NBA Jam is one of the all-time most memorable sports games. Played in arcades and home consoles in the '90s, NBA Jam was a delight for sports fans and video game fans alike. Recently, the developer of the classic revealed something that NBA Jam fans have been suspicious about for some 20 plus years: the Detroit Pistons were a cheat team.
Mark Turmell was the designer and lead programmer for 1993's NBA Jam. In many ways, he was the mastermind behind the 2v2 over-the-top arcade game, one of the best basketball games of all-time. Turmell was also a huge fan of the Detroit Pistons, and NBA fans and historians will remember that the late '80s and early '90s were dominated by the Pistons and Bulls rivalry.
The Pistons got the better of the Bulls for a while, but by the time Michael Jordan, cover athlete of basketball games himself grew into the world star that he was, the Bulls took over the rivalry and never looked back. When Turmell was designing NBA Jam, Jordan and the Bulls owned the rivalry over the Pistons, something that Turmell wasn't happy about. So in a recent interview with Ars Technica, Turmell revealed that he rigged NBA Jam in favor of his Detroit Pistons.
Turmell says that he programmed the game to give the Pistons the advantage over the Bulls, to get back at the Michael Jordan lead team. Specifically, he programmed NBA Jam so that if the Bulls were going against the Pistons and they were taking a last-second shot, that shot would miss every time. No buzzer-beating magic for the Bulls against the Bad Boys in Detroit.
Turmell discussed various aspects of game design in his article, including the idea of rubberbanding, which is specially designed in sports, racing games, and the like to create a more competitive experience. In a racing game, the car that is behind might get a slight boost in speed so that it can catch up more easily, something that seems very unfair to the player in the lead, but a decision that makes games more competitive. FIFA 17 fans once found evidence of rubberbanding in the game, and players weren't happy. For NBA Jam, rubberbanding would be one thing, but the idea that the Pistons have a secret advantage over the Bulls based on fan allegiance from the developer is wild.
As one of the most beloved arcade games ever, NBA Jam is still played today. Recently Arcade 1up revealed that NBA Jam would be coming back as one of their arcade cabinets. One could only wonder if the Pistons advantage is still in the versions that can be found today in arcade machines, collections, etc.
The way downtown idea of a developer rigging a game in favor of a favorite team is something many would have never considered. NBA 2K21 is coming soon, if someone found out that the lead designer loved the LA Clippers so much that Kawhi Leonard had a boosted field goal percentage against the LA Lakers than fans would be on fire with rage. For a game like NBA Jam that came out in 1993 though, its a bit comical.