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Cm 97/98


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I was back at my parents house recently going through some of my old stuff when I stumbled upon something in a drawer. Championship Manager 97/98, the game of all games. As a kid, born '85, my parents had tried their best to give me a good christmas present year after year... but whatever I opened, be it Sonic 2, Streets Of Rage or Mega Bomberman... no game held my attention for more than a fortnight. (ok maybe 3 weeks for mega bomberman!) When my age hit double figures I decided that perhaps I just wasn't a gamer.

Then I got hold of CM 97/98. The game that got me hooked.

Admittedly I'm still not much of a gamer... bar the odd go on Speed Freaks or if I'm feeling more modern a quick stint on ModNation Racers... but CM 97/98 was my ticket to the slave trade - I became a slave to the SI enterprise. Girlfriends have come and gone (some stuck around for the off-season.) Essential food and drink have been bypassed, overlooked by the prospect of a good cup run. Hot summer days have been dismissed for the dark corner of a room where the PC is. And it all started because of that stupid, stupid game! Stupid? Stupidly addictive!

My best memories of CM 97/98 include a Le Tissier hat-trick at Old Trafford, beating my mate to the SPL title in our old-firm save on the last day of the season due to goal-difference, with Viktor Leonenko firing the all important goal that sealed Rangers the championship... having a tremoendous strike-force of George Weah, Jurgen Kilnnsman and the mighty Romario up-front for AC Milan... oh yes. Those were, indeed, the days.....

So anyway, back to the point of this post... there I was, now a 25 year old, back at my parents house where I grew up, holding this disc... CM 97/98. The memories came flooding back, and I insisted on taking it back to my place to start a new game. The missus rolled her eyes... but she understands deep down. She knows. And so I bought it back, I opened the disc tray on my PC, I inserted the sacred cd, and I won't lie - a little bit of wee came out in excitement. But then I opened the battered, dog-earred manual and... oh no, what's this?.... MS DOS? Sh*t, now I remember.... MS DOS!!!!

Balls :thdn:

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DosBox or a nice Virtual Machine with win98...

For me, CM97/98 is THE CM...

I pre-ordered it via a gaming magazine... back in the old days when pre-orders had to be done at the local VG store and the waiting time ranged from "1 month" to "who knows..."

I got the UK version (something I've always tried to do since) and spent almost every minute of my time at home playing it or manually updating the database. To this day I think it's the edition of CM/FM I've played the most.

When I moved to study abroad, a few years ago, I couldn't afford a new computer so I bought an used one for a few quids (it was a P200 MMX... :D) and installed my glorious copy of CM97/98 to start a brand new career with what was almost a "legends" database already :D

I still have a copy of the game installed on my hard drive, as a reminder of a simpler time, when I didn't need to have a major in Sports Psychology and 5 hours of spare time to enjoy a football management game... :p

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brilliant post. im 26 and understand exactly what you're saying. CM 97/98 was immense. me and my 2 best friends all played for the same sunday football team but our kick offs weren't til like 2pm so EVERY saturday night we would all sleep round one of our houses and play a game, usually til about 6am, few hours kip and goto football. we would get through a whole season in one night!

unreal memories!

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Not heard of dos box before, sounds good! Might be able to play it again after all! L-Wiz they sound like cracking weekends all round! RBKalle that made me laugh about the sport psychology degree and 5 hour of spare time... that's just to get to the first match of the season these days isn't it?? :) Still love it now though, but long live cm 97/98. I'm gonna get dos box....... ohhhhhhh yeahhhhhhh!

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brilliant post. im 26 and understand exactly what you're saying. CM 97/98 was immense. me and my 2 best friends all played for the same sunday football team but our kick offs weren't til like 2pm so EVERY saturday night we would all sleep round one of our houses and play a game, usually til about 6am, few hours kip and goto football. we would get through a whole season in one night!

unreal memories!

haha.. I'm 24 and got hooked on CM 99/00.. they got us as early teens :)

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yes just get dos box, i found my cm9798 a while ago too, its mint haha and so quick to get through a season too, the picture of those two numpties holding the charity shield lawl

Never speak ill of the dead.

The late great Sir Bobby Robson probably forgot more about football than you will ever know.

