PLEASE CHECK THE DESCRIPTION FOR AN IMPORTANT FOLLOW UP FROM THE DEVELOPERS I INTERVIEWED after you are done watching the video. :) Corrections: - Sega Magizin is actually German, not Danish. My apologies. - EA got NBA endorsement for Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs in 1989, predating NBA Jam. So Jam is actually not the first video game with the NBA license, making my sentence at 10:01 straight up false. It might have actually been the first *arcade* game to get the license, and the first to have all NBA teams. - Injury stats have no effect on the arcade machine, though it appears they do impact players on console.

@DemiGodX

2 жыл бұрын

I believe it was the first Arcade game to receive a NBA license

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@DemiGodX That would make sense, since those seedy joints were such a major concern of the league. Probably not an issue for those smaller console games.

@actualarcade9825

5 күн бұрын

Extremely good video! Thoroughly enjoyed it! I love NBA jam, I have the cabinet here in the uk with nba te, hangtime, showtime pcbs. Fun fact: I’m 10 min away from where iguana was, and my aunt was the cleaner there, she says she left the place clean , and couldn’t believe within hours it looked like a bomb had gone off, she is sure they didn’t eat, but only drank fizzy pop, coke I think she said, and empty cans would be piled up everywhere, with cds laid about with hand written scribbles on them. She recalls a life size statue in the corner which she believes was Spider-Man. I was about 13 at the time and was always promised that she’d take me down if possible, unfortunately it never happened.

[Coury] I'm reeling from how good this is... absolutely incredible work. I can't imagine the research that went into this. I was so into the NBA in the early 90s, and that opening montage had completely hooked. Your editing is so on point, but your writing and especially narration delivery kept me invested for the duration.

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks a ton Coury! It means a lot hearing it from the MLiG gang. 😎

@MixologistMilo

2 жыл бұрын

Totally concur, learnt so much. Excited to play it while watching this 👍

@DaveVoyles

2 жыл бұрын

I’m hyped that MLiG watches as well!

@alanlee67

Жыл бұрын

This channel is gonna be big. Throw this guy a collab already!

@AyeYoYoYooo

10 ай бұрын

Fully co-sign this. Most video game reviews suck. And don’t cover the time and place around the game’s heyday. This is masterfully insightful, THOROUGH, and spot on. Genuinely supreme props, my dude. 🤙🏽

Oh and i did convert rob northern, i converted the code from the 68K version on genesis to R3000.. At the time Rob did not have a PS1, the devkits were very very rare!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

What’s up Chris! Yeah, Snake did concede in a follow up email, I have it posted in the description. Thanks again for agreeing to chat with me, your story really adds a lot to the history of this game.

Absolutely amazing feature Sir, I've never been able to sit through a 2 hour retrospective on KZread before, but the time breezed past watching this!!! Kudos!!!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Wow, that’s great to hear Larry! I’m glad you enjoyed it. :)

@Random-yh9tj

2 жыл бұрын

@@PandaMoniumReviews Will Virtua Cop be longer??????

@phazayus4041

2 жыл бұрын

dude been on youtube since 2008 and i swear i always see ya in the comment section even on non gaming videos lol, hello again old friend who you've never met! still watchin and lovin your videos as well!

@FPietros

2 жыл бұрын

Simply because you've always been USELESS at creating content as great as this. ~

I can’t believe the sheer amount of detail, craftsmanship and work that went into this review of NBA Jam for the Saturn. It’s not a review. It’s a documentary of the history of the game and it’s ports. It was a pleasure to watch. Can’t wait for the 3 hour review of College Slam.

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you! College Slam should be a fun one. Will it be this long? Longer? Shorter? I don’t even know really, but three hours seems like a safe guess at this point. 🤪

@Soonjai

2 жыл бұрын

@@PandaMoniumReviews Going by those estimates, Panzer Dragoon Saga should be 3-Parter with around 4 hours each?

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@Soonjai Jesus Waluigus, I hope not. 😂

Hey, not sure if you will see this but I wanted to try to clarify some of the details of the dev team. I was the lead developer at Iguana Entertainment in the UK on the Sega Genesis version and the Sega Saturn versions. I worked with Chris Kirby and Daz Tunnicliffe. Here are the full credits for the various versions we developed. NBA JAM and NBA JAM TE Sega Genesis: Lead game programmer: Neil Hill Frontend/UI: Steve Snake SNES: Lead game programmer: Jason Falcus Frontend/UI: Steve Snake Sega Saturn: Lead Game Programmer: Neil Hill Additional Programming Darren Tunnicliffe Sony PS1: Lead Game Programmer: Chris Kirby Additional Programming Darren Tunnicliffe Sega 32X: The 32x used the main game logic from the Genesis version. I (Neil Hill) updated the background scroller for this version but Steve Snake did all the heavy lifting for the port. Sega Gamegear: Chris Kirby If you are interested in any further information on the development of the game DM me.

