NBA Jam Tournament Edition
Thirty years ago, the scope of arcade gaming was changed forever thanks to a developer known for raising the bar and setting it. NBA Jam was released in 1993 and a large part of its success was due to its simplistic controls and fast-paced gameplay that fans only expected from fighting games. Arcade competitive sports titles weren't an enigma, with games like Windjammers and Street Hoop being examples of success in Japan. NBA Jam not only was a successful arcade title from an American developer, but it also set the path for future collaborations between Midway and other licensed sports titles. There wouldn't be an NFL Blitz or even an NBA Street if it wasn't for the popularity of Jam.
Very quickly, it was discovered that players could access secret characters through the name entry system. Before each game, players are able to enter their initials and their birthday, to keep track of who is playing which character. However, inputting the initials of a real person with their birthday may unlock them as a secret character. Ed Boon, Jon Tobias, Dan Forden, and other Midway staff members were accessible via these codes.
In some console versions and early test arcade versions, players could even play as various Mortal Kombat characters. Exclusively for some console versions, the player could even play as the President and First Lady at the time, making this one of two Midway games that the Clintons were featured in, the second being Ready 2 Rumble Boxing Round 2.
However, an almost thirty-decade-old secret was hidden in plain sight as this secret character is only accessible on one specific version of the game. In 1995, NBA Jam Tournament Edition was released as an updated version of the original arcade, like Super Turbo to Street Fighter 2. There were even more secrets waiting to be discovered by fans, including the fun presidential cameos I mentioned earlier. However, a few weeks ago, it was revealed that an iconic name in the development of NBA Jam was also included as a secret character.
Almost undocumented elsewhere, it was revealed that Tim Kitzrow was a secret character exclusive to the Sega Saturn version. By holding both the L and R shoulder buttons during the name entry screen, inputting the initials KIT and the birthday June 8th, the player will unlock the NBA Jam announcer as a playable character. With this discovery, we've come full circle as it was always intriguing to see how many characters were based on real people. Of the many developers, real-life, and fictional people included within the various versions, the "Boomshakalaka" man himself was never playable. Now? He's immortalized with the greats.
After covering RoboDunk a few weeks ago, I went back to NBA Jam to cover this discovery, but also to revisit a classic. Playing this in the arcade was always the preferred way. The rumbling of the crowd, the exclamation of Kitzrow yelling "HE'S ON FIRE!" and the impact of landing a dunk from the bass of the speakers was something you couldn't capture at home.
As was the case with most arcade-to-console conversions, the console versions were compromised to run as fluently as the arcade counterpart. Midway was known for its excellent ports and NBA Jam was no different. It wasn't as good as the arcade, but it more than made itself a mainstay in living rooms throughout the 90s.
Following the release of NBA Jam Tournament Edition, Acclaim would own the rights to the name with the original Midway developers continuing their series with various spinoffs. The one I remember the most was NBA Ballers, a spiritual successor focusing on street basketball and the glam lifestyle of the 2000s.
Since then, there haven't been many to try and fill in the void left vacant for over two decades. The fact that there are still secrets left untouched for so long speaks volumes about what fun little things developers of ports got away with, left to be undiscovered until decades later.
