For German users: Eine kurze deutsche Anleitung liegt bei (liesmich.txt).

NBA Live 96 ROSTER PATCH V3.40
------------------------------
Date: 10/28/96
Probable release date for next version: ?
NEW: - 1992/93 Rosters
     - preseason rosters, corrected jersey numbers

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

The latest version can always be found at:
http://www-users.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/~timt/nba96.html


Introduction
------------
This is an unofficial patch for the commercial game NBA Live 96 by
EA Sports, based on hex editing. It provides the executable 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 96 directory
(usually C:\NBA96) and make sure you have an unchanged copy of the NBA
Live 96 EXE-File named NBA96.EXE in that directory.
Then, simply type 'install' and follow the instructions on your screen.
The installation will leave your original files untouched.
You will be asked before installing each of the patch files.
Every patched file requires about 1.8 MB of HD space.
When finished, you can choose one of the created .exe-files to start.
You can delete the files 'install.bat' and 'binpatch.exe' from recent
patch versions.
Once you have completed the installation, you may delete install.bat,
*.p96 and update.exe.

!!! If you are currently running a season, do not try to continue it !!!
!!!                                                                  !!!
!!! using the patch, it may just mess up your saved game             !!!
!!!                                                                  !!!
!!! (start a new one with the patch or finish it without)            !!!
!!!


Deinstallation
--------------
To uninstall the patch, delete all of the files listed below under
'Files' plus 90-91.EXE, 92-93.EXE, 95-96.EXE and 96-97.EXE.
Note that the installation routine moves career.pat and career.p97
to the \art\miscfe directory.


Files
-----
90-91.p96
92-93.p96
95-96.p96
96-97.p96
install.bat
update.exe
rosters.s91
rosters.s93
rosters.s96
rosters.s97
career.pat
career.p97
readme.txt
liesmich.txt
If you are missing any of these, try to get a fresh version from
the site mentioned above.


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

90-91
-----
The Original 1990/91 Line-ups, with all the great players from
that era, like Larry Bird, Dominique Wilkins, Magic Johnson and
many others.
Some players have wrong portraits here.
Made by J.Bruno Fernandes (j.fernan@mithlond.esoterica.pt) with
some help by Tim Tschirner. Please contact Jorge for all
questions about this patch.

92-93
-----
The Original 1992/93 Line-ups, with the Bulls on their way to
the Three-Peat, a new Phoenix Sun and a rookie named Shaquille
O'Neal.
Some players have wrong portraits here.
Made by J.Bruno Fernandes (j.fernan@mithlond.esoterica.pt) with
some help by Tim Tschirner. Please contact Jorge for all
questions about this patch.

95-96
-----
The 1995/96 Rosters, with re-touched skill values, positions and
jersey numbers (after the trades) plus full 95-96 stats, draft
information and date and place of birth for all created players.

96-97
-----
This file has rosters for the 1996/97 season, including all the
rookies, regardless if they are signed yet or not.
Furthermore, you'll find all the free agents still with their
old teams until they sign somewhere else.
This file will be continuously updated during the offseason,
so you should always look for new versions of this patch.
Note that the 'active' patch is only available during the
regular season.


Additional notes
----------------
For some odd reason, EA Sports only left space for 14 players on
each team. A few teams have 15 players on their roster, though,
you'll find the 15th player for those teams on the free agent team.
Also, there are way too few free agent slots available (The guys at
EA Sports sure know how to make us buy NBA Live 97.), so we had to
dump some of the unused players on the injured list of other teams
where there was room.
Then, the roster files are too small, so we had to replace a few
of the original players to add new players.
YES, SOME PLAYERS DO USE WRONG PORTRAITS. We have checked and
apparently the only way to fix this would be installing all the
portrait files from the CD on the HD - a grand total of 31 MB.
Anyway, we made sure that only reserves use wrong portraits, so at
least the portraits of the starters before a game are OK. Yes, we
think that sucks, too, but there is no way to fix this. Changing
player IDs would mess up the rosters.


Some technical information
--------------------------
The *.p96 files are used to create changed .exe files. The .exe
files contain the data of all original players - the patch updates
their skill values, positions and jersey numbers here. The Roster
Files (rosters.*) are the same as rosters.dat; rosters.s96 is for
95-96.exe, rosters.s97 for 96-97.exe, and so on. You do not need
to rename them to 'rosters.dat' or whatever, the patches will
automatically load the correct file (we changed some ASCII strings
in the .exe files there).
The rosters.* files are for the correct roster orders as well as
the data of the created players. Additional files career.p* are
copied into the /art/miscfe directory and are loaded by the patches
instead of career.idx, making sure some of the new players are not
displayed with other players' career stats.


How to edit the game yourself
-----------------------------
If you want to edit the game yourself, get one of the NBA Live 96
editors available at the above site. The NBA Live 96 Editor for
Windows does also have an option to create your own patch files,
which you can then distribute.


Acknowledgements
----------------
- EA Sports for failing to create a proper editor and giving us a lot
  to do every time they release a game
- Joshua Bahnsen for providing us with some missing player data and for 
  typing the 95-96 stats - just like we did :-( 
- Dave Zolnier for his editor
- many thanks to Leo (leo@dragon.net.au) for looking up a lot of player 
  information for us
- Evan for his help with the rosters
- everyone maintaining an NBA Live web site, especially Stan Olson
