My brother and I always called this effect "Tom & Jerry." We were Tom, computer's Jerry, because in the first 20% of the episode, we're just dominant and tormenting the computer. But around the mid-game, the tide turns, and then it's obvious that the deck is stacked against you and Jerry's on a runaway comeback unless you can hold him down. We also noticed this in Blitz Football.
F-Zero for SNES was also known for this. As you raced perfectly, the gap between you and the rest would grow, but it would never be allowed to grow too wide. On the map thingy, you could actually see your opponents (as blinking squares) magically transport themselves closer behind you.
My brother and I certainly knew about this on the SNES version of the game. One time we decided to see what was the maximum number of points we could score in a game. At first we tried to do it by deliberately giving the ball to one team and letting them constantly take the shots uncontested, but the rubberbanding soon made it impossible to sink anything. By having both teams score alternately, to keep the score even, we were able to go literally twice as high.
When we were kids there was always the cry of "the game's cheating on me!" which you usually took quite serious if you were playing but laughed off as lame excuse-making when you weren't. It's funny that we were right the entire time. As kids the rubber-banding did a good job of tricking us into thinking we were having competitive matches with each other but as adults my brother and I couldn't help notice it. Eventually we determined that the best strategy to defeat the computer was to concentrate on three point shots to build up an early lead and settle for two pointers on the rebound. This was about 10 years ago. Later the Golden State Warriors essentially used this strategy in real life and now prioritizing three's is typical NBA strategy.
ITs the same today with EOMM. Now they just tell you to "git good" when we all know the worse you are, the better you seem and vice versa. So all the people who have a bit of skill are the ones the game is rigged against and vice versa. Can you imagine.
Blitz was worse, IMO, because scoring happens less often than basketball. If you had the ball up 7 in the 4th quarter, best believe every pass you throw is going to be picked off, and every tackle will cause a fumble. And that's IF the offensive line blocks for you that play!
@@pnut3844able no one said anything about single or multi and it happens regardless sooooo lmao why are aggressive in the internet so late at night??...🤔
One of the more fascinating botches in that regard is SNES Batman Forever. Due to some programming errors, you can set the difficulty in training mode to more than the game normally has. Since it never clears its own state unless you hard reset, you can enter a scenario where the game is unbeatable. Enemies will always defend flawlessly, also grappling and attacking you on the first frame they can. There's also a countdown timer in one stage which is never reset. If you play the game multiple times and make the time, it's possible to reach a stage where you can get a game over before you get to that stage.
@@YoupiMatos2 This is something mentioned by PJ and MechaRitcher, which are speedrunners or the game in question. There should be a video on PJ's channel (The Super SNES) about the run which mentions it.
Damn, I remember when I broke this out on the SNES recently it had me screaming and cussing accusing the game of cheating. Looks like I was right all along.
This is why sometimes you had to enable the cheats ... Just to make the game fun. Like the hot spots. Perma Turbo. Special Characters... That made the game more fun. Oh and the dunk from anywhere code.
I recall my brother showing me that the game was going this. He was leading me by ten points, and he showed how the game wouldn't let him make his shots anymore. He'd stand at one spot, miss, then let me score, then I let him take the same shot from the same spot and it went in.
why dint you just tell him to play the game to show proof, i know twisted metal cheated because all the AI go after you at the same time but they dont go after each other which the whole point of twisted metal is a car battle royal with different abilities and cars but its not really a battle royal if thy just all shoot at you at the same time now is it? after i knew the game cheated i just exploited it by playing cat and mouse and having them chase me.
Street Fighter II the CPU also cheats against you, for instance, in the Guile Somersault Kick, the player needs to hold 2 seconds, but the CPU makes the move in a little less time.
A guy disasembled sf2 to understand how it runs, and the AI just follows a script. It doesnt even need to charge aything, if the instruction says "Do a flash kick", you get a flash kick, even while working forward(would theorically work during a jump even) If you search "The AI engine sf2platinum" you should find the website I'm talking about, it's pretty cool
When I played the arcade version in the 90s, I always tried to stay even with the CPU until 4th quarter, then run away with a lead. The CPU usually didn't catch up.
I remember playing Daytona USA in the arcade and even though I drove a manual transmission (which had a higher top speed) the opponent cars would still catch me on the straights like I was stuck in 3rd gear when I was in the lead. Very annoying.
Yes, very annoying. The cars behind go at least 20% faster than their indicated speed when they're behind. For example, a great lap in this state on the Beginner track can go by in under 15 seconds.
funny, my friends and I referred to rubberbanding as "Daytona" when we were younger when we didn't have any other word that we knew to explain the come from behind phenomena we were witnessing in games.
If this is the one I am thinking of, you can go through the pits at full speed on the last lap. It was a shortcut if done right would put you in first place at the right time to win
This game was the first one i remember upping arcade prices from one quarter to "2 to start, one to continue." That was just to play the first quarter of the game. 5 quarters to actually finish a single basketball game!
Actually, the game menu adjustments you can make from inside the cabinet (the menu shown in the video that allowed for CPU assistance to be turned off) could also change the pricing. I don't remember the options, but it wasn't fixed pricing. I bought an original cabinet for my brother, and on the default options it's just a single quarter per quarter, I think. If I have a chance I'll try to double check!
Honestly, I’d even be down with a ROM hack that puts Jordan in there, and one that puts Shaq into TE. Also, I swear there were some other roster differences that I recall from the SNES version that weren’t in the arcade version, and I’d like to have Muggsy Bogues as an option in the arcade version.
Great video outlining specific aspects of the rubber-banding. You can beat the computer almost every single time by shoving like there's no tomorrow and passing mid-shooting-motion. Get a 4-point lead and only shoot 2's after. Keep shoving off-ball to make CPU passes fail. To protect from 4th quarter CPU quick-shoves, pass backwards immediately upon inbound, turbo forward-down (shove incoming defender), and pass back to yourself quickly; Run the fastbreak from there. Only shoot 2's (no dunks) in the 4th quarter, and follow/rebound all shots. Tap shoot while in the air after rebounding for a put-back layup. NBA Jam, NBA Jam TE, and NBA Hangtime are 100% beatable.
I wouldn't be surprised to see games in the near future using neural networks/AI/ML to maximise play time or micro-transactions purchased. Android games could even analyse the player's facial expressions to help detect tilt (in gambling parlance) to maximise revenue even further. They're already analysing facial expressions in order to choose which ads to display to Uber passengers. The difference being (with AI/ML versus programmer choice as in the video) that there is no human analysis of *why* the player is playing longer/spending more, the algorithm just finds the optimum point.
Oh man, this is absolutely perfect timing, as I just did a longplay of this game last Friday! And yes, the computer totally cheats you when you are playing the better teams later in the game or when you are up! There was one point where I missed like 4 straight turbo lay-ups/ dunks because I was up from like 15! Also, the computer is WAY faster than you at times. Cheers, and this is an instant classic video!
I stopped play the Need for Speed games a long time ago, when I realised how obviously and how significantly the AI cheated. I don't remember which title it was, but certainly before Most Wanted. The AI could wipe out in an astonishing crash, and be back behind seconds later. It was impossible to lap even the slowest cars and no amount of jostling amongst themselves ever upset the AI behind the player. I liked the feel of the games but when I spotted how terribly the AI cheated I dropped the franchise like a stone. Not fun.
