First, let me again say that I expect virtually nobody to find these interesting - they are largely for me; I enjoy reading about my own triumphs and failings in video game sports, and I wish I had been writing on them in detail all along.
We come to my first full season - NBA Live '95, played in the winter of 1996. The above screenshot is a good representation of my entire season. That's John Starks of the Knicks shooting a 3, and that was my go-to play in the game.
At that time, I did not have much of a grasp on good basketball strategy. I'm not claiming that I do now, but I certainly know better than I did then. My favorite player in real life and the game was John Starks. As I said, much of my play consisted of having him shoot 3 pointers. That was a bad idea, because 3s were hard to make in that game. In one particular game, Starks scored 96 points; I was trying to have him beat Wilt Chamberlain's record. He didn't make it, and we lost the game.
I played probably 1.5 games on average per day. There were days when I played 3 games after school (remember, these are full games that take about an hour each), and that was probably the max. I often used to nap during halftime.
There was a high school friend (9th grade) I talked to about Live. He hated the Knicks, and recommended me a high-powered team to try out. He wrote the names on a piece of paper while we were in a class, or maybe in the East Cafeteria. I traded most of my players for that team - the starting 5 were Hakeem Olajuwon, Shawn Kemp, Scottie Pippen, Kendall Gill (the friend was a Sonics fan), and Gary Payton. I know Ewing was on the bench and don't remember the others. I made more trades from time to time - the game let you trade any player for any player, so you could get rid of your scrubs and get all-stars in return. I might have had Reggie Miller at one point, and I traded for Mitch Richmond after he lit up the Knicks in a game on January 13th, 1996, which I listened to on the radio at my grandparents' house. (Note - thinking about the real-life timeline with Mitch Richmond, it is possible that I started the season in late 1995.) The game rated your team in different attributes, and I often strove to make trades to become a full 5 stars in every category.
I remember one memorable game where Olajuwon hit an 8 footer from the side for the win in the closing seconds. I don't remember any other close finishes in detail.
When the season's trading deadline came up, the game warned me. I thought about it, and I concluded that I should trade to get all of the original Knicks back. I could not take this super team to the playoffs, it wouldn't be right. I was going to live or die with the Knicks as they truly were.
In general, the game was easy. Even with my poor knowledge of strategy and constant 3 point bombs I had the best record in the league, somewhere around 67-15 I would guess. We went to the playoffs with home court advantage throughout.
The first two rounds weren't a problem. In the Eastern Conference Finals, we played the Orlando Magic and promptly went up 3-1 in the series. At that time in history, I believe only 4 real life teams had come back from a 3-1 deficit, so I was sitting pretty. When I was behind in Game 5, I wasn't that concerned because I would have two more chances. I did not put any extra effort into making a comeback, and lost the game. Series at 3-2. We lost again in Orlando, a blowout. 3-3.
A brief interlude on losses. Many people say "why don't you just restart the game if you lose". To do that would be to ruin the entire purpose, for me, of playing seasons. There has to be a real sense of danger, a real chance that you might lose individual games and even overall in the playoffs, and that all that grinding would be for naught. Winning the championship every year with no adversity is not fun. Here are a couple of links to recent blog posts about losing:
http://disqus.com/forums/gamermelodico/just_doing_what_the_lions_do_best/trackback/
http://www.pippinbarr.com/inininoutoutout/?p=1541
So, the entire season came down to this one game. Game 7, Knicks-Magic, at the Garden. Keep in mind that this season takes place over the course of months, with 100+ hours of playing time (with all of the false starts and exhibition games, I have probably played NBA Live '95 more than any other game in any genre). Getting knocked out of the playoffs would be huge. It was now probably February of 1996.
At halftime of Game 7 I was already down big, by 20 or so. I likely took a nap or tried to, wanting to delay what looked like the inevitable. After the 3rd quarter I was still down big. I remember pumping myself up, knowing I needed to make this one last push and come back.
I never made it close. My Knicks lost the series 4 games to 3 on a dark, cold winter's night on Long Island.
No comments:
Post a Comment