NBA Jam is a basketball arcade game developed by Midway in 1993. It is the first entry in the NBA Jam series. The main designer and programmer for this game was Mark Turmell. Midway had previously released such sports games as Arch Rivals in 1989, High Impact in 1990, and Super High Impact in 1991. The gameplay of NBA Jam is based on Arch Rivals, another 2-on-2 basketball video game. However, it was the release of NBA Jam that brought mainstream success to the genre. The game became exceptionally popular, and generated a significant amount of money for arcades after its release, creating revenue of $1 billion in quarters. The release of NBA Jam gave rise to a new genre of sports games which were based around fast, action-packed gameplay and exaggerated realism, a formula which Midway would also later apply to the sports of football (NFL Blitz), and hockey (2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge).

NBA Live 95 is the first of the NBA Live video games series. The cover featured an action shot of the 1994 NBA Finals. The game was published by EA Sports and released in October 1994. It introduced many elements of that would become standard in the series, including the isometric on-court perspective, the "T-meter" for shooting free throws and the turbo button used to give players a temporary burst of speed. The game was re-released with NBA Live 06 as part of the EA Retro Series. Game Players gave the Super NES version of this video game its "best sports game award" in their Super NES division on the January 1995 issue of their magazine.

NBA Live 97 is the third installment of the NBA Live video games series. The cover features Mitch Richmond of the Sacramento Kings. The game was developed by EA Sports and released on November 1, 1996. The PC, Saturn and PlayStation versions featured 3D models for the on-court players, a first for the series. It was also the first NBA Live released for the Sega Saturn.