NBA Jam!

[professormurder]

I'm a big basketball fan, and was working on finding a list of players to not be in games due to contracts with other game companies or money issues. (If you're wondering: Shaq, Michael Jordan, and Charles Barkley)

 

I knew the players were listed on the NBA Jam wikipedia page, and read a linked article about the old arcade cabinets.

 

Here's the interesting part:

 

So there was this player Drazen Petrovic. He was programmed into the game, then only a few days before they shipped, Petrovic died.

 

Then something weird started happening. Every once and a while, for absolutely no reason, the game will just start screaming, "PETROVIC! PETROVIC! PETROVIC!" for a few seconds.

 

The developers believe the original run of arcade games to be haunted. They've got no other explanation for it.

 

 

 

Now I really want to buy one!

Edited August 12, 2009 by professormurder

[yuppicide]

First off, you're believing something from Wikipedia? I doubt that's true about Petrovic haunting.

 

Second, those three people were probably not in the game because they were licensed for other games.. Charles Barkley had a deal for Shut Up and Jam, so he probably couldn't be in NBA Jam.

[iswitt]

Wikipedia is pretty sketchy with the facts. I once got on there and altered some information on a page my teacher clearly told us not to use (because of wiki's bad rep). Some kids ignored this rule and ended up with my false information in their papers. Apparently John Wilkes Booth and JFK made a great campaign duo. Who woulda thought.

 

Anyway, that would be really interesting if it was true. I loved NBA Jam as a kid, so this brings back so many memories.

[professormurder]

Yeah Shaq had ShaqFu, Barkley had Shut Up and Jam 1&2, Jordan had Chaos in The Windy City... Plus Jordan wanted way too much money as well.

 

The haunting stuff was just a link on wikipedia to a legit website, with an interview with one of the lead designers/programmers though. I never take wikipedia at face value, since I've done some 'editing' for fun.

[Auken]

Irony. NBA Jam TE later appeared in a Shaq movie.

[tz101]

Pretty sad for NBA fans from that era that these three couldn't get past their egos/contracts to get included in these awesome games. I have NBA Jam for Genesis and it includes Barkley with the Phoenix Suns. I also have NBA Jam TE for Genesis and it does not have him on the Phoenix Suns. So, not entirely correct in saying Barkley completely dissed this series.

 

Also, I have the Jaguar version of TE and none of the aforementioned stars appear. FYI.

[+HammR25]

Jordan was basically an unlockable with a different name on the console versions.

[tz101]

Jordan was basically an unlockable with a different name on the console versions.

 

On both Jam and TE? What was the name they gave him?

[doubleminor]

Shaq was in early versions of NBA Jam and dropped after getting the licenses.

 

Read an article about the omission of certain stars; Pippen was given Jordan-esque stats to make up for his absence. So in essence, you're playing Jordan in Pippen's body.