I have finally gotten Live 2k1 to work properly on Windows XP Build 2428.. Thanks in part to this post on the nba-live forums page..
By kinkin (Kinkin) on Thursday, March 01, 2001 - 15:11: Edit
i did more tests on it, and now is all good
it works on my pc at least
what i have done is i had nbalive 2k installed before i installed nbalive 2k1
just FYI
installed paths are
C:gamesEA SPORTSNBA Live 2000
C:gamesEA SPORTSNBA Live 2001
that might not matter, but do install them using the same cd-rom (so that with same drive letter)
and enable auto-run on that cd-rom
ok, put in your nba2k cd and it will auto run
CLICK PLAY BUTTON on the auto-run menu
then SOMEHOW, it will load NBA2k1 instead !
(at least for me)
then it will load intro, and then pass the intro and load the menu, again, if you get dark graphics, you just have to lower the texture level, playing nba2k1 on win2k! (before you actually in the gameplay, you have to put your nba2k1 cd back! or it will freeze!!)
the above steps should work if you fully installed the nba2k1 files from the cd-rom, so it won't search for the nba2k1 cd when loading the starting menu)
other people might not need to do those to play it on win2k, but it seems this is ONE of the way that can load the game, under the most IMPOSSIBLE situation.
**Provided**: using the above video driver settings etc.
feel free to ask me if you don't know what i'm talking about, please confirm this method really works on all pc, too
GOOD LUCK
Initially his recommendations didn't work at all.. but I went to gamecopyworld and downloaded -fdxn2k1p.zip- replaced the exe file.. At that point once I launched I'd never get to the menu.. I'd never see the theme song at all. It would just crash back to the desktop. So i decided to run it in compatibility mode.. I selected Win98, launched it again and now it works great...
My results do differ from KinKin, I don't need to launch from the 2000 CD. I'm now becoming doubtful that 2000 is really needed at all. But I have played full games and the Textures and everything else are fine if not better then WinME. I hope u guys will be able to get yours working as well....
------------------------------------------
My Specs
ATI Radeon 32 DDR
Athlon 650MHZ
196 Megs of Ram
Maxtor 15GB Hardrive
Western Digital 4GB Hardrive
HP 9100 CD-RW
BDV DVD Rom Drive
Internal Zip Drive
External Jaz Drive