Dick Vitale's Awesome Baby College Hoops on Sega Nomad / Genesis / Megadrive

[guv859]

It's strange, Steve, but whenever you mention yourself at school, I visualise you as younger and smaller - and with a beard.

[SteveBenway]

@guv859 Hahaha! That would've been awesome :D

[aryinc]

the only good thing bout this game is the whammy dive,its funny.i think they could have utilize this more,the genesis seems to have a great playback channel when given the right amount of memory.

[aryinc]

the only good thing bout this game is the whammy dive,its funny.i think they could have utilize this more,the genesis seems to have a great playback channel when given the right amount of memory.

[ArcadeMameMachine]

Looks Ok but NBA jam is better.

[Andyc18]

This game looks pretty cool graphically for the Mega Drive back then. My favourite basketball game of all time is NBA Jam for the Mega Drive, absolutely love that.

[ReplayRetro]

love how you got really into it at the end!

15 - 9 isnt terrible for a first play

[STONEYKAT1]

You make my day with your reviews of sports games hahaha.

[wrestletube1]

One good thing about this is that they did use the one channel real sound chip with the 4 channel YM to make a good broad sound although it was used for shitty music in a kinda shitty for a basketball game though.

[SteveBenway]

@wrestletube1 Might have been better if they'd had a good shotgun sound effect, as someone shoots the commentator baby! ;)

[Roadstar1602]

@SteveBenway LOL. Dick Vitale is a legendary college basketball coach and commentator. The game only plays a few of his most famous phrases and if you don't know who he is, I can see where it could get annoying real quick. As for the game, I've never played it. It looks pretty good, but as you said the frame rate is a serious problem.

[SpiffyBiscuits5]

Look at that, he's the Windex man!

[SteveBenway]

@SpiffyBiscuits5 Er... eh?

[SpiffyBiscuits5]

@SteveBenway

Just quoting what Vitale says in the game.

[nexus000111]

Evidently very dated now, but I could imagine that it was quite an innovation for its time. For me I think the god awful frame rate would render it unplayable.

[SteveBenway]

@nexus000111 The framerate is definitely the weak spot on this game.

[agentk1986]

Nice half court shot!

Basketball games are fun when you turn off fouls, then you can shove people to the ground.

[SteveBenway]

@agentk1986 What's a half court shot? ;)

[goldenretrogames]

When a game has 'awesome' in the title, you just know it's going to be one of the good 'bad' games. You have to admit that the developers did have balls for trying to pull off a 3D sports game on the Genesis. Props to them for trying!

[SteveBenway]

@goldenretrogames It's certainly different. Can't say it really worked, but as you say, points for effort :)

[niceandgames]

This is great! lol Dick Vitale, yeah baby! I didn't realize he had his name on a basketball game. Oh dear. The perspective you play at is unusual. The sprite scaling of the players is weird. And at times it looks like the court is a mile long, then all of a sudden you'll reach the end and it will get somewhat normal. It's like a weird rubber band effect or something. I love it, baby! :)

[SteveBenway]

@niceandgames So er... who is this Dick Vitale guy?

[niceandgames]

@SteveBenway Well, he's a famous college basketball commentator/broadcaster in the US. I guess a good word for his style would be...ebullient. He's been on TV forever, and likes to punctuate his enthusiastic calls with "yeah baby." I'm not the biggest fan of his style but his over-the-top excitement seems quite sincere and he's certainly part of the fabric of the college basketball. I think. I can't believe I'm typing this much about Dick Vitale. lol 

[lettersfromtheleft]

I love how Steve sinks a half court shot and doesn't even react to it.

[SteveBenway]

@lettersfromtheleft I did? It was all so jerky I didn't know what was going on :)

[Monacomaverick]

This looks like it came out around 10 years ahead of it's time. They really pulled out all the stops for the ol' Genny XD

[SteveBenway]

@Monacomaverick They certainly tried. Not entirely sure it was a good idea :)

[MrBacchus18]

The only sports game on the Genesis I really enjoyed was the NHL series and the Mutant League games.

