How NBA JAM Became A Billion-Dollar Slam Dunk | War Stories | Ars Technica
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2020
- Boomshakalaka! Today on War Stories, Ars Technica is joined by NBA JAM lead designer and programmer Mark Turmell to talk about the chaotic birth of an epically successful sports franchise. From the early days of earning the NBA's blessing, to the uncharted territory of digitizing superstars' likenesses into the game, Mark and team delivered an experience that captured imaginations around the globe, altered the landscape of sports simulations, and gave rise to some truly enduring catchphrases. When you collect a billion dollars worth of quarters after just a year in arcades, it's safe to say your creation is "On Fire!"
Directed and Produced by Justin Wolfson
Edited by Aulistar Mark and Jeremy Smolik
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How NBA JAM Became A Billion-Dollar Slam Dunk | War Stories | Ars Technica - เกม
"Hes on Fiiire" 🔥🔥🔥! These kids will never understand!! The excitement of the arcades in the 90s was like no other.
REAL TALK!!!!!
I used to whip my little brothers butt on NBA Jam around 1994 on Super Nintendo, I was so good at the game he could not pass half court, it was steals for days for me
@@twostop6895 You was WEAK, SOFT AND HORRIBLE, You wouldn't had a snow ball chance against ME, Glorify beating up your BABY BROTHER, YOU TO FUNNY!!!!
@@marvinspeak3777 you are a deranged clown, you just embarrassed yourself
@@marvinspeak3777 it wasn't only him, I was the best at the game in my whole neighborhood, nobody at school could handle me in the game
Successful people don't become that way overnight. most people see at a glance-wealth, a great career, purpose-is the result of hard work and hustle over time. I pray that anyone who reads this will be successful in life
you're right, but any Investment without a proper guidance and experience is suicidal
Profitable Investment one can do convenantly at this moment are
: Estate
: Share
: Stock
@Micheal Tight you're right Forex trading is surely a lucrative way to invest whether you want growth, leverage, stable income or something in between.
I made 62,800 dollars within 6days of trading with Bitcoin.
Imagine being one of the guys at the park playing basketball when someone asks to record you for a video game and that game ends up being NBA JAM.
Probably pretty annoyed that they only got paid like $100 for their part in a product that made billions
@@slicknicdwyer But then they might remember that the programmers could make the game with any guys from any park and the role they played they were willing to do for "like $100".
One of those players, Stephen Howard, starred at DePaul and went on to play in the NBA. Another, Willie Morris Jr., ended up immortalized as Air Morris, an NBA Jam secret character.
@@slicknicdwyer They are contract workers, nothing more. Same with all the construction workers who build a restaurant for X. The fact that the restaurant makes a lot of money has nothing to do with them as their job was done and they got paid. Same here.
Also, developers can't even predict the success of any game.
@@KafanskaTV Exactly, it wasn't as in "we are going to put you on a game-changing franchise" it was more "we are testing new grounds and it's possible, that it'll be a flop".
Over a $ Billion dollars in revenue from a coin-op cabinet game in that day is staggering to think about. I genuinely hope Mark Turmell and that team who created the game were financially compensated in a way that recognized their massive contributions to the birth of this game.
There’s a barcade up the road from me that has dozens of old arcade games, pin ball, pool. It’s an amazing blast from the past with all the old greats. I was so excited when they finally got a hold of NBA jam. I always play it when I go.
O yeah man...billion dollars in anything back then, but on an arcade game???
This game was absolutely legendary man. This, TMNT, Streetfighter, and Crusin' USA were all 1990's kids/teens icons. Have stood the test of time too.
Cant forget House of the Dead, so many hours spent at Stardust skating rink playing this
Mortal Kombat as well
Absolutely, good times
And mortal kombat!
You also forgot Super Tecmo Bowl.
