NBA Live 2000

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NBA Live 2000
Nba2000box.jpg
NBA Live 2000 cover art.
Developer(s) EA Sports
Publisher(s) EA Sports
Series NBA Live
Platform(s) Windows, Nintendo 64, Playstation
Release date(s) Windows
October 28th, 1999
Nintendo 64
November 17th, 1999
Playstation
November 23rd, 1999
System requirements Minimum:
  • Windows 95/98
  • 166 MHz Intel Pentium/AMD K6 Processor
  • 32 MB RAM
  • 4x CD-ROM/DVD Drive
  • 90 MB HD space
  • 4 MB PCI or AGP video card with DirectDraw compatible driver

NBA Live 2000 (also known as NBA 2000 or Live 2000 and stylised as NBA LIVE 2000) is the sixth instalment in the NBA Live series, released in North America on October 28th, 1999 for the PC with the original Playstation version being released on November 23rd and the Nintendo 64 version on November 17th. Tim Duncan was featured as its cover player. It is the direct sequel to NBA Live 99 and was followed by NBA Live 2001.

Summary[edit]

NBA Live 2000 is EA Sports' NBA release for the 1999/2000 NBA season. Franchise Mode was one of the key features in NBA Live 2000 and proved instantly popular, satisfying many wishes of NBA Live's fanbase. It was also the first game to feature legendary NBA players including the recently retired Michael Jordan, who made his first official appearance in the series. NBA Live 2000 has remained a popular game in the series and continues to rank high (or atop) many fans' list of favourite games in the NBA Live series. Like its predecessors, it was patchable thanks to community made utilities including the EA Graphics Editor and the NBA Live 2000 Toolkit. As of 2024, there are still members of the community creating patches for NBA Live 2000.

Official Features List[edit]

  • Take on Legendary NBA Players: All-Star teams from each of the five past decades. Play with the Legends 1-on-1 or 5-on-5.
  • Play with Michael Jordan: Go 1-on-1 in a street court duel or play him on a Legends team.
  • Enhanced Player Animations: New in-game speech; hear on-court player reactions. High fives, knuckle touches and more.
  • Enhanced broadcast-style presentation: New color commentary from All-Star Reggie Theus. Multiple camera angles.
  • Deeper Franchise Mode: Full NBA draft and total team management
  • Face in the game: Download your, or any, face onto a player model and play with the pros. Create a whole team of you and your friends.

Noteworthy Facts[edit]

  • NBA Live 2000 was the first game to include legendary players, including Michael Jordan who made his first (official) appearance in the series.
  • One-on-One Mode made its debut in NBA Live 2000.
  • NBA Live 2000 remains one of the most popular games in the series with several fans still naming it as their favourite instalment. However, in a 2007 poll in the NLSC Forum it ranked third behind NBA Live 2005 and NBA Live 07.
  • To date, the final game to feature in-game saves.
  • The final NBA Live released for the Nintendo 64.
  • NBA Live 2000 saw the debut of Face in the Game which gave players the opportunity to import a photo to be used as a cyberface for a created player.
  • The first (and last) game to feature the team of Don Poier and Reggie Theus on commentary.

Running on modern Windows[edit]

Normally, the game has critical issues when running on Windows XP and later operating systems. Most of these issues can be fixed by the following procedure:

  • Download and install the SafeDisc Windows XP fix
  • Install NBA Live 2001 or its demo version. This will be needed for switching a couple of graphics-related files from NBA Live 2001 to NBA Live 2000.
  • Copy 3DSetup.exe and 3DSetup.dll from the NBA Live 2001 directory to the NBA Live 2000 directory.
    • (Optional Alternative) Run regedit.exe and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\EA SPORTS\NBA Live 2000
Change the "Hardware Acceleration" value to 1
Change the "Thrash Driver" value to dx
  • Go to the 3rash folder in the NBA Live 2001 directory. Copy and rename the file dx7z.dll to dx6z.dll and move it to the 3rash folder in the NBA Live 2000 directory. Overwrite the existing file.
  • Run the game. If the game crashes, use compatibility mode for Windows 2000 or Windows XP Service Pack 3.

This will enable all graphics settings and make the game playable and fluid. One remaining issue, however, are the garbled loading screens and bottom menu buttons (although they are fully functional, the text does not display properly).

nGlide alternative[edit]

It is also possible to download and install nGlide, and then apply its fix for NBA Live 2000 by replacing the game's executable and running the modified registry file.

Handling the installer[edit]

The game's installer is a 16-bit version of InstallShield 3 and is unable to run on 64-bit systems. Therefore, the contents of the CD must be copied to a temporary folder on the hard drive. Within that folder, in the SETUP\<LANGUAGE> directory (e.g. SETUP\ENGLISH), place the 32-bit version of InstallShield 3 (available from ReactOS forums) and run it as administrator.

After installing, download a modified install.dat file from Matt's Classic PC Gaming which corresponds to the name of the disc drive you will be running the game from, and place it in the main NBA Live 2000 directory (overwrite the existing file). This is particularly important if the game was installed with the above bypass method from the hard drive, as the game will not recognize the temporary folder as a valid drive. If your disc drive is not represented, download any of them and edit it with Notepad.

Bypassing Microsoft's SafeDisc block[edit]

As of 2015, all then-supported Windows operating systems (Vista and up) had their SafeDisc driver disabled through an official Windows Update (KB3086255), while Windows 10 shipped with the driver automatically disabled and reduced, or entirely removed. This rendered numerous video games that used SafeDisc as their copy protection method unplayable, NBA Live 2000 being one of them.

The solution for Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 8.1 is to go to the Control Panel, choose the Windows Update entry, then the Installed Updates menu. From there, find Windows Update designated as KB3086255 and delete it. Reboot your computer, manually check for updates in the Control Panel, and once the KB3086255 update appears on the list, right-click on it and choose "Hide This Update".

The solution for Windows 10, however, would require placing a fully functional SafeDisc driver file called secdrv.sys (from a previous Windows operating system) in the following directory: C:\Windows\System32\drivers\. Then, it would require to be digitally signed, as more recent updates for Windows 10 disabled running .sys files without a digital certificate. One option is to use the PowerShell plugin PsSecDrv.

PC Screenshots[edit]

Links[edit]







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NBA Live 99
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NBA Live 2001