Black Fives Mod

Hello everyone, I invite you all to step into a time machine with me to the early days of basketball, before the NBA even. An era where the game was played in ballrooms and armories. I'm talking about the Black Fives era. Largely concentrated in NY and DC but also sprinkled throughout the US, teams from that area were the only places a Black man could play the game after college. I will be recreating the experience of that time period as best as I can with vintage balls, special courts/arenas, and rosters of 30 of the best teams from that era. If possible, I even plan on modifying some rules/sliders to match the rules of that era. Some of these Black Fives teams were affiliated with churches, YMCAs, or military units, but several were independent and professional. These men paved the way for basketball to integrate and become the globally successful sport it is today. Screenshots will be posted soon, but let me give you a list of teams. To round out the list, a few teams that were common opponents will be listed.

10th Calvary Buffalo Soldiers (Colchester, VT)
American Legion Post 272 (Akron, OH)
Atlantic City Vandal Athletic Club (Atlantic City, NJ)
Carlisle Indians (Carlisle, PA) Jim Thorpe was on this team
Chicago Savoy Big Five (Chicago, IL) (Many players formed a new team that later became the Harlem Globetrotters)
Cincinnati Lion Tamers (Cincinnati, OH)
Company E/372 Red Hands (Springfield, OH)
Harlem Alpha Physical Culture Club (New York, NY)
Harlem Globetrotters (New York, NY)
Howard University Bison (Washington, DC)
Jesse Owens Olympians (Seattle, WA)
Lincoln University Lions (Oxford, PA)
Los Angeles Red Devils (Los Angeles, CA) Jackie Robinson was on this team
Montford Point Marines (Camp Lejeune, NC) The first Black Marines
Monticello-Delaney Rifles (Pittsburgh, PA)
Morehouse College Maroon Tigers (Atlanta, GA)
Nebraska N.A.D. (Naval Ammunition Depot) (Hastings, NE)
New Jersey Independent Pleasure Club (Orange, NJ)
New York All-Stars (New York, NY)
New York Original Celtics (New York, NY)
New York Rens (New York, NY) This entire team is enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame
Philadelphia Panthers (Philadelphia, PA)
Philadelphia SPHAs (Philadelphia, PA) All-Jewish Team
Pittsburgh Scholastics (Pittsburgh, PA)
Pittsburgh Second Story Morrys (Pittsburgh, PA) All-Jewish Team
Brooklyn Smart Set Athletic Club (Brooklyn, NY)
St. Christopher Athletic Club (New York, NY)
Toledo White Huts (Toledo, OH)
Washington 12th Streeters (Washington, DC)
Washington Bears (Washington, DC)

If anyone has any ideas, suggestions, or wants to help, please let me know.

Last edited by bctrackboi11 on Wed Dec 18, 2019 6:27 am, edited 5 times in total.

That’s a super interesting idea and I love the sound of it. The only thing is it sounds like a MASSIVE undertaking. I suppose if it’s just jerseys and team logos then it’s more obtainable but a true overhaul like that would take a seriously dedicated team. I really hope this pans out because it’s such a unique idea! Good luck man!

Dope idea, If you need a base arena you can use mine. It has a rim were I stripped the NBA logos, and I can show you the textures you will need to change in the arena to make it sort of unique to each team.

Twist has a crowd template and I have a Jersey and Floor template as well.

That’s a super interesting idea and I love the sound of it. The only thing is it sounds like a MASSIVE undertaking. I suppose if it’s just jerseys and team logos then it’s more obtainable but a true overhaul like that would take a seriously dedicated team. I really hope this pans out because it’s such a unique idea! Good luck man!

Def takes alot of work I can attest to it. It took me 7-8 months creating all the stuff for my college mod but I was working by myself. This year just converting stuff over took about 2 months. If you got any questions just ask I'll try to help as much as I can.

So the easy thing is that I only need to create one court as they were just plain lines back then.

Arenas: I only plan on having a few. I plan on modifying the following arenas. RobDavis, I will take whatever textures and stuff you have. Anything helps. Also, I have to figure out how to get rid of Dornas entirely as they obviously didn't exist back then.