I will always be thankful to Mark Turmell and his team for NBA Jam, which launched my career in the game industry. My first professionally published articles were about NBA Jam, and partly because later dev teams put my name in the credits for NBA Jam TE and some console ports, it led to jobs a couple of years later in game programming and design.
I love the secret pistons vs bulls trick.
Die Pistons, die!!!! :)
I KNEW I WASNT CRAZY
Same here 😀
Mr. Turmell, deserves a statue.
Did a guy a programmer programed the Pistols to be better than the Bulls?
One of the best head to head games ever made.
The way it felt to jump super high and block shots or dunk and do triple flips is fun as hell.
LEGENDARY!!!
NBA Jam had me convinced for years that Pippen was an amazing 3-point shooter, probably because I often got "He's On Fire" mode with him.
oH mY.....He's in fire!!!
From dowwn town !!!
That was all you man
Pippen was a decent 3 point shooter
bro you see they had Majerle as not a good 3 pt shooter...that always pissed me off as a kid...they should've gotten me as a stat provider back then...they could've paid me with a machine of my own and I would've been quite happy
@@r6-AgentScorpionParkerKRider23
Also, funny how they made Barkley a good 3-point shooter, when in reality, he's statistically one of the worst 3-point shooters in NBA history.
props to Ars Technica for getting the actual devs to talk about what they did. The 90s was my childhood
This video was really well-edited. Every time Turmell mentioned something I wanted to see (say, the rare MJ appearance), I saw a high-quality example. Those behind-the-scenes looks at Stephen Howard and Willie Morris Jr. doing mo-cap, the pitch video for the NBA... so many cool things here. I just finished Reyan Ali's history of NBA Jam earlier this week so this video upload is especially timely; I'd recommend it to anyone interested in learning more. Also, I can't handle that Mark Turmell isn't a 25-year-old with long flowing locks anymore.
And also I personally would like to go to Gary or MJ or Shaq's house and play one of those versions of the game and yes I'd bring my own damn roll of quarters....let's go!!...Hours in "Mountasia" or the mall arcade playing that and Blitz...I could make 20 bucks last hours meanwhile my sister and brother were out of money in an hour and a half...I'm 44 and I'm still a gamer..."Toastyyyyyyyy"
No mention of Arch Rivals. I don’t get it….
Growing up I was poor. So I didn't always have money. So I looked for NBA Jam. It had a special mode. If you held down on player 1&2 while pressing all the buttons, you'd get a tank game like BattleZone. That was the coolest thing ever. To play a game on an arcade game for free.
I played the Tank game.
You needed 4 players playing a full game to get a free game for the winner.
I remember playing this game for free at A.P.C.H. A Place Called Home in South Central LA. We would always have four players playing. It was so much fun. I wonder if that machine is still there.
I was thinking the same thing!!! I used to go and play tank mode if i got a chance and no one was playing!!!
I remember all of the "guest" players like bill clinton and whatnot. Game was fun as hell and I dropped my fair share of quarters in. I can still hear "welcome to NBA JAM" like it was yesterday.
The Pippen helicopter 🚁 dunk is one of my favs!
The magnitude of this game was up there with street fighter 2 and mortal Komat. Just off the charts
@Daniel Zuk That, too! :)
You guys need to release even more war stories. These videos are like a drug. Meaning I would do some pretty disturbing stuff for some more videos man.
*approaches you in a dark alleyway*
yo u got the Ars Tech vids? I'm good for it next week, I swear...
We even talk about how great these are on my employer's gaming Slack channel.
hi, Sam Machkovech from Ars Technica here. disturbing, huh? like, you'd trade in your game consoles and only use an Ouya for a year?
more seriously, I know what our next TWO dev-interview videos are. one's a War Story. the other's a fan-driven Q&A. and if you LIKE & SUBSCRIBE, we actually quite honestly get more devs on board to record these. (their handlers care about our metrics.) so, you do your part, and we'll do ours. xo -Sam
@@samred Give up my consoles? You monster I was thinking more along the line of selling my body or spleen. I've been subscribed for a while now and tell all my friends even the non gaming ones how fascinating and interesting y'all's videos are even for people who don't game!! You should give us a hint as to what the next war story video is 😁
@@JokerJay1990 I know, I know, Ouya is peak cruelty, and we're glad to have you on board as a viewer. I'm not allowed to give good hints yet cuz the video may take a while, so you'll have to settle on this vague hint: it's about a game series that began in the '90s.
