Football Manager First Times

[Geordie 09]

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 have been hooked ever since the very first version on the Amiga. I have bought every single version ever since. I remember on the Amiga setting a 1-4-5 tactic with my beloved Newcastle team and wiping the floor with everyone. If anyone can remember this version did you ever manage to sign Gazza from the continetal market? Every time he shot he scored.

[alexpaulj]

i first got into fm games when i read the review for fm07. it got a good write UP and it peaked my interest. the following week, the missus was dragging me around meadowhall shopping (god, why can't she learn to drive!!). i passed the GAME store and they had fm07 on offer - £19.99, so i bought it and installed it that night. really enjoyed it and played it regularly until i had fm09 last xmas (thanks santa:)). i even edited the database for my beloved derby on fm07, but when i started the game, liverpool offered 20 million for steve howard and the board over ruled my decisions and took the money (swines).

its only in the last few weeks ive been on this forum and learnt more and more about training and tactics, as well as the new skins etc. this forum has made fm09 even more enjoyable, and when i get fm10 next week (assuming the lazy postmen can be bothered to the job they are paid to do ), i can enjoy the series even more.

i am now well and truly hooked on the fm series.

cheers SI.

[Unknown Hacker]

My uncle introduced me to CM 99 in about 2002... Since then I have bought every other FM game, plus all of the handheld editions.

@alexpaulj: Don't you mean Meadowhell?

[scotty-corkcityfc]

Player Manager from Anco was my first manager game back in the early 90s, back on the Amiga 500! I still think to this day its one of the best games of its time! I would love to be able to download it somewhere! That went onto The Manager on the Amiga then Championship Manager 93! And I have had every one since. As soon as FM came out that was the end of CM for me. I think what turned it was FM came out about 4 months before CM and by the time the new CM came out I was hooked! Too late, good luck, good bye!

As long as I can manage Cork City I will keep buying the game!

[x42bn6]

FM07.

First signed Cambiasso. I never signed him in any game again.

[dirtyscarab]

I happened upon FM relatively late on in the series @ FM07 as I live in the States and they don't really stock it in the video game stores over here. Think I found out about it on an online review somewhere...

Anyhow, up until then I had never played a management game before and I was immediately put off by how damn HARD it was for a novice

I remember flinging the CD across the room in frustration after only a day or so of playing. (I'm embarrassed to admit). But then again, I did throw myself into the deep end by playing Yeading in the BSS. (I chose Yeading because I remember about the same time as the game got released they got trounced 5-0 by Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup and I wanted revenge)!

Luckily, I'm not the quitting type, so I found a link to these very forums and read up on the tactics bible which helped me understand the game enormously, but more importantly it got me motivated again. So I dusted off the CD which was luckily unscathed from its flying-across-the-room excursions and tried again.

Loved the series ever since.

This'll be my forth FM game. Can't believe how quick it's gone by. Of course, my wife still doesn't the appeal of "all those dots moving around", but that's fine

There really isn't anything else out there that has that sense of realism and a great community to go with it...

[liamstack151]

God knows what year it was when I first played. I used to play Football Manager on the C64 in the 80's (Not made by SI by the way! Think it was Addictive Games?? **Edit Addictive Published, but Kevin Toms was the programmer, he basically started it all really!!!!!The best version of that was when the expansion kit came out years later!!!! MAN that was a game!!!!! FM2, always remember the Gold Box!!!), used to love that game!!!! Man how things have changed!! Think I would have had a heart attack if some man came back in time with a PC and a copy of FM10!!! Would have seemed unreal!!!! Have always loved my management sims. Anyone remember "The Manager" on the Amiga (Have just looked it up, it was by US Gold, was quality!!)? Have owned every version of CM (Until SI left and it became Football Manager), had my first championship manager on the amiga, think it was in 91/92? Not sure, it was just called Championship Manager, was hooked on it!! Hours after hours! It blew Premier Manager (and Player Manager!) out of the water which I also had (Anyone remember the phone cheat to get loads of money on Premier Manager??? lol!!) Then I think it was CM 93, always remember the green box for some strange reason!! Then CM2 for the PC and every update after that as they were all updates for the CM2 engine! But it just got better and better!!!! More leagues etc!!!! Still miss those days (rose tinted glasses are great!!). Then came CM3 and all its updates (not as many due to CM4 eventually coming out!), was the best in the series in my opinion!!!! Meeemories!! Then along came CM4, which all I remember was it being sooooooo sloooooowwww!!!! And just not loving it straight away, it took a while! The 03/04 update sorted out alot, plus the patches. And I never bought another CM game, followed SI all the way from FM05 to my pre-order of FM10 (Roll on Friday!!).

This is more than a love affair for me!!! lol!!!! Been playing football management sims since white dots on my zx-spectrum!! Cant remember the name of that game, but remember it still!!! SI have really perfected the genre, and its management heaven basically!!!

[lutontown1991]

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

Thats how i started too

[Peregrine]

My story is a strange one. This spring, I accidentally stumbled upon a wonderfully cerebral football blog called The Run of Play. One of the main series of articles that appeared until a week or two followed the chronicles of his adventures on FM09 with Pro Vercelli, attempting to wake the sleeping giant of Italian football to their former glory. He took them to four consecutive Champions League titles before calling it quits, and told it like real life: creating characters out of the coaches and players and building some of the most fascinating and tense prose that I've ever witnessed about football.

After becoming engrossed with his experience, I bought FM09 myself via Steam and spent quite a few days of my life this summer adjusting to its subtleties. My first signing was a player called Adnan Ahmed for York City. Typically for an amateur, I paid way over the top and he was awful! When we were jammed in the relegation zone, I learnt my lesson and moved to the division below. By the end of that save, I'd just taken a promising Peterborough side from the threat of relegation to the playoff semi-finals in League 1, making some quality summer signings.

Unfortunately, my hard drive crashed so that save's been lost, but I can already tell that a love affair has begun. I'm very excited about approaching FM2010 with my new experience.

[TigerTime]

I got annoyed when I found Fifa 08 didn't have manager mode for the Wii. My dad recommened me I try FM08...

[Bradz FM]

it was 03/04, few lads in school were talking bout CM4 (i think that was the previous intallment), i hurled abuse at them for playin a mundane game. I had some money left over at Xmas and bought CM03/04 and was left swalling my words.........

[Russ_WWFC]

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

God knows what year it was when I first played. I used to play Football Manager on the C64 in the 80's (Not made by SI by the way! Think it was Addictive Games?? **Edit Addictive Published, but Kevin Toms was the programmer, he basically started it all really!!!!!The best version of that was when the expansion kit came out years later!!!! MAN that was a game!!!!! FM2, always remember the Gold Box!!!), used to love that game!!!! Man how things have changed!! Think I would have had a heart attack if some man came back in time with a PC and a copy of FM10!!! Would have seemed unreal!!!! Have always loved my management sims. Anyone remember "The Manager" on the Amiga (Have just looked it up, it was by US Gold, was quality!!)? Have owned every version of CM (Until SI left and it became Football Manager), had my first championship manager on the amiga, think it was in 91/92? Not sure, it was just called Championship Manager, was hooked on it!! Hours after hours! It blew Premier Manager (and Player Manager!) out of the water which I also had (Anyone remember the phone cheat to get loads of money on Premier Manager??? lol!!) Then I think it was CM 93, always remember the green box for some strange reason!! Then CM2 for the PC and every update after that as they were all updates for the CM2 engine! But it just got better and better!!!! More leagues etc!!!! Still miss those days (rose tinted glasses are great!!). Then came CM3 and all its updates (not as many due to CM4 eventually coming out!), was the best in the series in my opinion!!!! Meeemories!! Then along came CM4, which all I remember was it being sooooooo sloooooowwww!!!! And just not loving it straight away, it took a while! The 03/04 update sorted out alot, plus the patches. And I never bought another CM game, followed SI all the way from FM05 to my pre-order of FM10 (Roll on Friday!!).

This is more than a love affair for me!!! lol!!!! Been playing football management sims since white dots on my zx-spectrum!! Cant remember the name of that game, but remember it still!!! SI have really perfected the genre, and its management heaven basically!!!

I remember that, and cheat to make the stats really good - think the one for passing was 000123

[Pup8]

In 2008 I was recouperating from an injury/surgery with 3 months bed time. Searched on my laptop for a long term, involved game and decided to try FM2008. I had rarely played computer games but got hooked - oh and I live in the States and have never played football before. I bought FM2009 and will buy FM2010. It is the only game I play.

[Jason the Yank]

I was banging on about Ultimate Soccer Manager '98, and a friend sent me a link describing CM3.

Think I was able to order it from a US-based shop in the early days of e-commerce. Got it, installed it, selected Nottingham Forest and lost 7-0 to Liverpool in my first match. Put it away for about 3 months before giving it another crack, and was hooked from then on.

[MeekoHFC]

I think my dad used to play it back in the old CM days, or he got them off a mate or something. Me and my brother found them on the PC and have been hooked since.

[PAdlard]

I was playing an early Premier League Manager (I think, something equally as crappy anyway) and went searching for something better and stumbled across CM. Never looked back!

Got me watching a lot more football too - had a passing interest in the EPL before then, now I'm hooked.

[Deisler26]

CM Italia. With Dennis Bergkamp at Inter!

[fuzzrab]

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).

