Old School Gamer Magazine chats with Basketball Classics co-creator Josh Marchant who details what makes the game so special and a part of the Acclaim family.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes this game a special one for you?
Josh Marchant: Lots of reasons! Dave and I (who together make up Namo Gamo) both had a longtime love of Tecmo Super Bowl on the NES. We each played it endlessly as kids, but as a huge fan of basketball I wanted a basketball game that captured all the Tecmo Super Bowl magic. There was Tecmo NBA, but it fell short in a lot of ways. After those games came NBA Jam, which took the world by storm and headed in a wildly different direction. Then the industry went 3D and the window of opportunity essentially closed for the type of game I had hoped for.
Fast forward 20+ years and I was working as a software engineer and, for some reason, this pixel basketball game was still bouncing around in the back of my head. Then I met Dave, who was an incredibly talented artist with an interest in game dev, and he asked me, “Have you ever heard of an old NES game called Tecmo Super Bowl?” Haha. Turns out he hosted an annual Tecmo tournament in Utah. We got to talking about this game idea: a Tecmo-style basketball game with strategy, play calling, quick arcade action, big interstitial animations, catchy chip tunes… all the stuff that made us fall in love with Super Bowl. He said he’d wanted that exact game too for a long time and was totally on board. So we set out on a crazy adventure to make Basketball Classics happen!
One really special part of it was early on in development when we reached out to Akihiko Shimoji, the lead programmer on Tecmo Super Bowl. We sent him an embarrassing recorded video message and were thrilled to get a reply from him. He was so gracious and just an incredible dude. We went back and forth with him several times and showed him the game, and he responded saying, “Mr. Dave, Mr. Josh, I am very happy. I feel the atmosphere of Tecmo Super Bowl.” That just blew our minds! That was so special. We sent him a build and he played it and gave us lots of super awesome feedback and things to consider, and we entirely changed the existing dunk system based on that conversation. Such a good guy!
We put a ton of love and a ton of time into it, and we feel like it shows! We took the time to explore every feature, every gameplay mechanic, different art styles, until we ended up with something we were really happy with; something that truly captured what we initially set out to do. And it turns out we weren’t the only ones who wanted a game like this! So many gamers have reached out to us with gratitude for making a game like this, and for supporting it for years after its initial release. Even more, what really surprised us was the response from younger gamers! We didn’t know how the game would resonate with younger gamers who didn’t grow up on these kinds of games. Turns out they love it, too! They enjoy the retro look and sound, the fast gameplay, and the endless customization.
We really couldn’t be happier with how well it has been received and all the love and support from our fans!
Old School Gamer Magazine: How do you take your love of retro sports games and make something unique?
Marchant: It definitely helps that we both had that love of old sports games. Back when the #1 goal was for the game to be fun. It didn’t need photorealistic graphics, loot boxes, or microtransactions. It just had to be a blast to play, alone or with friends. That was our driving force as we introduced each new feature: “Is it fun?” There were features we developed and then dropped because, while they added realism, they simply weren’t fun game mechanics, so we threw them out. “Fun” was our North Star, the guiding principle behind every decision.
We went back and played every single basketball game made between 1985 and 2000. A funny thing emerged. As a lot of retro gamers come to realize, the games we used to adore don’t exactly look and feel the way we remember them looking and feeling. So that was an interesting part of developing Basketball Classics. You’re trying to make a game that looks and feels the way we remember those games being, not necessarily the way they actually are.
So, we felt like we had this idea for a game that never really existed. But we wanted it to feel like it had always been there. Like a long-lost game that was finally getting its long-awaited re-release!
Old School Gamer Magazine: What makes this game must-play for you?
Marchant: The love and care that we put into it! You’re not going to find another sports game made with more love than Basketball Classics. We thought about the mechanics of this game for 25 years before breaking ground on it! You might think us deranged and you’d be absolutely right. But in all seriousness, the focus on making the game as fun as possible, the care put into every single pixel of hand-drawn art, the accuracy with which we approached the sound and music of the era (using Commodore 64 SID chip emulation with 3-voice limitations), the retro inspiration and nods and Easter eggs that permeate the game… it all comes together in a special way that’s really resonating with gamers.
Old School Gamer Magazine: What was the development cycle like?
Marchant: We spent a solid 2 years in development before hitting Early Access on Steam. Then another year getting to v1.0. We knew we were taking our sweet time with it, but it was our dream game and we wanted it to be absolutely perfect. The last thing we wanted to do was rush it out half-baked after it had been bouncing around in our heads for so long!
So we started with a simple court and character Dave put together (nothing that ended up in the final game) and I started with getting him to run around. That became our first task: making simple movement feel fun. I know when I pick up a game (and I’m sure many gamers are like this), you just know within 20 seconds of walking around in the game if it’s going to be something special or not. The way the character moves, the feel of moving around, it’s a real art! It’s not just about making something move across the screen when you press Left, it’s about whether it feels “right” just to move, and it takes a lot of work to get there. Hopefully we pulled it off!
From there we added a shot mechanic: jump while holding the ball, release it and shoot a shot. Lots of iteration on that, once again. Then adding the ability to miss a shot and getting the feel right for when you should release the button for a maximum percentage shot. Throughout the entire development it was like, “OK, we need to add the ability to steal the ball,” which would raise the question, “What sprites do we need to support it?” and Dave would start working on those. And, “What sounds do we need for it?” and I’d start thinking about those. So it was very iterative as we approached it one mechanic at a time, thinking about every aspect of the mechanic from the look, the sound, the gameplay, the timing, and how to make it feel seamless.
Old School Gamer Magazine: Who do you think will enjoy it the most?
Marchant: One of the most surprising things has been how well-received it’s been by gamers of all ages. We play tested a lot with guys around our age and they were really enjoying it. We knew old school gamers would enjoy the look and sound, and appreciate all the retro nods to the great games of the past. But the gamers that didn’t even know the references and didn’t have that nostalgia still loved the game simply for what it is: a solid arcade sports title. That was really reassuring and that kind of validated the whole idea for us.
The game is great for solo players, but playing together on the living room couch tournament-style is really where it shines! You’ll scream, you’ll throw your controller, you’ll talk trash, you’ll celebrate. It’s a real blast! We’ve seen it over and over. We experienced it ourselves during development, we saw it in play testing. And then after launch when we watched livestreams of gamers around the world playing it in group settings, we saw it all over again haha. It’s been so fun to watch people experience it.
Old School Gamer Magazine: How does it feel to be a part of the Acclaim brand?
Marchant: Acclaim has been so great. They understand games. They understand the relationship that gamers have with games. They understand the brand and they want to support artists in bringing unique interactive experiences to the world. It’s really been perfect for us. They kind of fill in all the pieces that we don’t have. It feels like the missing puzzle piece for us and it’s enabling us to do some really cool stuff in bringing our vision to the widest audience possible!
Old School Gamer Magazine: What’s next?
Marchant: We’re getting Basketball Classics prepped for consoles where it can be played by a much larger audience. The game was always meant to exist on consoles and Acclaim is making that a reality. Beyond that, we’ve got some very exciting things that we can’t quite share yet, but we think people are going to be blown away when we reveal them!
Old School Gamer Magazine: Anything else you’d like to add?
Marchant: Check out the game! Basketball Classics is available now on Steam and coming to all major consoles soon! Find us on X or Instagram @namo_gamo. Join our Discord. Come talk about retro games and let’s keep this art alive for decades to come!