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yes just get dos box, i found my cm9798 a while ago too, its mint haha and so quick to get through a season too, the picture of those two numpties holding the charity shield lawl

Sir Bobby Robson was one of the greatest gentleman ever to grace the game, unlike the 'numpties' that are in the game these days, as I get older I seem to loose interest even more in football mainly due to obscene wages and pansy players. Aside from that great post, at the age of 35 I remember playing the very first CM game and recently found the copy in my parents loft, along with all the other versions after that. I wonder If I keep hold of every single copy I will appear on the antiques roadshow when I'm 75.

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I was in the game store holding Kick Off '97 in one hand and CM 97/98 in the other. I wanted to find a good football game for the PC Emulation on my Acorn "Risc PC". A younger kid standing next to me said in a pre-pubescent voice "definitely get CM!"..

...I bought Kick Off '97. Clever me.

I later tried the demo of CM 97/98, and bought it in a hurry along with every single CM (SI version)/FM game since. The best games of any genre ever made IMO.

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Ahhh... nostalgia!

This game was the reason why I fell in love with CM/FM. Being 23 now, I have played every CM (then moving onto FM) since.

Anyone remember signing the 17 y/o Kim Kallstrom? (play as AMC and its game over)

I remember one summer, 5 of us used to crowd round my Dad's PC, every morning we would install it, play until 8pm then uninstall as my Dad didn't like me playing on his PC (I dropped his monitor 3 weeks prior to this)

Eventually my Dad gave in and bought me a PC. By this point CM 99/00 was out and I haven't looked back since.

Anyone try and sign Shearer at the beginning, only to remember he was injured for the WHOLE first season?

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97/98 was THE game.

Wasn't there an Italian version released shortly after?

I think 97/98 had the italian league as standard. CM2 and 96/97 had separate Euro league editions, if i recall correctly.

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I think 97/98 had the italian league as standard. CM2 and 96/97 had separate Euro league editions, if i recall correctly.

Think you might be right. IIRC 97/98 might have had a whole 9 leagues to choose from (ofc only 1 selected per game)... England / Scotland / Italy / Spain/ Germany / France / Belgium / Portugal / Holland... I love testing my memory with CM!

Few things I can't remember which may rattle a few brains:

Which edition had the cheat to become International Manager at start by typing in the current International manager as your name (e.g. Glenn Hoddle)?

Which edition allowed you get players for free by bidding £50m to get it accepted straight away (rather than considered), before lowering it down to £0 the same day?

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I think 97/98 had the italian league as standard. CM2 and 96/97 had separate Euro league editions, if i recall correctly.

There was also a separate Championship Manager Italia released. I got that first, I think the box was blue and I got it with a green Championship Manager box. I can't remember what year it was, but it was for the Amiga I think.

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CM Italia looks like it was a verison of CM 93/94, the Euro Leagues were linked to CM2, 96/97 featured England, Scotland and Italy, and then 97/98 offered a whopping nine leagues (Belgium, England, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Scotland, Spain) and after that we were onto CM3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Championship_Manager_series#Championship_Manager

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There were also standalone versions for CM2 that had Euro leagues I'm sure - Italy, Spain, Germany... and there might have been a Scandanavian version (the only CM other than original CM1 I didn't own). Not sure where this fits in with the wiki but I'm sure it was CM2. CM1 only had Italia.

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  • 6 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Cm97-98 was brilliant. For me, it was the finest game of them all. Enough detail, but not too much. Harder than CM93-94, but definitely not impossible. It was pretty damn close to being as perfect a game that there could be. I spent so many hours playing the game, I no longer had time for proper football itself! Oops!

The highlight of course was searching for the wonderkids. Would spend hours searching for regens, or guys with great stats, train them up, and develop my dream team.

I didn't play for a while. But recently I got an old computer working, and the game runs perfectly on there. Only problem I am having though is with the players' stats.

Some of them have abnormally high stats. Like, mind-boggling stats. 15-17 upwards on almost everything, and 1 on injury proneness.

Is there something wrong with my version, or did 97-98 just have a lot of players with freaky high stats?

At the moment, I have 2 games running. One guy - Oliver Heald - is amazing. Think his lowest stat other than injury proneness is like a 16. He can do it all.