The worst example of rubberbanding in the NFS games are the speedtrap races of Most Wanted and Carbon, if you're ahead with a considerable gap the AI cars will just go through the speedtraps at impossible speeds
My roommates and I always had epically close games on the Playstation version. We had a visit from the RA one night asking us to keep our noise down :)
@@eng3d Residential Advisor. In on-campus accommodation at university they are a support person also tasked with monitoring and dealing with day to day issues.
That's the first time I've heard rubber-banding defined in such a way. I've always known rubber-banding as hidden AI-only mechanics in racing games that keeps opponents within a certain distance of each other - such as increased (or decreased) stats adjusted on the fly. I've always known player-interactable catch-up mechanics such as Mario Kart's Bullet Bill or CTR's Warp Ball as just that - catch-up mechanics.
No, he's right. That's how rubber-banding has been defined in video game design for... well, about as long as video game design has existed. It's just that racing games are the most common and obvious example of it.
You should see the rubberbanding of GT Sport in the campaign mode... the "second" car, the one that is actually predetermined to be a real competitor (yeah, only one is a ""real competitor""...) gets such a boost in speed that most of the times the car can't even handle and ends up off track in most corners, it's hilarious and sad at the same time... 😂😂😂
That music takes me back to Timezone on George Street Sydney a very long time ago. This game was damn impressive and my buddies were obsessed with basketball it was such a good time to be alive. Hip hop, basketball, friends, occasional stabbings and getting rolled for our Jordans in Camperdown, but other than that it was GOOOD TIMES.
@@devaughnsalter6264 I dumped a small country's GDP into this game at the arcade. Goaltending still gives points to your opponent. Maybe they changed it in later versions or on consoles.
Me and my brother would get really competitive over NBA hangtime growing up. Funny enough, he's also a programmer now and when we played this again recently, we talked about this exact concept of rubber banding, since it's also present. One of my favorite videos of yours, this is awesome!
I remember one game I played in the arcade version, where the CPU hit a buzzer-beater to force overtime. And then again to force double overtime. And then AGAIN to force TRIPLE OVERTIME. And then *AGAIN* to force *QUADRUPLE OVERTIME.* One game for the price of two. I never played again. Fun fact: in 4OT, rather than "Quadruple Overtime," the scoreboard actually says "FINAL," even when the game is in progress.
Great video as always, would love to see you tackle Mortal Kombats AI cheapness. It seems the input by the user has no delay time for the AI to react, rather as the input is executed the ai immediately reacts. I learned this the hard way once I got into the arcade collecting hobby.
I remember of the "catch up" mechanics in NFS Most Wanted, that would make CPU opponents stay close to your car. You could switch it on or off in quick races but in career mode it was always on. Because of that, In NFS Most Wanted I would consider Earl (Blacklist 9) as possibly the hardest boss in the game. The combination of the track you were in and the "catch up" mechanic made it so that he would often overtake you in the last stretches of his races, greatly reducing your chances of winning. I believe people quit the game because of him.
The original NFSU probably had the worst rubber banding ever. It specifically rears its head in about 2 of the last races in the game that are 6/7 laps long. You essentially have to race perfectly throughout the long ass course or else it'll be impossible to catch up because the rubber banding only works one way for some reason.
I remember Mario Kart 64 was bad at rubber banding.. You can be #1 and all of a sudden some of the racers will catch up or throw that crazy ass Blue Shell.. Don't get me started on Diddy Kong Racing when you race the bosses in Adventure Mode..
Pretty much all the NFS games of that era had some really bad rubberbanding, along with some other racing games at the time. The worst of them was definitely Underground 1 though just because of the length of some of the races. You could be on lap 6/6 and all of a sudden the AI rubberbands past you at the very end. Despite all that it’s still my favorite NFS though lol.
Underground, Most Wanted, and Pro Street were all quite obvious with the cheating as the game progressed. In Pro Street I did too good at the drag racing / wheelies early in the game and the computer adjustment made it literally impossible to beat the game. Perfect driving with all upgrades available and I would still loose every time. In Most Wanted I "cheated" the game by taking the Lexus and maxxed out handling / brakes but left the engine stock. I could drive around for as long as I wanted and escape the police with ease. Made some of the challenges far too easy. Upgrade the engine and whew buddy the cops suddenly turn crazy aggressive and it's game over. In underground towards the end of the game I was getting fed up. As an experiement I just sat at the starting line for 30-40 seconds before leaving. The rubber banding was so obvious I could still catch up within a lap or so which means the cars were driving soooo slow then magically can out pace me when I catch up! IIRC I used this trick to beat a few of the races near the end of the game. Same with purposely going way too fast in places using nitrous to skid around the outside wall which would cause the computer cars to drive way too fast and wreck in hilarious ways allowing you to win.
Yeah, when I saw the title of this video I immediately thought of car racing games. Not just NFS but also project Gotham racing. I definitely quit playing games over this because it was so stupid how you could get way ahead of the AI drivers and then they would suddenly appear behind you and catch up at impossible speeds, making winning the last few races extremely frustrating.
I hate rubber banding in any games, I hated it in need for speed to back on the ps1. This is my first time watching a video of yours and it was really good I subscribed, also it helps you are an Aussie like me lol
I knew that there was quite a bit of rubber banding in NBA Jam but I had no idea that they had programmed in so many scenarios to use it in. I think the rubber banding is one of the main things that made this game so much fun to sink quarters into with your friends. Fantastic and in depth video as always!
NBA Jam arcade was really quite the spectacle that even watching the game's attract mode was a lot of fun. Midway really nailed the presentation on it. I'm not against rubber banding as a concept, but NBA Jam might be a bit too aggressive with that. In recent years, I've really noticed different methods of rubber banding and cheating in various games, mostly arcade games. Street Fighter 2 is notorious for a few things, but the one that sticks out to me is that in certain fights, such as against M Bison, the player's button press will trigger a CPU attack that has priority. In X-Men arcade, Konami tries to give bosses a free hit on the player. How it works is when the boss is almost defeated, the game turns off hit detection briefly on what should be a hit, so that the player is likely to be in the middle of a combo with one of the hits not registering which leaves the player open for a counter hit. In that game, there's a good chance that hit will force the player onto their next life or to have to continue, especially feeling that they're so close to beating the boss. I have observed this many times. I'm not sure if Konami altered the damage amount at that point. For a long time before I figured this out, I noticed I would have to continue way more often at the end of stages, even when I was being careful. I've since adjusted my tactics to not use combos when the boss is almost finished. That's how I avoid the counter hit when the game tries that trick, which it always does. I still love the game.
My family literally is in pieces because of this game. I'm still not talking to my siblings because they played so unfair. We even had to go to anger managment and family therapy for a period of time only because of this garbage game. Downloading the ROM right now...
@@VincentFischer yeah, you know, it was extremely complicated, had to think a lot, had to ruminate, had to contemplate before making this final decision. Remembering you and your cheerful, helping attitude what actually was that got me through the tough spot. Now, I'm still struggling financially would you be a kind brother and help out with a small loan???
This game was so awesome. Before they had tournaments, we would play all night long in the arcade. I played once for for 6 straight hours without losing.
