Football Manager First Times

With a new version of Football Manager being released in the next week, the arrival of new members into the forums will inevitably increase, some of them first time users of Football Manager. The first time i ever bought this management sim was by accident when it was still CM. I had already bought Operation Flashpoint, brought it home and realised the spec of my PC was nowhere near the ability to run it (i was young and naive). So i went back to the shop and got a refund and looked at the first game that my PC could run and low and behold, there was CM. And so the love affair started and i have been hooked since.

I'd love to hear other stories of how everyone got introduced to Football Manager?

(sorry if there was a thread about this already)

I got introduced to the love of my life when it was FM07. I was walking through my local games shop, as I do every month without fail, and there was FM07 sitting in the roleplaying section. Don't know why it was in there, but I saw the word "football" and gravitated towards it.

My dadhad the first game and introduce it ti me

I had played Premier Manager 2 & 3 and sort of gave up on football management games because they weren't where I thought they should be. One month either PC Gamer or Ultimate PC gave away a football demos disc to celebrate World Cup 98, and CM97 was on it. The rest, as they say, is history. I've bought almost every version since then, and choose to show how much I care by bitching and moaning about it to the UI team

My older brother used to play the series a long time ago. I would always want to have a go but I was deemed too young to play!!! Once I started and got to know the ropes the love affair began..........

I started back in 95/96. I just say the box in the shelf and thought i'd give it a whirl. Now here i am 13/14 years later, still playing, still getting frustrated at times, but most importantly - still not been sacked*

* I always jump before i'm pushed

I started with CM 01/02... They were giving the game out free in a box of Frosties. Thats how my love affair began

I had a PSP, and got FMH06. Then someone recommended I got normal FM, which I did, and it started from then...

My friend had Championsip Manager 3. One day I went to his house and there he was, at the computer, playing a game that I'd never even imagined could exist. He never let me have a go for myself. He wasn't that type of guy. I had to wait until CM 97/98 for us to have a computer capable of playing the game. And I actually have fond memories of that particular version.

Got my 1st laptop in christmas 04 as a combined christmas/birthday (which was 7 months earlier) present and also was asked if I'd like a game to play on it. I'd played a few 'minor' sims (which seem pathetic now) and heard a little about CM/FM but knew very little about them, plumped for FM05, was giddy with excitement when the game came (the laptop was a few days late), started my 1st ever FM save as England (a successful one, which led into my 1st steps into club management after sacking but with a strong rep) and I've never looked back since, on my 3rd laptop and 5th FM (about to be 6th), and always got it on release day (or in the days when shops would release early, as soon as I knew about that) and friday will be no exception. Looking at that 1st bit it makes me sound like i was about 11/12 as opposed to late teens.

My brother bought CM 99/00 when I was about six or seven, and I used to watch him play it. Sometimes he would help set one up for me, and I would do okay until the time came that all my players' fitness levels got to about 45% due to the lack of squad rotation.

The first one I played properly was CM4, I loved that game, especially the skin. Whatever happened to the bubbly boxes that you could click on to assign the position?

I was introduced by a friend in either 98 or 99. We used to run 2 player games as our home teams and sit playing ages while his girlfriend moaned that he wasn't doing the housework. I lost my job and he was on the sick so I ended up going round every day and furthering our careers in football management instead.

I never had my own PC back then and it was CM, as it was then, that made me decide to buy one. That wasn't until 2002 and I played a hell of a lot back then.

I was first introduced to the series with FM05, was walking through my local games store and it was on sale for around $20 (06 was being released the next week) nevertheless I took it home, started playing and had great fun. Two months later I went back for 2006 and since then I've been hooked.

During a layover in London, I was browsing games. CM2 for PC was on the shelves and I bought it despite owning a Mac at the time. Sold the Mac, bought a PC within a month and got started.

IIRC, Newcastle United was my first team. Beardsley, Ferdinand, Ginola et al.

mine was CM3 it looked good so i tryed it and got likeing the game from there. i was 12 at the time lol im now 23

I started with CM 01/02... They were giving the game out free in a box of Frosties. Thats how my love affair began

It's good to know that these promo ideas can help a company hook customers for life! I had always played football manager games from when i was young on zx and c64. Then a work mate told me all about CM2 and i was hooked from just what he was telling me. Chucked my playstation 1 into the cupboard and went out and bought my first pc (£1,200) just to play it. so it was word of mouth for me.

