Like most arcade games from the 80's and early 90's, this game looks really bad by today's standards but for the time period (I think it was around 1992,) this was absolutely outstanding.  I was an arcade junkie back in the day and i think the existance of arcades are the primary reason that I constantly had a job.  NBA Jam was defeated only by Gauntlet in terms of how many quarters i put into it.  

<center> ![nba_jam_arcade__12634.1509163337.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmcmke1Wt2vfNCpcHNZcLbcB7CUdFJXo3gwJyjtBVrdJt5/nba_jam_arcade__12634.1509163337.jpg)
[source](https://www.nba-live.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/nbajamte_bird_celtics_jumpshot.png)</center>

So this game is obviously basketball, but it was only a 2-on-2 matchup and the rules were pretty lax in that one of the main things you did in the game in order to play defense or get a steal was to simply knock the other guy over.  Your ability to do this seemed to be completely random except in situations where the computer decided to cheat (more on that later.)

<center> ![5a65f7c500d0ef3d018b45aa.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmNW89Tv7PJKc55JRdCTEvRFiYDw1rQx2f3A6JCUAaEokP/5a65f7c500d0ef3d018b45aa.jpg)
[source](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/76/Nba-jam-dunk.png/220px-Nba-jam-dunk.png) </center>

The main thing people liked about this game was the insane dunks which would include things such as jumping higher than the hoop and sometimes doing multiple flips before putting the ball in.  It was really wild and again, if there was a way to make this happen intentionally, I don't know anyone that could make it happen.  

Every team was playable but there was one very notable thing missing:  Michael Jordan.   That's right.   The most famous b-ball player of all time was not with the Bulls or any other team.   This was because he is one of the only NBA players that actually owns the rights to his own likeness - which is strange and something i was unaware that was a thing until i investigated it further.

<center>![maxresdefault.jpg](https://cdn.steemitimages.com/DQmPa5mj9abJdsncb9XY8Li5XsF5p5Zb6Dk7KTj3bS75vMD/maxresdefault.jpg)
[source](https://nepascene.com/wp-content/themes/patterns/timthumb.php?src=https%3A%2F%2Fnepascene.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F03%2FNBA-Jam-Tournament-Edition-Sega-Saturn-video-game-review.jpg&q=90&w=650&zc=1)
*sorry for image quality, but digital cameras didn't exist in 1992* </center> 

Another cool aspect of this game is that if you chose to enter your initials and birth-date into the machine it would keep track of your progress - well, for the most part.  The machine I was playing tracked my progress until I had only 2 games left to beat the game and I went back in with a handful of quarters only to find my data was gone, so that sucked.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vg-Yj0XOuFM
*this video is entirely too long but I encourage you to watch a little bit of it so you can laugh at what got us excited in the early 90's*  

It's funny that I would think about this because I don't think I have played this game (or even seen it anywhere) for over 20 years but a random conversation at a bar last night got me thinking about it.   

Did you have a favorite arcade game?  I would love to hear about it if you did.