Monday Tip-Off: The Challenges of Historical Screenshots
We’re at midcourt, and the ball is about to go up…it’s Monday Tip-Off! Join me as I begin the week here at the NLSC with my opinions and commentary on basketball gaming topics, as well as tales of the fun I’ve been having on the virtual hardwood. This week, I’m tipping things off with some reflections on the challenges we face while trying to capture historical screenshots.
Between the topics I cover in various articles and my retro gaming habits involving classic teams and matchups, I’m often capturing screenshots of historical scenarios. Needless to say, there are some challenges when it comes to trying to snap the ideal shot. Obviously, many of them apply to virtual hardwood photography in general. From technical limitations to the available content to difficulty in staging everything the way you see it in your mind, the final result may not be exactly what you want. Of course, other times the results can be extremely satisfying.
To that end, I really enjoy firing up a game, tinkering with the rosters as necessary, and finding ways to stage historical scenarios for some great screenshots! Indeed, on top of using historical screenshots to illustrate the facts and trivia that I’m writing about, the theme of a number of my features in recent years has basically revolved around virtual pictures speaking their proverbial thousand words. Not only has this allowed me to indulge my nostalgia and love of NBA history, but it’s been fun trying my hand at some more visually creative content. Once again though, these historical screenshots come with several challenges, though tackling them has been rewarding.
As I alluded to, whenever you’re capturing screenshots in a basketball video game – historical or otherwise – your mind’s eye has a vision of what you want it to look like. Generally speaking, you’ll want it to resemble a real photo as much as possible, most likely one that you’ve seen somewhere before. Much as you’ll see other works parody and pay homage to famous artworks and imagery – such as Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, the photo of Marilyn Monroe in her iconic white dress from The Seven Year Itch, and Sylvester Stallone as Rocky Balboa running up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art – the inclination is to mimic memorable NBA photos.
For example, whenever I need a screenshot representing the rivalry between Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, my first thought is to capture them boxing each other out and jockeying for position. It’s a reference to a few iconic photos of the pair, including a Sports Illustrated cover. With Michael Jordan, some of the obvious choices are The Shot, The Last Shot, or one of his free throw line dunks. When capturing a shot of Jerry West, you might try to imitate the pose that inspired the NBA logo. A Dennis Rodman cyberface mod may be showcased with him diving for a loose ball. As for Shaquille O’Neal, you want to depict him performing his signature Shaq Attack slam.
In other words, for the hardcore hoop head looking to capture historical screenshots on the virtual hardwood, there’s no shortage of inspiration! Replicating those scenes in video games is easier said than done, though. The desired animations won’t always trigger on cue, or a player will be posed incorrectly. Other players may be in the shot, which can be a problem even if they’re in the background. Sometimes, a majority of the shot will look as desired, but a couple of players might be clipping through each other or standing too far apart, detracting from the authenticity. Speaking of which, it can be very challenging to find angles that obscure inaccurate or anachronistic details.
Needless to say, the more historical content that’s in a game, the easier it is to capture screenshots that are more accurate to the photo that inspired them. When you have classic teams at your disposal, you don’t have to worry about a modern player getting in the shot, or angling the camera to hide that the players are on a contemporary court. That’s not to say that you can’t end up with inaccurate details, so you may still have to be careful if you’re trying to mimic a specific photo. As a general rule though, the less you have to mod into a game or mask with creative angles, the quicker and simpler it is to set up a plethora of historical scenarios, and start capturing screenshots of them.
Of course, some prep work is often still required. Rosters will need to be customised, and jersey numbers and accessories may have to be changed for the sake of accuracy. Sometimes it’s best to put players out of position in the lineup, or change defensive assignments, so that they’re more likely to be in proximity to each other most of the time; Magic Johnson and Larry Bird are a great example of this! Scenario and Fantasy Teams modes can be extremely helpful too, as I discovered while capturing historical screenshots in NBA Live 10 for various Wayback Wednesday features. That saved me a ton of time, as I didn’t have to constantly move the players around in the rosters.
On the court, setting up the necessary scenarios is easy in theory, but can be difficult in practice. As mentioned, you’re relying on the desired animations and poses being triggered on cue, which can’t always be reliably done. CPU-controlled players won’t always do what you want or go where they need to be, meaning it will take longer to get the desired shot. Because you’re trying to manufacture a specific situation, you’ll likely force the issue rather than play more organically, leading to mistakes and failed attempts. As such, getting the screenshot that you’re after can take a lot more time and effort than you may have anticipated, and there’ll undoubtedly be some ruined takes!
Naturally, there are some methods to make it easier. Lowering the difficulty level is a logical step. After all, you’re not trying to play a proper game; you’re staging a virtual photo! Messing around with the sliders to make it easier to perform certain actions is also advisable. While the natural inclination is to control the player that is the subject of the screenshot and perform the action yourself, I’ve found that it sometimes works much better if you control the other team and let the CPU get the job done. That way, you can play matador defense, drive straight into the path of a great rim protector, or do whatever else needs to be done to set up the opportunity for the shot that you want.
