlay listed it as America's top-grossing arcade game of Summer 1993. The game's US revenue in 1993 exceeded the ( adjusted for inflation) domestic box office gross of the film Jurassic Park the same year. 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. In Japan, Game Machine listed NBA Jam on their August 15, 1993 issue as the fourth most successful upright arcade unit of the month. The game grossed over worldwide in its first twelve months. , the arcade game has sold more than 20,000 arcade units and generated a lifetime revenue of .

On consoles in the United States it was the top-selling Sega Genesis, Super NES and Game Gear game in March 1994, holding the top-spot on Sega systems for April as well. It was the second best-selling home video game of 1994 in the United States (below Donkey Kong Country), with the Genesis version outselling the Super NES version. The console ports sold copies in 1994, more than cartridges worldwide by February 1995, and over within a year. In the United Kingdom, NBA Jam topped HMV's all-formats home video game sales chart in March 1994 across its Mega Drive, Super Nintendo and Game Gear versions. , the Genesis and Super NES versions sold a combined copies worldwide.

Critical response