Pretty much exactly the same for me.

I luckily picked FM when the spilt hapened. i say luckily as i didnt really follow the makers of the game or anything like that so didn't know they had parted company. So when the split happend and i was looking for CM i saw FM2005, i think, and decided to buy that not realising it was the same people responsible for Champ manager.

My partner still thinks its a stupid game and can't see the point of it. Thank god for that drivel that is Eastenders and all the other soaps for keeping her quiet.

Eagerly awaiting FM2010 but gutted as i am on holiday from Sunday so will not be able to play it until Nov 9th at the earliest.

[JimmyIOCS]

I have memories of manager games from since I was very young. My brother would start up a game on the Amiga, and I was uninterested in a game that you couldn't even see the football being played, let alone control it. My stepdad used to play CM in around 98, which I gave a try but couldn't get to grips with it. I also got a demo for CM00/01 at some point and never got into that either.

I finally saw the light when it came to management sims via the FA Premier League Football Mananger 2000 for the Playstation. My brother would play it a lot and eventually I got into it too. I went through a miriad of other manager games (including Alex Ferguson's Player Manager... :| ) before finding LMA Manager 2002, after which I bought every version up until 2005, when I decided that there wasn't enough depth in the game. I knew a PC game would be better suited, but after a bad experience with Total Club Manager 2003, I was wary of buying different games.

CM had the most prestige, and after I found out about the Eidos/SI split I had to decide on either CM or FM. Despite CM looking the more aesthetically pleasing game, I listened to the reviews and bought FM05. I didn't regret it. I've bought every version since, although FM09 was officially off my shopping list to begin with, after the final patch, it was actually worth buying and I'm glad I did. The competition editor has me looking forward to FM10 more than any of the previous versions.

[longyt]

February 2008, and i picked up a copy of four four two (Australian), and they had a demo of FM 2008 that came free with the magazine.

I played it out of interest more than anything, because id always thought the management games were 'boring' and pointless, and to be fair...at first it was...i loaded it up and was completely underwhelmed by the white themed background filled with spreadsheets of writing and numbers, and then as if to emphasise this 'boring' aspect i had to watch coloured dots move around in an attempt to replicate some sort of 'realistic' football. In fact the game was so 'boring' that I spent 12 hours adjusting tactics, making transfers and watching dots take my Sydney FC team to the top of the league.

Then, soon after, the demo finished...already?...far too early. I wanted more. I wanted to see if the youngsters id brought in would fulfil their supposed potential. I wanted to see if Alex Brosque could continue his rich vein of form, and take out the top scorers award. I wanted to see if Juninho could become the greatest import the A-league had ever seen...greater than what Dwight Yorke was. I didnt want to stop. I then knew, at that very moment, that there was only one thing i could/had to do.

I went out to my local EB games, forked out $70, fell in love, and then went on to lose the next 7/8 months of my life absorbed and engulfed by this monster of a game, going close to failing my exams in the process. All of which ceased on November 14 2008...exams finished....4 month break imminent...and FM 2009 fresh in my hand.

October 30 2009....

[ollyhowles]

My first time was 96/97 edition, and have been hooked since lol

[Kryston]

It was 1993 when a friend who had a PC (which as a big thing back then) said we ought to try a game called Championship Manager (Italia) I think and the rest was history.

Incredibly we can trot between 4 of us on one single game, only to realize the game is better played alone.

[Robioto]

My first CM game was 99/00. I loved Premier Manager and LMA Manager on the Playstation (yes, I loved PM!). At Christmas in 1999 my Mum got me and my sister our first PC, to share. It was a complete suprise. My friend at school who didn't like football had CM3 and I had about a 5 minute look at the game a few months before Christmas. I couldn't believe the databse size and the number of leagues you could run, for someone who had been playing LMA and PM it was seemed too good to be.

My birrthday is on the 29th of December so excited about my new PC I decided to spend my birthday money on a few PC games. I bought Rollercoaster Tycoon (amazing), Transport Tycoon (even better, still play it to this day) and Railroad Tycoon (great, but the worst of the 3). I then saw CM 99/00 on the shelf, I didn't have alot of money left so I wan't sure whether to go for it. I went for it worried it wouldn't top my beloved LMA. I didn't even put it in the PC I was so obcessed with RCT.

But a couple of weeks later I decided to give it a crack. That was the end of it, I was hooked. I started out in the conference with Hereford with the amazing Gareth Williams up front and bought Stafford Browne from Yeovil who was also a massive goalscorer. I couldn't believe the depth and scale, I was completely blown away. Since that day I put 99/00 in my PC I have been an adict. Buyinh and playing every version extensively.

Great series. Long may it continue!

