“He’s on fire!” The legendary ‘NBA Jam‘ video game is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and a new deluxe arcade machine (remember those?) will let you play it at home like it’s 1993 again – without having to ask your friends for one last coin, and another one, and so forth:
Measuring an impressive 63 inches, the premium collectible toy stands at the same height as actual arcade machines and features a 17 inch color screen, speakers and even light-up (faux) coin doors to let you time-travel to the one of the first times people could play ‘real’ NBA-licensed teams and players in a video game (except for a certain Michael Jordan, who was too expensive).
Sure, instead of buying the arcade game for a whopping $650, you could also play the game on an emulator or blow the dust off of your old Sega Mega Drive and the other consoles that ‘NBA Jam’ was adapted for. But let’s be honest: Nothing beats having your own arcade at home to enjoy the game’s burning basketballs, ridiculous dunks and elbowing opponents without consequences. Which you can put to good use with three other players online now, by the way, thanks to built-in Wi-Fi.
As the arcade machine only ships to U.S. and Canadian fans of ‘NBA Jam’, here’s a little reminder for everybody else missing out on why the game made an incredible billion (!) dollars in arcades within its first twelve months of release, thanks to fun gameplay and iconic catchphrases like “Boomshakalaka”:
