In order for this fix to work you'll need to patch the game with its official patch, and then use a NO-CD cracked exe.
NOTE - There are a couple ways to do this. You can either change 640x480, which will be easier, but because it changes the resolution of the main menu, it will cause the menu to have one or two minor problems (it's perfectly usable, though), or you can change something else, like 1280x1024, which will leave the main menu alone (since it's supposed to use 640x480), but requires a little more care on your part during the hex editing. The choice is yours.
1280x1024 Method
To add widescreen support to this game you'll need a hex editor such as Be.HexEditor. Open your nbalive.exe file and search for the string 00 05 00 00 00 04.
Now even though you'll find a number of them, you need to make sure you only change the two sets of strings located in the 00865xxx line group. Changing more than that will most likely just cause your game to crash before the jump ball. I recommend scrolling down to just before that line group and starting your search from there.
00 05 and 00 04 represent the resolution 1280x1024. What we'll do is change them to represent the widescreen resolution we want.
1280x720 - Replace 00 05 with 00 05 and replace 00 04 with D0 02
1280x800 - Replace 00 05 with 00 05 and replace 00 04 with 20 03
1366x768 - Replace 00 05 with 56 05 and replace 00 04 with 00 03
1440x900 - Replace 00 05 with A0 05 and replace 00 04 with 84 03
1680x1050 - Replace 00 05 with 90 06 and replace 00 04 with 1A 04
1920x1080 - Replace 00 05 with 80 07 and replace 00 04 with 38 04
1920x1200 - Replace 00 05 with 80 07 and replace 00 04 with B0 04
After you're done, save the file and make sure your in-game resolution is set to 1280x1024.
640x480 Method
To add widescreen support to this game you'll need a hex editor such as Be.HexEditor. Open your nbalive.exe file and search for the string 80 02 00 00 e0 0.
There are a number of them, all in the same area near the bottom of the file (in the line group 00865xxx). You'll probably need to change them all to avoid problems.
80 02 and e0 01 represent the resolution 640x480. What we'll do is change them to represent the widescreen resolution we want.
1280x720 - Replace 80 02 with 00 05 and replace e0 01 with D0 02
1280x800 - Replace 80 02 with 00 05 and replace e0 01 with 20 03
1366x768 - Replace 80 02 with 56 05 and replace e0 01 with 00 03
1440x900 - Replace 80 02 with A0 05 and replace e0 01 with 84 03
1650x1080 - Replace 80 02 with 72 06 and replace e0 01 with 38 04
1920x1080 - Replace 80 02 with 80 07 and replace e0 01 with 38 04
1920x1200 - Replace 80 02 with 80 07 and replace e0 01 with B0 04
After you're done, save the file and make sure your in-game resolution is set to 640x480.
Now, because the main menu uses 640x480, changing its resolution causes a couple of small problems:
- The Main Menu is mildly messed up, but really it's just the player highlight FMV clips, which are not being drawn in the correct spot (the upper right side of the screen). It's perfectly usable, though. I'm sure the NBA Live community can solve this problem with a GUI modification.
- There's also some minor black flickering that happens during loading screens.
There is almost certainly a way to leave the main menu at 640x480 (you just have to figure out which hex codes to leave alone), but if you want to do that, just use the method above.