F-Zero is old rubber-banding I remember, no matter how flawlessly and quickly you raced your opponents were always basically a set distance behind you.
PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON MORTAL KOMBAT (1, 2, or 3) for arcade, and make it just like this video. I ALWAYS wanted to see how the computer became immune to the same attacks if you didn't change your strategy, or how it would know your attack before it actually showed up on screen (and blocked it just at the right time). This would absolutely make my day! And keep up the amazing work you do. You are a true legend in this scene, and I absolutely love your channel!
The programmer of this game helped write a book about it and it’s full of super interesting things like the bulls missing last second shots against the pistons super interesting and would highly recommend
This actually sheds some light a little on how I feel like I'm cheated out of a win in sports games. Crap like this. It's like in the console sports games, in the NES baseball ones. You try your hardest to play defense, score runs .etc but the A.I is programmed in a way that, they'll get your hits 95% of the time with a small window of error. They'll always manage to strike you out and you can barely squeeze a home run or two. Until it's their turn and they get batting rallies or scoring home runs.
Still sounds great on the two NBA JAM games I got from the app store. Sounds a tad better on the arcade version but, imo, the play is better on the updated version.
My little brother use to beat me in this game sometimes, he had no idea wtf he was doing, but the game wuld keep the score close until the final seconds I remember one time, I had Chicago and he had Detroit, once I got up by 10 points, all of a sudden Bill Lambier was hitting 3s like Steph Curry , and Scottie Pippen couldn't make a layup.
7:05 Yep. That was the first time I noticed the cheating of the game. The computer would always hit the buzzer beater in a close game. And of course I noticed the rubber banding in Mario Kart as well. When you hit the driver that usually comes in second with a shell, they would be able to drive really fast all of a sudden, to get back into second position.
not only that, if you're on the last two places, your chances to get red shells, thunder, bullet bills and your speed are increased, if you're on first place your car is slower and you'll be cursed with a bunch of bananas.
thats not the "core" of mario kart rubbenband ai, thats an expected behavior, if you are in last place you need more lighting and stars, if you are first place you need bananas and turbos to keep yourself head
It also speeds up the CPU when you are ahead. Also, MK64, enemies don't suffer the full animation when far away when hit by red shells or upside-down- question blocks. They just stop, but then can go again right away without the 2-3 seconds of delay. It gets really ridiculous when the CPU is going as fast as a player with a golden mushroom. I swear I've had that happen multiple times on MK64.
@@JohnSmith-xf1zu "It also speeds up the CPU when you are ahead" Same happens in F-Zero. No matter how good you are and how many shortcuts a track has, the CPU is always right behind you.
The one game where I loved “rubberbanding” was Homeworld (and HW2). Since a fight in one level could leave you with anywhere between your full fleet and just a few ships, the next level would adjust so you would neither need perfect play to win the game nor have it too easy if you play well. A nice side effect was that by editing savegames you could give yourself a huuuuge fleet and then expect an equally huge computer fleet, so you got epic space battles with hundreds of ships.
I remember those days. It was the first official cabinet from NBA that was licensed with their logo. It was released the same time Mortal Kombat was released. Great Video and never knew this game did that.
Yeah I was so disgusted with the way he was treated as I have bipolar depression, I can only imagine how bad his mental health was at his last moments!
The absolute best moments for me as a kid was winning the game after the buzzer with a full court shot. Thank you for destroying my innocent childhood memories.
Oh yeah this is unrelated to nba jam, but I had the DS to play on the toilet also and I let my younger cousin Sion use it and he handed it back to me with Tetris DS and he told me he beat my high score. I NEVER cared about high scores in ANY game until then. Anyways one night I had to take a dump at like 2am and I had Tetris DS on the toilet and I played 1 game on the toilet and THE SUN came up while I was still playing that game from 2am and my ass fell asleep sitting on the toilet for so long. You know how when your foot falls asleep? Well my butt was asleep. But I thrashed Sions score. Cuz after level 20 tetris ds stays at the same speed and it is quite forgiving cyz you can still manuever the blocks for a good amount of time even if they hit the bottom, unlike tetris for NES. This cool story bro happened like 2005. It was like yesterday.
@@nicktronson2977 sounds like my average day playing Meteos (DS) pretty much around the same time, 2005 / 2006 I believe. Meteos was just incredibly addictive.
Thanks for putting this video together. I feel so vindicated seeing all these videos come out showing how the game and AI opponents cheat in games from my youth. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, etc. It's no wonder that we've got an illusion about how good or bad we are at things lol
Thank GOD u made this video.. been playing a mame Nba Jam arcade game for a minute I am almost beat all the teams... there are ways to beat the hardest teams... they get INSANE HARD even in regular difficulty... ive gotten up by 17 and BOOOM they get so bad I cant even cross half court they steal n hit EVERY SHOT 100% accuracy, then when the even the score the intensity drops..... Note: when the announcer mentions the score that's when the INCREASE IN DIFFICULTY HAPPENS.... example "HEAT UP BY 12"..... then the Rockets let's say starts with the cheating... keep the game neck and neck til the 4th then in the last 1 u gotta be almost perfect...
It's not just NBA Jam that does this; a lot of single player arcade games have very involved dynamic difficulty systems. Having disassembled a couple, one could probably do an entire series on them because of how varied they are. One of the most notable examples is a shmup called Battle Garegga, which gradually increases the difficulty of the game across a 15-million-degree scale(!). Each individual action you take (like picking up powerups or firing shots) contributes a small amount to the game-long difficulty counter. Each character contributes to the counter differently (with a strength/scoring potential/difficulty tradeoff), and tricks and strategies to minimize the counter throughout the game have become a core part of becoming skilled at the game.
It already has been. Go look at "Dynamic Difficulty Adjustments". EA still claims they don't put it in their game, only that they have the patent, but very few actually believe that, for obvious reasons.
I played it back in the days on SNES and i still got memories of it it was with super mario cart one of the best games to play with friends and now i know why. THANK YOU for reminding me of the good old days
The rubber banding turns NBA Jam into a theme park ride more than a video game. It entertained and wowed in arcades but if you try to take it seriously you run into that classic Midway carny mentality that views every customer as a mark to be exploited for every last penny.
Utah Jazz and you use John Stockton, let Karl handle the ball until you get John on the near baseline fake once and shoot the three, Stockton had an absurd 3 point percentage, it really put the rubber banding to the test because the computer reacted the same way almost all the time. The end result was the computer running around like an ant on crack by the end of the game.
I feel like MLB the Show does this now. I love the game but there’s always a point where the AI starts to crank out HRs or leave me with an inning where I couldn’t stop them from scoring 4 runs. And I’m just playing franchise! Leave me alone. :)
It absolutely does. It used to be subtle with the Show, the last few versions it's pretty obvious that when the CPU wants a home run or hit it doesn't matter where the ball is pitched in the zone even with a perfect meter release, it's getting hit.
My favorite sports game next to Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES and NHLPA '93 on the Genesis. The SNES version of this completes the holy trifecta of sports games of my childhood.
Especially that AI for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Doesn't even attempt to make it look fair, even in easy difficulty. I also want to know if there is a "charity win" allowed where once the player loses 3-5 times, the cpu goes temporarily reduces difficulty and allows the player to finally win to progress.