CM93 was recommended to me by friends at school and I've bought every version since.

I bought FIFA08 and ended up doing all the manager stuff (tactics, buying/selling players etc) instead of actually playing the football myself. That got boring pretty fast, so a buddy recommended FM, this was a couple of weeks before FM09 demo came out, so I downloaded the FM08 demo, messed around with that. Then I got the FM09 demo, and eventually FM09. So yeah I'm pretty new to FM.

Had every copy from day one i believe on the amiga although i may be wrong, 35 years old now and still like a kid at christmas b4 the new one comes out.Love it

Having played Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager on the Spectrum in the late 80's/early 90's, I then moved on to Premier Manager on my Mega Drive, before getting CM2 when we got our first PC in the mid 90's. I've played every version since (moved from CM to FM when the split happened).

My aunt used to be ill and off work for long stretches of time. Although a female, she is a fooball fanatic and she used to play Champ Man 00/01 and I got in to it. Needless to say I haven't stopped since. She no longer plays them but when she did, she would cheat!

My (then) wife forced me to have a vasectomy. Off work and sitting gingerly on a cushion for 3 days, she took pity on me and bought me CM4. Hooked ever since. No time to make children now anyway.

My first footballing management experience has to be the first CM ever produced in the market and that was in 1992 or 1993. At that time, I do not have a PC so I played the game in my friend's home. Good times indeed!

been in from the start, and somewhat before then

anyone remember football manager on the spectrum? that was my first football manager athough my first proper Fm would be CM2

I used to play Premierleague manager on my old Amiga 500+ then a mate done me a copy of cm93 on the old xcopy program for the amiga and the rest is history I have bought every single concept of the game since i even have the old cm norway game my dad bought it home form Norway when he was on exercise out there one year ha ha!

Championship Manager Italia was my first experience, didn't really know who many of the players were!

From then on I got every CM until it became FM and I will continue to do so! The wife has pre-ordered FM10, she's picking it up for me on Friday and she has volunteered to work Saturday to give me some FM time!

my 1st game was champoinship manager 08 .....on mobile LOL

I'm kind of new in FM my 1st one was 08 I think. and i got 08 mid this year lol

I was introduced in FM by googleit i search for football manager game. I got tired of fifa ect and playing Managerzone (bowser manager game), but i was still thinking Fifa Manager was the best Manager game. I wanted to see what other games was out there, i found FM and looked at the Features and it was a 2D game , and i thought omg some noob game trying to compete with Fifa , so i said what the heck might as well try it, so i tried FM and i got so accident to it wow lol. i dumped Fifa manager

I played the original Football Manager by Kevin Toms on the Spectrum many, many years ago.

A few years later I brought a copy of CM93/94 for the Amiga. I think the next game I brought was CM 01/02 for the PC and I brought most of the game since then, but luckily I missed out on the CM4 fun and games.

I have brought every version of FM since they changed the name after the Eidos split.

Had every copy from day one i believe on the amiga although i may be wrong, 35 years old now and still like a kid at christmas b4 the new one comes out.Love it

Just like me I remember CM on the Amiga and the WOW! CM Italia

I'm now 36 and I must admit to not buting every version I do skip a year or 3 if the demo looks average to me but this yr looks like they nailed it - I'm counting down to Friday when the game is out

had 2 friends that would play cm 97/98 and onwards etc id try and play but dident really know what i was doing truth be told, when i finally got a pc strong enough to play it, i borrowed (and never returned) cm 99/00 had a great game with blackburn, then brought cm 01/02..hated champs 4 so dident buy it, but brought 03/04 dident do more than half a season,

after the edios si split i was going to buy champs, but fm hit the shelf first, one friday night with nothing to do i popped to tescos to pick up a new dvd and stumbled across fm 05...hooked like a baby on crack once more and have been since

'Found' it by way of another brilliant game, 'Rome: Total War' Gold Edition also published by Sega. At some point I got to the back of the game manual and saw the promo for FM06, and was interested. Downloaded the 06 demo, great fun, bought 07 when it was released later that year.