I still remember the "MJT" code in the initials and it was him as a character. Dude had full bar on EVERYTHING
BOOM SHAKA LAKA!
I loved this game as a kid. It was definitely one of the things that got me into basketball and collecting memorabilia and going to games. Actually, just a couple games before the Pacers brawl with fans years ago, I got to meet a bunch of the guys on the team (most notably Jermaine O'Neal and Ron Artest) even getting my Authentic Ron Artest jersey, that I wore to all the games, autographed by him. I have a lot of good memories meeting the players before the games started during warm ups since we always got tickets within 5 rows of courtside. NBA Jam was always one of my favorite games because of how over-the-top it was. No crazy realism stuff, just lots of fun.
Boomshakalaka! Those were the good ol' days!
I love how some random dudes picked from the streets of Chicago are responsible for some of the most iconic frames in gaming history. 😂
He's on FIRE
From downtown!
Larry Bird
@Picolas Cage RAMALAMA DING DONG!
This title was a quantum leap in its day ! I was a tech for a major arcade route when that title came out it changed the psychology of the arcade game !
RIGHT! I was in awe when NBA Jams came out!
The one thing that I absolutely hated about the game, was the rubberband mechanics so that the computer could get back into the game. Now I understand the concept behind it, but if I'm trying to do a run on the game and get through a whole season I don't want to have the computer get aided to eat my quarter.
This game is awesome. NBA Street V2 made up with 3 Jordan’s Young, Prime and Old School Jordan. They stepped up with that game. Both Classic Games!
What a fun segment. Turmell isn't appreciated enough for his brilliance. NBA Jam is the 🐐. I wrote a whole book on it; check out NBA Jam (the book) for another deep dive.
Reyan, literally just finished your book five days ago and have it sitting next to me as we speak. Awesome work on a deep dive into one of the greatest games of all-time. This video makes for a great companion piece to your book.
@@Swove2204 Yo, thank you so much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it. 🔥
I'm gonna have to look for this book
@James Jones lol I gotta hustle out here! The book is something cool, I swear it.
wow!
This was my favorite game growing up. It was like watching NBA on NBC but playing it. Please release the Jordan rom!
The 90s was undoubtedly the pinnacle of gaming and digital innovation.
I think of the mid 90s and the mid 00s as the twin peaks of sports gaming. A lot of the 05/2k5 games are considered the GOAT games in their given sports. The mid 90s is when they really added the "cool" element to sports games.
Born in 1991. Glad I lived thru it all
Yeah things were very different in 2000, from 1990. I got to play through all of it, and then gta3 came out on playstation 2 around 2000. And nba 2k on dreamcast was also great. But it all started with super Mario world and street fighter 2 in 1991
90s stank.
These are amazing! As a developer is so nice to hear/see such stories.
Have dev what game you working on?
Love it!
I'm not a dev and I find it to be ultra valuable lessons on problem solving in general.
"This is an NBA JAM halftime report. Altitude with an Attitude!!"
I played it almost daily at the discount movie theater after school. Orlando Magic. Shaq and Scott Skiles.
NBA JAM was an incredibly fun game. It was exciting to play.
17:03 Yep, the rubberband mechanism is too obvious in some cases. If you are ahead by 1 or 2 points at the end of the fourth quarter, and there's time left, even if it's only 0.1 seconds, the computer will ALWAYS get a shot off and it will ALWAYS be successful. Usually it takes the players like 0.3 seconds to get off a shot, so it's really obvious the CPU is "cheating" here.