Chicago Stadium- 64-65 Celtics Arena
NY Armory- Las Vegas Summer League
OH Armory- Practice/Scrimmage Gym (I need to figure out how to add a small crowd)
Generic Church Gym- Orlando Practice Court (crowd also needed)
Generic YMCA- Chaminade HS gym
LA Olympic Auditorium- 64-65 Lakers Arena
Generic Ballroom- MLK HS Gym
Generic Fieldhouse- Churchland HS Gym

Balls: If I can find where the ball texture is, I can work on making an old school ball in photoshop. Same with the referee outfits.

Uniforms: I can easily make them in the game's in game editor, but they look better if I make them outside of the game in photoshop. I just need to figure out how to get them into the game. What I also need to learn is how to assign crowds, arenas, uniforms, etc to certain teams. I can create them in game, but I don't know what to do from there. Last game I modded was 2K14, which was a piece of cake compared to 20.

Playing around with the MLK HS gym to be a YMCA. Need to figure out the following:

-How to rename teams, arenas within the roster
-How to get rid of NBA logo and slide pads on the sideline

NBA 2K20 12_4_2019 5_50_46 PM.png

NBA 2K20 12_4_2019 5_51_48 PM.png

NBA 2K20 12_4_2019 5_49_52 PM.png

You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.

renaming teams is all done in cheat engine that's the easiest part to be honest once you know what your doing. Getting rid of the logos in the arenas is usually easy once you find the files. Most of the time the arenas files are in the archive however some arenas use shared files so you have to hunt for them.

Is this roster going to be fictional?
Also have you decided on how you plan to do Jerseys?
Also Arenas like the highschool gym can be tricky cuz of the crowds and all that stuff but if you figure it out your good.

I can start the roster and file structure for you, and make a quick video showing you how I edit team info. From there you can edit the players, stadium and team info and jerseys (if you go the Photoshop route). I might just make a tutorial series incase anyone else is interested in making there own mod.

Rosters are going to be semi-fictional. I have been compiling information from the Black Fives website and branching out into some additional research of my own. However, teams carrying a roster of 15 guys was rare back then, so I'll have to have some fictional names on the bench. Going to make the jerseys in photoshop.

One more question. Do you know how to add small crowds to the sidelines, like what was done in 2k18? I noticed the Orlando Summer League court has seats and last years game had a crowd on the sidelines. I'd like to find a way to take that info from there and put it into the smaller practice courts.

Rosters are going to be semi-fictional. I have been compiling information from the Black Fives website and branching out into some additional research of my own. However, teams carrying a roster of 15 guys was rare back then, so I'll have to have some fictional names on the bench. Going to make the jerseys in photoshop.

One more question. Do you know how to add small crowds to the sidelines, like what was done in 2k18? I noticed the Orlando Summer League court has seats and last years game had a crowd on the sidelines. I'd like to find a way to take that info from there and put it into the smaller practice courts.

adding crowds is usually just dropping the crowds file (from another arena) into in the archive. You may want to try one of the blacktop crowds. Find the archive open it and look for a crowds file take that and place it in the arena u are using. You may even have to take out the crowd file and the crowd scene file.

OK. Tried my hand at creating a uniform. Everything went great until I put it in the game and...I saw nothing. The players, the uniform were completely invisible. Can someone take a look and tell me what I did wrong?

https://www.mediafire.com/file/k2ael6as ... s.zip/file

I'll take a look at it tonight

Ok jersey looked good once I got it to load. It looks like your archive had some mismatched files inside. Your jersey file had a Boston practice jersey file and was named under NY. Remember the jersey file names have to be consistent or else it wont load. If you grab the jersey files using 2k explorer make sure ur using the same filenames inside that archive. Sometimes u have to change the texture files as well (viewtopic.php?f=258&t=107952) You also don't need the frontend uniform folder, you did need it for 2k19 but I havent found its use in 2k20 so disregard that for now.

Files u need (each jersey had a uniform and a font and tweak)

inside of your modded folder


inside of your clothing folder


I'll try to make a quick tutorial later but in the mean time here's the archive I fixed with the jersey. U can use this for your testing for your creations. Just swap out the jersey color file and the shorts color file inside of u014ny_1946_home.iff but keep the names. btw it will be using the NY retro 1946 jersey, I just loaded it with my mod so thats y u see college stuff.