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Neil, thank you so much for clarifying those details, and for taking the time to post this. I hope you enjoyed the video, despite some of the slight misunderstandings. I will be messaging you here in a little bit. If you don't hear from me by this weekend, feel free to email the address in the about page of my KZread channel. Thank you so much for your historic work on these fantastic ports of NBA Jam!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Hey Neil, just leaving another reply in this thread to let you know that I can't seem to DM you on KZread. Feel free to email me at nick@segasaturnshiro.com Thanks again!

My dude this is next level. It's almost as if you took the existence of a Saturn port to create a high effort, fully produced documentary about this. I can't wait to see how this spirals into a Peter Jackson-esque epic trilogy for your Sonic Jam video

You've really outdone yourself, you made a freaking full length movie. Did I miss where this landed on the quality chart? Thank you sir, and thank you Craig Stadler

Every Panda review has turned into an absolute beast of research. Interested to see what this covers given the length!

Listening to the bit about how the original NBA code was all written in one single enormous file made me laugh a bit. I'm currently making a Castlevania SotN game on the Megadrive/Genesis, and my code for that is currently all in one single file too. As a beginner, it's reassuring to hear that even some of the professionals back in the day were just as sloppy when it came to neatly organising their code! Hats off to the guy in charge of the Saturn port. Not only did he have to deal with this massive, disorganised monster of a file, he also had to contend with the usual lack of Saturn development documentation. Even reading the few thousand lines of my own code gets confusing, I have no idea how he managed to decipher someone elses. Great video, as usual.

Hope you had as much fun making it as we had watching it!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

I sure did. :) Thanks!

I've been following this series since the Hi Octane episode. It's great to see the human element behind the making of the games on the Sega Saturn. It was interesting to learn how NBA Jam came into being and how the Sega Saturn version compared to the other ports. A great way to spend Halloween!

Your stuff is just getting exponentially better with each video. Insane! The Sega saturn deserves this.

I kinda can't get over how much I love that song used in the intro.

Didn't have time to watch it all in one sitting, but finally made it through today. My god dude, you've really outdone yourself. The amount of work that you put into your videos is absolutely mind blowing. Your videos have gone beyond reviews, and become more like historical documentaries.

It's amazing to the degree that Mark's arcade team went to ajusting the AI on the fly. It's just insane.

You're videos are incredible dude, couldn't imagine you topping that virtua racing episode but you've somehow done it!

Absolutely made my day, fantastic work! A proper epic length video. To quote the mighty Walrus: "Just remember, you're never gonna make it leaving it short."

I’ve watched a lot of nba jam videos over the years and this is the by far the most comprehensive and informative one.

"In remembrance of J. Moon" combined with "He's on fire!" Dark.

+10 points for using the 90s word "sike!!".

@martinevans1206

2 жыл бұрын

I thought it was spelt, ‘psych’!

I'm only 23 minutes in at the moment, but I have to say that this is already amazing. I was expecting one of your shorter reviews, but I was stunned when I looked at how much time was remaining after about 15 minutes. Great job on this video. I feel as though Mortal Kombat got so much more attention with respect to its creation, and a lot of this stuff is new to me, so I'm glad you featured it here. Easily one of your best videos yet, if not THE best.

How the hell is this channel under 5k subscribers? You made a nearly 2 hour documentary about NBA Jam to feature a review of the Saturn port for your overarching project of everything every North American Saturn game. And the documentary was fantastic on top of it despite the insanity of building a 2 hour documentary around what would have been a comparatively simple ask of simply reviewing Jam on Saturn. DF Retro brought me here talking about the awesome NBA Jam episode. After watching this I binged all of the other episodes of Reviewing Every U.S. Saturn Game. This is an awesome series

Holy f*ck, this was AMAZING. I was really sad when it ended. Almost 2 hours of complete retro bliss. I said it before, and I'll say it again: you make me feel like I'm in 1995 in a way no other channel does. You deserve all the praise and much more. Lots of big, high profile YT channels tried to compare the 32-bit versions of NBA Jam TE, and no one mentioned most of the differences you did. Amazing interviews and research as well. Thank you. Thanks a lot.

48:10 that's some real high-quality sleuthing you done there

Oh man what a great video. Loved chatting to you about Jam and if i ever get hold of DazT i will push him your way.. Oddly i noticed the highscore screen has my initials "CHR" and my then girlfriend now wife of 25+ years "CSR" Amazing!!

