Wayback Wednesday: Minimalist Modding & Retro Gaming

This is Wayback Wednesday, your midweek blast from the past! From retrospectives of basketball games and their interesting features, to republished articles and looking at NBA history through the lens of the virtual hardwood, Wednesdays at the NLSC are for going back in time. This week, I’m taking a look at how minimalist modding can improve the retro basketball gaming experience.

It’s no secret that just as mods can enhance the most recent basketball video games, they can also breathe new life into old favourites. This obviously goes beyond the virtual hardwood. I remember discovering custom WADS for Doom II way back in 1998 that changed Doomguy and the enemies into characters from The Simpsons and South Park. I wasn’t really playing Doom II anymore, but learning about those mods and seeing what they were capable of encouraged me to dust it off so that I could try them out. It’s a great example of mods making an old game fresh and new again.

Of course, even without custom maps, those were still larger projects, akin to a current or retro season roster for an older basketball game. Those are fantastic and I absolutely support them; especially given my renewed interest in retro basketball gaming after a few years of feeling underwhelmed by the latest NBA 2K! However, minimalist modding can also freshen up older games and make them even more fun to revisit. Indeed, whenever I get hooked on an old game, I can’t help thinking about ways to change things up with some minimalist modding in order to expand upon the retro basketball gaming experience. Let’s look at a fun way to go back…way back…

There are two examples that spring immediately to mind when it comes to the fun I’ve had with minimalist modding and retro basketball gaming: NBA Live 10, and the PS4 version of NBA 2K14. Revisiting NBA Live 10 with Dee over Parsec played a huge role in developing a new appreciation for the game, and it was certainly fun enough to play with original 2010 season rosters, or Fantasy Teams such as our favourite Virtual Hardwood Legends. However, I developed a fascination with discovering all of the makeshift retro teams that I could cobble together using players in the default roster, especially as there were quite a few retired players still available in the Free Agents.

It also led to creative projects such as finding players whose rookie seasons were represented by the classic jerseys in the game, and a nostalgic tribute to the 90s. Beyond that though, compiling a list of viable makeshift classic teams provided an assortment of ideas for Fantasy Teams exhibitions, whether I’m connecting with Dee or playing solo. With a few hours of prep work – essentially moving players around and changing their jersey numbers – we have a roster that lends itself to a plethora of throwback scenarios. It’s extremely minimalist modding given that we aren’t even creating missing players, but it’s something new to play with in NBA Live 10.

Although my ongoing MyCAREER is the main attraction that keeps the PlayStation 4 version of NBA 2K14 in my rotation, it’s not the only mode that I play. I’ve come to really enjoy once-off exhibition games using the classic teams, as the game includes a good selection of them by default. Since there’s very limited in-game roster editing in NBA 2K14 PS4 and it’s a console release, minimalist modding is all that we’re able to manage. That doesn’t mean it’s impossible to make some significant changes, though. There are enough historical players across the breadth of the classic teams to roll a few of them back or forward a year, essentially creating some new retro matchups.

Not only that, but you can also use the classic jerseys available to the regular teams to essentially turn them into retro squads as well. This is how I’ve been able to expand my NBA 2K14 Retro Series beyond the default classic teams, and without the use of a full retro season roster. Figuring out which teams I could create using the assets that are available to me was an enjoyable challenge, long before I put them on the virtual hardwood for some actual games. Ultimately, the goal is to actually indulge in some retro basketball gaming with what you’ve created using minimalist modding, but the discovery of what’s feasible and seeing it all come together is immensely satisfying.

This has created a strong desire to tinker with the rosters of any games that I revisit, especially if they end up becoming an extended retro kick for me. I even toyed with the idea of a roster filled with makeshift classic teams for the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06 when I was hooked on it a couple of years ago. That idea sprang from me creating Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman, and a handful of other players required to assemble the 1998 Bulls in the game; an exercise that resulted in a concept roster featuring that Chicago squad along with the 1998 Lakers. Sadly, a glitch in Edit Player messed up the rosters, leading me to scrap the whole thing.