[Timmi Sixx]

Championship Manager: Season 00/01 was the first one I played

Must of been 14 and only started playing it out of desperation for a management game which was up to date. Had been playing premier manager and ultimate soccer manager until then, my mate had CM and went over his to play it (it had come free with his pc!) initially found it really boring as it looked like too much info - something I still think younger gamers think.

I think my first signing (for Middlesbrough) was someone like Wim Jonk

Didn't really take to the game, then out of bordem again borrowed it off my mate who had it and then the obsession began. So I guess 01/02 (known as 'the red one') was the first one I went out and bought. nearly cost me my gcse's

[Ryan88]

97/98 was when i gt hooked, i was only about 9/10 but my friends older bro used to play it religiously and he helped us set up our on game. think i actually done quite well as fiorentina (with the help of the seasoned veteran) while my friend always insisted on being newcastle and getting sacked for playing ppl in the wrong positions.

I've owned every game myself since i gt my own pc which was about 00/01

[simonwright]

i think it was back in 91/92 it was in a green box by domark back then was it? had an amiga very slow but still brilliant even back then.

[joey6]

I first started with a demo of TCM in 2003, got bored of that quickly when it became impossible to do anything without it crashing, so bought whichever champ man was out at the time, n it started from there

[AndreTheShadow]

I remember being introduced to it back when it was CM.

My cousins in Norway had just bought CM2, and were gracious enough to part with their copy of CM Italia 97.

I remember picking Juventus solely based on their colors (the same as Rosenborg), and I've been a fan ever since!

[jamesh2k]

think i bought the update back in 95/96 maybe but then realised needed the full game to run it so went back to the shops and got the game as well

been hooked ever since and yeah loved Italia 97 quality game

for me cm97/98 was the best - departed with it the other month tho (20 quid on ebay )

cant wait to play this one - cud be best fm yet

[thatdude]

I am quite new in 2008 sometime I was going through youtube and I saw the advert for fm 08 and like many people I never looked back.

[Slug]

for me it all started with this game

the rest is history!

[Jonno Wilson]

Oh my days Premier Manager. I used to play Premier Manager 98

Who can forget that amazing music they played continuously in the background forever and ever?

But yeah, my big stepup from Premier Manager 98 was CM 00/01 - Suddenly seasons took much longer to finish, but there was suddenly so much more detail! And there were now days inbetween matches!!!

[GillsMan]

Interesting thread. For me it was CM2. Me and some mates used to play Play By Mail football, but one lad had CM2 on his computer, so he invented Play By Spelman (his surname was Spelman). Every week we'd pick the team, etc, and it was great fun. I got my own copy and was absolutely hooked. CM2 1996/97, CM01/01 and FM2008 are probably my favourite iterations of the game.

[Jonno Wilson]

I have played Play By Mail for about 10 years, I still do, but its done with PDFs and Forums now instead of Post and Phone

[Barn3y]

The original Football Manager on the Speccy. Have pretty much picked up every footy manager game since - although don't get to spend the mammoth sessions playing anymore whole weekends disappearing glued to the little screen...

[Yid Army]

For me it was CM2... techniclly. When I was around five to seven, can't remember, my Mum was taking me to some kiddies indoor adventure playground, only to find it was closed down. To make up for it she let me buy a computer game. I got CM2. Started up as Tottenham after my Dad installed it for me... and ended up in tears because I lost 13-0. Came back a good few years later, loved it, and got FM06. Not looked back since, plus I got my dad hooked as well.

[bennufc]

i started when my cousin introduced me to lma manager 2001 and ever since then i brought every lma and every fm with champ man 08 an 10 plus fifa manager 04 and 08

[FlUoReScEnT aDoLeScEnT]

I used to play LMA manager until that just stopped a few years back, so swapped to fm08 on xbox i think. so i'm relatively new

[Drazkul]

I used to play CM's back in 98/99 but then i stopped for a long time - prob for the best for my PC of the time too (used to kick it when i was loosing )

Just got back into them after seeing that CM10 was available for £2.51 which led me to the demo and then that led me to trying out the FM09 demo which i enjoyed so bought 09 and now waiting on FM10 - sadly my wife doesnt see the attraction and hates it when i'm playing on it.

[jack8]

This will be my very first Time to play. I have been playing the 2009 demo for a couple of weeks and have not even managed to win a game yet. I am really getting rather hooked and am looking forward to the weekend to try out this new version. I may well be looking on here for any tips.

[Jexz]

I got the CM2 in 1995 as a christmas present from my granparents. My wish for christmas was FIFA, but it was out-of-stock, so they bought CM2 insted. Since then I've had the new release every year. I remember the first couple of years, where leagues was sold individualy... A huge "investment" for a 15 year old boy, to buy 3-5 releases each year to get the English, German, Scandinavian, Italian league and so on