Double Dribble: 1HN Wacky Cheese Shots

(First of all, shout out to Rich for suggesting this game. I hadn't considered writing about it, but I do have some fond memories to share about it, so here goes...)

Double Dribble was a basketball game that was produced by Konami and released in 1987 in the United States. One year later, I got Double Dribble as a gift (I think). At the time, Double Dribble was the most realistic basketball simulation you could get for the NES with 5-on-5 action that at least resembled pro basketball. There were four teams named after cities (Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York), with each city differentiated by colors and mascots. When selecting your team, an on-screen character shot a ball through a hoop corresponding with that team and play began.

Double Dribble plays like any basketball game: you pass, you shoot, you rebound, and you steal the ball... again and again and again. Like many NES games, much of what happens in the game is laden with cheese as steals become rampant, opponents block each other's dunks, and fast breaks happen with alarming regularity because there are no energy meters for players. Oh, and there are those crazy shots that you can make almost 90% of the time...

I remember it well. I flew to Indiana in 1990 to visit my relatives. At the time, I was in high school and had mostly set aside video games in favor of role-playing games, but that's a previous post... Anyway, I went to my cousin's house and she had an NES console and Double Dribble. Apparently, her boyfriend, Eric, was an NES player; he declared to me that he was "pretty good" at Double Dribble. Thinking that I was "pretty good" too, I accepted his challenge to play against each other. After one 5-minute quarter, it was, like, 40 to 2 and Eric was wiping the floor with me.

How? Well, he taught me a shot that almost always worked: basically, you run your player, who is in possession of the ball, into the upper corner of the court, press down the shoot button, and then release while you are well out of bounds (but before you land). As I witnessed his Double Dribble prowess with this magic shot, I was neither embarrassed nor angry, but in sheer awe of Eric. I still hold him in high regard because of that shot. I would go on to incorporate Eric's shot into my game and began recording my scores for games with 5-minute quarters: 197-4 (with a few 2-pointers mixed in), 196-2. I even think I had a couple of shutouts... all because I could steal the ball and immediately make that wacky cheese shot.

Double Dribble is still a part of my family's NES collection, though it doesn't see much play these days. I did try to play it recently and replicate that cheese shot, but I was unable to do so. Wikipedia corroborates my recollection of that shot by explaining how to do it (as well as about other "hot spots" in the game). So, if you're looking to fascinate your friends and thoroughly trounce them with an NES game, practice the money shots and then challenge them to Double Dribble and watch them behold you with a gaze of reverent admiration.

FIFA 06: 1HN PC Soccer at Its Best

Over four years ago, I wrote a review about FIFA 06 for the PC:

FIFA 06 is Awesome Beyond Description

Okay, this game is not so "retro," but it is an "old" game that has been greatly surpassed graphically and gameplay-wise by its successors. It is also a sports game for PC, which is becoming an increasingly rare breed.

To summarize, it was (and still is) the best football (er, soccer) simulation I have ever played. It's a fine balance of arcade action and team management. Plus, there are so many user-created patches and downloads that you can configure the game as you wish. Some patches are pro-quality: for example, I am still using a Korean patch I downloaded four years ago with uniform and roster updates. The in-game action is intense and involved with ten buttons, two analog sticks, and a D-pad needed to squeeze the most potential out of each player and play. This kind of controller is the norm today, but in 2005 for a retrogamer like me it was a crazy concept to comprehend.

Unfortunately, time has not been kind to FIFA 06 for the PC, particularly if you have upgraded to Windows Vista or Windows 7, or if you have upgraded your circa-2004 video card for a snazzy new one because the newer operating systems and graphics cards do not fully support FIFA 06. But, if you are still rocking an AMD Athlon processor and Windows XP (i.e. a "retro" PC), then this game works extremely well. If you can get this game for cheap on eBay, I heavily suggest it.

NBA Live 97: 1HN... You Gotta Be Kidding Me?!

Last weekend, my friend Andrew came to my house and hung out for a bit. When asked about what he wanted to do, he promptly said that he wanted to play some video games. Knowing that I had recently unearthed my old Genesis, he examined the Genesis games I had. Initially, he chose Madden 97, of which we played one game; it was fun -- a reminder of good times, to be sure -- but not overwhelmingly enjoyable. Andrew then opted to play NBA Live 97, which features NBA teams as their rosters were 14 years ago. After we chose our teams (he chose the Suns, I chose the Clippers), we played a game that reminded me of the high level of surreality I used to experience on a consistent basis 14 years ago!

In 1996, NBA Live 97 was the latest in a growing lineage of EA Sports basketball games dating back to the early days of the Sega Genesis with Lakers versus Celtics (circa 1989). I jumped onto the NBA Live bandwagon with NBA Live 95, followed by 96, and then 97. At that time, I was well-versed in the controls which are simplistic compared to today's standards: one button to jump/block/shoot, one button to switch players/run turbo/pass, and one button to attempt a steal/crossover (I think -- I'll have to check).

As Andrew and I played, we laughed at the various quirks of the game. One is player movement: computer-controlled players make beeline runs after the ball, which often results in one computer-controlled player pushing a bunch of other players until a tidal wave of virtual humanity converged on the ball. The game doesn't seem to discern that players are in the way: the Genesis will just push all intervening players. This often led to strange situations in which the player with the ball (e.g. my friend Andrew) would get pushed out of bounds by a mass of pushed players from my team. Or, if I happened to angle one's defender's run at Andrew's ball handling player, I could edge him out without get a foul called. Another quirk was blocking: if I ran into the key and pressed the Shoot button to initiate the dunk animation sequence, Andrew could not only jump his defender in my direction, but pass THROUGH me AND get the block. Moreover, goaltending was amusingly arbitrary: I could come down with the dunk and Andrew's player could ascend and grab the ball right out of my hands! Oh, and fouls: if you turbo run at an attacking player, you could send him FLYING across the screen and sometimes NOT get the foul called!

I should also mention one quirk that is important to note: the CPU's primary offensive strategy is to make the point guard penetrate and lay the ball up. If the point guard has a clear path, he will almost always turbo down the lane and lay it in. If you put your defender squarely between the point guard and the basket, the point guard will try a couple of crossover moves and then pass to the player with the clearest path to the basket. Also, if you maneuver a player into the path of the running point guard, you could get an offensive foul call in your favor. This is the most hilarious and often infuriating aspect of NBA Live 97.

I could go on and on about the quirks of NBA Live 97, but we came away from that game both amused and, well, infuriated. Having played the game in 2010, I can see how much sports games have thankfully advanced, though the next game we played that night (NHL 97) oddly holds up as a great game even today -- perhaps, I will review that one later. Suffice it to say, for a laugh, pop in NBA Live 97 and witness what gamers had to endure 14 years ago.