It may still take a few tries, and even with tweaked settings, the games aren’t always cooperative when you’re trying to manufacture a scenario. When I wrote my article about the lockout rosters of NBA 2K12, I needed a screenshot of an injured Derrick Rose. Even with the injury slider maxed out and constantly making reckless drives to the hoop, I just couldn’t trigger an injury! He finally took a hard fall that didn’t injure him, but resulted in a pose that was close enough to one of the photos of D-Rose in agony on the United Center hardwood. That’s usually how it goes: it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get a totally accurate re-creation, but close enough is often good enough!
Technical limitations also hinder screenshots, historical or otherwise. While most sim games have a manual instant replay function – the Xbox 360 version of NBA Live 06 being a notable exception – they’re not always designed in a way that’s conducive to realistic screenshots (or videos, for that matter). Some of them don’t allow you to completely hide the interface or player indicator, meaning they’ll need to be cropped out. A number of NBA Live games position the replay camera very low without the ability to raise it, resulting in too much empty space above the players unless you mess around with the angle, zoom, and focus point so that they’re properly framed.
NBA 2K’s instant replay has had similar issues. One of its biggest annoyances over the years has been the camera snapping into predefined angles rather than being a true free cam that can be positioned anywhere. It’s understandable, as it’s attempting to preserve realism by sticking to angles that photographers and TV camera operators could feasibly shoot from. Unfortunately, the angles aren’t always great, failing to frame the players well or obscuring them completely. Depth of field can also be an issue, especially if it can’t be turned off, or you need to move the focal point to frame the action as desired. It makes you appreciate Photo Moments in recent NBA 2Ks!
However, when it all comes together, it’s so immensely satisfying! When the right animations and poses happen, the angle resembles the original photo, you’re able to frame the shot to hide players and other details that shouldn’t be there, and there are no video game quirks such as clipping or players not looking the right way, all of the effort feels worth it. It won’t always be possible, of course. You’ll see the three-point line in eras that didn’t have it. An animation may not be identical to its inspiration, or look realistic enough. Some games have cloth physics that look weird in still images. Even if none of that is an issue, getting everything absolutely perfect is quite unlikely.
With that being said, I’d like to think that I’ve been able to capture some respectably authentic historical screenshots, as have several other members of the community. While we’re primarily interested in the game looking and feeling authentic when it’s in motion, it’s really cool to be able to go into instant replay after a great highlight, and find an angle that leaves you thinking “wow, that looks just like a real NBA photo!” I think it’s even cooler when we can do that with historical screenshots, especially when they take some work to set up, and some cheating to hide any details that shouldn’t be there. I’d suggest there’s creativity and skill in capturing great historical screenshots.
If you enjoy nostalgia and NBA history as much as I do, as I said, it’s a fantastic way of indulging those passions! It’s why whenever I get hooked on an old game, I have to mess around with its rosters and see what kind of historical scenarios I can set up for some screenshots; especially if there’s retro content readily on hand to authentically wind back the clock to earlier eras. On top of enjoying the gameplay and discovering new old favourites that become part of my retro gaming rotation, it feels like a great way to get the most out of a game and all of its extra content. Again, it encourages creativity and problem solving to get the results that you’re after with those captures.
There’s a certain joy in just messing around with games like that. Sure, it’s great that games include deep modes and historical content nowadays. Problematic as it can be, live service content also has its place in modern games, being a very effective way of keeping them fresh. There’s a lot to be said for imagination and creating our own fun, though. Indeed, wondering what we can do to make a game even better, or different in an entertaining way, is the same school of thought that leads to modding! I’m usually engaging in minimalist modding for my historical screenshots, but retro roster mods open up even more opportunities to capture some awesome virtual hardwood photos.
To that point, whenever an article has called for historical screenshots that can’t just be set up using original assets, I love that it’s given me an excuse to engage in some more in-depth roster modding. Although it doesn’t compare to creating a major roster project, tinkering with games so that I can get screenshots of the historical scenarios (or What Ifs) that I’m discussing in my articles definitely scratches that modding itch. Of course, I won’t rule out working on a retro roster for one of my favourite games at some point. To that end, the modding I’ve done to facilitate historical screenshots has gone a long way in helping to ease me back into the hobby, and mull over some ideas.
It’s impossible for me to pass up the double dose of nostalgia that comes with playing with retro teams and players, and finding ways to make content out of it. In fact, given my strong preference for retro basketball gaming in recent years, I’ve probably made far better use of Legends and classic teams than I did when those games were new! Even though I always appreciated having that content for gaming and modding, it’s become a much bigger part of what I do on the virtual hardwood. And so, I have no doubt that it’ll continue to be an activity I enjoy, and share with the community. It can certainly be challenging to capture historical screenshots, but that’s all part of the fun.
The post Monday Tip-Off: The Challenges of Historical Screenshots appeared first on NLSC.