I couldn’t help meddling though, and eventually began placing players back on their old teams for the purpose of taking some retro screenshots. This may seem like a waste of time, but I say that as long as you’re enjoying an activity with a game, it’s time well-spent! I eventually moved on from the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06, and actually came to love its competitor, NBA 2K6. That game has been a blast to get into all these years later, whether it’s playing with the default 2006 season rosters, or the historical squads including the All-Decade, Draft Class, and original All-Time Teams. Still, it wasn’t long before I began exploring minimalist modding possibilities.

Through a combination of then-contemporary stars and big names from the 90s that were winding down their careers – including some that were in the Free Agents, such as Latrell Sprewell – I was able to turn the regular teams into squads that combined the past and present. Unfortunately, it isn’t possible to move players from the All-Decade Teams to the active rosters in NBA 2K6, which limited my ability to create comprehensive All-Time fantasy lineups. A number of recently retired 90s Legends are also absent from NBA 2K6, leaving several holes in such a minimalist roster. It held me back from creating something that would be far more substantial to play with.

At the same time, I wasn’t too disappointed. Once again, the mere exercise of digging through the roster and trying to create something new through minimalist modding was an entertaining retro basketball gaming experience in its own right. I don’t need to create something new to enjoy playing NBA 2K6 today – though I do have a custom roster where I’ve added Glenn Robinson to the 90s East and taken Shaquille O’Neal out of the active lineup to avoid having any doubles – but it was worth taking the time to explore what was feasible with the default assets and in-game functionality. Not every modding idea – minimalist or otherwise – will pan out, and that’s perfectly fine.

Also, while I’d certainly encourage sharing any minimalist mod if you’re willing and able to do so, these projects don’t need to be for the community. With the amount of bonus content that’s available in modern games, to say nothing of live service content that’s delivered daily and seasonally, our gaming experiences are often prepared for us. The same goes for the structure of franchise, career, and even traditional season modes. There’s nothing wrong with that; indeed, it’s important that games provide those deep experiences. However, there’s a certain joy to be found in messing around with games and creating your own fun scenarios, with the tools and content on hand.

I’ll always be a fan of revisiting old basketball games in their vanilla state. It’s vital as far as producing accurate retrospective reviews for Wayback Wednesday, since I need to cover what the games brought to the table before we began modding them. As I’ve grown fond of saying, they’re also interactive almanacs, preserving a snapshot of the NBA when they were released. That’s as much a part of our nostalgia for the classics as the gameplay experience that kept us hooked for countless hours! However, the more I lean towards older basketball games for my virtual hardwood fix, the more interested I am in finding ways to freshen them up with some minimalist modding.

Don’t get me wrong; I remain a huge fan and supporter of larger projects for older releases as well. Projects such as Stildo33’s Classic Seasons for NBA 2K19, Thunder Shaq’s retro rosters for NBA 2K20, Dee’s Ultimate Classic Teams for NBA 2K17, and the Ultimate Base Roster and U R Basketball for NBA 2K12, NBA 2K13, and NBA 2K14, have kept those games alive and fun to play all these years later. They take a long time to create though, and they’re only for PC to boot. Minimalist modding is something that can be achieved on PC and console, and despite being smaller in scope, can still change things up and allow you to play with something different.

Again, this concept goes beyond basketball gaming. Plenty of old games benefit from mods, from total conversions to minimalist projects that nevertheless add something new. If we look beyond video games to arts and crafts, taking old things – sometimes in a state of disrepair – and finding a whole new use for them, is a popular creative pastime. As much as it’s become fashionable to sneer at nostalgia, and as much as we’ve become a throwaway society, there’s still a keen interest in creating something new out of something old, in order to enjoy it in a different way. It’s why I hope that modding projects for old games, be they major or minimalist, never go out of style.

In any case, I expect minimalist modding to remain a key part of retro basketball gaming for me, whenever I’m inspired to add an old title to my rotation. It’s something I’d recommend to everyone who has an interest in dusting off old favourites. If you can cobble together an entertaining custom roster – no matter the concept – it’ll be a great new experience once you take to the court. As I said though, the fun begins even before that happens, as you ponder the possibilities and flex your creativity. And hey, even if you’re just setting up scenarios to get some screenshots, there’s novelty in that too! Deep modes and mods are great, but there’s joy to be found in simplicity as well.

The post Wayback Wednesday: Minimalist Modding & Retro Gaming appeared first on NLSC.