BASKETBALL VIDEO GAMES EVOLUTION [1974 - 2023] 

I'm proud to say I played every incarnation of these games. And yes... I was impressed by the very first ones. Although some stood out more than others. Dr J vs Larry Bird I paid .50 cents for at a Big Lots in the late 90s. I can't imagine how much it would go for now. It was actually a different version of what you see here. It was very smooth & played well on my Atari 7600. Way ahead of it's time & more in line with Double Dribble or NBA live 95. Double Dribble was the first game to have cutaway scenes when you dunked. You could dunk from the 3 point line if you did it from the bottom or top of the screen. Otherwise free throw dunks were possible from the foul line. This game was PEAK basketball when it dropped. Bulls vs Lakers/Blazers & the NBA Playoffs Series - This started the "modern" basketball trend. The way I saw it was the programmers who went to EA started putting stars on the players so you could control them. The "B" button became standard to switch players. All the things that ended up in "Madden", Live, MVP Baseball, etc, & then ended up in the 2K series - started here in what was called "EASN." NBA Jam: Still to this day the greatest basketball Arcade game ever made. We spent many hours at Tony's deli playing this. Also I used to know all the codes, JOR, or BBBBB, would unlock certain things in the game. If you had Tournament Edition on the SNES you had to beat all the teams once, & then after that, things got MUCH harder. You had to play a PERFECT game - or else you lost. This was the era of the game cheating to win at all times. At my peak I don't think anyone could have beaten me at this game. Run & Gun: I loved this game at the time but it had a short shelf life. It played hard in the Arcades but the SNES port was weaker. I still played it a lot - however it lost popularity due to the weak port & died on the vine. I still miss those days & played it as recently as last month on emulators. NBA Live 95: This was THE GAME. Ask anyone. You'll see it in the comments. Basketball had ARRIVED in all it's glory. I played it for hundreds of hours. All my players were custom, from whatever school I said so. I averaged 200 points a game & had 6'10'' Behemoth pounding the Power Forward glass. I had a 5'7'' white haired guy with a 99 slam dunk as a PG. Jordan rode the bench as my 2 alter egos (1 all 99's & 1 with more realistic stats) dropped tons of points - 1 averaging 60 points a game. This was the beginning of the end for me though as other games just all started to look alike. NBA Street: This game kept the spirit of NBA Jam alive with updated Playstation graphics. We played this for a little bit but by this time all the games were starting to merge & there were too many brands doing too little things. NBA 06: The PS2 was on top of the world & I remember having MVP 05 & NBA 06. Some would call this the golden era of sports games because even Madden 06 is remembered as a great year. MVP Baseball was the best game ever (All due respect to the Griffey's). Then you had NBA 06. A masterpiece that basically every game is based off of today. You could call plays, use special abilities, make trades, draft players. I had a lot of fun with that game. Steve Kerr saying "That shot is unconscionable - only a young Jon Starks would take that." when you would pull up to the line on a fast break would kill me. Starks is my favorite player - but for Kerr to then turn the Golden State warriors into a logo shooting fast break team would prove him a hypocrite. You'll notice every other game after this is pretty much a carbon copy of each other with zero innovation. I had a ton of hope for video games in the late 90s. Now they all look the same. I guess we were spoiled.

Fun fact: Everytime these games were released we used to say “the graphics are amazing!”

im 40 years old and played many of these games when they came out and let me tell you young ppl something funny, these games look horrible to you now but back when a lot of these games first came out, they looked so realistic to us. 🤣 im laughing so hard looking at the graphics of these games. you guys have it made today. this was a great trip down memory lane

NBA Live 95 will always have a place in my heart

The miraculous thing is at the time each of these games came out they were the ish

Ultimate Basketball and Street Hoops my favorites...

I remember seeing Run and Gun 2 in arcades. I use to think that spin move was the realest thing in the world

2k2 for Dreamcast had the most fluidity of gameplay in that era. Both Dreamcast Football and Basketball were cutting edge, such a highly underrated system.

