The Nostalgia Thread - Talking About Old FMs!

[crouchaldinho]

Just found CM 00/01 disc under my bed... should I?

Definitely.

[crouchaldinho]

Nostalgia, awesome. Reading through this thread has brought back some serious memories.

Tommy Svindal Larsen on CM97/98, utter legend. Probably my favourite player on any version of the game I've played. It was on 97/98 that I got heavily into the game and became utterly hooked. One of my best ever saves was on that version, taking Brighton from the third division to the Champions League final (which we lost) with Jeff Minton a lynchpin of our team.

Another of my favourite saves was on FM05, taking the Hibs job after they had been relegated in the first season and leading them to 3 titles by 2012 and a UEFA Cup final win over Charlton. I then took the Roma job, they hadn't won the title since the start of the game, and watched my players completely bottle it on the final day of the season, losing 3-0 at home to Siena when all we needed was a point.

FM07 had another great save for me, taking Leicester up in season one, keeping them up in season two, taking the Spurs job and winning the title in my first season and the Champions League in my second (beating Arsenal in the final, which was sweeeeeeet). Then took the Liverpool job and won them number 19 before getting sacked after a thoroughly disastrous start to the following season culminated in getting beaten 6-1 at Goodison Park (you think you've got problems, Roy).

I then landed at Rangers, who were 10th in the SPL, guided them to 5th by the end of the season, won the title the next time around and went on a 66 game unbeaten run in the league. Also managed to win the Champions League and the Club World Championship, with probably my best signing on any version of the game, Roberto Soldado for £2.3M who just scored for fun both in the SPL and the CL. After four years at Rangers I decided to leave at the end of my contract I ended up at Real Madrid, got beaten by Atlético in the UEFA Cup final, had a terrible start to the following season and got sacked.

I never got on at all with FM06 or FM08 and thought FM09 was utterly terrible.

Nice memories there Terk. Enjoyed reading that.

[Jake_Saint]

This thread tempted me today to buy FM 07 and FM 08. Both for just £3:50. A steal, IMO. ( I sold both a while ago)

FM08 is still as great as I remember it to be and I think it will use up quite a bit of my spare time for a little while.

[7.Ronaldo]

Some great posts here. Reminding me of the amount of time I have wasted playing CM / FM down the years!

CM 99/00 - This was my first Championship Manager game. After hearing my friend talk constantly about his Lazio save on CM 97/98 I decided to purchase the game and must have spent the whole summer on it. I had many notable games, winning La Liga with a Real Madrid team containing Samuel Eto'o, Steve McManaman and Nicolas Anelka. I also had a 50 year save with Celtic winning the SPL in 48 out of the 50 seasons and winning the Champions League on 8 occassions with players such as Kennedy Bakircioglu, Mads Jorgensen, Simon Davies, Gareth Jellyman, Matias Asper, Esteban Fuertes, Javier Saviola and Vampeta but to name a few. There was a bug in the game where Simon Davies was continually retiring at the end of the season once he got to about 35 but didn't actually retire until he was 48. He played over 1000 games for me (which is probably why I lost out on 2 SPL titles around this time!). Probably the best save I've had on CM or FM in terms of enjoyment and longevity.

CM 00/01 - Slight improvement on the previous version and spent a lot of time on it but most of it is un-memorable for some reason. Most notable save was winning Division 1, the Premiership and the Champions League inside 5 seasons with Blackburn Rovers.

CM 01/02 - Best management simulation ever produced in my opinion. It was very similar to previous versions in terms of simplicity but it was just polished and it seemed so perfect. Spent a few years playing this due to the delay in developing CM4. Had many memorable saves including winning several La Liga titles and Champions League titles with Barcelona while selling off my highest earning players and replacing them with bargains or free transfers at the end of every season. Ended up with a bank balance of £500m +. Also took Boston United from the Conference to the Division 1 before leaving for Southampton (should have stayed to finish off the job). Some great players in this game including Mark Kerr, Kim Kallstrom, Taribo West, Kiko, Cherno Samba, Pep Guardiola (on a free), Maxim Tsigalgo, Haruna Babangida, Vitaly Kutzkov, Stipe Pletikosa, Hernan Crespo and Konstantinou.

