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You just never know who may be reading your words online.

I received a package in the mail, and found a bare Super Nintendo circuit board inside marked “Jam XXX,” which contained a very special edition of NBA Jam. The game was sent completely anonymously.

Since the site recently featured two Iguana Entertainment game demos (Jeff’s Shoot’Em Up and Shooter), I believe that my “Deep Throat” could be a former Acclaim employee who possibly wanted to send a little thank you gift for bringing back some old memories (Acclaim purchased Iguana in 1994, the same year when NBA Jam hit the Super Nintendo).

Undeniably Iguana’s flagship title, NBA Jam put the development studio over the top and into the big leagues of the gaming industry.

Banking on a commercial slam dunk, Acclaim invested 10 million in ads that ran on prime-time television and 1,400 movie theater screens across the country. Two million copies initially shipped to stores nationwide, filling first the 100,000 pre-orders. Iguana was set to have its annual revenues exceed 5 million that year.

Jeff Spangenberg, who headed Iguana at the time, had turned down the chance to port Mortal Kombat and opted to bring the fast-paced, two-on-two arcade basketball experience to home consoles instead.

“NBA Jam is a better game,” Spangenberg told the Austin American-Statesman. “If we’d taken Mortal Kombat, we wouldn’t have been able to do NBA Jam. And if it were not for NBA Jam, I would never have lived down passing up Mortal Kombat.”

He continued: “We haven’t developed anything that would be considered violent. NBA Jam will sell just as many copies as Mortal Kombat, and there’s no violence in it whatsoever.”

The statement about not developing anything considered violent made for good PR but was not entirely true. Before forming Iguana, Spangenberg ran Punk Entertainment, which developed games for the SEGA Genesis–games such as Death Duel. To quote from that game’s press release:

“The gameplay is incredibly vivid as it allows you to slowly dismember your enemy! Sometimes your enemies will reattach their lifeless limbs to their bodies and sometimes they’ll use them as weapons! Death Duel certainly gives new meaning to the term ‘disarm your enemy.’ ”

Apparently that violent past wasn’t the only dirty secret Spangenberg had been hiding from the press. He also failed to mention the existence of an X-rated version of NBA Jam nicknamed NBA Jam XXX.

The individual who contacted the site included a note, cluing me into the history behind the mysterious game.

  

Due to the memory constraints of the 16-bit system, the long strands of voice samples from the classic arcade game had to be modified to fit on the Super Nintendo cartridge. Tim Kitzrow, NBA Jam‘s memorable voice-over announcer, was called back into the studio to shorten his calls. During one of these recording sessions, a number of outtakes were saved as a joke, which served as the basis for a special, profanity-filled, in-house-only game–one that, if word ever got out about its existence, could have severely jeopardized Acclaim’s relationship with the NBA league and completely shut down NBA Jam‘s development for good.

At least, that was the explanation given from this supposed Acclaim employee. Even after almost two decades, this industry insider remains in hiding, unwilling to publicly divulge his identity for fear of retaliation.

  

I was afraid because of all of the secrecy surrounding the game that this person may not want me to share the prototype with the rest of the world. Not so. In fact, I was told that I could do whatever I pleased with the code. And what I please to do is document and preserve this filthy, foul-mouthed piece of gaming history!

Prototype Specs:

SHVC-4PV5B-01

U1 EPROM

U2 EPROM

U3 EPROM

U4 EPROM

U5 16/64/256K SRAM [Empty Slot]

U6 PLD [4PV5B-0111 Chip]

U7 74LS157 [74LS157N Chip]

U8 CIC

BATT CR2032

Now, “prototype” may be the wrong word to describe this game. Even though NBA Jam XXX is contained on a standard prototype board with four EPROMs, the actual software inside looks and plays the same as the retail game.

Windhex did recognize 11,777 byte differences when compared to the U.S. retail game, but the only real in-game changes I could find so far were the outrageous soundbites.

  

Famous lines like “Boom-Shakalaka” and “He’s on fire” have been removed and replaced with colorful, crude curses. I have assembled a list of the vulgar commentary below (click on any phrase to listen to the .mp3):

Truly, this has to be the most ridiculous “prototype” I have gone through yet. Nothing’s quite as surreal as hearing Kitzrow yell out “Grabs his Johnson!” on the Super Nintendo as secret character Bill Clinton makes a frantic grab for the ball while letting out a series of digitized grunts.

To Deep Throat: I expect that you will at some point be reading this, so I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your trust and generosity. If it weren’t for you, this game might have been lost forever. And that would have been one serious, well, fuck up.

On an unrelated note, if any dirty-minded Nintendo of America ex-employees also happen to be reading: Who’s up for a Secret Santa this year? I know I am!

Further reading: NBA Jam XXX-Posed