Frequently Asked Questions:
1. What are the PBA codes and how do I use them?
These are the codes (or prefixes) that the game uses to identify files that belong to a specific team. For example, if a team like Giñebra has a code of "gi", this “gi” will be the prefix on all of it's files. This will include Jersey's, Courts, & Logo's. An example of the jersey files would be like this…
Away Jersey's: giaway.fsh & giaway_num.fsh
Home Jersey’s: gihome.fsh & gihome_num.fsh
And an example of the court files would be like this…
Giñebra court files: gicrt.fsh & gicrt.o
And for the logo’s…
Giñebra logo: gi.fsh
So basically, if you want to copy the giñebra court (say, it was the araneta court) & use it also as the homecourt of Alaska which has a code of “al”, all you have to do is copy the files and replace the 1st two letters of the files. i.e. replace “gi” with “al”. It’s that simple.
2. What are NBA codes? Why were they used in the early patch releases?
NBA codes are the original codes used by the NBA Live 2003 game. Like say, Atlanta has a code of “at” and the Miami Heat has a code of “mi”. Early PBA Live patches temporarily used the NBA codes by placing a pba team on a specific nba team (like say, SMB was placed in the Atlanta team & Red Bull was placed in the Miami team). This had to be done since not all patches were available immediately upon the completion of the early versions of the roster patch. Since there were no available pba jersey’s, courts, & logo’s yet at that time, we had to be contented with playing pba teams wearing nba jersey’s, playing on nba courts, & using nba logo’s. But as the patches for these eventually came out one by one, we were able to come up with the complete package later on.
3. What are the codes?
The updated list (as of June 02, 2003) is as follows:
PBA Team: Placed in: NBA prefix: PBA prefix:
(obsolete) (pba codes)
Alaska Portland po al
Giñebra Chicago ci gi
Coke La Clippers lc cc
Fedex Toronto to fe
Purefoods Detroit dt pf
Red bull Miami mi rb
SMB Atlanta at sm
Shell Seattle st sh
SLR Boston bo sl
TNT Indiana in tt
PBA NBA le le
Toyota Houston ho ty
Crispa Milwaukee ml cr
U-Tex Golden State go tx
All Star West West All Stars x2 p2
All Star East East All Stars x1 p1
RP Team '02 80's All Star 80 02
RP Team '98 Utah ut 98
RP Team '94 Minessota mn 94
RP Team '90 Philadephia pd 9o
Japan New Orleans no ja
South Korea Cleveland cl sk
China Phoenix ph ch
Toyota Alvarks ta
Bayi Rockets ba
Samsung Thunders ss
Beirut Sagesse be
4. Why do we need to shift to PBA codes?
Actually, there are a lot of reasons. But basically, the main reasons are:
· To be able to play NBA without unistalling PBA Live. Since they use different codes, the logo’s, jersey’s, & courts of the nba teams can stay intact as it is.
· In preparation for the PBA Live complete installer, so that we could release smaller viv files. We plan to release “pba only” viv files (without any nba files) so we can significantly reduce the download size of the complete installer.
· To have the flexibility in creating more teams. The nba codes offer "only" 29 nba teams plus some all stars. We are getting close to outgrowing this. As of the last count, there are already 22 “PBA” teams (including guests) with reserved codes. And we still have to include Tanduay, Añejo, the old Shell team (Paras/Magsanoc era), and the SMB & Alaska grandslam teams, among others. Heck, we might even include some uaap/ncaa teams if we feel like doing so.
5. Why do I see ‘black faces’ in the game?
This means that there is a cyberface that the game needs that you still have not yet installed. Search the net for these cyberfaces. Try starting with my suggested links on PBA Live Patches. Just click on “links” at the left side of this page. =)
6. How do I install cyberfaces?
First of all, you will need to enable customart if you still have not done so. Inside the…
\Program Files\EA SPORTS\NBA Live 2003\main\cscripts
…directory, open the xstartup.cfg file with notepad. Browse down, and at the bottom, the last line should read “customart 1”. If it is still set to “0”, just change it to “1”.
Now… let’s say that you have downloaded a cyberface of Danny Seigle. Usually, the filename combines the first two letters of his first name and the first five letters of his last name. So, a Danny Seigle cyberface patch should have a filename like “daseigl.viv”.
