NBA Jam

NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game developed by Midway in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series, and was written entirely in assembly language. The main designer and programmer for this game was Mark Turmell. The release of NBA Jam gave rise to a new genre of sports games which were based around action-packed gameplay. The arcade version features team rosters from the 1992-93 NBA season and the console versions use rosters from the 1993-94 NBA season. More up to date ports were released for the Sega CD, Game Boy, and Game Gear later in 1994. Midway did not secure the license to use Michael Jordan's name or likeness, and as such he was not available as a player for the Chicago Bulls or any other team (although Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen was given Jordan-esque attributes, perhaps to make up for this absence). Another notable absence from the home versions is Shaquille O'Neal, despite appearing on the arcade version as a member of the Orlando Magic.