A one-minute, one-on-one Basketball game begins with two bars of "Sweet Georgia Brown" and the jump ball. If you have the ball, your player automatically dribbles it, and you can shoot it with different arcs depending on how long you hold down the button. If you don't have the ball, you can steal it by going toe to toe with your opponent, or jump up and steal it as he's shooting it.
The Atari 2600 port is known for being played by a couple of flight controllers in the movie Airplane! The Atari 8-Bit Computers port is known for having one of the first clearly African-American video game characters. Both ports have a one-player mode, featuring a very aggressive computer player.
Also one of the first video games in which your character can jump.
Basketball provides examples of:
- Attract Mode: The game plays itself if you leave it alone.
- Color-Coded Multiplayer: The arcade game is black and white, one character is white with black clothes and one is gray with white clothes. The 2600 version uses green and purple (!) The 400/800 version uses realistic Caucasian and African-American skin tones.
- Jump Physics: As stated, one of the first games to have them.
- Player Versus Player: Two real-life players controlling virtual basketball players. The home versions add a one-player mode with an AI opponent.
- Public Domain Soundtrack: "Sweet Georgia Brown".
- Scoring Points: Each player scores a point by shooting the ball into the basket.
- Side View / Three-Quarters View: Viewed from the top of the bleachers.
- Sports Game: Basketball.
- Timed Mission: The arcade version lasts one minute. The ports last four minutes.