CM4 - I had high expectations which were not met but the plus points were that the 2D match engine was finally released. I remember getting 2 copies of this from PC world a day before the release and couldn't believe my luck. Took one home to install it and dropped the other around to my friend. I remember attributes such as 'washing up' and no player history once I loaded the game and was extremely disappointed. I did play it for a while and it took a while to get used to the new layout but I think I often went back to CM 01/02 during this period. Didn't have any memorable saves.

CM 03/04 - This was the game CM4 should have been. Got really into this one and loved the 2D match engine. Had some good saves including one taking Hull City to the Premiership and one with Sheffield Wednesday, also took Blackpool to the Premiership through the playoff's twice. I stayed up until something like 5am playing this one the night before a mock Maths exam in school. It was worth it though. Morten Gamst Pedersen and Martin Albrectson were amazing in this game.

FM 2005 - Massive improvement on CM 03/04. Took a while to get used to the new layout. It was around this time I started to get a bit bored with the series mainly due to excessive college work and having a part-time job. I still played but not as often and didn't have as many saves. One memorable one winning the Premiership and Champions League with Chelsea. Had Rafael Van der Vaart just behind the striker who was amazing, also think I had Joaquin and Vicente who were amazing on the wings in this version.

FM 2006 - Can remember being very excited around launch time and taking a day off college with a friend to get it but not much past this. No memorable saves and kind of lost interest.

FM 2007 - Similar to FM 2006. Can't remember a single save or a stand out memory of it.

FM 2008 - Looked much more polished than the previous two and the 2D match engine was near perfect. Had a great save winning two Premiership titles with Man City inside the first 3 seasons. Had the likes of Taiwo, Rafinha, Satana along with Man City players of the time such as Elano, Petrov and Bianchi. Also had a good save with Leeds United.

FM 2009 - Very excited around launch time due to the 3D match engine but I wasn't hugely impressed with it and the game was very sluggish on my then Windows Vista machine. Probably the version of FM I played the least.

FM 2010 - The 3D match engine had improved and so had my computer (now Windows 7 with i7 processor - mainly for FM). Looked a more polished version and was very playable. Won the World Cup with England. Won a couple of Premierships with Arsenal and runner up in the Champions League on a couple of occasions. Won all domestic trophies in Scotland with Celtic. Won La Liga, Copa Del Rey, Spanish Super Cup, European Super Cup and World Club Cup in one season with Barcelona. Also won Serie A with AC Milan in the first season, handed £120m budget to bring in the likes of Lloris, Zapata, Kolorov, Rafinha, Gourcouff, Bolzoni and De Rossi in season 2 but stopped playing.

FM 2011 - Hoping it will at least match FM 2010. If so I should get a good few saves going. Hoping for some longer, more immersive saves due to the re-development of the news screen and hope to try my hand in some of the lower divisions which I have neglected in the last few years.

[ronaldo_rooney]

CM00/01 was the best. Used to win everything in the first season with UTD and would see how long I could go like that without ever buying ANYONE, then one day need to replace aging players and due to UTDs finances then, I would be able to afford a whole new team

[Machetero]

Started playing in CM97/98 back in 1998. Got hooked up and oodles of time on hot-seat games in CM01/02, CM3, CM4( MAN U vs Arsenal, QPR vs Wolverhampton, etc with my friends). Right untill CM03/04, where Ukraine was introduced, so we moved to Dinamo Kiev vs Shakhtar Donetsk rivalry.

Now I usually play network game once of twice a week in Ukrainian leagues with a friend of mine, when our missus' can't spoil the fun.

[SkaldfraNorden]

That's pretty much spot on for me too.

glad we agree

[SirFuzzyDunlop]

CM 97/98, what a freakin game! I find it hard to pick out any other as they all seem to be merged together in my mind. FM07 was fantastic, just a shame 8 and 9 were so poor. FM10 almost had it, but a few things really let it down. FM11 seems good from the demo, I just hope they have worked on improving the game after the first 10 years, because it gets so easy after that.

[daidaithesequel]

Best memories where the game where it had the background picture of Pippo Inzaghi in a Juve jersey (anyone remember what version that was?) and of course your best players retiring at age 33-38 and finding a new youngster in your team who seems to have the exact same attributes as recently retired superstar

[TheMister]

I'm fully aware that I've spent too much of my life playing CM/FM; but reading this thread and thinking back, it all just confirms that it's been more of an addiction than a passtime, seriously. Other than the Italia version I can't breakdown my memories chronologically, as my memory is hopelessly blurred at the best of times.