[SteveBenway]

@MrBacchus18 The only one I like is PGA Tour Golf :)

[28steryan]

I am wishing AIDS opon him baby!!! God that intro' was awful.

[SteveBenway]

@28steryan It was? I don't know. I had cotton wool in my ears :D

[oxxor77]

omg this game looks really horrible. the mega drive has much better games to offer, even sport titles

[SteveBenway]

@oxxor77 Tis true, but sometimes the horrible ones make for more amusing videos :D

[Jago666]

strange graphic style for a Mega Drive sports game, this whole icometric,3rd person viewpoint, btw if ya want a basketball game ya can punch folk out on try out Midway's Arch Rivals, which is on Midway Arcade Treasures 2, i always did prefer pisstake sports games over the sim based sports games lol

[SteveBenway]

@Jago666 I have Arcade Treasures 2, so I'll have to have a look at that. Thanks for the tip :)

[nightbirdds]

It's the SteveBenway Sports Spectacular!! Football! Hockey! Basketball! Steve can do it all! Coming up next, MONSTER TRUCKS!  SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!!!

Erm, right.. Had to get that out of my system. :)

[SteveBenway]

@nightbirdds Yay!

I have a total fail of a baseball game video sitting in my camera. Debating whether to upload, as it's such an extreme fail, you don't even get to see the game :D

[Legionsadvocate]

Hmm a game that calls you baby: encouragement or weird? You decide :)

[AtsumaKarin]

You almost looked like you knew what you were doing here, nice 3 pointer! ;)

Basketball was one sport I was actually decent at at school. "Travelling" is basically when you take a step in any given direction without bouncing the ball first or if, after you stop bouncing the ball, you try to move again. (At least, if I recall correctly.)

Not sure if that made sense. :P

The game itself doesn't look THAT great but in the spirit of the game, I have to say: "Awesome SWILL, baby!" :D

[SteveBenway]

@AtsumaKarin Button mashing works wonders on some sports games :D

Hmm... I don't like that travelling rule. I should've bounced the ball into the teachers face.... but he was bigger than me ;)

[17R3W]

You can imagine that 20 years ago this would have impressed.

I've noticed that 3D games don't age well. Even something like Star Fox looks like a mess, if you play it today.

[SteveBenway]

@17R3W Hmm... I dunno, I think some stand up quite well, but then I have a real liking for flat shaded polygons. This, on the other hand... not so much.

[17R3W]

@SteveBenway

Well Star Fox is very stylized, but it's the frame rate that suffers. 

[17R3W]

@SteveBenway

Bitter much?



[SteveBenway]

@17R3W Not really. Truth be told, even if I wasn't breaking a rule, chances are if I'd kept the ball for more than a few seconds, I surely would have :D

[17R3W]

@SteveBenway

I was never good a basketball either. Which is more sad for a Canadian, as we invented the sport.

It's like a Canadian not being good at hockey.... which I am also not good at.

[PSI236]

What a mean games teacher! I liked mine except when he made me cry when he caught me cheating at cross country :/

Maybe with mode 7 this could've worked, but obviously the Megadrive didn't have that.

[SteveBenway]

@PSI236 Yeah, it probably would have worked better on the snes.

[Croooow111]

Where was the awesome baby?

[SteveBenway]

@Croooow111 They left it at home, sleeping. Someone should probably report them :D

[atombat]

The music sounds like they just sampled the sounds made by a Basketball team, warming up after a dinner of mostly Cabbage, sprouts and baked beans :S

[SteveBenway]

@atombat Hahaha... oh man.... that's just nasty :D

[mrbassman25]

wow... this makes me feel drunk !!!! haha... :)

[SteveBenway]

@mrbassman25 It does have that kind of effect :D

[Lachlant1984]

Who was this game published by? The commentator's voice is a bit annoying, and I see what you mean about the frame rate, it's really jerky, they really tried to make the game look really fancy at the expense of the frame rate and graphics.

[SteveBenway]

@Lachlant1984 It's published by Time Warner, which I guess explains a lot :D