We need a breakdown of Killer Instinct 1 AI code to see how fair it is (in contrary with the cheap alternative fighting games sf and mk). When AI lost the first health bar, it gets aggresive until you lost your first bar also. All these years, i couldn't find a move/counter that couldn't performed by human. It may be aggresive but it's ultra fair.
I've already seen video breakdowns on how SF2 cheats, the CPU gets fewer recovery frames, better hit priority, sometimes even different hit boxes so your moves can whiff while they hit you, when grappled they can hit/bite you 3-4x the amount that you would do to them, etc. Super cheap.
That would be very fascinating to see how the AI in various fighting games worked. I can only imagine what the actual code behind SNK boss syndrome looked like.
So what this eloquent code crawl and walkthrough tells me is that the player really isn't playing basket ball at all. Underneath the pretty animation, it's simply a continuous game of Rock Paper Scissors, with a layering of if/then statements that have control over the percentage likelihoods of when Rock Paper Scissors occurs for each of the player controlled and cpu controlled drones. The players and cpu drones are competing for control over ball animation..and if the player is able to pull off a shot (btw is always aimed automatically at the correct goal), then the cpu still, anyways, has full control over whether the ball animation is shown going into the basket or whether it's rejected.
My most blatant awareness of rubber-banding was the somewhat controversial Road Rash 64. Some thought it destroyed the race concept of the game as the pack could easily catch up with the player even after the player was the only survivor of a cascade. I actually like this as I always thought the 64 version was meant to prioritize combat and would have been far more boring to play without the mechanic.
My brother and I always called this effect "Tom & Jerry." We were Tom, computer's Jerry, because in the first 20% of the episode, we're just dominant and tormenting the computer. But around the mid-game, the tide turns, and then it's obvious that the deck is stacked against you and Jerry's on a runaway comeback unless you can hold him down. We also noticed this in Blitz Football.
So everything changed... MIDWAY through the game?
@bruno BOOOOOO
F-Zero for SNES was also known for this. As you raced perfectly, the gap between you and the rest would grow, but it would never be allowed to grow too wide. On the map thingy, you could actually see your opponents (as blinking squares) magically transport themselves closer behind you.
My brother and I certainly knew about this on the SNES version of the game. One time we decided to see what was the maximum number of points we could score in a game. At first we tried to do it by deliberately giving the ball to one team and letting them constantly take the shots uncontested, but the rubberbanding soon made it impossible to sink anything. By having both teams score alternately, to keep the score even, we were able to go literally twice as high.
SCIENCE
So what was the max points u guys could get up to?
@@jcruz5050 it's been decades so I don't really remember, but I think it was around 200 each?
Thats why this game felt so intense back in the day i was like 7 or 8 i was able to peep that at that age
False.
Bill Clinton as a secret character was always hilarious to me even as a kid
Lol don't forget about P Funk.
Was that with or without his saxophone? 🤣🤣🤣
Do you mean hillaryous?
@@worminator15 Do you mean hyullaereyus?
@@epicon6 whoosh
When we were kids there was always the cry of "the game's cheating on me!" which you usually took quite serious if you were playing but laughed off as lame excuse-making when you weren't. It's funny that we were right the entire time. As kids the rubber-banding did a good job of tricking us into thinking we were having competitive matches with each other but as adults my brother and I couldn't help notice it. Eventually we determined that the best strategy to defeat the computer was to concentrate on three point shots to build up an early lead and settle for two pointers on the rebound. This was about 10 years ago. Later the Golden State Warriors essentially used this strategy in real life and now prioritizing three's is typical NBA strategy.
ITs the same today with EOMM. Now they just tell you to "git good" when we all know the worse you are, the better you seem and vice versa. So all the people who have a bit of skill are the ones the game is rigged against and vice versa. Can you imagine.
Same thing happens in NFL Blitz. We call it 'getting Midway'd'. Curious if anyone has done this analysis for that game
That would be a good video
I would like to see this. Blitz didn't seem as bad as NBA Jam, but it still made me rage.
Blitz was worse, IMO, because scoring happens less often than basketball. If you had the ball up 7 in the 4th quarter, best believe every pass you throw is going to be picked off, and every tackle will cause a fumble. And that's IF the offensive line blocks for you that play!
Got midway'd bro....big facts
Old MK games in a nutshell
Fun fact: the game is programmed so that the Chicago Bulls would always miss a last second shot against the Detroit Pistons.
Really?
@@EmergencyChannel Yep, the programmer admitted to it
There is an arstechnica interview this game where this info is disclosed.
Every version ?
Even dunks?
There’s no rubber banding in NBA Jam. Everyone knows that in real life if a team is down 30-0 they can hit any shot from anywhere 3 times in a row.
Idk what your talking about but they literally prove it has it...so, naw...
@@dz0740 Uncle was just being sarcastic. lol.
That's what you get for playing this game alone like a loser. Co-op or nothing at all.
@@pnut3844able no one said anything about single or multi and it happens regardless sooooo lmao why are aggressive in the internet so late at night??...🤔
Everyone turns into Steph Curry.
One of the more fascinating botches in that regard is SNES Batman Forever. Due to some programming errors, you can set the difficulty in training mode to more than the game normally has. Since it never clears its own state unless you hard reset, you can enter a scenario where the game is unbeatable. Enemies will always defend flawlessly, also grappling and attacking you on the first frame they can. There's also a countdown timer in one stage which is never reset. If you play the game multiple times and make the time, it's possible to reach a stage where you can get a game over before you get to that stage.
Do you have a link?
Thats just a bug, not rubber banding
I bet that a TAS that has a computer player fight against an unbeatable enemy team would be really entertaining to watch!
This should be an interesting video, please provide more research sources!
@@YoupiMatos2 This is something mentioned by PJ and MechaRitcher, which are speedrunners or the game in question. There should be a video on PJ's channel (The Super SNES) about the run which mentions it.
Damn, I remember when I broke this out on the SNES recently it had me screaming and cussing accusing the game of cheating. Looks like I was right all along.
Everyone knew.
For the longest time, my uncle thought I was just talkin’ shit when I said “THIS GAME CHEATS!”
This is why sometimes you had to enable the cheats ... Just to make the game fun.
Like the hot spots. Perma Turbo. Special Characters...
That made the game more fun.
Oh and the dunk from anywhere code.
I recall my brother showing me that the game was going this. He was leading me by ten points, and he showed how the game wouldn't let him make his shots anymore. He'd stand at one spot, miss, then let me score, then I let him take the same shot from the same spot and it went in.
Bruh everyone who grew up playing madden knew if you were winning... the computer wasnt having that shit. I never knew what it was called b4 today.
If you were winning in madden.... something terrible was about to happen to you. Fumble, flag, something stupid.
why dint you just tell him to play the game to show proof, i know twisted metal cheated because all the AI go after you at the same time but they dont go after each other which the whole point of twisted metal is a car battle royal with different abilities and cars but its not really a battle royal if thy just all shoot at you at the same time now is it? after i knew the game cheated i just exploited it by playing cat and mouse and having them chase me.
This game still looks good to this day..hats off to the creaters.