Have you played all these games? Which one is your favorite? Do you know any other basketball games that are not in the video? Like if you want more videos like that. Thanks.

I like how some games in the 70's and early 80's looked better than some games in the late 80's and 90's

I remember playing Jordan v Bird, Lakers v Celtics, NBA live and NBA shootout 98. Then I stopped playing games and went back in 08 with 2k and still playing 2k to this day. Such great memories and the games today are unbelievable.

Those early 'NBA Live' installments were so fun. Still remember going on fast breaks with two good dunkers where you would go up for a 360° dunk but throw an alley-oop to your teammate who would also do a 360 and dunk it...good times. lol

i'm 45 and remember most of these game. everytime a new game caneout i thought this is as good as it gets. my favorite was techmo super nba basketball for super nintendo. thanks for making this video, this old man felt like a teenager again

Man I remember playing a lot of the old games but I was in love with NBA Jam T.E. and NBA Live '95 - '97

Man I cant lie...the 90s were the golden years of basketball game innovation. Wish it could go back to that level of progress 🤦‍♂️

As a part Japanese guy, thank you for including Slam Dunk (9:10, 9:30, 10:33, 11:36) as I played two of the four listed. But regardless, if anybody doesn't know Slam Dunk, it is the best and most popular anime in the history, coinciding with the Bulls dynasty and popularizing the sport in Japan. That anime/illustrator needs to be enshrined to Basketball Hall of Fame.

Live 95 was the game changer for me. It was the first game I could remember that had the full NBA roster and they introduced that unique camera view and the spin move. We wore our Sega Genesis out. 😂

1986 double dribble looked really good for 86 looks like a nice Indy game or something props to that development team

NBA Street Vol 2. was damn near perfect. I was an NBA Live guy, but I worked at 2k Games during the development of 2k4 and 2k5. The shot stick, the crossover on the stick, a lot of the stuff we put in the game then is still there today. :)

NBA hangtime got US hooked to the N64 for weeks. Even as non Americans. Gameplay was just perfect.

I just love seeing games from the past. Some are better than the newer ones ngl. Great video!!👏🙂

EVERYTIME I see videos like this it always snaps me back into the mindset of just how spoiled we have become with graphics. I see kids complaining all the time about graphics in newer games… QUIT COMPLAINING and be happy we get to see how incredible the graphics jump every few years

It was NBA Live from 95 to 2000. Then 2k started the takeover. Dreamcast really got it right with those. Took a couple years to get em going, but it was on.

I loved NBA Jam, NBA Give n' Go, and NBA Street Volume 2. Double Dribble on NES was my first.

Virtua NBA was ahead of its time. The graphics are insane and way better than the ones in the 2000s.

I'll never forget the first time I played NBA street. It was the first PS2 game I ever played and it BLEW my mind. I miss being amazed/excited by things.

Jason Kidd doing a 360 at 21:47 took me out lol. So many memories with these games though, love it!

Literally my entire childhood. All starting with Lakers vs Celtics.

Man watching this video and seeing 10+ basketball games a year coming out compared to the 1 a year we get now really makes me appreciate what we had back then.

Tecmo NBA Basketball was my second basketball game (Double Dribble being the first) and that game STILL holds up today.

0:54 i cannot believe i saw gameplay of NBA 2k79

While realizing that Slam Dunk is an old cartoon, I suddenly realized that I was an old person who had fun playing games from 1995.

Seriously, NBA Jam changed the game when it came out. It was so good. And I played hundreds of hours on NBA Live 95 and 96. They all seemed so good at the time

I’m 48… thank you for the ride down memory lane. Great evolution…

Arcades were always far above the consoles. Today...I guess there's a reason we see no arcades anymore. Consoles got really advanced above arcades right around when the Sega Dreamcast, Original XBOX, and PS 2 came around. Since then, the graphics and framerates exceeded arcades.

Run n Gun 2 in the arcade was an awesome experience

NBA Steetz Vol.2 is still the greatest basketball game of all time.

i loved the Nba In The Zone series especially when they added the 3point contest and slam dunk

Started playing video games in 1982.......this is crazy.....just watched my whole life in 34 min.