@chriskirby312

2 жыл бұрын

Oh and the differences was probably because code was shared by throwing a disk across the office. Source control DID NOT EXISIT! And dazT was 4 or 5 cubicles away from me! A tricky throw!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@chriskirby312 That’s quite an arm you got there! 🤣 Thanks again for sharing your valuable stories with me for this video. In the off chance we ever cross paths, I owe you a beer.

This is amazing man. Seriously, these are among the very best video game related videos I’ve ever watched. Documentary level and then some. The production value and content is off the charts. Never stop making these!

@joemamr710

2 жыл бұрын

Also just to want to throw out there, I believe this is the very first time ever on the internet where it was said or demonstrated that the Japanese NBA Jam has fixed AI. I’m surprised nobody has ever discussed this before, and with how few people discuss PSX NBA Jam’s super aggressive AI. Quite a useful piece of original research. Enough for me to whip out my xstation and replace my copy. It actually makes the PSX version better than SAT. Very glad Steve Snake reached out to you. He is a genius and a childhood hero of mine. For real, I wouldn’t be where I am today without him. His games and especially emulators are a key thing that set me down the computer science path I went down. I’ll never forget the first time I launched KGEN. I had to know how it worked. My first emulator experience ever. You’re getting some real heavy hitters here.

*Chef’s Kiss* Share this everywhere! This channel deserves 100K by now! Much love and thank you for all your effort and dedication.

I finally took the time to watch this and was absolutely blown away by the quality and attention to detail. If there’s a Oscar for KZread video game documentaries, this deserves to be nominated!

Another tour de force! PandaMonium triumphs again! Well done. So much great information and little known details. Great to hear a lot of this right from the people putting their fingers to keyboard! Bravo!!! Now I need to revisit the excellent Craig Stadler remix previous released on this channel. :)

Your reviews don't stop getting even better. They're fun and full of character with high quality research. You're bringing fascinating stories from the actual developers that could've been lost to time. Great, great job!

I gotta say, I appreciate every video you create regarding the material of every game. Here's hoping your channel grows big!

What an incredible documentary this was. I can’t get over just how good this channel is, absolutely stellar work and entertaining throughout. Thank you so much.

PHENOMENAL! The amount of effort put in this video (along with how long it is) is insane. I didn't know anything about this game before watching this, and now I REALLY wanna play it. You took us on a journey, man. Get some rest if you haven't yet, you've earned it!

you're brilliant. keep going, you'll be getting over 100k on every video soon enough

Dude I cannot tell you in words how great this is. I'm just concerned for your health and wellbeing if you put in this amount of work into every US Saturn game

Absolutely fantastic documentary review video, as usual. You deserve to have millions of subs with the insane high quality work you do. Love you. Keep it up!

Watched this channel pretty much morph from Sega Saturn reviews to just full blown documentaries. By the time you get to the end of the Saturn's life I have the feeling you will be giving Ken Burns a run for his money and run time ;) Finally getting to watch this one while I fight a bout of pain induced insomnia but you never fail to impress me with how much research you have been putting into this series, cant wait to see what your next video will be. Keep it up!

I'm so grateful for this video. I didn't care about sports at all when I was a kid, so I never played Jam when it was contemporary. But now that I'm older and have a bit more appreciation for sports (and an undying passion for the SEGA Saturn), I decided to pick this one up and have had so much fun with it, since.

I am so excited to see a new video!!! It's like Christmas!

And i moved to Reflections mid College Slam not NBA JAM..

Like any good interviewing journalist, if you let people interested in talking tell their story, you'll hear things you never would have even thought about before you started! This series makes me very glad I jumped into the Saturn rabbit hole - lots of great games to hear about coming up!

Panda, I just wanted to say. I’ve been a Saturn-head for a long time. I got my Saturn when I was 13 years old. I just turned 25 and I celebrated it with a ten player game of NBA Action ‘98. Yes, I had ten people, ten controllers, and two multi taps. My point is that there are many people out there like us keeping Saturn’s legacy alive. In my option you are doing divine work. So please, keep it up! Also my first Saturn game was Sonic 3D blast because I thought the special stages looked cool.

Another incredible episode! I just watched the first hour and will be back tomorrow morning to finish it off. Thanks for all your hard work.

Now we need to mod this game to have every player replaced with Craig stadler

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

OH hell yes!!

Congratulations for another great video! This entire series of videos you are doing should be part of video game history! Well done and researched!

Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, you bring in a 2-hour documentary that is extremely entertaining and informative. This is seriously the best retro content on KZread. And with all these interviews, one of the most important gaming preservation efforts. Truly amazing.