My friend always had more money than me, and he got an Amiga - I think I might still have been on my Spectrum 128k and the original Football Manager. One night I went round and he'd bought Championship Manager, the first one in the red box. From that moment I knew an Amiga had to be purchased as soon as possible! It took a while. But over the next few years, despite me getting a new computer and CM, we sat up most of Saturday night/Sunday morning at his place; plenty of juice or coffee and snacks. We used to have blind auctions if we wanted the same player - we'd write down our maximum bid for the player on pieces of paper that we'd show to each other after the count of three, the winner getting a free run to sign the player at that price.

He bought me CM Italia for my christmas when that came out - my god, I was over the moon. That wasn't long after Football Italia started on C4 and I was a fullblown Inter fan - that didn't stop me having saves with Juve and Milan though, something I've never done since. Inter were true to their real life status then - I could never get them really good, but I kept trying. Zenga in goal, Bergomi in front of him, Jonk and Berti in the middle, Bergkamp up front. Others from that time would be Zamorano, Ferri and Sosa. Milan were the benchmark in real life at that time but I preferred Juves team - Peruzzi, Kohler, Moller and Ravanelli.

Just after that I remember a good save with Bournemouth and another with Exeter; why I picked them heaven knows. But I took them both from nowhere to European glory. But my personal best was with Genoa. I think they were in a lower league at that point. I took them to the top. Then became Italy manager and won the lot with my Genoa players. I've not had a save like that since then.

I changed from CM to FM with FM08 and was gobsmacked with the huge improvement. My addiction has just continued in the same fashion. Although I've loved FM, I've not had a 'long' save yet. Hopefully that will change with 11. I have a few quirky saves in mind, and I'm sooo looking forward to the release.

[crouchaldinho]

I had FM08 up on my laptop last night for a look around.

Really loved the farrows, barrows and sarrows. However, I really missed the TC from 10! It's so much more work to create tactics without it.

It just goes to show that the TC is the one feature over the last few versions that has really improved the game for me.

[j4ck94]

I am absolutely gutted because my FM05 disk won't work It was probably my favourite version of the game. Might go play some CM 03/04 though as that comes in at a close second.

[Suzie MUFC]

Shameless bump because this is such a good thread. Still think it should be stickied.

[Stomalomalus]

Thank you 7.Ronaldo for making me remember the greatness of Mark Kerr on CM 01/02. Jesus, that guy was immense in a midfield with Mr. Kallstrom I had a great save with Celtic on that version, IIRC.

[chob]

I'd played CM at my mates quite a few times but the 1st one I actually bought for myself was CM4, apart from the obvious bugs i quite liked it.

I then got CM 03/04 and that's when i got going. I started as leeds and won the league with them, I was then offered the Arsenal job, where i spent 2 yrs finishing 2nd then 1st in the league before being offered the Roma job. I stayed with Roma for about 10 yrs winning almost everything at some point.

Next was FM05 which for some reason i can't really remember much about apart from having to start in the championship with leeds for the 1st time. Also the same for FM06.

FM07 was when my love for AC Milan began (thank you FM) I started with Leeds as usual getting them promoted and then eventually winning the prem (thank you G.Pazzini lol) I was then offered the Milan job where I was very successful with Fernando Torres as my main man.

FM08: As usual started with Leeds and then ended up with AC Milan. I was winning everything with them with Barzagli in defence and the (at the time) amazing Lulinha.

FM09: My best save for me ever. Started as AC Milan and stayed with them throughout the save, i actually still play this save as im still in love with the team i set up. I will never forget my best regen ever, Mr Alejandro Cobo who regularly scored between 25-35 league goals a season. I got him for free when he was 16 from Barcelona :-), he's now 34 :-(

FM10: I have really struggled to get into FM10, not because it's bad but because of crash dump here crash dump there, although my desktop is now about 6 yrs old so that's prob why. although I did manage a good 20 yr save in Northern Ireland with the mighty Carrick Rangers. I have recently got an ok dual core laptop and i'm now enjoying a good save with Bromley.

