Fun fact: the game is programmed so that the Chicago Bulls would always miss a last second shot against the Detroit Pistons.

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.

Bill Clinton as a secret character was always hilarious to me even as a kid

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.

For the longest time, my uncle thought I was just talkin’ shit when I said “THIS GAME CHEATS!”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Same thing happens in NFL Blitz. We call it 'getting Midway'd'. Curious if anyone has done this analysis for that game

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.

Makes me wonder how many quarters we lost for arcade machines that cheated.

Gary Payton and one of the programmers has the verison with Michael Jordan in it. It has still never been rom dumped.

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!

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.

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 :)

This game still looks good to this day..hats off to the creaters.

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!

"Is it the shoes!?" No, it's software programming.

People who played in arcades machines knows it. But its great to see how it was programmed.

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.

Rubber banding exist* The blue shell: I'm inevitable

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... 😂😂😂

I don't care if I win. I just like making the glass shatter and net burst into flames.

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.

This explains why at times a dunk would fail everytime when you were kicking the coms ass

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'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.

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 will never forget the first time I saw this game in the arcade. Totally mind blowing.

Bruh, I never knew being on fire allowed you to goal tend!

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.

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.

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!

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.

That feeling when the CPU beats with a full court buzzer beater shot.

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.

Just hearing that opening music still gives me awesome chills... loved this game on my SNES!

"YOU BRING THE PEANUT BUTTER AND I'LL BRING THE JAAAAAMMMMM"

Why would anyone put a dislike to MVG??? He’s an awesome guy, never heard a bad thing from him

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.

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.

Rubber banding exists in the actual NBA through refereeing

Like the "catch up" switch of Daytona USA.

Love these deeper game analysis videos. Keep the great work up.

Fun Fact: Every single Bally/Midway game cheated, HARD, against 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!

We knew it actively cheated against the player, and now we know how it cheated!

Look into Street fighter 2 rubber banding, CPU has always been the filthiest cheat lol

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.

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.

As a Knicks fan I can tell you that the rubber banding and losing at the buzzer is totally realistic.

We knew the game cheated in the arcades; the infuriating thing was how _blatant_ it got!

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.

instead of getting ahead early and allowing the computer to come back, I have found that if you stay close until the start of the fourth quarter, then get one of your players on fire, you can get a nice lead and there isn't enough time for the rubber band to bounce back.... just my experience

Mario Karts rubber banding has destroyed friendships!

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

rubberbanding is some sneaky stuff. I dont think I realized it was a thing that developers did until I discovered it being done in StarCraft. Just using a map hack, you can watch the CPU build and see them making units that buildings enabled before the building was finished being built. Most notably, when fighting against Zerg. As soon as they started building the Genepool building, they immediately were able to start making zerglings, which is why you almost always had a couple small waves of zerglings attack you before you even really get up and running.

I use to play NBA Jam all the time as a kid. I played hundreds of games without losing. I think the key to winning is getting really good at knocking down your opponents. The more you knock them down, the slower it makes them, and the more opportunities you get to get a steal and score

I still remember going to the skating rink playing this game back in 05 when I was 11

That announcer is legendary, even on the SNES conversion. Unforgettable.

There is a way to get several seconds of free-play in the arcade cabinet. Something like holding two joysticks down and along with the start buttons during the attract mode; you can control one or two of the characters and take some shots just before the attract mode resets.

The good old days when Washington were the Bullets to reflect the ridiculously high murder rate of DC.

Not a fan of basketball , but damn , nba jam and street hoop was one of a kind

Midway seemed to be the king of the cheap ass AI in the arcade scene in the 90s

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.

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...

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 know I'm late to the party but congrats on over half a million subscribers!

in the PS2 era of Need For Speed, the rubber banding is not just on the car speeds and handling but the actual traffic is spawned and controlled to accelerate and break and be at the apex of any turn you attempt or to turn in front of you causing crashes! when you know, you aim for a head light on the side of the turn and turn the opposite side at the last moment causing them to freak out trying to go in revers to hit you but the traffic rules stops them from turning around so the reverse light are flashing like crazy with the breaks and the tires turns left and right as they try to undo the turn.

Great video. I've been waiting 25 years for it!

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.

The wife says I’m not allowed to play this game anymore…things get loud.

The arcade version of this game has a built in free game. If you hold down all the buttons and pull down on the joysticks on the player two and three positions, a very rudimentary 3D shooter type game appears after several seconds. Every cabinet that I have seen (from Washington state to Illinois) has this hidden game.

I like how some of these sports games won over a way bigger crowd than you would expect, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is another great example.

This is sooo much nostalgia. Thank you for diving into the code and giving us this insane rundown of the deep inner workings

A lot of "rubber banding" still going on in FIFA and eFootball games

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.

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.

Modded a ds after one of those videos. NBA jam is the only game I play. Dunking hoops while dropping poops

I always had a feeling the game was cheating me now it's confirmed thanks much for the info

The game "Gadget Racers" also uses Rubber Banding since when you're in First place then the fast car somehow starts catching up and makes you lose in second place, the only way to outrun it then upgrade your car parts over time to which that issue won't be a problem.

I remember playing basketball outside and shouting "He's On Fire" every time I dunked or shoot the ball through the hoop. Fun memories

The creators must love Dennis Rodman, I made him score 77 points in a game

i noticed the rubberbanding back then very well. i refused to play it pretty fast. it was just to aggravating.

This video didn't really mention the SNES version beyond saying it existed, but that also had an option to turn the computer assistance off and I swear ir made a huge difference. I literally did not ever lose to the computer if I had assistance off. I was undefeated. A few years ago, I setup my old SNES for retro gaming, put NBA Jam in and lost the first game because I hadn't played since the 90s... it's like, damn it, I'm not undefeated anymore.

interestingly, hookshots (holding up or down around the foul line) seem to have the highest percent chance to go in if you're tied or way ahead. Whereas dunks would usually bounce off or easily get blocked and normal shots would miss. That's what makes no dunk stats good, layups have a good success rate

2:10 Rubber banding was the thing that ruined MotorStorm 1/2 (RIP) for me

Fire eventually runs out without the other team scoring.

My brothers and I figured out a trick to beat the computer (on SNES). If you goal tend a shot, it doesn't count as breaking a streak for the purposes of calculating on fire. So, if you want to get on fire, just make a basket, goal tend when your opponent has the ball, and repeat until you are on fire. Once you are on fire, you can goal tend with no penalty, and basically just dominate.

This is called a catch up mechanic. Rubberbanding is a term for server latency issues in online games where you appear to "rubberband" back to a position you already were.

I was just playing this yesterday those bastards!

If this is the case I guess Mortal Kombat code was even more aggressive.

You gotta admit, this makes it more fun for people of different skill levels to play together

If you let the computer build a lead up to 10+ points in the third quarter, you can come back fairly quickly and get your best outside shooter on fire. Start your run with about 45-60s left in the third, to finish the quarter off with fairly level scores and someone on fire. Then start lobbing in threes and goal tending to stay on fire as long as you can. Generally by the time you have a big lead and the rubberbanding kicks in, it's too late for the computer to catch back up. I played a ton of NBA Jam TE, and my best team was Philadelphia. They are the best defensive team, Weatherspoon has a decent 3 point shot, but Bradley is extremely tall and is the best shot blocker, and has a mid-range jumper that can barely be blocked.

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.

i remember challenging myself to maintain a double score in hang time, it was TOUGH

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.

NFL Blitz had very similar rubber banding rules. I learned if you run the ball near the sidelines when you're ahead you can counter the increased fumbles and interceptions.