My (then) wife forced me to have a vasectomy. Off work and sitting gingerly on a cushion for 3 days, she took pity on me and bought me CM4. Hooked ever since. No time to make children now anyway.

This story wins, hands down !

I was twelve(ish) and I remember going out, pair of boots in one hand, ball in the other going in for my mate only to be rejected as he was busy playing FM06, that night slightly peeved that my suggestion of a real game of foobtall was dismissed for a simulatated game i went to my gannys where my cousin was also staying and no prizes for guessing what she was playing on her laptop, yup FM06 i spent the whole night looking over her shoulder absolutely fascinated with her commenting on decisions, talking to managers, signing players, setting up training and tactics, I was absolutely mesmorised and the next week mother was sent out for a copy . And to this day i'm still like a wee boy when it's coming out been texting my mate since the 1st 29 days to go, 28 days to go, 27 days to go etc etc !

BTW, FOUR DAYS TO GO !

first stared with FM2005, other half was at uni in brighton, so when i stayed with her i bought it to play while she was in lectures, have had every1 since.

she is now my wife and usually buys the game for me.

Was staying at a mates for a week and found a copy of FM2005. Spent most of the week inside, my girlfriend wasn't very happy! Needless to say that had me hooked, woe the times when Freddy Adu was god..

Championship Manager 3 (which my dad bought for himself) was my first dip in the management pond . I have bought every version since FM2005 myself.

Played Football Manager (Addictive software) on the BBC B Micro in 1982, have been playing football management games of various types ever since, had a break of a good few years during the whole CM/FM thing and got back into FM07. Been re-hooked ever since.

My friend had Championsip Manager 3. One day I went to his house and there he was, at the computer, playing a game that I'd never even imagined could exist. He never let me have a go for myself. He wasn't that type of guy. I had to wait until CM 97/98 for us to have a computer capable of playing the game. And I actually have fond memories of that particular version.

My first too I got hundreds of hours out of that as a child.

championship manager 3, my friend at school could not shut up about champ manager 2 and kept going on bout how good it was then so i decided to buy it when it came out and i have been hooked ever since, we used to spend many lessons talkin bout who we were gona try sign and stuff like that, seems like our lessons were all bout cm rather than maths english etc lol

First time I played the series was CM2, I remember the retiring bug, and used to get the best old players so I could have the exact same regens, don't forget the money bug aswell

First ever football manager type game I played was on the old BBC. Can't remember the name of it.

FM/CM it was 93/94.

I started with CM 01/02... They were giving the game out free in a box of Frosties. Thats how my love affair began

CM 01/02 was my first as well.

Although was that just the demo disc you got with frosties, because I definitely remember buying the full game but I've got a CM01/02 demo disc as well for some reason, think I must have got it free with something like a cereal packet as well and that must have been how I got into it, was only 11 then so I don't really remember.

Edit: Loaded up the demo disc and it appears I got it free with a box of cheerios

My Cousin had the very first one 92? don't know where he got it from but I was round his every night for what felt like months up untill my Parents relented an bought me a second hand Amiga in time for me to get the next version.

17 years later and I'm still buying it on release day every year, same can be said for 4 of my mates who all got into it via me an my Cousin.

My fondest memories are of Champ Man Italia, was utterly blown away at the fact of managing in Italy although my mate turned of my Amiga mid save totaly destroying the disk I've only recently forgiven him

'Found' it by way of another brilliant game, 'Rome: Total War' Gold Edition also published by Sega. At some point I got to the back of the game manual and saw the promo for FM06, and was interested. Downloaded the 06 demo, great fun, bought 07 when it was released later that year.

Another Rome: Total War fan! Brilliant. If you haven't downloaded Roma Surrectum I would advise you google it and get it on the hard drive. Along with Football Manager, it is the one game which will always be on mine, now and forever.

My own first experience with the game was that old favourite CM Italia. I had played a couple of shoddy attempts at management sims on the Amiga, one of which, and I'm damned if I recall the name, had a 3D engine too! I had always loved them from the very first one I ever played - Soccer Boss, on the Commodore VIC20. Talk about limited! There were about twenty player names in the "database", you could only score four goals per game, the opposition "teams" had no player names etc ....... you get the picture.

I played through many versions of Premier Manager before getting bored .... but something always drew me back to the "spreadsheet" game, the one where you could go Juventus and command Roberto Baggio and co. I had never seen such love and attention to detail lavished on a manager game. I think I remember a Scottish version, but maybe that's just my imagination!