Yep, I remember that stealing my quarters so many times as a kid in the arcades, getting pissed the computer would so often make last millisecond perfect shots, lol.
That rule wasn’t active back then
This game needs to come back. I would love to see a modern day remake of this game. I miss these old school games. They were simple, easy to play and extremely fun. Games nowadays are too overly complicated. You need to take a course just to play some of them.
This game was top 3 for me growing up. Those slam dunk effects never got old for me. Its amazing what they could do in the 80's and 90's with effects in gaming and movies before digital stepped in.
When you were on fire it made you feel like superman. I genuinely remember that feeling
This game was fire back in the arcade. They even had one at my local 7/11. It was easy to play, had alot of choices for the time, was fun, had tons of secrets and honestly it attracted alot of gamers who were and weren't basketball fans
I usually only can pay attention to a video for 2 to 3 minutes but this is fascinating
Well that explains the rubber banding in Jam/Blitz. Always infuriated me as a kid but it makes sense in an arcade environment (I played on N64). At least he's straight forward about it. Great video. Go Bucks.
I absolutely love getting the history behind these games like this! Please keep the videos coming!
Ha he just casually mentions some of the best games ever! Me and my friends had so much fun playing each other on NBA jams thanks dude
Same!
When NFL blitz came to arcade, there was a crowd with at least 8 quarters stacked in line on the lip of the screen. The funny part is they put the new machine by the prize counter so the workers can watch the games. lol
NFL Blitz 2000 was my jam
When I was In high school we used to skip class and buy beers with our fake ID at the local bowling alley, where we would play Blitz 2000 every day. We competed for the game records to get our initials in the game. I had the interception r3cord until my buddy went by him self one Day, played as both teams and stole my r3cord by throwing interceptions to himself!!! Just shows how great the game was and the good times had!!
@@BrendoDynomite we did the same..but at the local pool hall with these games sprinkled around the place
Man there was nothing like when NBA Jam and Blitz first hit arcades
They probably put it by the counter to stop the fights that break out over who next
NFL blitz on the 64 was my childhood
Stiff arming people as an actual dolphin on the GameCube version makes me smile to this day
Boom chaka lacka!
Edit: Love this game and all those great memories at my friend's house playing after school and laughing so hard just having pure fun.
That code he put in as a dig to the bulls vs the pistons is awesome.
NBA Jam is one of the foundational arcade games of my youth. Our family was on a trip for spring break in 1994, and our hotel had this cool new game down in the arcade... NBA Jam. I probably put $20 into it over two days, and probably another $100 over the next year. Just such a fun game with the "He's on fire!" and "boom-Shaka-laka" phrases, the big heads, and the ability to play as real NBA players. It's no wonder Shaq brought this thing on the team plane: almost 30 years later, you can _still_ have a blast playing it with your friends.
How NBA JAM Became A Billion-Dollar Slam!
Come on and slam, and welcome to the jam!
Come on and slam, if you wanna jam!
Loved this game when I was a teenager, me and my best friend rented it constantly
This is my favorite ongoing series on TH-cam. Thanks for producing these! The format is perfect and I absolutely love hearing about lessons learned from people who are sometimes 30 years down-the-line from the game in question. MYST, Oddworld and NBA JAM have been my favorite.
Such a great video! Thank you, Mark. Loved NBA Jam as a kid and still do to this day!
This game was my jam back in the day
I used to spend hours at Aladdin's Castle playing this game
I remember going to Aladdin's Castle at Crossroads mall in San Antonio, use to play MK2 there.
90s arcades man. LEGENDARY. Anytime you went to a place that hard arcade you knew you were gonna have a kickass time.
This game and punch out took a lot of my quarters. I miss those arcade days. Good times
Having Jordan missing from the initial game has been explained! Finally. I thought he was just too good to be in one, or royalty fees. lol
I just assumed it was because he had retired......As far as the arcade game, I always thought he was an player you could unlock. Like Benny the Bull.
