DETROIT – It’s not often that you’ll play a video game and find yourself in a situation where the game is literally rigged.
It’s mostly a skill issue. Don’t blame the controller. Come on, dude.
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However, if you were playing against the Detroit Pistons in a specific basketball game and found that things weren’t going your way, that’s because of one passionate fan who may have rigged it against you.
The rise of NBA Jam
In 1993, Midway released “NBA Jam” in arcades nationwide. It was a massive success and became the first arcade cabinet to earn $2 billion in quarters (that’s eight billion quarters).
Due to this success, the game was ported to the Super Nintendo, the Sega Game Gear, the Sega Genesis, the Sega CD and the Game Boy in 1994.
Lead designer Mark Turmell wanted to make a game with a wide appeal, covering multiple demographics, after his last game with Midway sold below expectations. “NBA Jam” was a fast-paced basketball game that played nothing like an actual NBA game -- there are no fouls or free throws and the only violations are for goaltending and shot clock violations. Additionally, players can jump higher than the hoops and can move in ways human beings cannot.
Turmell absolutely succeeded in making the game a hit, and the game is still a blast more than three decades later.
Its success led to the creation of other exaggerated sports games, like “NHL Hitz,” “NFL Blitz” and “MLB Slugfest.”
No fouls
Here’s how things were rigged: Turmell was an avid fan of the Detroit Pistons and programmed the game to lower the stats of Chicago Bulls players when they played against the Pistons.
“If there was a close game and anyone on the Bulls took a last-second shot, we wrote special code in the game so that they would average out to be bricks,” Turnell told ESPN in 2008. “There was the big competition back in the day between the Pistons and the Bulls, and since I was always a big Pistons fan, that was my opportunity to level the playing field.”
The player roster was taken from the 1993-94 season, the last season Pistons point guard Isiah Thomas played before retiring. It was also the only season Sean Elliott played for the Pistons.
Additionally, the game’s Chicago Bulls lacked Michael Jordan, as he was one of the very few athletes who owned the rights to his name and likeness instead of the NBA. I’m sure that also helped the Pistons, too.
Unfortunately, there aren’t many easily accessible or cheap ways to play “NBA Jam” today. Arcade1Up released an arcade cabinet last year that you can buy for $500, so maybe dust off your Super Nintendo if you have one to check out the bias code yourself.
