Welcome to another edition of The Friday Five! Every Friday I cover a topic related to basketball gaming, either as a list of five items, or a Top 5 countdown. The topics for these lists and countdowns include everything from fun facts and recollections to commentary and critique. This week’s Five is a list of five modding projects that I unfortunately had to abandon before they were finished.

When I was reading Felicia Day’s first book several years ago, she offered up the advice to never throw away anything you’ve written. By all means start over or try to re-work what you’ve drafted, but don’t just delete the original file. After all, you may want to return to it as a starting point, or at least salvage a part of it. I’ve kept that in mind when writing articles since then. Whether it’s keeping the first draft while I take another run at a topic, or saving what I’ve written when I remove an example from a Friday Five list so that it can potentially be used elsewhere, I’m hesitant to scrap work.

The same goes for modding projects. Even an abandoned roster potentially has some data or art assets that can be recycled in another mod, so there’s value in holding onto both. Furthermore, while projects can hit a brick wall, there’s always a chance that you can persevere, perhaps by changing direction or scaling down the project. With that being said, there comes a time where you need to cut your losses rather than falling victim to the sunk cost fallacy. I’ve certainly done that with a few modding projects over the years! It’s never a good feeling, but it’s far wiser than wasting time on an ultimately doomed idea. Here are five of my modding projects that fell through.

1. Classic Teams for NBA Live 06 on Xbox 360

Whenever I get on a retro gaming kick, it’s become habit to explore ideas for some minimalist modding projects. My newfound enthusiasm for NBA 2K6 on Xbox 360 has led me to roll back the rosters a couple of years, essentially turning it into a game for multiple seasons. Before that however, I was dabbling with the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06. As I’ve said before, while it undoubtedly has its issues, it’s far more solid than a lot of people give it credit for. The depth isn’t there, but it can be fun on the sticks. While many staple features are missing, it does have roster editing, so I was moved to mess around and see if I could create some fun retro gaming scenarios.

Inspired by the makeshift classic teams that Dee and I have been able to assemble in NBA Live 10, I decided to put together some throwback squads in NBA Live 06 on 360 as well. Given that a number of journeymen had played for more than one of my chosen squads, it meant some barebones but playable lineups. It was still coming together nicely though, which is why it was frustrating when I discovered that I’d created glitched clones of players when I accidentally changed their team in Edit Player. It ended up spoiling hours of work, and after deciding that such a project would be better on PC anyway, I abandoned it save for a two-team concept roster.

2. 1998 Season Rosters for NBA Live 2003

Among my biggest roster modding projects for NBA Live are my 1996 season mods for NBA Live 2001 and NBA Live 2004 PC. The choice in season is no coincidence. I was well and truly becoming a hardcore hoop head around that time, and NBA Live 96 PC is one of the very first basketball games that I owned (and it remains an all-time favourite). Unsurprisingly though, I also have boundless nostalgia for the 1997 and 1998 campaigns. 1998 in particular is special being The Last Dance, and a season I followed closer than ever before thanks to finally getting access to the internet. As such, a while back I found myself casually assembling a ’98 roster in NBA Live 2003.

A couple of factors led to it joining the list of abandoned modding projects. Between the active rosters, Free Agents, and Legends, there’s a decent number of players in NBA Live 2003 PC who were in the league in 1998, but there’s still a ton more I’d have to add. With large modding projects such as a retro season roster, feasibility and workload are vital considerations, especially when you’re tinkering with an old game! More to the point though, when I was browsing our Downloads database to check for the art assets at my disposal, I was reminded of the Decade of Rosters project, which includes a 1998 season mod. Another one would be superfluous, so…that was that!

3. Fixed Rosters for NBA Live 09 on PS2

This is an idea that I might return to at some point – if only for my own retro gaming, though I might as well share it if I do – but technical issues put an end to my original efforts. Without a PC version of NBA Live 09 to create rosters for, I tried my hand at updating the PlayStation 2 release. I had a PS2 Action Replay – the PAL version of the Gameshark – which allowed me to copy save files from a memory card to PC. To that end, I updated the rosters as best I could without creating any missing players, and uploaded the file for others to use. I also documented all of the necessary moves and edits, to help out anyone who couldn’t copy the file or get it to work on their PS2.

As it turned out, the save file was only compatible with PAL versions of NBA Live 09. This isn’t altogether surprising in hindsight, but in any event, I wasn’t keen to continue a project that a majority of gamers most likely weren’t going to be able to use. Now that PS2 emulation has come a long way, I’d be more inclined to provide an updated roster that doesn’t require an additional peripheral to transfer, but it’s not a priority for me at this time. Still, it’s a shame that a project that was started with good intentions – with the potential to expand beyond our PC-oriented content – fell apart so quickly. On the bright side, PS3 and 360 files are far easier to copy and distribute!

4. Several Seasons While Modding NBA 2K11

Of all the modding projects that I’ve had to abandon, this is the one that I’m the most regretful of. After warming up to the NBA 2K series, I began giving older releases a second chance, and was intrigued by the possibility of modding some of them. There was still considerable interest in updates for NBA 2K11 about seven or eight years ago, particularly as it had missed out on the modding explosion that came with NBA 2K12. As someone who maintained current rosters for NBA Live for many years, I decided I’d give it a try! I did some preliminary work, posted a couple of teasers to gauge interest, and figured that a 2017 roster would mark my big return to modding.

Unfortunately, I got ahead of myself. While I was experienced with modding NBA Live’s rosters, there were a few things I had to learn about NBA 2K’s files. It wasn’t anything I couldn’t figure out, but it did slow my progress, meaning that there was still much to do as the 2017 Playoffs were looming. Changing my approach in an effort to streamline the process didn’t help, either. Furthermore, my enthusiasm for the modern NBA was beginning to wane, preventing me from truly getting invested in the project. When the opportunity of the 2020 shutdown still didn’t allow me to catch up, I knew it was time to pull the plug. I had good intentions, but there were too many roadblocks.

5. Black & White Presentation Rosters

Since I was still updating the rosters for NBA Live 2005 through NBA Live 08 when NBA 2K11 and NBA 2K12 came out, I considered borrowing a few ideas from them. This included adding classic teams, and while that didn’t exactly come to fruition, I eventually settled on adding two Dream Teams and expanding the Decade All-Stars. The historical presentation of NBA’s Greatest was another tempting idea. After trying and failing to replicate black and white presentation by editing the lighting file, I landed on an alternative. Why not create textures for players from the 60s that are in greyscale so that they appear black and white, while modern players are in colour?

The concept absolutely achieved the desired effect, as you can see in the screenshot above! All it would take was time and effort…and therein lays the problem! By that point, I was suffering undeniable burnout from keeping four games up to date for a dwindling audience, with less and less help. It was hard enough to remain motivated to create the current rosters, let alone tackle a big retro project. The irony here is that if I’d concentrated on the historical mod instead – and maybe stuck to one game – I might’ve been able to maintain my passion. It’s a shame that it fell through, but it was a fun idea to explore, and also serves as a lesson in choosing modding projects wisely.

Modders, what are some ideas that you’ve had to abandon? Gamers, what have been some of the most disappointing “cancellations” when it comes to modding projects that you were looking forward to? Have your say in the comments, and as always, feel free to take the discussion to the NLSC Forum! That’s all for this week, so thanks for checking in, have a great weekend, and please join me again next Friday for another Five.

The post The Friday Five: 5 Modding Projects I Had to Abandon appeared first on NLSC.