NBA Live (98, 99, 2000, 2001)

[Matt]

[Jimbo]

Hey Matt, any way you can help me run NBA Live 98 on Windows 7 64-bit? Not sure what to do...

Thanks, Jim.

[Matt]

Hi Jim

Just did a little testing with 98 on Windows 10 64 bit - have a few kinks to iron out still but I do have it running.

I'll do a full write up on the site soon but for now here's the "short version" Hope it works the same on W7.

(1) Copy the NBA98 directory off of your game CD to your hard drive. I put mine in C:\Games\Sports\NBA98, but it can go elsewhere - just keep it out of the Program Files directory.

The NBA98 directory has the following subfolders in it

ART
CSV
DBDATAE
DBDATAI
DBDATAS
MOVIES
ORIGDBE
ORIGDBI
ORIGDBS
SONGS
SOUND
SPEECH

Rename the DBDATAE folder to DBDATA
Rename the ORIGDBE folder to ORIGDB

You can delete DBDATAI, DBDATAS, ORIGDBI and ORIGDBS if you wish (I think these are Italian and Spanish language files).

(2) Download this "install.dat" file and add it to your NBA98 directory.
Install.dat download

If your CD rom drive letter is not D, you have to open the install.dat file in notepad. Towards the bottom of the file you'll see an entry that says D:\nba98\ change the drive letter to that of your CD ROM drive

(3) Download the NBA Live 98 compatibility patch from the nGlide site. Unzip to any folder and run PatchInstall.bat

(4) Finally, if you have nGlide you can play in 3D Mode but you need to make a special shortcut first. Open notepad and copy the following line

nbawin.exe 3dfx

save the file to your NBA98 directory as nbawin.bat. Create a shortcut to the .bat file and use that every time you want to start the game.

If this gives you trouble you can just download the one I made.

[Jimbo]

Thank you, I'll give it a try. Also, in case a crack (no-cd) file is needed, do you have a place where I can get it from?

Thanks again, it's a nice little place you got here!

[Jimbo]

Oh....unfortunately, it didn't work.

When I start the game it says something like "NBAWIN has stopped working". There must be something I'm missing.

Anyway, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. :-)

[Matt]

Aww don't give up on me that easy. You're not bothering me at all - as you can see I don't get a lot of visitors. LOL

What happens if you set Windows 95 compatibility mode on NBAWIN.exe? Same thing?

If that doesn't work there was also an EA SPORTS patch for 98 too. Don't know if it will help but it's worth a try.

forums.nba-live.com/downloads.php?view=detail&df_id=105

I'm looking for a crack file for 98.

[Jimbo]

OK, some good news! I managed to run the game with win95 compatibility. However, it only worked using the default NBAWIN file, not your nbawin 3dfx file. But you're on something!

[Matt]

OK, that's a start.

I have another idea to try to get the 3D mode running.

(1) Take the Windows 95 compatibility mode back off of the NBAWIN.exe file. Leave the entire section unchecked. No compatibility modes, no administrator mode, nothing.
(2) Uninstall that nGlide compatibility patch from my first post if you haven't already. Unzip those files and run the patchuninstall.bat file.
(3) Download this new patch. Same routine as before, unzip and run patchinstall.bat. I took a look at what the nglide guy had in his file and made a slight change to it. I tested this on my old Vista desktop today and it triggered the 3D mode whereas the nGlide version of the patch didn't.

Fingers crossed that this does it. If it doesn't I might have to admit defeat.

[Jimbo]

Couldn't post a reply here for some reason yesterday. Anyway, the game worked in 3dfx after I installed the official patch (or actually replaced the original files with the files included in the patch. All is good...other than the input delay I have when using my PS2-like Logitech gamepad...but that may be the game itself. But it works, thank you so much!

[Jimbo]

By the way, Matt, if you want more traffic here, go to forums like the one at nba-live.com and make a name for yourself. I'm sure lots of people there are having issues running these old games on newer windows versions. You can help all these guys and bring them here.

Think about it. :-)

[Matt]

Thanks for the kind words.

I've thought about the forum thing before - I shied away a little because I didn't want it to seem like I was using their boards for advertising. I might do it now, though. At the least I think I'll start posting some links on YouTube videos.

I'll never get a ton of traffic because the games on here are so niche. But if they weren't obscure they would have been covered elsewhere on the 'net 10000 times already. lol

[Jimbo]

By the way, I decided to play some Live 99 as well. It works great, except for the 3dfx setting. I downloaded the official Voodoo patch, but I can't find where to find the NBA Live 99-3D Setup file, so I can choose the option. How do I make this game work in 3dfx mode? It's weird...

[Matt]

Hmm - the way I had it set up with the registry key, it should have chosen Glide mode by default.

Now, the setup utility (3DSETUP.EXE) is located on the CD in the SETUP/3DINFO directory. You can try copying that folder over to your Live 99 folder, but I think it will only allow you to set Direct3D mode, not Glide. I should have had that in the guide, but I think all the setup program really does is change your registry keys.

I guess try it anyway, see what happens. If 3DSetup crashes try setting Windows 95 compatibility mode on the 3DSETUP.exe - that's what I have to do to make it work on Win 10.

[Jimbo]

When I double-click on 3DSETUP it gives me this message:

"Error! Could not find/open game registry key.SOFTWARE\EA SPORTS\NBA Live 99"

[Matt]

NM, I completely misread that post...lol

Do you know your way around regedit? Something's definitely messed up in the registry.