Wow!!!! For me..... it started with double dribble then it was Lakers vs Celtics then it was Live 95 then it was In the Zone then it was NBA2K... Damn how far we've come

Tecmo Super NBA Basketball on the Super Nes was the GREATEST game ever made for me. 😎🏀

When you see it all in sequence, NBA Live 95 was so amazing for its time.

Ultimate basketball nes will forever be the best basketball game in my head, the music, the cut scene for the dunk is etched in my mind.

Im 42 and started playing on Atari as a small kid. Double Dribble on NES, then Lakers vs Celtics, Bulls vs Blazers also on Sega. Then came NBA Live and NBA Jam. Once we got to 2K it was a wrap. They put the basketball games on lock. March Madness was okay because of Dick Vitale. 2K in 06 was the demise of the rest. I started on Xbox and went to Playstation and never looked back.

NBA LIVE 95 was a Favorite of mine and NBA JAM💥💯💥

My mates and I played the hell out of NBA JAM TOURNAMENT EDITION. Score 2 in a row ...”He’s heating up ..” score 3 in a row ...” HE’S ON FIRE ! “ and the net burns 🔥...a 90’s Classic for me

NBA Live 2003 was the reason i found love for basketball. I wish I could play it again, I tried everything, it won't run :/

NCAA basketball... Who remembers Hewlitt (?) from off the bench for Kentucky. Half court shots all day ⌚️👈

Yo!! What a trip down memory lane. Friend's use to go at it in Coach K College Basketball, had soo many of these. Thanks for taking the time to put this together!

Double dribble and Tecmo Basketball where a huge part of my early childhood gaming!

Man these take me back to a great time in my life as a kid..

30:37 someone definitely has the sliders up, he shot a 3 wit Shaq and made it 😂😂

Street Hoops was such a good game! Perfectly captured the culture of early 2000s basketball. I’m pretty sure you would play on famous street courts across the country and one of them was the Run N Shoot in Atlanta we used to go to irl!

Double Dribble my first Bball game. 2K on Sega Dreamcast 1999 changed it forever. No competition since for 2K.

1992 NCAA Basketball was the first 3D basketball game and blew my mind when I was just 15 years old. The Cheater Team was Georgetown since they had both Dikembe Mutumbo and Alonzo Mourning.

It's amazing how sports games went from simple button gameplay, like that seen on the Nintendo, to more advanced presentation styles and real time physics after the PS2 and Xbox. Lol, the NBA 2k series on the Dreamcast looked so realistic when it came out. Everyone I knew couldn't drop the controller, we were so in awe at how good it looked. Now there's the PS5, damn time flies.

2007 was when we finally saw and felt fluidity in the basketball games

Listen to those amazing sounds in the classic games, THATS THE BEST GAMER NOSTALGIA! I love it.

28:55 College Hoops 2K8 Most under-rated basketball game ever, I remember there servers stayed up till like 2013

Man TV sports basketball was so underrated. I remember editing all the rosters to the current rosters at the time. Full statistics. Ability to play a whole season. It was nuts.

I grew up playing Lakers v Celtics on DOS and Takin it to the Hoop or Turbo Grafx 16. Huge shout-out for showing both of em! And thanks for giving me a trip down memory lane 🙏

Never knew there was an Inside Drive 2000, I thought it started with 2002 on the Xbox

Thanks so much for this! Double Dribble, Live 95, and 2K2 hold a special place in my heart. The nostalgia 😌

Awesome vid!! I played many of these growing up. It is great to see video game basketball evolution!!!

Oh so it was 2k8 when NBA 2k series started looking real

NBA shootout series for ps1 was my sh!t ... I loved how the cam zooms in on dunks, layups, or blocks. And the players were bigger here than NBA live.