This video is absolutely amazing!! I mean the in depth coverage of this game's history is incredible!! What an outstanding job, loved every minute!!👍👍👍👍

The most criminally underrated KZread channel

You deserve way, way more subs and views!

2:20 the Ken Lobb J Moon mentions here is the person the Klobb SMG was named after a n Goldeneye on N64. He is now at Microsoft.

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

You could say this is a FUN FACT. That’s actually some really neat trivia, I had no idea. Always thought the Klobb was a fun gun name.

Tf how is this not a Netflix documentary????? This is QUALITY

Your content is next level. Always a great watch.

Yet another epic review... uh I mean documentary. Great job, man. At this rate this will be the ultimate series of Saturn games documentaries.

What a nice surprise to see your message in my inbox today when I woke up :) This and Tim Roger‘s Cyberpunk review coming out within just a few hours makes me so happy.

An almost two hour video of PandaMonium on NBA Jam? Is it my birthday? No it isn't. But damn close. Cheers dude. Gonna watch this on my Sunday morning and have a great start of my day.

@onomatopoeia7505

2 жыл бұрын

The level of your investment is amazing. The interviews, the background research, it all adds to it and tells the entire story. I just finished watching The Last Dance series, so this came at the right time for me too. I mainly played the SNES version, and was able to play the arcade version on a retro expo. There I was able to get the tank mini game!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@onomatopoeia7505 The tank mini game!! Such a crazy easter egg. Gotta love those creamy textureless graphics.

My god Panda, all you had to do was churn out a quirky little review of Jam on the Saturn, you didn't have to produce the absolute most interesting and comprehensive videos on the console ports to ever grace the internet. For real though, you did an incredible job. How does this only have 12,000 views?

Soon as I saw this posted I knew it was gonna be a good day. Love Panda videos about the greatest console ever made. Keep up the great work sir.

Well done video, really great quality and well produced review.

216 Remaining? Wow. At least this is kinda feasible. I oughta shake your hand when You're finished with this.

Thank you SO much for the subtitles!! The content of the video is just crazy, as always 😊.

So glad to see you back, and what a huge present you have brought with you! Thanks so much!

Oh when these drop in they just make my day. Thanks so much for the work you put in to these.

This video is just one of the many reasons why Pandemonium reviews is one of, if not the, best KZreadrs on the internet.

Man your videos are insanely good, and you keep making improvements after each one. I especially loved the addition of chapters in this one for better organization and makes it much easier to watch in multiple sessions. Great work panda!

the quality is astounding! well done!!

Wow! That's all I have to say. You can be proud of your work! This is one of the most impressive videos I have seen on KZread. We are lucky to have people like you to go so deep into retrogaming! Thank you! :)

What an incredible video. I have to wonder if there are be ANY other Saturn games with one-person development teams. I'd always figured that model got eradicated after the days of the Atari 2600. I fear for how long the Virtua Fighter 2 video will be.

@ENiceGeo

2 жыл бұрын

Savaki was mostly made by one guy. It's a 3D MMA kind of game. And it looks more impressive than some other studio developed Saturn 3D games.

Supposably if you set the difficulty to easy on the PS1 version there's a bug that cranks the difficulty to its maximum. Making easy the hardest difficulty in the game

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

I’ve heard about this! I was not able to find out if that’s a real thing or not, but I would totally believe it. The players on PS1 did remain very aggressive after I turned the difficulty down.

@DemiGodX

2 жыл бұрын

I don’t think that’s the case. It really depends on what team you play. It appear that the lowest rank teams are insanely difficult. So teams like Minnesota timberwolves, Dallas Mavericks and Washington bullets are very tough. But as you move up the ladder it gets easier. If you play random teams then the first team is usually the timberwolves if using emulators like pcsx or epsxe. However on a real Ps1 or Duckstation the first team when u power on the system is the Cleveland cavaliers. That is if U jump straight into the game without entering initials or going into the attract mode. I suspect that’s why the game was initially rejected because of the difficulty and snake probably did some changes to make the cavaliers play first so Sony testers weren’t overwhelmed by the cpu

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

@@DemiGodX Hey, you’re the guy that made the mod! That’s an interesting point you make about the team order. IIRC, I jumped in on real hardware WITH initials, so I believe the wolves were my first opponent on PS1. I’ll have to check my footage.

@DemiGodX

2 жыл бұрын

@@PandaMoniumReviews thank you for showcasing my mod a bit. There’s so much I still want to add. Even with the internet it still takes a lot of time, I can only imagine how long it took for the developers to find photos of various different head angles. They eventually cheated where they reuse a lot of head angles for many players lol It was easier with TE because they had access to the players and could film them

Congrats and thank you for a great video series idea covering the Saturn. Definitely worth a rewatch! 👏✊

The quality and in depth of your videos are amazing. It’s that small details that makes it! I’m subbing!