@raphael tobar Me too!!! I thought the same exact thing!
He actually wanted to be in the game, but nobody at Midway thought of approaching him or his agent since they assumed he would ask too much money.
I had a copy of NBA shootout 97 that he should have been on but wasn't, instead they named him by position, same I think for charles Barkley
Jordan did want $$$. He wasn’t part of the players association. No games could use his likeness unless they paid up Huge. NBA live ,hoops, 2k and many more.
Two words Mark: THANK YOU.
i was fortunate enough to work with Mark on a recent project. really great and brilliant designer.
What an awesome video. It sucks you right in and holds your attention. Seeing how they tackled challenges back in the day is really mind blowing. Memory demands back then would take your original ideas and throw them out the window causing you to have to redo everything one line of code at a time. You can really see the passion these guys had and i'm glad they were so successful.
Ah the nostalgia! Primal Rage 🔥🔥🔥
imagine a modern version.....
no stiff model all 3D animation, the crazy moves they could do would be sick.....
the original was okay but for me MK was where it was at....
Red Lantern's Rage . I think creates a problem. It's style is what make Primal Rage interesting, making it smooth and modern wouldn't really be the same thing, and am unsure if it would really hit with modern or nostalgic players.
This one player in downtown San Diego, CA always chose Blizzard in Primal Rage when we would meet for a challenge; he would freeze my fighter (Chaos) & proceed to stomp all over me_AND_performed a fatality on my fighter every time we played against each other. One day, I picked up a gaming magazine that featured all of Prima Rage's attacking moves, defensive moves and fatalities. The next time that Blizzard player met on that arcade cabinet, I actually beat him once w/strategy & finesse; even performed Chaos' fatality...which is quite humorous especially when there's a crowd behind us.
Awesome vid. I remember Turnmell being the hidden character w/ long hair. I can’t believe there are versions w/ MJ as well. My mind is blown. Best sports game ever made!
Love this stuff. Please keep it coming. Thanks Mark for sharing.
Still one of my favorite games and I still play them today 👌🏾 Thanks for this great game
This was awesome. The nostalgia is thick
Mark Turmell, a legend in the arcade industry. Thanks for this one, Ars! It was very interesting.
Great story of the game!! Thanks for sharing this...
I loved hitting arcades after school and this and Daytona were my absolute favs. So interesting to watch now
Best team is the UTAH JAZZ. You get a wiry 3-point specialist in John Stockton and a master physical presence with Karl Malone.
My thoughts exactly. What was really cool on Genesis was unlocking the expanded rosters, rookies, Benny the Bull, ect.
It had nothing to with which team being the best because i used to embarrass people with the magics and the hornets...it was like he said strategy.
Yeah I was thinking just now that I should have used the jazz instead of the bulls all the time.
@@stevencoardvenice it didn't matter what team you use. Jazz were top tier but they can be stopped
Nope the Knicks were the most powerful team on that game. Murked everyone with that team, dunk city all day plus the game caller / announcer "boom shaka-laka!!!"
My friend in the early 2000's had an original full game cabinet at his house and we'd play that for hours after work drinking beer and playing close games. My god that was fun times
Thank you for the memories!!!!!
Amazing series. Keep this going.
Such a great video. Thank you for this!
Thank you ars!! Love this series!!
He's heating up!
12:27 Why's Dan Majerle got such a low 3 point stat?!
I can remember playing this over and over. An absolute classic.
love that i found this. i still play nba jam weekly to this day!
Love this series! As a software developer (sadly not in the video game industry) I find the discussion of the problems encountered, and the solutions that they came up with, to be fascinating.
BTW I LOVED the sequence at 10:14 - very Monty Python-esque :) Got a good chuckle out of that
Be so cool to release a new retro style nba jam with increased frame rates and similar vibe!
You so appreciate the effort and hard work Mark and his team put into this.