FM11 Demo: Started as Leeds but i don't want to get too far in untill the game is released as i will be very frustrated lol, i'm currently 4th in the championship with some great results and some really dodgy results. FM11 looks really good to me and i can't wait for the full release.

[higgins]

A great thread; I could still remind my really unbalanced 3-4-1-2 (fav shape ever) in cm 01-02, if I remember well, with Magne Hoseth in the hole and Selakovic and Jonas Lunden on the wings....but I have another memory about me playing my first CM ever, managing Le Havre in the French leagues, the game was a copy of CM 97-98.

For some strange reason i bought that in Sweden, during a holiday, when I saw that box on a shelf it was like an epiphany.

I was lost.

Forever.

[Ferrari312]

CM03/04 was the first game I bought, and probably my most played (partly for reasons related to FM05 below). Ended up at Real Madrid and built an awesome team, although some of the players in that team (Falcao, Yahiaoui, McEveley) turned out to be not so great in real life but must have been programmed in as youngsters with loads of potential. However I did discover a maturing Javier Mascherano who was brilliant for me, this was like a few months before I first heard of him in real life in the 2006 WC (yes I'd been playing it that long!) Wasn't really active on any message board at the time so never got into the Diablo stuff, or looking for well-known wonderkids, I found them myself which was more enjoyable. Only stopped playing when my long-term save became corrupted and didn't have the heart to begin another one.

FM05 never did anything for me, too many small things bothered me, from the fonts to the fact that Spanish teams playing in Europe were always numbered 1-11 rather than their squad numbers. Gave up on it after a (in-game) month I think and went back to 03/04.

FM06, while marginally better than 05 still had many of the bugbears that meant I never warmed to 05. I never bought it on release day and to be honest I only took it up after my epic 03/04 save died. This was however the first FM where I began my tradition that continues this day of starting my main save unemployed, taking whatever job I could get and trying to work my way up.

FM07. Much better! First CM/FM I bought on release day and glad I did. Most of things that annoyed me about 05/06 were gone and this was the first game since 03/04 that I could really get my teeth into, but spread my time too thinly between my Liverpool, Carlisle and Unemployed saves so never got a proper long-term game out of it.

FM08. I thought the FaceGen feature was a nice little addition, increasing the motivation to concentrate on a really long-term game and seeing how far I could get into the future, sadly when I did, most of the regens were rubbish, but by the time I was ready to give up on it, FM09 was out so it was all good!

FM09. Enjoyed this one, regens were probably too good in this one but I got into a really good long-term save, and for the first time experienced the pleasure of my club being taken over by a rich tycoon (well they'd been taken over then they hired me), by the time FM10 was out, this was the first one I had to reluctantly abandon voluntarily, rather than positively wanting to, or being forced to as in CM03/04.

FM10. Well this isn't quite nostalgia yet, but I have feeling I'll look back on this one as fondly as I do my CM03/04 and FM09 saves. I've yet to try out the FM11 demo (beyond an initial boot to check my computer can handle it!) since I'm so engrossed in my FM10 game still.

[jozza800]

I inititally started my journey into football management with Sensible World Of Soccer (Which i loved!), so the jump to CM was massive!

Me and a group of friends would sit and play on his PC for weekends at at at a time, listening to the football on the radio whilst playing. that would have been CM97/97. I only had an Amiga at home so I had a copy of CM96/97. Dear god was it slow, i must of plyed about 3 seasons in total!

Once CM3 hit it was pretty much the end of everything we knew about the outside world. For the best part of 4 years we would spend every minute of the day playing these games. I spent one summer holiday (all 6 weeks) litterally playing CM99/00 none stop! My mother said I would would end making myself ill, I did just that!

To be honest I never noticed too much of a change to the games from CM3 to 01/02, other than when they changed to the futuristic font! (Eras Bold! if anyone wants to try it out!). But I definately had my faverourite and best careers on these games. Turning RKC Waalwijk into the best team in the world. Fixing my little brothers broken Bayern Munich team. He had them in 13th and ruined the squad, i managed to turn them into challengers again (at which point he re-took the reigns!) I remember selling my first player for £100m!