I don't comment on many videos, but this one was so excellent I had to. Your videos are so awesome and I am always excited when a new one drops. Keep up the great work. Also "Kill the Panda man!" had me cracking up 😂. I love that you can still throw some humor into these.

this channel is pure gold.

Another fantastic review and deep dive Doc of NBA Jam. Great job dude I can wait for more of these

Amazing video. It was worth every minute. Thanks for putting so much work into this. I learned so much!

Kind of funny how that seedy new York arcade scene is also like, the birthplace of the western FGC and seen now as a gaming heritage site.

Just want to say I love this channel and the videos you put out. Hope you keep them coming!

As a huge NBA Jam fan I must say this is an excellent video and retrospective! Keep up the great work, you earned a sub here for sure and my respect for the time and effort it must've taken to put into this video chock full of detail and love!

Darnit! Ate up my only remaining bag of chips before seeing this linked in my inbox. At least I have something to look forward to when I'm done working tomorrow.

omg 1:50:56? You have out done yourself sir! I'll have to wait until the weekend to watch it - but I love having it to look forward to!

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks!! I initially didn’t think this review would be longer than a half hour, but here we are. :) Enjoy it whenever you are able!

@TheThisk

2 жыл бұрын

Well - as I expected, this was amazing - I prefer this to most professionally funded retro game documentaries I've watched. You have a serious talent and drive for tracking down devs - please keep it up, gaming archives and the gaming world needs you!

An absolute delight to watch from beginning to end! Thank you for making this.

I just keep replaying the opening city pop bit, I adore the editing used. Almost could be it's own video with or without the narration.

Holy cow a 2 hour NBA Jam documentary

Fantastic long form essay, review is really underselling this look in at the history and relevance of Jam. Great work PandaMonium.

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the kind words HG101!!

I’d never find myself watching a documentary about a port of an basketball arcade game over the course of a couple of weekends because of its thicc amount of content. This has to be my favourite overview of any port job I have ever witnessed, helped me get through a couple of work shifts on weekends. Reminds me of a bonus feature from the criterion collection. Excellent work and greetings from the isle of British people. If you’ll excuse me, I’ll be nicking yer kettle and chocolates now :D

This video deserves what ever the KZread equivalent of a Academy Award is 🎖️🏆🏅🎖️🏆🧧

What an awesome story. Glad I've found this channel!

This is such a well crafted video that it could be used as an NBA feature instead of a video game analysis...

Wow this is good… perfectly captured the 90’s atmosphere and sets the mood for some NBA Jam!

Awesome episode as usual. Your dedication astounds me, I dont like comparing people I watch because everyone does a great job but I will say your the most thorough without a doubt.

Another incredible review. Absolutely love your work

Cool video, the technical details were fascinating.

Sir, you have made my day! What a great episode...you are spoilling us with better and better episodes :)

44:43 That's a forbidden video editing technique they don't teach you in school

11/10!!! Outstanding... I've not enjoyed watching a retro video game review like this in years. God bless you PandaMonium, you truly are doing the lords (Segata Sanshiro's) work. HE'S ON FIRE!!!!!

Seeing videos like this make it worth waiting for the next one, patiently building up the library of the console with the most creamy graphics

You are amazing. And hats off to the extraordinary work you've done here. I love your style of editing and good lord, was that a lot of info. But Hella entertaining and interesting. Didn't expect the wall with names at the end, so I still feel kinda important :D

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks so much Artem!! You are indeed REALLY important. :D

@DevilDante92

2 жыл бұрын

@@PandaMoniumReviews in the spirit of the 90s: yo, VIP. let's kick it.

Yay! New vid! I literally got caught up only yesterday. Perfect timing.

I don't give a quarter of a fuck about basketball but I watched the whole ass video just because it's made and presented so well. You don't HAVE to make feature-length documentaries on every Saturn game man. They're awesome and I'm glad to always learn new stuff from your videos even outside of gaming knowledge, but please don't feel pressured to make a 2 hour video on like Mr Bones or Bug Too

@PandaMoniumReviews

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it Aorta! The length all depends on how much info I find, and this one happened to be RICH. I always joke about how people are gonna be pissed next time I upload a less than half hour vid, lol. Not all will be this long, but the Mr. Bones vid will absolutely be longer than an extended Lord of the Rings film. :D

This videos are getting more and more impresive man, definetly what the Saturn deserved, Thank you.