Street Fighter II the CPU also cheats against you, for instance, in the Guile Somersault Kick, the player needs to hold 2 seconds, but the CPU makes the move in a little less time.
A guy disasembled sf2 to understand how it runs, and the AI just follows a script. It doesnt even need to charge aything, if the instruction says "Do a flash kick", you get a flash kick, even while working forward(would theorically work during a jump even)
If you search "The AI engine sf2platinum" you should find the website I'm talking about, it's pretty cool
Standing flash kicks have botched many of my best runs.
Yep, lame.
Don't forget that the CPU also can do a sonic boom while walking forward
1.5 seconds
When I played the arcade version in the 90s, I always tried to stay even with the CPU until 4th quarter, then run away with a lead. The CPU usually didn't catch up.
I remember playing Daytona USA in the arcade and even though I drove a manual transmission (which had a higher top speed) the opponent cars would still catch me on the straights like I was stuck in 3rd gear when I was in the lead. Very annoying.
Yes, very annoying. The cars behind go at least 20% faster than their indicated speed when they're behind. For example, a great lap in this state on the Beginner track can go by in under 15 seconds.
funny, my friends and I referred to rubberbanding as "Daytona" when we were younger when we didn't have any other word that we knew to explain the come from behind phenomena we were witnessing in games.
If this is the one I am thinking of, you can go through the pits at full speed on the last lap. It was a shortcut if done right would put you in first place at the right time to win
@@bearing_aficionado won so many races doing that trick.
This game was the first one i remember upping arcade prices from one quarter to "2 to start, one to continue." That was just to play the first quarter of the game. 5 quarters to actually finish a single basketball game!
Daaamn
Actually, the game menu adjustments you can make from inside the cabinet (the menu shown in the video that allowed for CPU assistance to be turned off) could also change the pricing. I don't remember the options, but it wasn't fixed pricing. I bought an original cabinet for my brother, and on the default options it's just a single quarter per quarter, I think. If I have a chance I'll try to double check!
Gary Payton and one of the programmers has the verison with Michael Jordan in it. It has still never been rom dumped.
Not yet, but I believe there's a good chance it will be dumped in our lifetime
I just want the one with Matthew Perry in it.
Honestly, I’d even be down with a ROM hack that puts Jordan in there, and one that puts Shaq into TE. Also, I swear there were some other roster differences that I recall from the SNES version that weren’t in the arcade version, and I’d like to have Muggsy Bogues as an option in the arcade version.
@@kernelpickle There are absolutely some rom hacks with Jordan in it. Check out the Old School Edition and the Double Z Mod!
@@kernelpickle If I remember right one of the SNES versions had Shaq in it, but newer cartridges removed him.
Great video outlining specific aspects of the rubber-banding.
You can beat the computer almost every single time by shoving like there's no tomorrow and passing mid-shooting-motion. Get a 4-point lead and only shoot 2's after. Keep shoving off-ball to make CPU passes fail.
To protect from 4th quarter CPU quick-shoves, pass backwards immediately upon inbound, turbo forward-down (shove incoming defender), and pass back to yourself quickly; Run the fastbreak from there. Only shoot 2's (no dunks) in the 4th quarter, and follow/rebound all shots. Tap shoot while in the air after rebounding for a put-back layup.
NBA Jam, NBA Jam TE, and NBA Hangtime are 100% beatable.
People who played in arcades machines knows it. But its great to see how it was programmed.
Other versions, also.
I wouldn't be surprised to see games in the near future using neural networks/AI/ML to maximise play time or micro-transactions purchased. Android games could even analyse the player's facial expressions to help detect tilt (in gambling parlance) to maximise revenue even further. They're already analysing facial expressions in order to choose which ads to display to Uber passengers. The difference being (with AI/ML versus programmer choice as in the video) that there is no human analysis of *why* the player is playing longer/spending more, the algorithm just finds the optimum point.
No
@@jimcrelm9478 ATI filed a similar patent I think. with there SBMM
Most modern online games are rigged. FIFA being a perfect example.
Oh man, this is absolutely perfect timing, as I just did a longplay of this game last Friday! And yes, the computer totally cheats you when you are playing the better teams later in the game or when you are up! There was one point where I missed like 4 straight turbo lay-ups/ dunks because I was up from like 15! Also, the computer is WAY faster than you at times. Cheers, and this is an instant classic video!
I stopped play the Need for Speed games a long time ago, when I realised how obviously and how significantly the AI cheated. I don't remember which title it was, but certainly before Most Wanted.
The AI could wipe out in an astonishing crash, and be back behind seconds later. It was impossible to lap even the slowest cars and no amount of jostling amongst themselves ever upset the AI behind the player. I liked the feel of the games but when I spotted how terribly the AI cheated I dropped the franchise like a stone. Not fun.
and in Underground 2, the machine always played to make a particular car win the race, it was so obvious to the point of being disgusting.
Thats called rubberbanding and sadly is still to prevelant in modern racing games.
The worst example of rubberbanding in the NFS games are the speedtrap races of Most Wanted and Carbon, if you're ahead with a considerable gap the AI cars will just go through the speedtraps at impossible speeds
Mmm, I can smell that S2000 from Underground 1. Runs like a train on its tracks while speeding 400MPH with no flinch, damn bastard.
The AI in those games is largely based on your car upgrades. The more performance upgrades you have, the more the AI cheats.
This explains why at times a dunk would fail everytime when you were kicking the coms ass
Boooooiiiiiiinnnnng
Yep. They always did that.
My roommates and I always had epically close games on the Playstation version. We had a visit from the RA one night asking us to keep our noise down :)
what the heck is a RA anyways?.
@@eng3d Residential Advisor. In on-campus accommodation at university they are a support person also tasked with monitoring and dealing with day to day issues.
Apparently everyone had epically close games 😒
Hey Lon!
Two of my favorite content creators!
Plot twist, the RA was only trying to get in a game.
"Is it the shoes!?" No, it's software programming.
MONSTER PROGRAAAAM!
Underrated comment!
That's the first time I've heard rubber-banding defined in such a way. I've always known rubber-banding as hidden AI-only mechanics in racing games that keeps opponents within a certain distance of each other - such as increased (or decreased) stats adjusted on the fly.
I've always known player-interactable catch-up mechanics such as Mario Kart's Bullet Bill or CTR's Warp Ball as just that - catch-up mechanics.
No, he's right. That's how rubber-banding has been defined in video game design for... well, about as long as video game design has existed. It's just that racing games are the most common and obvious example of it.
You should see the rubberbanding of GT Sport in the campaign mode... the "second" car, the one that is actually predetermined to be a real competitor (yeah, only one is a ""real competitor""...) gets such a boost in speed that most of the times the car can't even handle and ends up off track in most corners, it's hilarious and sad at the same time... 😂😂😂
Lol that really sounds funny
Makes me wonder how many quarters we lost for arcade machines that cheated.
I wouldn't worry about that. It's not like it was unusual for the game difficulty to be cranked to obscene levels by default anyway lol
??? Practically every arcade game is designed to make you lose quickly lol
But did you have fun
@@shroomologist like the first street fighter
Mortal Kombat pretty read your controller inputs and Street Fighter allowed the CPU to skip fighting frames
I will never forget the first time I saw this game in the arcade. Totally mind blowing.