Some great players. Marcin Harasimowicz, Hldar Hadzimehmedovic, Jesper Ljung, Kim Kallstron, Pablo Aimar, Juan Riquelme, Antony Lurling, Martin Djetou, Charlie Ejerlhom

CM4. I have to admit I didnt like it at all! I liked the 2d match engine, but the consiquences of this meant that the seasons to twice as long to play through! I hated the new font as well! 03/04 was pretty much of the same.

Then we are into the FM series, like the CM3 series these haven't felt to different from each other from game to game. The game definately got harder, but now as an adult im glad they did. Id imagine i might of struggled had any of the FM games been my first!

Unfortunately in recent times I havent had much time to play any of the FM series (despite owning them all) to any sort of depth, maybe two or three careers in each lasting for approx 5/6 season each.

I have to admit at the start of the year after just moving house and unpacking my dvd/games i did wonder whether I would bother getting FM11 this year as I had played a total of of maybe 6 season of FM10. But about a month ago I managed to get a game started with Sunderland and it all came flooding back, and although this career has only last 5 seasons it was enough to make sure I pre ordered FM11!

Cant wait till next friday now!

[Raware]

Ah...nostalgic memories! I've spent many an hour sitting at my computer watching "writing on a screen" then after that "little dots running around" as my mum used to say!

For me, it all started back on the spectrum with the original football manager and the little stick men (Gary Lineker, Kevin Keegan, Emilyn Hughes, etc) and i've not looked back! From there it progressed to the first Championship manager which my mates at school told me about. Since then, it's kind of been an addiction! . My earliest enjoyment of the game was buying players such as Collis, Orosco and Lamptey . My next installment of the game was Champ manager Italia which I really loved mainly due to my fondness of Gazzetta Football Italia (and James Richardson of course!). I had a few great saves on that including games as Milan (with van Basten and Massaro up front) and Juventus (with a three man pronged attack - Ravanelli, Baggio and a young Del Piero).

After that, I don't really have a stand out memory from any CM until the one with Clive Tyldsley commentating on it. I think I played as Mansfield Town but had little success.

Again, after that there was no real stand out CM for me until the split with Eidos. I did enjoy 05 but 06 was really enjoyable for me as I played as Napoli when they were relegated and had a fantastic save buying the likes of Dirk Kuyt, John Obi Mikel and Alex (Fenerbahce), taking them to European glory. 07 was also great but 08 was the finest one for me and it also heralded the start of online play for me in which I played in a clan. 08 also signalled my most successful time on CM/FM as I took Happy Valley of the Hong Kong First Division to World domination! .

09 was probably the most disappointing for me but I won't go into that right now. (I've previously given my thoughts on it )

While I did enjoy 10, after installing 10.3, it disappointed me with the (IMO) ridiculous amount of injuries so I reverted back to 10.2 and once again enjoyed it.

As for FM11...well, i've tried the demo and like it...but will I buy it? Probably not yet. I'll read the reviews first and then go from there.

[j4ck94]

I have a question about CM03/04, I can't seem to get it in windowed mode which really bugs me. It says that the system does not support these settings or something like that. Can anyone help? Thanks

[crouchaldinho]

This might help - http://www.footballmanagerwiki.co.uk/index.php?title=Windowed_Mode

[j4ck94]

It worked. Thanks a lot!

[crouchaldinho]

Good stuff!

[Braundjoh]

Awesome thread.

I first got into football manager games with LMA 2004 on the PS2. I wasted much time on that, but it wasn't until I went to a friend's house that I discovered the wonder that was FM 2005. We started as Bolton, no idea why, with a miniscule transfer budget, and I remember (for some bizarre reason) Nicolas Anelka scoring a chip against us for Man City. I then scoured the game shops nearby to nab my own copy, and eventually bought the game in the summer. My ability was awful as I didn't used to be too interested in football, and my computer was awful, but I enjoyed the game nonetheless.

I then got the FM06 demo, which sticks in the mind due to its vivid colours and the changing of the stat colouring. 16 was now dark orange while 15 was not. I can't remember much else about 06, because I still had an awful computer.

FM 2007 is probably my favourite FM ever. It was the first FM that I persuaded my friend to get, and so I could finally have nerdy conversations about the game with someone. I had a good Chelsea save, and a fun Portsmouth save, but I remember his long term Palace game better!

