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Lakers versus Celtics NBA Playoffs IBM PC MS-DOS 1989 Electronic Arts


The First NBA Game



Electronic Arts released Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs for IBM PC MS-DOS 2.11 in 1989.

Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs is the first official NBA computer or video game.

Lakers versus Celtics would certainly have made your Atari ST- and Amiga-owning friends green with envy; if that is, they were NBA fans. And the NBA was pretty big across the globe in 1989 due to Jordan and the Magic-Bird rivalry. So basically, Lakers versus Celtics was a rather important release for the IBM PC in 1989. And its presentation screens, stat-blocks and on-court action are historically significant.

Lakers versus Celtics displays in 4-color CGA 320x200, 16-color EGA 320x200 or 16-color TGA 320x200.

The side-on playfield does not scroll from one end of the court to the other, it is flip-screen.

Lakers versus Celtics simultaneously animates 11 drop-shadowed sprites: 10 basketball players and the ball. In addition, the net is animated should one make a shot. Time, score and shot-clock are always updating in real-time. The player sprites are drawn from eight angles and can move on the court in eight directions.

Players can only be identified by their jersey number (the name should have appeared at the bottom of the screen). The jersey color changes to black to indicate the player in focus.

Lakers versus Celtics audio supports Internal PC Speaker, CMS Game Blaster, AdLib, Roland MT-32 and Tandy Sound. The music is good but the sound effects are poor: swishes, bank-shots and bricks sound nothing like the real thing. Also, there are no crowd sounds and no digitized speech yet other sports games pre-dating Lakers versus Celtics featured such. Sound, or the lack thereof, is this game's weakness; in-game, there is almost no atmosphere -- only on the menu screens, when the music plays.

Lakers versus Celtics requires an i808x CPU, 384K of RAM and 256K of EGA vRAM. Lakers versus Celtics supports 2-button joysticks or keyboard control.

Lakers versus Celtics was designed and programmed by Robert Weatherby, composed by Rob Hubbard and drawn and animated by Michael Kosaka and Cynthia Hamilton. 

Lakers versus Celtics was distributed on 1x 3.5" 720kB DD diskette or 2x 5.25" 360kB floppy disks and extracts and installs to hard disk drive via "Copy A:*.* C:/BBALL". The install size is 500 kbytes and consists of 33 files.

Lakers versus Celtics Features


  • 1989-1990 NBA Season
  • Single-player, 2-player simultaneous or computer vs. computer
  • Game Type: Single Game or Tournment mode
  • Play Mode: Arcade or Simulation
  • Pre-season, regular season and Showtime!
  • Adjustable period length (2-12 mins)
  • Sound and music toggle
  • 10 NBA teams and 2 All-Star teams
  • Features Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan
  • Offense statistics: FG%, FT%, PPG, AST
  • Defense statistics: PF, DQ, BLK, STL, RBND
  • Simulation mode: Fouls & Fatigue
  • Violations & Turnovers
  • Time Outs & Substitutions
  • Half-time updates
  • Signature moves (e.g., Kareem's Skyhook)
  • Free-throw shooting, jump-shots, lay-ups, three-point shots, dunks, passing, blocks, steals, fakes
  • Save / Load facility

Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs manual: 19 pages.
Lakers versus Celtics and the NBA Playoffs copy protection: Trivia Quiz: Refer to Basketball Records in the game manual.

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