That music takes me back to Timezone on George Street Sydney a very long time ago. This game was damn impressive and my buddies were obsessed with basketball it was such a good time to be alive. Hip hop, basketball, friends, occasional stabbings and getting rolled for our Jordans in Camperdown, but other than that it was GOOOD TIMES.
Oh man I fuckin miss that place!!
Occasional stabbings fml
@@bewsket It was real back in the day bruh
Bruh, I never knew being on fire allowed you to goal tend!
DAMN LMAO
You can't.
The basket still counts for your opponent, but you don't lose your on-fireness.
you can goaltend buzzard beating shots too which is how i beat the cheating computer
@@qfmarsh64 When on fire, you can goaltend to your heart's content. There is no penalty when on fire.
@@devaughnsalter6264 I dumped a small country's GDP into this game at the arcade. Goaltending still gives points to your opponent.
Maybe they changed it in later versions or on consoles.
I don't care if I win. I just like making the glass shatter and net burst into flames.
Win or lose, I gotta bust the glass
I always expect to win. I've played this game way too much lol. Playing against the computer with a friend is the best imo.
Yeah man, it was like doing a fatality in Mortal Kombat, it was the whole reason I played.
Just hearing that opening music still gives me awesome chills... loved this game on my SNES!
Me and my brother would get really competitive over NBA hangtime growing up.
Funny enough, he's also a programmer now and when we played this again recently, we talked about this exact concept of rubber banding, since it's also present.
One of my favorite videos of yours, this is awesome!
I swear I saw way more hangtime machines than I ever did for jam. Hearing how big of a success it was in this video was pretty surprising.
This does not have anything to with hangtime
@@carlossosa1359 No kidding... but the same dev team from the original NBA Jam did NBA Hangtime. The game mechanics are very similar.
@@huuuuuumpy it's way, way...way more surprising that you saw more Hangtime machines than Jam.
I remember one game I played in the arcade version, where the CPU hit a buzzer-beater to force overtime. And then again to force double overtime. And then AGAIN to force TRIPLE OVERTIME. And then *AGAIN* to force *QUADRUPLE OVERTIME.*
One game for the price of two. I never played again.
Fun fact: in 4OT, rather than "Quadruple Overtime," the scoreboard actually says "FINAL," even when the game is in progress.
Great video as always, would love to see you tackle Mortal Kombats AI cheapness. It seems the input by the user has no delay time for the AI to react, rather as the input is executed the ai immediately reacts. I learned this the hard way once I got into the arcade collecting hobby.
Nothing new. King of fighters does this with their bosses ever since the fight with rugal in 94
Ai Input reading. MK11 brutal difficulty you'll see this the most.
Yes I have noticed this. They know your every move lol
Rubber banding exist*
The blue shell: I'm inevitable
Thank God there's no blue shell in Super Mario Kart.
the lightning bolt : im highly probable,if your 3,2 or 1 to last🤣
I remember of the "catch up" mechanics in NFS Most Wanted, that would make CPU opponents stay close to your car. You could switch it on or off in quick races but in career mode it was always on.
Because of that, In NFS Most Wanted I would consider Earl (Blacklist 9) as possibly the hardest boss in the game. The combination of the track you were in and the "catch up" mechanic made it so that he would often overtake you in the last stretches of his races, greatly reducing your chances of winning.
I believe people quit the game because of him.
The original NFSU probably had the worst rubber banding ever. It specifically rears its head in about 2 of the last races in the game that are 6/7 laps long.
You essentially have to race perfectly throughout the long ass course or else it'll be impossible to catch up because the rubber banding only works one way for some reason.
I remember Mario Kart 64 was bad at rubber banding.. You can be #1 and all of a sudden some of the racers will catch up or throw that crazy ass Blue Shell.. Don't get me started on Diddy Kong Racing when you race the bosses in Adventure Mode..
Pretty much all the NFS games of that era had some really bad rubberbanding, along with some other racing games at the time. The worst of them was definitely Underground 1 though just because of the length of some of the races. You could be on lap 6/6 and all of a sudden the AI rubberbands past you at the very end. Despite all that it’s still my favorite NFS though lol.
Underground, Most Wanted, and Pro Street were all quite obvious with the cheating as the game progressed. In Pro Street I did too good at the drag racing / wheelies early in the game and the computer adjustment made it literally impossible to beat the game. Perfect driving with all upgrades available and I would still loose every time. In Most Wanted I "cheated" the game by taking the Lexus and maxxed out handling / brakes but left the engine stock. I could drive around for as long as I wanted and escape the police with ease. Made some of the challenges far too easy. Upgrade the engine and whew buddy the cops suddenly turn crazy aggressive and it's game over. In underground towards the end of the game I was getting fed up. As an experiement I just sat at the starting line for 30-40 seconds before leaving. The rubber banding was so obvious I could still catch up within a lap or so which means the cars were driving soooo slow then magically can out pace me when I catch up! IIRC I used this trick to beat a few of the races near the end of the game. Same with purposely going way too fast in places using nitrous to skid around the outside wall which would cause the computer cars to drive way too fast and wreck in hilarious ways allowing you to win.
Yeah, when I saw the title of this video I immediately thought of car racing games. Not just NFS but also project Gotham racing. I definitely quit playing games over this because it was so stupid how you could get way ahead of the AI drivers and then they would suddenly appear behind you and catch up at impossible speeds, making winning the last few races extremely frustrating.
I hate rubber banding in any games, I hated it in need for speed to back on the ps1. This is my first time watching a video of yours and it was really good I subscribed, also it helps you are an Aussie like me lol
Like the "catch up" switch of Daytona USA.
Daaayyyyyytonaaaaaaaaaa
I knew that there was quite a bit of rubber banding in NBA Jam but I had no idea that they had programmed in so many scenarios to use it in. I think the rubber banding is one of the main things that made this game so much fun to sink quarters into with your friends. Fantastic and in depth video as always!
NBA Jam arcade was really quite the spectacle that even watching the game's attract mode was a lot of fun. Midway really nailed the presentation on it. I'm not against rubber banding as a concept, but NBA Jam might be a bit too aggressive with that. In recent years, I've really noticed different methods of rubber banding and cheating in various games, mostly arcade games. Street Fighter 2 is notorious for a few things, but the one that sticks out to me is that in certain fights, such as against M Bison, the player's button press will trigger a CPU attack that has priority. In X-Men arcade, Konami tries to give bosses a free hit on the player. How it works is when the boss is almost defeated, the game turns off hit detection briefly on what should be a hit, so that the player is likely to be in the middle of a combo with one of the hits not registering which leaves the player open for a counter hit. In that game, there's a good chance that hit will force the player onto their next life or to have to continue, especially feeling that they're so close to beating the boss. I have observed this many times. I'm not sure if Konami altered the damage amount at that point. For a long time before I figured this out, I noticed I would have to continue way more often at the end of stages, even when I was being careful. I've since adjusted my tactics to not use combos when the boss is almost finished. That's how I avoid the counter hit when the game tries that trick, which it always does. I still love the game.
Rubber banding exists in the actual NBA through refereeing
And they said NBA Jam wasn’t ‘realistic’
Your profile pic is terrifying
Well i guess it didnt work for the GSW championship they destroyed their opponents
And magnetic balls.