I decided to delay getting FM 2008, as I remember not being too fond of the demo. However, once I got the game in March, I played it a lot. This was also the game that persuaded me to get myself a computer, combined with the fact that the demo of FM 2009 would not run on the old family computer.

After getting a computer on new year's eve 2008, I got FM 2009. It was amazing, although the injury frequency was frustrating to say the least. However, I had a good Southport save, in which I got 2 consecutive promotions, before I got bored.

FM 2010 is definitely my most played FM to date. I preordered it, and so had it on the day of release, and immediately started a Man Utd game. That game is by far my longest ever save game on FM, running into 2017 before patch 3 came out I believe. I won a lot of silverware, and enjoyed the game immensely, especially due to the regens. Having never had the computer to sustain a long term game (or a short term game), the experience of signing a hot prospect, spotting a potential superstar, buying an already top player, and having a local boy progress through the ranks was very enjoyable. The experience for me was even more enjoyable because I struggled to begin with, but I perservered. I came 5th in my first season, and so missed out on the champions league, but this was just character building for my young team.

I've lost count of the number of hours I've put in to various saves on FM 2010, but now I have finished school and don't have a job, I imagine it will be considerably larger on FM 2011!

[Mezzledinho]

my first CM was 00/01 and i've been hooked ever since, i remember how good saviola and bermudez were on that,always bought them.

i loved the background pictures aswell, thought they were a lot better than plain skins we get now, how come they stopped doing that?

[Kenco]

Seeing all this talk of CM01/02 and all the players mentioned (Hoseth, Selakovic, Hadzi, Kerr, etc) is bringing back memories of some fantastic games. Now heading to my loft to see if I can find my old copy!

[jimmywils]

Someone mentioned Champ Manager Italia earlier

For me this was the most enjoyable of all CM/FM releases. I have to be honest and say I have not got the time or the patience to really sit down and get into the game since FM07. Back when I was playing CM Italia I was about 14 and I would sit for hours on my old Amiga 1200. Good old days.

I remember Lentini being out for 48 weeks with 'multiple injuries' stemming from his car accident, as someone mentioned. I also remember Claudio Cannigia at Roma being banned for 48 weeks, I think for a drugs ban.

I had an excellent Juventus side with Roberto Baggio and Eric Cantona upfront. AC Milan had an amazing side....Van Basten, Papin, Baresi, Maldini, Tassotti, Costacurta, Boban etc etc. I remember trying for about 4 seasons trying to sign Careca from the 'foreign players' transfer market.

Like I said, I have not given the game a fair shot since FM07. I have bought them all but after a week or so of mincing about with tactics, I put them in the loft.

I will no doubt buy FM11 at some stage.

[Macflyer]

Try instead FMH for iphone/Ipod touch or PSP. Seems, it will fit your bill. Have an epic save going on there.

[Kenco]

I found my copy of 01/02 and installed it yesterday, played through about 2 months. Forgot how little actually goes on in that game, it seems to be just match after match with nothing in between. No pitch to see what is happening, just relying on the flashing text to alert you to a goal.

Still good though.

[Bradmonk]

I remember winning my first Champs Leagues with Man Utd on 96/97, having Anelka playing just behind Solskjaer and Fore Andre Flo, great forward line!

FM09 was the best for me, simply because of the Klasa skin.

[MelbVictory]

Or for full blown nostalgia, take a look at this:

[video=youtube;GuCAOJFbtE8]

That is classic.

I have played every version from CM Italia onwards.

CM1: My memories are vague that far back but I remember CM Italia only being good for 3-4 seasons before it crashed. I played with Parma but Milan where always great. There was always a certain Serie C player, I think Montella, who had crap stats, was cheap but always scored bags.

CM2: Personally, the best hot seat game of the lot. I remember the regens were predictable, seeing the 'schoolboys' come through. There was always an Icelandic DM who came through 2nd or 3rd season who I'd target. Thoey regens always had similar stats to retiree's, just had to keep a good eye out.

CM3: Not played much but i seem to remember a young Fernando Torres.

CM4: The excitement of this game was big for me. I was working and able to buy it straight away. The 2d match engine. The elegant design.

FM: I dont have unique memories for FM's. It more like a continuation as opposed to major new games. It more about the team and the success. FM09 being San Marino save.