Its amazing how much work went into this
My inner child made me squeak when he mentioned "Primal Rage"
I was amazed by that game when I first saw it. Being able to swipe at the cavemen lol.
The game is legendary.
Great history and video. My 1up version arrived on Saturday. Great memories
Love how blitz was playing in the background, I always enjoyed both so much ✊🏽✊🏽✊🏽
From down town!
Michigan’s own. MJT Mar 22 🖖 - I grew up playing his games.
the Piston cheat code is classic!
NBA JAM is one of my favorite arcade games, actually re-playing all my NBA JAM games on SNES, Genesis and PS3 lately. "BOOOOMshakalaka!!"
The story of the guy who let the AI play for him and enjoyed it more 😂
HA HA HA !!! :D
That's what becomes of little brothers who've spent their entire childhoods as P2 with an unplugged controller.
Bozo boxes 😂
He probably started with nothing, seeing code come to life is way more exciting than playing the game that comes out of it.
I've had this happen like "IM DOING AMAZING!!!" then you realize your character is over in the corner just running into a wall over and over
Man I remember playing with Bill Clinton, Air Dog, and "P Funk" George Clinton I use to have cats breaking their controllers lol.
I had NBA JAM TE for the Genesis. There was an issue of Tips and Tricks magazine that featured TE and listed *all* those players as well as the various power ups entered by cheat codes. I liked playing as Larry Bird, turning on the hot spots, always on fire mode, and seeing how high I could run up the score.
MY FAVORITE BASKETBALL GAME TILL THIS DAY. BRING IT BACK IN 2020
These digitized games need to make a comeback
100% agree!
i cant believe he didn't go into the announcer
Marv Albert alone deserves his own dedicated episode.
MichiganJack The original voice of NBA Jam was Tim Kitzrow. I think Albert was out of Jam’s budget range and as it turns out, it was probably for the best. Albert ended up doing a Jam sequel or offshoot down the line and he couldn’t match Kitzrow’s energy, enthusiasm, and creativity.
Ryan Van Dusen Yeah you’re absolutely right. I was very much mistaken. Marv was just everywhere and you’re right again he couldn’t match the energy. Personally I was more of a George Blaha guy. Thanks for smartening me up. 🖖
MichiganJack Can never go wrong with George Blaha. Legend.
I always thought it was Marv Albert until I saw another video on NBA Jam. Tim Kitzrow really nailed it!
I need that version wit Jordan in it, where's that at.
Great! Thank you Ars and Mark !
This is awesome . NBA Jam Tornament Edition . And NHL Slap Shot Open Ice was amazing back in the 90s . Thank you Mark . My fav thing about you Mark is Whoop There It Is
"How do you eat an elephant? one bite at a time" I learned something new today..
Old expression my dude.
This CPU cheats so much at the end of the game, Stockton can dunk and Shaq shooting 3s...... WTF LMAO!! It was making sure that kid ain't gonna make no profit with his quarter! xD
Great editing! Nice to know all this information after all these years
I love this game! I especially loved Tournament Edition. 6th grade was all about MK2 and NBA Jam.
Curious timing right when Arcade1UP comes out with thier NBA JAM arcade.
I'm shocket to see he actually provides justification for altering game conditions in order to keep a close score. Probably good for arcade games, but not for a sport simulation. This is very common in EA Sports' FIFA series, so if you are really skilled, your players will become less responsive, just to give more mediocre opponents a chance to beat you.
Has this ever proven to be true, or is it just players making up excuses? We know where EA stands in this.
@@robertt9342 EA has always denied it. But one developer once talked too much and recognized it as "momentum", which tries to mimick the ups and downs in a real match. Anyways, you know it's there if you ever played the game.
Neat stuff. I used to love NBA Jam when I was young, despite not being a sports fan.
if you were growing up (not born)in the 90s we had the best childhood, even if you didn't have everything handed to you. These were the days!!