The Game

May SEGA Megadrive 2 (ang pangalan ng SEGA Genesis sa Japan) sina Ojay nung elementary days ko. Every weekend maglalaro kami, at sobrang na-addict kami sa Mortal Kombat 2. And I can say na naging expert ako, well, with the help of Geoffrey's GamePro magazines that listed all the special moves, the finishing moves, and ofcourse, the ever deadly combos. I can say that I was really addicted to video games at that time, that may have caused me dropping out of the honor race when I was just about to graduate, at ang naging consolation prize sa akin ay pinagbasa ako ng 2nd Reading sa misa ng graduation namin hahaha!

At naluluong ako sa NBA Cards. Dun na nagsimula ang bagong addiction. Si Ojay, Shaq ang kinolekta, ako si Penny. Grabe, sinasamahan ko pa si Ojay na mang-uto ng mga bata sa simbahan para sa mga one-sided na trade. hahaha. well, one sided kung ang pinagbabasihan mo talaga yung value ng card na nakalista sa Beckett, pero sa tingin ko, kapag pumayag naman ang 2 parties sa trade, walang lugi. Nakuha naman nila ang gusto nila pareho.

At that time, nauso rin ang NBA Jam Tournament Edition. Grabe, na-addict rin kami dito, "He's On Fire!" o kaya "From Downtown" ang maririnig mo sa TV nina Ojay o kaya ni Inang. At dahil peke ang cartridge na binili ni Ojay na walang battery back to save highscores and user profiles, we needed to finish the game in one sitting! Bakit naman namin gagawin yun? Dahil kapag natapos mo ang NBA Jam T.E., may mga bagong players na pwede mong laruin! HAHAHA And to prove to everyone that we finished the game, I connected the Betamax Tito Rolly gave us back on 1991 para ma-record namin ang aming "accomplishment." :P

And then came NBA Live '96. This changed our basketball gaming since it is the first simulation type game that we played (well, if you will consider the basketball game which featured the Lakers, Bulls, Celtics, Knicks, and some other two teams for the PC back in the '80s a simulation, then it is not a first). What excited us the most was the CREATE PLAYER option, which enabled us to play ourselves. AND Michael Jordan wasn't in the game yet because of licensing issues, that's why the CREATE PLAYER option was a must. But if you create a player like Kareem, it would turn out that Kareem is actually a hidden player that you will unlock once you create him. And at that time, that was SO cool.

As a simulation game, it also had roster management options, which gave you the freedom to trade players and sign/release players from the free agent pool. And with our NBA Card Collection at its peak, our awareness of all the players in the league and reading upon their stats and some tidbits about them in our cards made it more fun to play the game. I, for one, also keep track of the trades so that we can make the adjustment right away.

Then Ojay bought a new PC. Well, at that time, it was top notch, a Pentium 166MHz system multi-media system. NBA Live '97 gave us the first taste of the NBA in 3D. Noon, sobrang galing ng graphics! hahaha! Grabe, natuwa na kami dun. The gameplay was still simple at that time, TURBO, PASS, SHOOT for offense and TURBO, SWITCH, BLOCK/REBOUND for defense. Ang nakakatawa dun, yung mga controls, 1 keyboard, gamepad kung meron ka, at MOUSE! Akalain mo maglalaro ka ng NBA Live gamit ang mouse! hahaha At wala pang optical mouse nun, kaya parusa ang maglaro gamit ang mouse. Yung movement, obviously, movement ng mouse. Left click for pass, Right click for shoot. Eh pano yung Turbo? Easy! Jerk the mouse and the movement will be in Turbo mode. hahaha. Lousy. Ang astig dun, yung mga players, parang naka-NBA Card yung mga picture nila, tapos may mga half-time shows.

Nung nagka-PC na ako noong 1997 (Pentium 100MHz, 32MB RAM, 1Gig Harddrive), ayun, bumili ako ng NBA Live 98. At nagbago na talaga yung gaming dahil from 3 buttons, naging 8. Nagkaroon ng alley-oop, direct-pass, crossover, spin move, atbp. Same with Live 99. Ofcourse, the graphics and gameplay improved along the way from 2000 to 06.

At walang panahon sa amin, kahit pwede kaming maglaro sa isang computer, we also played "remotely" via dial-up! hahaha! ang labo!

Then we discovered Nba-Live.com -- Tim and Lutz was the founder of the site and Tim eventually was recruited by EA Sports because of his excellent modifications for the game. Since then, updating the roster wasn't a pain anymore. Much more, you can download rosters that represents the rosters back in 1996-97 where Penny was at his peak!

Whenever my cousins and I play, we always want it to be a thriller. That's why when someone is leading by 20 in the fourth, you will notice consecutive "turnovers". Or it will be a case of delibirately calling for a timeout even if there is no timeouts left para makapag-technical freethrow yung naghahabol na team.

And I can say it has always been a joy to sink a game-winning basket...

hay...

Now, my cousins are not here anymore to share that thrill. And I'm not in Unit520 anymore...the place where I met my match (Hi Marvin! hehehe). I miss competing because in the years that I have been competing in NBA Live (even though each version is different from each other), I have become one of the best in playing the game.

Mayabang ba?

Give me the time and place then we'll play...I just want to sink that game-winning jumper again.