We knew it actively cheated against the player, and now we know how it cheated!
Indeed! Code dive videos are my favourite, there really aren't many people who can present that kind of information so well.
This is why I hated playing the arcade game. On the SNES I didn’t care.
My family literally is in pieces because of this game. I'm still not talking to my siblings because they played so unfair. We even had to go to anger managment and family therapy for a period of time only because of this garbage game. Downloading the ROM right now...
Vincent, is that you???
It's me, your sister, Estella!
I'm having little money problems - would you help me out, bro?
@@T1Slam First admit that the game was rigged and I'm not the worst player in the world.
@@VincentFischer yes i always thought that I'm glad i can actually tell you now well now help me with money be a good brother
@@T1Slam Gladly. Also I'm so happy the sexchange worked out. I knew it there was something odd about you and you were overcompensating
@@VincentFischer yeah, you know, it was extremely complicated, had to think a lot, had to ruminate, had to contemplate before making this final decision.
Remembering you and your cheerful, helping attitude what actually was that got me through the tough spot.
Now, I'm still struggling financially would you be a kind brother and help out with a small loan???
Why would anyone put a dislike to MVG??? He’s an awesome guy, never heard a bad thing from him
Probably fans of the pistons.
I still remember going to the skating rink playing this game back in 05 when I was 11
Look into Street fighter 2 rubber banding, CPU has always been the filthiest cheat lol
Mortal Kombat 2 is definitely guilty of that.
@@poeticassassin4699 MK classics are the worst of them all, they probably had a dedicated engine called rubber banding engine lol
Mortal Kombat 2 I honestly thought a character attacked me before the announcer said "fight" and I couldn't do anything
yip.Theyd pull frame perfect moves and add frames when they were losing🤦🏾♂️ felt so cheated
Guile and other charge characters could do their special moves without charge when controled by CPU
This game was so awesome.
Before they had tournaments, we would play all night long in the arcade.
I played once for for 6 straight hours without losing.
Love these deeper game analysis videos.
Keep the great work up.
It entertains my geeky brain, love it 😊😊
Shits sad videos games aren't real life
F-Zero is old rubber-banding I remember, no matter how flawlessly and quickly you raced your opponents were always basically a set distance behind you.
That feeling when the CPU beats with a full court buzzer beater shot.
Happens all the damn time lol.
PLEASE DO A VIDEO ON MORTAL KOMBAT (1, 2, or 3) for arcade, and make it just like this video. I ALWAYS wanted to see how the computer became immune to the same attacks if you didn't change your strategy, or how it would know your attack before it actually showed up on screen (and blocked it just at the right time). This would absolutely make my day!
And keep up the amazing work you do. You are a true legend in this scene, and I absolutely love your channel!
The programmer of this game helped write a book about it and it’s full of super interesting things like the bulls missing last second shots against the pistons super interesting and would highly recommend
This actually sheds some light a little on how I feel like I'm cheated out of a win in sports games. Crap like this. It's like in the console sports games, in the NES baseball ones. You try your hardest to play defense, score runs .etc but the A.I is programmed in a way that, they'll get your hits 95% of the time with a small window of error. They'll always manage to strike you out and you can barely squeeze a home run or two. Until it's their turn and they get batting rallies or scoring home runs.
I was just playing this yesterday those bastards!
what
@@hyakugame the game dumbass
Absolutely love the in-depth of the rubber banding. Notices this in game but didn't understand it. Thank you for explaining it.
I always had a feeling the game was cheating me now it's confirmed thanks much for the info
That announcer is legendary, even on the SNES conversion. Unforgettable.
A baby hook!
Still sounds great on the two NBA JAM games I got from the app store. Sounds a tad better on the arcade version but, imo, the play is better on the updated version.
We knew the game cheated in the arcades; the infuriating thing was how _blatant_ it got!
My little brother use to beat me in this game sometimes, he had no idea wtf he was doing, but the game wuld keep the score close until the final seconds I remember one time, I had Chicago and he had Detroit, once I got up by 10 points, all of a sudden Bill Lambier was hitting 3s like Steph Curry , and Scottie Pippen couldn't make a layup.
7:05 Yep. That was the first time I noticed the cheating of the game. The computer would always hit the buzzer beater in a close game. And of course I noticed the rubber banding in Mario Kart as well. When you hit the driver that usually comes in second with a shell, they would be able to drive really fast all of a sudden, to get back into second position.
not only that, if you're on the last two places, your chances to get red shells, thunder, bullet bills and your speed are increased, if you're on first place your car is slower and you'll be cursed with a bunch of bananas.
There's the blue shell which only targets the race leader. I knew why items like lightning, bullet bill never showed up when in high lead.
thats not the "core" of mario kart rubbenband ai, thats an expected behavior, if you are in last place you need more lighting and stars, if you are first place you need bananas and turbos to keep yourself head
It also speeds up the CPU when you are ahead. Also, MK64, enemies don't suffer the full animation when far away when hit by red shells or upside-down- question blocks. They just stop, but then can go again right away without the 2-3 seconds of delay. It gets really ridiculous when the CPU is going as fast as a player with a golden mushroom. I swear I've had that happen multiple times on MK64.
@@JohnSmith-xf1zu "It also speeds up the CPU when you are ahead"
Same happens in F-Zero. No matter how good you are and how many shortcuts a track has, the CPU is always right behind you.
The one game where I loved “rubberbanding” was Homeworld (and HW2). Since a fight in one level could leave you with anywhere between your full fleet and just a few ships, the next level would adjust so you would neither need perfect play to win the game nor have it too easy if you play well.
A nice side effect was that by editing savegames you could give yourself a huuuuge fleet and then expect an equally huge computer fleet, so you got epic space battles with hundreds of ships.
"YOU BRING THE PEANUT BUTTER AND I'LL BRING THE JAAAAAMMMMM"
I remember those days. It was the first official cabinet from NBA that was licensed with their logo. It was released the same time Mortal Kombat was released. Great Video and never knew this game did that.
I know I'm late to the party but congrats on over half a million subscribers!
Excellent overview! I hadn’t noticed the release of the source code-looking forward to checking it out for myself!
I’m not sure if you heard but the creator of BSNES passed away. I’d love to see you create a retrospective on their work
I sorta knew him via #nesdev on EFnet and when I heard about his passing due to intense bullying/harassment, I lost it.
Yeah I was so disgusted with the way he was treated as I have bipolar depression, I can only imagine how bad his mental health was at his last moments!
@@Y0URGRANDMA did he prey on young girls or anything that was degradory?
@@abadenoughdude300 took his own life unfortunately
@@Y0URGRANDMA damn...that's messed up.
The absolute best moments for me as a kid was winning the game after the buzzer with a full court shot. Thank you for destroying my innocent childhood memories.
This is sooo much nostalgia. Thank you for diving into the code and giving us this insane rundown of the deep inner workings
I loved this game growing up, played it more on the SNES/SEGA megadrive than anything else.
keep up the good work!
Modded a ds after one of those videos. NBA jam is the only game I play. Dunking hoops while dropping poops
Bars.
Oh yeah this is unrelated to nba jam, but I had the DS to play on the toilet also and I let my younger cousin Sion use it and he handed it back to me with Tetris DS and he told me he beat my high score. I NEVER cared about high scores in ANY game until then.