[YesYesOhYay]

cm03/04

always bought serge makofo from wimbeldon and steve blatherwick from chesterfield

they were 2 of the best players on the game somehow....

and i also seem to remember that newcastle always bought lucio!!

[MelbVictory]

to continue with the youtooobs [video=youtube;5AyuPdAO1wo]

[crouchaldinho]

That brings back some memories.

[stevie_G_32201]

my first was championship manager 3, my favourite moment in that game was signing an unknown youth player from watford and ended up selling him to barcelona for 70m. what a striker he became.

[crouchaldinho]

So does anyone here actually still play on any of the old CM or FM games?

[Markmilan]

My fav version was the old CM Italia - awesome game, Van Basten was a goal machine. I downloaded it recently for the PC (can't remember the site) - still good fun. I haven't got into a save game on FM for a while now but the new one looks really good so looking to do a few seasons at Milan when it comes out Friday.

[steve_r]

The original CM was probably the first game I installed on my Amiga hard drive (a massive 64MB!). My and my friend had an epic 2 player game which was about 2 years old (real time) when my Amiga's 1MB memory expansion started playing up intermittently. It crashed part way through a game save, and that was that. Awesome game though. No graphics at all, but at the time was far more enjoyable than pretty much any game I have ever played before or since.

I got CM2 on the PC at the same time as I was made redundant at work. I was pretty aggrieved with my then boss and the way they treated me, so I installed it on my office 486 and spent my 3 month notice period in my office with the door shut playing it... bittersweet days, the joy of getting paid to controll Plymouth Argyle in CM2 but with the immenent grim prospect of real-life unemployment...

[Nad]

Great thread, really enjoying reading people's reminiscences and bringing back so many memories

I first got into football management through premier manager 95 or something like that (on the mega drive!). I used to play some sort of weird sweeper 5 - 2 - 3 formation and two new players would be available on the transfer market after every match. So basic and industrial but as a first experience of football management games, it was awesome.

Naturally I graduated from that onto CM2 on the PC. Gosh, those were the times! Having 16MB of RAM to play about 2 leagues! I also distinctly remember that player attributes in those days were relative to (the hidden) ability. I remember finding a goalkeeper with loads of 20s but he turned out to be utter rubbish because he must have had low ability! But Chilavert, despite his stats, was awesome every game because he had a high ability! That was so unfair but I soon learned . All the goals in those days were scored by a 1 on 1 followed by rebounds off the keeper or hitting the post / crossbar. Ha!

The CM3 series was brilliant. I remember getting the first one and loving the stats and all the features. I wasn't very good in those days. Just used to try to buy the best players I could afford and had no clue about tactics. CM 00-01 was the first of the games that I really got into, remember playing several seasons of that with Liverpool and buying Robbie Keane (and converting him into a right winger) and Richie Partridge developed into a superstar left winger. Unfortunately this was just before I became an internet warrior and joined the forums, so I had no idea about patches and updates, and 00-01 was ruined by a fairly hideous bug in the boxed game to do with long shots going in. Eventually I got the patch once I discovered the website and life was so much better after.

CM01-02 was the pinnacle. Simply the best game ever in an era of some of my favourite games. I had a 30 year+ save with Liverpool, winning the league something like 20 times and the European cup like 25 times (yes, won the european cup more than the premier league!). I developed several generations of players and ended up with like 2 billion of cash in the bank . Also did all the crazy CM stuff, like winning the champions league with Bradford, taking teams like Doncaster, Oxford and Bristol Rovers to europe etc.

Then CM4 came out and I loaded it up, played for about 1 hour, took it out, uninstalled it, and put it in a box somewhere. I have no idea where it is now, but it's probably the most pristine CM4 CD in existence. It was tripe and I happily went back to CM 01/02 for the next few years.

So SI lost me as a customer for several years. Eventually I heard good things about the latest FM from my brother which meant I finally bought FM08. It was ok, but still nowhere near as good as CM01/02 and I couldn't really get into it. I bought FM09 but only played for about a month because I bought a new computer and Steam wouldn't let me regiuster the game again with the same key on the new PC (tw*ts). So now Steam have lost me as a customer forever and I will never buy a product that requires Steam to use. So no Civ 5 for me, that'll teach these gaming companies who use the parasites that are Steam \o/

FM10 is the first of the FM games that I've really got into, managed a 3 year save. It's still not up there with CM01/02 but there are several good things amongst the really annoying things. The trouble is I insist on watching each match in full, because I can't get into it just by watching highlights . As a result, it takes me weeks to get through a single season. So the balance in the game isn't right for me.

