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NBA Live 96 (Genesis)

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Title Screen

NBA Live 96

Developer: Hitmen Productions
Publishers: EA Sports (US/EU), Tec Toy (BR)
Platform: Genesis
Released in US: 1995
Released in EU: November 30, 1995
Released in BR: 1995


DevTextIcon.png This game has hidden development-related text.
DebugIcon.png This game has debugging material.


Debug Symbols

Like other EA Sports games on the Genesis, several functions have their original names present. They can be found after each corresponding function's last instruction (typically rts). They can be recovered with a Ghidra script.

Version Screen

NBALive96 Genesis VersionScreen.png

An unreferenced build version screen contains a compile date, which can be found in the ROM at A1D62. This screen can be forced to load instead of the license screen, by following these steps with a debugger:

  • Place a breakpoint on address A24FE (first instruction of function license);
  • On breakpoint hit, remove breakpoint, then set the program counter to address A290E (first instruction of function version).

Animation Debug

NBALive96 Genesis AnimationsMenuEntry.png NBALive96 Genesis AnimationsTest.png

To access the dummied out debugging menu, we can restore its entry to the pause menu. It is shown when a memory variable checked at FFEFB3 is toggled at 0B835C. However, some conditional branches need to be patched out with nop instructions, in order to reach the toggle address:

  • 0B832E:4E71
  • 0B835A:4E71

If these patches are directly applied to the ROM, then a fail case branch will be taken in a checksum verification function. That branch must also be patched out:

  • 1FBE68:4E71

This menu is also present in Coach K College Basketball.

Debug Text

Elementary, my dear Cactus.
This needs some investigation.
Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page.
Specifically: Is this still accessible?

At ABAA6, there is some text that seems to be associated with a debug menu.

ram queue
view globals
screens
scroll table
jersey nums
smgr vram
blank char
cmap
NBAart.shp
shotclock
overlay graphics
graphic