Anyways one night I had to take a dump at like 2am and I had Tetris DS on the toilet and I played 1 game on the toilet and THE SUN came up while I was still playing that game from 2am and my ass fell asleep sitting on the toilet for so long. You know how when your foot falls asleep? Well my butt was asleep. But I thrashed Sions score. Cuz after level 20 tetris ds stays at the same speed and it is quite forgiving cyz you can still manuever the blocks for a good amount of time even if they hit the bottom, unlike tetris for NES.
This cool story bro happened like 2005. It was like yesterday.
@@nicktronson2977 sounds like my average day playing Meteos (DS) pretty much around the same time, 2005 / 2006 I believe. Meteos was just incredibly addictive.
You gotta admit, this makes it more fun for people of different skill levels to play together
i remember challenging myself to maintain a double score in hang time, it was TOUGH
Thanks for putting this video together. I feel so vindicated seeing all these videos come out showing how the game and AI opponents cheat in games from my youth. Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, NBA Jam, etc. It's no wonder that we've got an illusion about how good or bad we are at things lol
The creators must love Dennis Rodman, I made him score 77 points in a game
I find this type of info so fascinating. Thanks for always breaking it down in a way that us non coders can understand
As a Knicks fan I can tell you that the rubber banding and losing at the buzzer is totally realistic.
MVG always makes the most interesting videos about things I never knew existed.
2:10 Rubber banding was the thing that ruined MotorStorm 1/2 (RIP) for me
This is what made arcade sports games like NBA jam and Wayne Gretzky 3d hockey so much fun.
Mario Karts rubber banding has destroyed friendships!
and on Mario Party
Wario stadium and the "lightning ⚡⚡ gap"
I remember playing basketball outside and shouting "He's On Fire" every time I dunked or shoot the ball through the hoop. Fun memories
Fire eventually runs out without the other team scoring.
"Alright, that's enough. You're winning by 70"
Even the computer stops having a good time
If you score 4 times in a row with the player on fire, you then lose the fire.
Thank GOD u made this video.. been playing a mame Nba Jam arcade game for a minute I am almost beat all the teams... there are ways to beat the hardest teams... they get INSANE HARD even in regular difficulty... ive gotten up by 17 and BOOOM they get so bad I cant even cross half court they steal n hit EVERY SHOT 100% accuracy, then when the even the score the intensity drops..... Note: when the announcer mentions the score that's when the INCREASE IN DIFFICULTY HAPPENS.... example "HEAT UP BY 12"..... then the Rockets let's say starts with the cheating... keep the game neck and neck til the 4th then in the last 1 u gotta be almost perfect...
I F'n knew it! 😂
It's not just NBA Jam that does this; a lot of single player arcade games have very involved dynamic difficulty systems. Having disassembled a couple, one could probably do an entire series on them because of how varied they are.
One of the most notable examples is a shmup called Battle Garegga, which gradually increases the difficulty of the game across a 15-million-degree scale(!). Each individual action you take (like picking up powerups or firing shots) contributes a small amount to the game-long difficulty counter. Each character contributes to the counter differently (with a strength/scoring potential/difficulty tradeoff), and tricks and strategies to minimize the counter throughout the game have become a core part of becoming skilled at the game.
So I'm guessing that FIFA and its scripting allegations are going to get blown wide open in 20 years cos this is insane!
🤣🤣
Was going to make a comment about FIFA until I saw yours. It's always been known that it's rigged, it's only a question on how it's done.
It already has been. Go look at "Dynamic Difficulty Adjustments". EA still claims they don't put it in their game, only that they have the patent, but very few actually believe that, for obvious reasons.
I played it back in the days on SNES and i still got memories of it it was with super mario cart one of the best games to play with friends and now i know why. THANK YOU for reminding me of the good old days
The wife says I’m not allowed to play this game anymore…things get loud.
😂😆😆😆😆😆
"the wife"
Your an adult
@@carlossosa1359 the joke.
You.
Damn homie, no love for The Boston Celtics in those rubber-banding byte hacks. I feel personally attacked.
If this is the case I guess Mortal Kombat code was even more aggressive.
The rubber banding turns NBA Jam into a theme park ride more than a video game. It entertained and wowed in arcades but if you try to take it seriously you run into that classic Midway carny mentality that views every customer as a mark to be exploited for every last penny.
i noticed the rubberbanding back then very well. i refused to play it pretty fast. it was just to aggravating.
Utah Jazz and you use John Stockton, let Karl handle the ball until you get John on the near baseline fake once and shoot the three, Stockton had an absurd 3 point percentage, it really put the rubber banding to the test because the computer reacted the same way almost all the time. The end result was the computer running around like an ant on crack by the end of the game.
I feel like MLB the Show does this now. I love the game but there’s always a point where the AI starts to crank out HRs or leave me with an inning where I couldn’t stop them from scoring 4 runs. And I’m just playing franchise! Leave me alone. :)
It absolutely does. It used to be subtle with the Show, the last few versions it's pretty obvious that when the CPU wants a home run or hit it doesn't matter where the ball is pitched in the zone even with a perfect meter release, it's getting hit.
My favorite sports game next to Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES and NHLPA '93 on the Genesis. The SNES version of this completes the holy trifecta of sports games of my childhood.
We need a breakdown of Street Fighter 2's AI code to see how cheap it is.
Especially that AI for Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Doesn't even attempt to make it look fair, even in easy difficulty. I also want to know if there is a "charity win" allowed where once the player loses 3-5 times, the cpu goes temporarily reduces difficulty and allows the player to finally win to progress.
We need a breakdown of Killer Instinct 1 AI code to see how fair it is (in contrary with the cheap alternative fighting games sf and mk). When AI lost the first health bar, it gets aggresive until you lost your first bar also. All these years, i couldn't find a move/counter that couldn't performed by human. It may be aggresive but it's ultra fair.
That reminds me of Blanka's insane mode when on low HP
I've already seen video breakdowns on how SF2 cheats, the CPU gets fewer recovery frames, better hit priority, sometimes even different hit boxes so your moves can whiff while they hit you, when grappled they can hit/bite you 3-4x the amount that you would do to them, etc. Super cheap.
That would be very fascinating to see how the AI in various fighting games worked. I can only imagine what the actual code behind SNK boss syndrome looked like.
Great video. I've been waiting 25 years for it!
So what this eloquent code crawl and walkthrough tells me is that the player really isn't playing basket ball at all. Underneath the pretty animation, it's simply a continuous game of Rock Paper Scissors, with a layering of if/then statements that have control over the percentage likelihoods of when Rock Paper Scissors occurs for each of the player controlled and cpu controlled drones. The players and cpu drones are competing for control over ball animation..and if the player is able to pull off a shot (btw is always aimed automatically at the correct goal), then the cpu still, anyways, has full control over whether the ball animation is shown going into the basket or whether it's rejected.
My most blatant awareness of rubber-banding was the somewhat controversial Road Rash 64. Some thought it destroyed the race concept of the game as the pack could easily catch up with the player even after the player was the only survivor of a cascade. I actually like this as I always thought the 64 version was meant to prioritize combat and would have been far more boring to play without the mechanic.