You will now have to create a directory named “xplayer” in your…
\Program Files\EA SPORTS\NBA Live 2003\render
…folder. Then, inside the xplayer directory, you will need to create another folder with the same filename as the viv file to be installed. In Danny Seigle’s case, you will have to create a “daseigl” directory inside xplayer.
And for the last step, just copy your daseigl.viv file into the daseigl directory and you’re all done.
7. How do I install the jerseys?
First you will need to enable customart. See the procedure in “How do I install cyberfaces” on how to enable customart.
Say, you want to install the jerseys of Red Bull. The jersey files of Red Bull should be like this…
Away Jersey's: rbaway.fsh & rbaway_num.fsh
Home Jersey’s: rbhome.fsh & rbhome_num.fsh
If you still have not yet created one, you will need to create an “xteam” directory inside your…
\Program Files\EA SPORTS\NBA Live 2003\render
…folder. Then, put all the Red Bull jersey files inside the “xteam” folder. That’s it.
8. How do I install the courts?
First you will need to enable customart. See the procedure in “How do I install cyberfaces” on how to enable customart.
Say, you want to set the Araneta court as Giñebra’s homecourt. The court files should be like this…
Giñebra court files: gicrt.fsh & gicrt.o
You can copy & rename the files to make it the homecourt of the other teams as well. Just change the first two letters of the court files into the team code of the other team.
Now, If you still have not yet created one, you will need to create a “xcourt” directory inside your…
\Program Files\EA SPORTS\NBA Live 2003\render
…folder. Then, put the two Giñebra court files inside the “xcourt” folder. Easy, huh?
9. How do I install the logo’s?
Read the readme_1st.txt file. LOL
If you have a previous version of the logo patch installed, it is recommended that you uninstall it first before installing the updated version. Just run the “uninstall_pbalogo.bat” file to remove the previous installation & restore the logo’s back into nba logo’s. If you have installed other patches other than the logo’s that modifies the xlogo’s & xoverlay viv files, you may want to restore everything back to the original nba status first (this step is not required, but it is recommended that you do this so you can still play nba without unistalling PBA Live).
Unzip the file "pbalogo_v110b.zip" into a directory of your choice.
After unzipping, you should now have a 'PBAcode_version' directory. Just go to that directory and run the batch file “install.bat”.
That's it! You're all done.
10.How do I install the rosters?
In installing the rosters, it is important that you know in what slot the rosters are supposed to be placed. Usually, roster patches keep the directory name intact for reference.
Let’s say you have downloaded a roster file which is supposed to be placed at Slot 011. If your game already uses Slot 011, it is recommended that you make a backup of these files into another slot so you can still retrieve it later. It is recommended that you use the game to make the backup (just load, & save it to another slot).
Now, in your...
\My Documents\NBA Live 2003\saves
…directory, delete all the existing files inside Slot 011 (after backing it up, of course). Leave the empty folder intact.
After you have done that, all you have to do now is just copy all the files of the roster patch into Slot 011. Upon doing that, you’re all done. Enjoy the game! =)
11.Can I still play NBA without uninstalling PBA Live?
Yes you can. But if you still use the nba codes, you will see some nba teams wearing pba jersey’s, playing on pba courts, & using pba logo’s. That’s why it is highly recommended that you use the PBA codes instead.
12.Can I still play both NBA and PBA in the PBA Live complete installer?
Unfortunately, no. In order to significantly reduce file size, we have decided to remove all nba files to make it an all-pba patch. Download time should be greatly decreased because of this.
13.The game crashes on me upon installing some of the patches. What seems to be the problem?
That's not an easy question to answer. So don't be fustrated if nobody helps you if you ask that question in message boards or emails. There are LOTS of reasons why the game could crash. And it is difficult to pinpoint the culprit unless I am in front of the PC that crashes. It could be that there were some patches not installed properly, badly compiled patches, corrupted files, rosters placed in the wrong slots, missing (uninstalled) patches that the game needs, mis-typed filenames, directories, or codes, etc, etc...
14.I’m so confused. How do I copy files in Windows? How do I create folders?
LOL! No offense, but I suggest that you just wait for the release of the complete installer. Just one click, & you’re all done.
15.When will the PBA Live complete installer be released?
It should be released this June, 2003.
16.Can you email me once the complete installer is released?
Sorry, I don’t do emails. Just check on the Pinoy Forum at NLSC for updates on the release.
- nypg
You may link this page in your website if you like but if you plan to copy & paste the text into your own page, I prefer that I was asked for permission first before you do so. Thanks!
- nypg