Couldn't begin to explain how epic Double Dribble was for it's time! Then NBA JAM Omg

7:25 and 10:28 my all time favourites. Unmatched. what a time it was to be a kid in the 90's 😌

NES FAVS: Double dribble Arch rivals Kerr was unstoppable on shootout 98

NBA Street vol. 2 still one of the best sports games ever.

NBA JAM in the arcade was the best. The graphics and it was 2vs2 made it so much fun. NBA jam and virtual fight in arcade version were my addiction while my friends were drinking and on drugs. Lol

I had the honor of play-testing One On One: Dr. J vs. Larry Bird, back when Electronic Arts had around 65 employees. Got paid $5 per hour to play video games for two summers. Dream job for a teenager! Saved up my money and bought a Mac 512K. Those were the days, my friend. EDIT: You forgot a game- 1995's Slam N Jam for the 3DO system.

Seeing makes me miss when we had more than one basketball game to look forward to coming out every year.

1986s Double Dribble seems to be way ahead of it's time. Voices, character animation, colorful sprites...

Bruh, we have come a loooooong way with these games. Double Dribble; NBA LIVE SERIES; 2K SERIES after the 2010's.

Thank you for memory lane🙂

IMO Run and Gun is the most underrated of all these games. It was the perfect mix of arcade and simulation for the time. It was NBA 2K ten years early.

Cool to see all the options we had to choose from to get our basketball fix back on the days. This video speed up once we got into the PS4 era.

NBA Hangtime is the greatest and its no contest. Perfection.

NBA streets… Street hoops… the street all days man…. what a time to be alive

People in 70s: this is so realistic

NBA Live 95 looks revolutionary 😊😊😊😊

I’m an old gamer and me and my friends were BLOWN AWAY by Bulls vs Lakers and the NBA playoffs on the Sega Genesis in 1992. We thought we were in the future, 😆

Double dribble will always be my fav

NBA Live 95 and Coach K are classics. I remember I wanted the Scottie Pippen game

I remember when live 95 came out and thinking this is the most amazing thing ever. Looking back at it now I can’t believe I was so impressed

Amazing video! To say you took me back is an understatement

Run and gun (1993) and Street slam (1994) are still good games. 10 years ahead of their time!

my first basketball video game was Double Dribble. It was released in 1986 but I started playing in 1992 when my father bought our first Nintendo family computer. My favorite at the time was Super Mario Bros, Adventure Island and Battle City. From then on I was crazy about video games and been playing NBA Live 1998 up to 2008. I've played tons of basketball video games but when I happen to play NBA 2K9 in an internet cafe, it's over. It's beyond expectations. NBA 2k def is the dopest basketball video game ever to date, in my own experience per se.

Gotta love the sounds back then lol. Awesome videos. Good times

Cant wait to see where we end up in 2050 when it comes to video games evolution.

In my teenage years all we played was NBA 2k and NBA live . I don't remember the other basketball games from the 90's

If you're Gen-X, Live 95 was a huge gamechanger

I spent so much time playing Lakers vs Celtics 1989. Miss those days!

I’m from 1980 blessed to see it all and I have most of these great games I know everyone hates on sports games but they are good

My top 5 5. NCAA Basketball Super New (You could spin the court with a dunk) 4. March Madness 2010 3. Live 96 Super New 2. Live 97 PlayStation And the greatest bball game of all time is 1. Live 2003 (The perfect blend of sim\arcade. Legends including 4versions of Jordan.The best sound track in basketball history. Revolutionary graphics.)

2K really took these games to another level, even the first one looks real good.

NBA 2k came in with a bang in 2000. NBA courtside and inside drive were very underrated for their times. Stree Vol. 2 was insane. EA NBA Live took the rain in 2004. NBA Live 06 was revolutionary to me. 2k definitely took over in 2008 and never looked back. Top 5 games NBA Street Vol. 2 Live 06 2k10 2k16 2k3

It started to get better by 2002. Once 06 hit the graphics started getting better and better

It’s amazing that during the 80s, 90s and early 2000s we had such a vast selection of sports games to choose from in each genre, good or bad. Now it’s just a choice between 2 and they’re not great.