NBA Live 97 ROSTER PATCH V3.12
------------------------------
Date: 02/10/97
Probable release date for next version: ?
NEW: - Active Patch now with 1996/97 Season Stats
       and updated All-Star Teams
     - updated rosters through 02/09
     - more Legends Problems fixed


Made by Tim Tschirner (tim@tassoft.com)
and Lutz van Hasselt (willwink@pool.informatik.rwth-aachen.de)

This patch and all related files are freely distributable, as long
as all files included in the package remain unchanged, and you
don't sell it for profit. You may also include it on Computer
Magazine CD-ROMs, but if you do so, please let us know.

The latest version can always be found at Tim Tschirner's
NBA Live Series Center at the following URL:
http://www.tassoft.com/nbalive/

If you maintain a Web Page dedicated to either title of the NBA
Live Series, why not join The NBA Live Series Web Ring at:
http://www.tassoft.com/nbalive/nbaring.html

For discussion, tips and user exchange around all titles of the
NBA Live Series, be sure to check out the NBA Live 9x Forum at:
http://www.xpansions.com/forums/nbalive/

And if you like this patch, go check out the IIBL at:
http://www.voicenet.com/~bjoseph/iiblreg.html


Introduction
------------
This is an unofficial patch for the commercial game NBA Live 97 by
EA Sports, based on hex editing. It provides the Executable file
with data of new players who were not originally in the game, and
generally updates the rosters regarding trades and the NBA draft.
Furthermore, it updates the stats and includes retouched skill
values and starting lineups, plus LOTS more.


Installation
------------
First, copy all the unzipped files into your main NBA Live 97 directory
and make sure you have an unchanged copy of the NBA Live 97 EXE-File
(named NBA97.EXE for the MS-DOS and NBAWIN.EXE for the Windows 95
Version) in that directory. Also, this file must not have the Read-Only
flag turned on. If you're unsure whether it's on or off, you can turn it
off by typing 'attrib -r [FileName]' at the prompt. For more information
on this, please consult your manuals.

Next, run INSTALL.BAT (and NOT UPDATE.EXE) by typing 'install' and
follow the instructions on your screen. Here you can choose if you
want to patch the MS-DOS or the Windows 95 Version of NBA Live 97.

   ATTENTION: Do no try to attempt to patch the MS-DOS Version with
              the Windows 95 Patch and vice versa, as this will
              render your original files useless!

! NOTE: If there are already files called ROSTER.001, ROSTER.002 and !
!       ROSTER.003 in your NBA97\SAVES directory, please rename them !
!       BEFORE installing this patch.                                !
!       Otherwise the patch will overwrite your Rosters.             !

The updater will leave the rest of the original files untouched.
When the patching is completed, you will find three new files called
96-97.EXE, ACTIVE.EXE and LEGENDS.EXE. If you're using the Windows 95
Version, you might want to create new Shortcuts to these files in
your NBA Live '97 Folder.

To continue with the installation, launch one of these NEW files (and
NOT NBAWIN.EXE and/or NBA97.EXE), click on the Transaction Logo and
select the Load Rosters screen. There you'll find the new Rosters
listed, which you must load yourself by double-clicking on them.
For more information on this, consult your NBA Live 97 manual.

The Patched Original Rosters for the 1996/97 season are called
'Roster Patch x.yy by Tim and Lutz', the Active Rosters are called
'Active Patch x.yy by Tim and Lutz' and the Rosters for the Legends
Patch are called 'Legends Patch by Jim Mike and Lutz'.
Instead of x.yy you will find the Version Number of the Patch, for
example 3.06.
After you loaded either of those Rosters, the installation is finished.

Once you have completed the installation, you may delete INSTALL.BAT,
UPDATE.EXE, README.TXT and *.P97.

  NOTE: If you are currently running a season, not all changes which
        are featured in this patch will show up. This is not a bug,
        but currently there's no way to have the game recognize roster
        changes and changes made to created players when in a season.
        Either start a new season with the patch or finish it without.


Deinstallation
--------------
To uninstall the patch, first delete all of the files listed below
under 'Files' plus 96-97.EXE, ACTIVE.EXE, LEGENDS.EXE, LANG.PAT,
LANG.ACT and LANG.LEG. Then copy TEAMINFO.DAT from the \ART\TEXTART
directory of the NBA Live 97 CD-ROM to the \ART\TEXTART in the NBA
Live 97 directory on your hard disk.
Note: The installation routine moves ROSTER.* to the \SAVES directory
      and TEAMINFO.DAT to the \ART\TEXTART directory.


Files
-----
96-97DOS.P97
96-97WIN.P97
ACTDOS.P97
ACTWIN.P97
LEGDOS.P97
LEGWIN.P97
LANG.P97
LANGACT.P97
LANGLEG.P97
TEAMINFO.DAT
ROSTER.001
ROSTER.002
ROSTER.003
INSTALL.BAT
UPDATE.EXE
README.TXT
If you are missing any of these, try to get a fresh version from
the site mentioned above.