Let's see what FM 11 is like...

[crouchaldinho]

Nice post there Nad. Enjoyed reading it.

A similar path into management games as me actually. I also had Premier Manager on the Mega Drive and CM2 was my first of the series (I've been hooked ever since and bought every version, which makes me a proper CM/FM nerd!)

Regarding FM10 and the highlights, have you tried using 'extended' highlights? I find that's a nicely balanced way of viewing the matches personally.

[yadda]

Yeesh, so many happy memories. Think it was champ 99/00, I always signed Marco Sandy (anyone remember him?). He was a stupidly aggresive Bolivian centre half. Used to just kick the bejesus out of anyone. Smashing. There was also some Venezuelan lad who was kwality and cheap, can't remember his name now though.

Him in defence and Kennedy Bakircioglu off the front two, smashing. CM01/02 Mark Kerr in midfield, along with some lad from Partick Thisle who was amazing (forget his name now tho). Oh, and Keigan Parker up front, for some reason he was genius.

I've also played them all and still think of it as champ rather than FM. I like it when the missus moans at me for playing too much, "you're always playing that bloody champ manager!" Ah yes, thanks for calling it that sweetheart. Good times.

I used to have Champ Sundays with one of my mates (later editions of course, CM01/02 - FM5 I ain't that old). We played with hangovers and had some epic battles, wish I was still young enough to do this.

Oh yes and champ 3, anyone else remember Trevor Benjamin being world calss?

[Roman Chevalier]

That wasn't long after Football Italia started on C4 .

Ahhhh football italia. Whatever happened to that goddamn show i watched it every week with religious fevour.

I've been playing CM since the earliest incarnation when i was but a wee nipper. Then i stopped after 02/03, went back into it almost by chance with FM10.

But who can forget the legendary Bull and Keane partnership for Wolves. I steamrolled the premiership with that team lol

[GioGio85]

What was the game when Cherno Samba was a machine? Loving this thread, just what you need in the run up to a FM release

[Roman Chevalier]

Oh yes and champ 3, anyone else remember Trevor Benjamin being world calss?

oh god trevor benjamin he was unbelievable! Just like real life i presume

[King Jeff]

to continue with the youtooobs [video=youtube;5AyuPdAO1wo]

*swoon*

I don't think I logged more hours on any one iteration of the game than CM94, but CM9798 is still my fave. I still have it on my computer, actually.

The advances in the series mean it's difficult to go back and play the older versions now — it just looks really basic — but damn these versions were so much more enjoyable than what's currently out there.

[SirFuzzyDunlop]

CM 97/98 is the best CM for me. FM07 the best FM.

Did anyone here ever play Kevin Keegan's Player Manager on the SNES? That game was really freakin' good for a console management game!

[aditya]

FM 06 was the best, only because they have so many good players (Zidane, Ronaldo, Henry, Maldini..dfdsfdsfdsfdsdfs)

[JR866Gunner]

I had FM08 up on my laptop last night for a look around.

Really loved the farrows, barrows and sarrows. However, I really missed the TC from 10! It's so much more work to create tactics without it.

It just goes to show that the TC is the one feature over the last few versions that has really improved the game for me.

I agree Crouchy! I did the same with 07 and 06, altho i liked the fact you dont faf about with team talks and stuff you start to miss other features, at times the later versions seem to go too far with realism but at the same time its just pure brilliance,

I hope to be reading your league stories with st albans this edition!

[crouchaldinho]

I fired up CM03/04 last night. A version it seems I liked so much at the time that I bought two copies. :confused:

Anyway, it's strange looking back. It's really not that different to the newer FMs in a way. So many of the same options etc.

The main downer is that it only goes down to Conference level in England and that you can't start as an unemployed manager.

[crouchaldinho]

I'm going to post up some random screenshots in a minute. If there is anything you would like me to post up from CM03/04 then let me know. I'll be uninstalling it this evening though, so let me know before then.