-jersey_color.1c732599fe88d7f1.dds
-shorts_color.44ee567789bcaed4.dds

So maybe make a folder and just rename em and drop em back in whenever your testing.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/x7kbb611w ... s.rar/file

Thanks Rob, you are the man. I used the practice jerseys because they are the only uniform in game that doesn't use front numbers. Biggest question I have right now is how do I change the shorts length? I understand I have to manipulate a value somewhere, I'm just not sure where. The plan for me to bang this out is the following:

Uniforms- I am finding a lot of old newspaper clippings and have some photos to go off of. If anyone wants to help I'd more than welcome it.
Arenas/Floor
Logos
Murals/Artwork (not sure which files to edit yet)
Realistic Ball
Renaming everything (arenas, teams, etc)
Players

By the way, I contacted the CEO of BlackFives.org, he is interested and may be able to help with logos and such.

Man I gotta say, this project sounds fascinating. I had no idea that the Black Fives existed.

An underrated aspect of modding is definitely that it is an avenue for basketball fans to learn more about the game and this is a prime example. That's awesome that the CEO is interested, too.

If there's anything I can do to help I will. As for the shorts length, I imagine you mean a global setting for a particular uniform, and not specific to a player?

oh sweet, I learned about the New York Rens as a kid

As far as the font we will blank it out so don't worry about that. If the list at the top is your final list of teams I can setup the roster for you it shouldn't take me long at all. As far as short length u can do that In cheat engine, don't worry about that tho. Confirm the team list and location of each team and I'll build the mod template. After that it's literally jerseys arenas and courts and I'll help u there too.

Thanks Rob, you are the man. I used the practice jerseys because they are the only uniform in game that doesn't use front numbers. Biggest question I have right now is how do I change the shorts length? I understand I have to manipulate a value somewhere, I'm just not sure where. The plan for me to bang this out is the following:

Uniforms- I am finding a lot of old newspaper clippings and have some photos to go off of. If anyone wants to help I'd more than welcome it.
Arenas/Floor
Logos
Murals/Artwork (not sure which files to edit yet)
Realistic Ball
Renaming everything (arenas, teams, etc)
Players

By the way, I contacted the CEO of BlackFives.org, he is interested and may be able to help with logos and such.

Thanks Rob. I edited the list of teams above and those are my final selections. As for jersey fonts, some teams did have numbers only on the back, which is why I chose that one. I'm compiling a bunch of old photographs and newspaper clippings with references to help the uniform making process easier.

Arenas. Is there a way to eliminate things like flash bulbs and led ribbons? The Vegas Summer League arena will work great for one arena, but it has an LED ribbon in it. As for floors, they all will be incredibly similar. I am attaching some photos of what the courts looked like in those days, and I intend to recreate them myself. Thanks again for all your help.

22004795780_12119a71d7_b.jpg

stadium2_060417.jpg

2018_12_30_49e05a9af6ef4840ab9dd43610e3bd39.jpeg

old-court-diagram.jpg

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Heres a video, just didnt want you waiting on me for editing plus better to show you instead of just doing it

Name of the Roster: BlackFives
Online ID: RobDavis

Download Files and unzip: http://www.mediafire.com/file/cuuirin9d ... s.rar/file
Cheat Engine: https://www.cheatengine.org/

phpBB [video]

Last edited by RobDavis on Sun Jun 21, 2020 10:35 am, edited 2 times in total.

Rob, I can't thank you enough for your help. You ever end up in Kentucky, first round's on me.

Rob, I can't thank you enough for your help. You ever end up in Kentucky, first round's on me.

I'll drop the stadium editing video today. So you can get your stadiums all renamed and the locations updated.

Stadium Editing

phpBB [video]

where can i download the edit player chat table for 1.10?

Hi RobDavis good job on the Black Fives Mod and the tutorials you did. But I've been having a hard time changing the cyberfaces of the staff (Head Coach and Assistant Coach). Hopefully you can give a tutorial on that. Thank you.