This interview was born not from this site, but from a non-published manuscript called Gamebreakers, excerpts of which used here for our greatest sports video game retrospective. Mr. Turmell kindly granted an interview, which you’ll find below from yet another chapter from the unpublished book.

Before NBA Ballers became the go-to title for gamers looking for redunkulous, over-the-top b-ball action starring the best athletes that the National Basketball Association could produce, Midway racked up Scrooge McDuck bucks with NBA Jam. During its heyday in the early to mid ‘90s, sports fans flocked to Jam in droves to execute high-flying dunks, game changing steals, and swear-inducing blocks, and I was one of the many pimple-faced teens who blew allowances and child support checks in huddled together in the back of shady arcades. The game went over to generate over a billion dollars, a quarter at a time.

Most folks that partook of the Jam revolution had their favorite squads: mine was the combo of the severely underrated Detlef Schrempf and “The Babymaker” Shawn Kemp. While most sucker MCs hopped on the Chicago’s bandwagon (seriously, what’s the point of playing a Jordan-less Bulls team?), I remained steadfast with a Seattle team that could stoke it from outside with ease and take it to the hole with extreme wickedness–even if it meant totally turning my back on my beloved Knicks. I routinely sonned all challengers in my hood, and reckoned I had the top two players in the game at my disposal. I was very wrong.

Allow me to introduce you to Mr. Mark Turmell, a true legend in the videogame business. Mr. Turmell is one of the all-time great American game designers; he helped craft several classics including Smash TV, Wrestlemania, NFL Blitz, NFL Blitz ’99, NBA Ballers, TNA Impact!, and of course, NBA Jam and NBA Jam: Tournament Edition. Like many other programmers of his generation, Mr. Turmell had a propensity for sneaking hidden secrets in his titles, and in the case of NBA Jam, Turmell included one of the ultimate videogame basketball players: himself.

If you key in the code “Mjt 0322” (Mr. Turmell’s initials and month/day of birth), you’ll unlock Mark Turmell, who is the best player in the game. That’s a total abuse of power so awesome, that I have to admit that I would’ve done the same had I not continuously cut high school computer science.

When Turmell’s head appeared in the game-complete with decidedly awesome Pearl Jam-esque mid-‘90s hair-his stats don’t look any different from the person that he replaced on a particular team?that’s because they weren’t. Jam’s hidden characters, visually, kept the stats of the default player that they sent packing into temporary retirement. But when Air Turmell took the hardwood, magic happened. He was lightning fast. He had an unbelievably accurate shot. He could steal like a dirty thief. And, most impressively, he could dunk like no other videogame baller. I’m talking 360s, gorilla dunks, and reverses. When a digital athlete is this good, you have to go to the source, especially when said source is the programmer who juiced himself up. I spoke with Mr. Turmell about Air Turmell, basketball gaming, and the god damned Jordan-era Chicago Bulls.

JW: Tell me a few dirty secrets about Jam.

MT: For starters, I did a special code where the Bulls and Pippen would miss last second shots against the Pistons, because it was such a strong rivalry and I was anti-Chicago.

JW: Did you include any other hidden rivalries?

MT: No, I was just anti-Bulls. That was, of course, in the heyday  of the Pistons when they were beating up on the Bulls–and then the Bulls became dominant. I was always waiting for Jordan to take a fall.

JW: Speaking of Jordan, is it true that he was originally going to be featured in NBA Jam, but was removed at the last minute?

MT: We had Michael Jordan in the game on test in Chicago before he pulled out of the league’s licensing agreement, so he was removed from the shipping product. He was super strong.

JW: Could he have taken digital Turmell?

MT: Of course, the other big thing about NBA Jam was that we put the design team into the game and gave them varying attributes. Some were high, some were low, but my character was the strongest.

JW: I wonder why?

MT (laughing): I had super speed, and speed rules in that game. A fast player could zip past a player for an easy 2 or 3, or be able to catch up with another guy and knock him down. Speed rules.

JW: Not counting Air Turmell, out of the default teams, which were the best?

MT: There were a few superstar teams, but Utah was tough with Stockton and Malone. The Pistons of course were super strong. And there was Orlando.

JW: Was that Skiles and Shaq?

MT: Yeah.

JW: I was always partial to the Seattle team of Detlef Schrempf and Shawn Kemp. Kemp was able to dunk like a mad man and Detlef had the long range shot.

MT: That’s true, a lot of people did opt for that. But Stockton…if you were in the defensive mode of stealing, there were attributes for how often your pass would get deflected or intercepted. This is what your passing skill affected. It was very rare to have his passes get stolen or slapped away.

JW: Do you play any other sports games say, Madden or Tecmo Bowl?

MT: We play the other games, but mostly in order to get pacing. I go all the way back to Dr. Jay vs. Larry Bird. We take away certain gameplay elements. For example, if you throw a pass, do you have to hit another button to catch it? Do you jump on your own? It’s the success factor. I always err on the side of providing more success for the player than frustrating them.

JW: One of my gripes about basketball games is that the big men always turn into monster shot blockers even if they aren’t that great at it in real life. How exactly is blocking determined?

MT: Good question. Whenever you try to block with any player, there’s a code that tries to bring your hand to the ball; with a tall guy, it also takes into affect his scale. Everyone has the same logic if drifting toward the ball, but the taller guys get more success because they get up higher. Height in Ballers is definitely vital.

JW: Yao Ming is a brute in the series.

MT (agreeing): Yao Ming.

JW: Shaq?

MT: No. Shaq, I was never a big fan of so I didn’t boost him.  You know how in Ballers you’ll go up to block, but sometimes come down cradling the ball? That’s a more important thing if the player snags the ball as opposed to swatting it away where the opponent has a chance to retrieve it. So the guy with the good blocking would tend to snag the ball more often.

JW: You mentioned not boosting Shaq’s stats and how you gimped the Bulls when they faced the Pistons. Is it common for game designers to let their personal biases effect how they code a game?

MT: Yeah it is, at least it was in the early days. Even in the early days of Dr. Jay vs. Larry Bird. I know that the programmer on that game had played some tricks. He made Dr. Jay stronger than Bird. He would have the CPU check to see if it were Dr. Jay with the ball and roll the dice a little bit differently. He was the best character.

Mr. Turmell went on to discuss the banned moves in the original, arcade NFL Blitz, the Mortal Kombat violence controversy, Midway’s history of over-the-top violent video games, and numerous other topics that were lost due to a voice recorder giving up the ghost. As the voice of the collective gaming community, I thank Mr. Turmell for his years of dedication and hard work that went into several classic titles that proved vital additions to our beloved hobby.