For basketball fans of a certain age, NBA Jam will always be without peer in the sports video game world (apologies to Damian Lillard and the 2K franchise). Twenty-seven years have passed since the first quarters were fed into Jam cabinets, but catchphrases “He’s on fire!” and “Boom—shaka—laka” are as recognizable as ever. A testament to the lasting cultural impact of Midway’s iconic creation.
Part of NBA Jam’s charm is that it was one of the first to leverage the technological limitations of the time into a format that was addictingly absurd and replayable. Rather than laugh at the Tom Chambers dunk glitch in the nominally “realistic” Bulls vs.