When it moved into the Championship Manager 2 varients where you could run teams from any of a dozen leagues I thought we'd never see a game like it. I was wrong. Every version was better than the last, and I only swayed once .... or almost did ..... when Edios and co split and Championship Manager and Football Manager became two seperate titles ..... I have to say that I believed the early hype, that FM was the true successor to the games I had loved so much, and I bought it.

I have always been glad I did. And I have never wavered, never spent a brass button on any other manager sim since. When Championship Manager was on sale for a "buy what you like" fee a few months ago I didn't waste the cash. I knew the second FM2010 landed on my hall carpet ..... that would be it.

I'm pretty new to the series mostly because I'm American and the game isn't big or really available here. I started playing 08 after I accidentally stumbled on a website for it.

My girlfriend was out of town for the weekend finally giving me some time to play FIFA 08. I was searching for tips on taking free kicks on FIFA 08 when I found a bunch of FM websites. I'd never heard of the game before not being much of a video game guy. Up to this point I only played Madden, NCAA football (college American football), and FIFA. I started reading about the game and downloaded the demo. After about 2 hours with the demo I downloaded FM 08 off Virgin.

I then spent the next 48 hours engrossed in the game. When my girlfriend came back on Sunday I caught all kinds of grief for not having cleaned out the garage (my assigned project for the weekend).

Since then I've rarely played any other game. This summer I bought Madden 2010 and NCAA 2010 but I barely touched them as I have been spending all my video game time playing FM09.

Not even going to bother getting FIFA 2010, FM ruined that game for me...in a good way. I'm really excited to get my hands on FM 10 in a few days!

First played the 99/00 demo in early 2000 (when i was about 15?) on my PC which took an eternity to advance through a day (so i only played that for an hour or so).

At the start of '02, i went to a second-hand shop and bought CM 00/01. Been in love ever since (had that version for about 2 years, played a total of roughly 30-40 seasons in that time....)

These days i struggle to get to 10 seasons per version (which is why i may hold off on '10, seeing as i want to get back to the days of having 20-season saves)

Yeah I started on CM2, I actually still have the game in mint condition (box and all), I might have to dig it out and have a play. I have been addicted to these games ever since.

Living in America it is all about Fifa, really the only manager type game around, at least in stores. I played Fifa for the longest time and loved the manager aspect of it. I knew a little, little bit about FM. Really just that it was way more realistic. I did a google search and found out about FM 08. I found the trailer and was hooked instantly, best trailer ever!

I downloaded the demo while I waited for my game to arrive (2 day shipping). I played the demo non stop and continued once the game finally arrived

FM is the only computer game I play now. Its the most addictive, most realistic manager game of any sport ever. I'm really excited about FM 10 because we can create our own leagues. I'm looking forward to creating some lower non-league England leagues.

I started with CM 01/02... They were giving the game out free in a box of Frosties. Thats how my love affair began

CM0102 - its Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreat! LOL

I had played Premier Manager 2 & 3 and sort of gave up on football management games because they weren't where I thought they should be. One month either PC Gamer or Ultimate PC gave away a football demos disc to celebrate World Cup 98, and CM97 was on it. The rest, as they say, is history. I've bought almost every version since then, and choose to show how much I care by bitching and moaning about it to the UI team

Same here, I liked Premier Manager though

My football managment games history

Spectrum

1991 Super League/Football Manager (nothing to do with the current series)

1992 Kenny Dalglish Soccer Manager

Amiga

1993 Premier Manager

1994 Premier Manager 2

1995 Premier Manager 3

Then various including Ultimate Soccer Manager and Football Masters until

PC

Oct 98 Championship Manager 2

and then every SI game right up until the present day

I've played every version since the start, still remember the original in its red box, and the really cool music. Funnily enough it was one of my Dads friends who had it, my cousin was over for the weekend and Dad brought it back after going over to see him thinking I'd quite like it. Needless to say, both my cousin and I were hooked instantly for that weekend, and I've bought them ever since.

Sadly we only had 1 PC so my time playing it was rationed, not a problem when subsequently the study had an extension and Dad decided to get a second PC so games could go on to that. Happy days!