What you'll find
----------------

1996/97 Original Rosters (96-97.EXE)
------------------------------------
This file has rosters for the 1996/97 season.
Injuries are ignored in this patch, so players currently on the IR
will not necessarily be on the IR. We have fixed the overall team
rankings, so this is perfect for season play.
This file will be continuously updated, so you should always look
for new versions of this patch.

1996/97 Active Rosters (ACTIVE.EXE)
-----------------------------------
Same as 96-97, but with active rosters with an updated injured list
plus current 1996/97 Season stats.
This also will be updated for every new patch version.

Legends (LEGENDS.EXE)
---------------------
To make this work, start LEGENDS.EXE, then load the Legends Roster
file. A while ago, I updated Jim's and Mike's original Legends for
NBA Live 95. Now, I converted them to NBA Live 97. Note that all the
data was automatically copied from Live 95 to Live 97, so it's not
perfect. We are very busy at the moment, but we'll try to improve this.
The Legends file features the 12 best players of all time for every
NBA team, even Toronto and Vancouver. That includes all of the 50
All-Time greats as announced by the NBA as well as many more, with
stats, rating, accurate looks, jersey number and draft info.
As I said, it's not perfect yet. All the players have wrong portraits,
career stats and cool facts. Their status ("traded from", "signed free
agent" etc.) is also wrong, but I'll have this updated very soon.
What you want to do is not to look at the portraits too closely.
Maybe we'll find a way to work around this in the future.
If you don't like to look at the wrong portraits, you can still install
the same league for NBA Live 95, available for download from Tim's site
(the Roster update, not the Game).

  NOTE: If you are using the legends roster from a patch version prior
        to V3.07, there was a bug that made the game crash when you
        played against the Toronto Raptors. That bug is fixed now, but
        you should not install a new version while you have a season in
        progress. If you want to continue your season, just simulate your
        game against the Raptors. Don't worry, you'll win (well, unless
        you are the Grizzlies).

  NOTE #2: If you are using the legends roster from v3.07: there were two
           more bugs concerning the Bucks and Mavs. Those were now fixed
           as well. Sorry for the trouble.


Troubleshooting
---------------
Q: "I want the announcer to say 'No. 23 - Michael Jordan' and I
   want Barkley's portrait, too!"
   Will there be portraits and sound clips for created/missing
   players in future versions of this patch?
A: No way, only EA will be able to do that.
   Please don't bother us with E-mails regarding this topic, we
   will simply ignore them (this is true for the NBA Live 96 Roster
   Patch as well).

Q: The installation quits with error code 002.
A: That's "file not found". Make sure that you have all the required
   files in your directory. You need all of the unzipped files (see
   "Files" section) and a valid NBA Live 97 Executable File, either
   NBA97.EXE or NBAWIN.EXE.

Q: The installation quits with error code 003.
A: That is "path not found". Make sure you have the \SAVES and
   \ART\TEXTART subdirectories in your NBA97 directory.
   You might be missing some files, too. Make sure everything is in
   place and re-install the patch.

Q: The installation quits with error code 005.
A: Make sure that all the files have the read-only attribute turned
   off, "attrib -r *.*" before the installation usually does the
   trick. This problem may re-appear when an Anti-Virus program turns
   the read-only attribute back on.

Q: The installation quits with error code 100 or 101.
A: That's disk read error or disk write error. Either your disk is
   full or some of your files are corrupted (try to get a fresh version).
   This could also mean that there are physical errors on your drive,
   but that's rather unlikely.

Q: The installation quits with an error code other than 002, 003,
   005, 100 or 101.
A: That's interesting. E-mail us the number of the error code and
   EXACTLY what you did to make it happen.

Q: I keep getting warning messages from my Anti-Virus Software when
   installing.
A: The installation is indeed changing Executable (*.EXE) files.
   This is only because the Executable files contain the player data
   and the patch updates just that. A virus is usually writing to
   Executable files as well, only it is writing program code (which
   may be harmful) and not just data (which cannot do any harm).
   So, if you installed previous patch versions, your virus scanner may
   have created checksums for each file and complain when you overwrite
   them. Just ignore all warnings.

Q: All the pictures, the career stats and the cool facts in the Legends
   file are wrong.
A: Maybe we'll find a way to fix the pictures in the future, but please
   don't send us E-mails saying 'The portraits are wrong', we will
   simply ignore them.


Some technical information
--------------------------
The *.P97 files are used to create changed Executable Files.
The *.EXE files contain the data of all original players - the patch
updates their skill values, positions and jersey numbers here.


Acknowledgements
----------------
- John Nassar for providing us with the game - thanks a bunch,
  buddy!
- Eric Newcomer for setting up and maintaining the NBA Live 9x
  Forum
- Jim and Mike for their work on the Legends