On another game I have running, his stats are awful. Not awful but very mediocre, and is clearly not worth buying at all.

It's very random and a bit weird! But still a lot of fun.

My 2 favourite Ukranians Luzhny and Leonenko don't quite stand out as much on this version either...as there's numerous other guys who are very similar.

Anyone else ever have a similar issue or is it just me?

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I could never get Bakayoko to play well even though his stats were amazing!!

If I was pressed to name one super player from the CM/FM series, it would be Bakayoko though not sure if it was CM2 or CM97/98. He was a god in my game if played just behind the front two. For years afterwards I'd always go for the attacking midfielder behind the front two, all started by his success there.

I was so disappointed in his real life self at Everton.

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The scandi version of cm2 must be my all time favourite. Too bad I lost the cd and there is no chance to track down another one. Cm97/98 was great too btw

Never say never! You can find all sorts on the net. All sorts!

I loved that version aswell (was living in Denmark at the time), and currently have it sitting in my office at home. Unfortunately, my old PC that it should work on has something seriously wrong with the CD drive. If I can't get the emulator to work (got cm93/94 to work on it, but not cm2), you are more than welcome to my CD assuming you are happy to pay postage/packaging costs?

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  • 1 year later...

Sorry to bump an old thread, but is there anyway of getting this to work on a mac?

A few of the lads at work are reminiscing of the good old days, and we are trying to set a mac up at work with it on, for some good old nostalgia.

Cheers

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My first game in the CM/FM series by SI was Championship Manager 2 with the season 96/97 updates. It was glorious!

Pretty sure I had the one with leagues from England, Scotland and Spain. Not 100% on this though but I'm sure there were three national leagues to pick from.

To answer someone's post above, the version I had was indeed the game where you had to use the current international manager's name to become international manager at start of the game. Also, it did allow you to cheat with transfers by bidding a huge amount to get the bid accepted straight away before lowering it down to £0 to get the player for free. :D

Was CM97/98 the first version that came with an editor? I remember playing one early CM with an editor and editing all of my friends from school into a team. :D

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Don’t forget the cheat of shortlisting the old glories just the day before their retirement, just to see them reincarnated in 17 y.o. from their same nation ready to be signed into your shortlist. That’s how I get Suker and Mijatovic new reincarnations into my Hellas Verona site.

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CM 97/98 was the first "SI" game I played and it got me hooked on the series. I remember going to college and on my lunch break buying the game at a pc game store. Spending my lunch time reading the manual. Ha! Those were the days...

I am not sure where the CD is now, probably lost somewhere at the bottom of a container in the garage. I was only 16 back then, now I have a kid nearly that same age and he is just getting into football as well.

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I didnt get into the CM series until season 01/02 due to my passion for retro gaming on my years old Commodore 64 and an old konami game called Nemesis which would later be rebranded into Gradius..

It was only when My C64 decided to pack up and I had started spending a lot of time at a friends house did I fall in love with the CM series. 01/02 for me was the daddy of them all (even though I havent played much of the others despite having 00/01, 03/04, 07, 08 as well as having some of the FM series when the split happened..

I still to this day enjoy a few hours..... ok I mean a few days, I mean weeks of 01/02 and thanks to the team over at http://www.champman0102.co.uk/forum.php the game is kept alive with updates of todays players and squads, updated league positions as well as various tools and graphics to spruce the game up.. The only gripe I have with it is that you dont have the updated league structures, Champs league structures etc.. Other than that its a great piece of nostalgia to get your teeth into. Not only that but 01/02 is now freeware and free to download the full game!

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I have heard rumours floating around that 97/98/ can be played on tablets. I have a samsung galaxy tab 3, and have dosbox on there but have no idea at all how to get the game on my tablet....

Any ideas anyone?!?!?! If anyone can help they would have legendary status with me :-) haha

Thanks

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I have heard rumours floating around that 97/98/ can be played on tablets. I have a samsung galaxy tab 3, and have dosbox on there but have no idea at all how to get the game on my tablet....

Any ideas anyone?!?!?! If anyone can help they would have legendary status with me :-) haha

Thanks

If you can install it to a pc then it may be as simple as transferring the data from pc onto Micro SD card and trying. Obviously you will need to have a card big enough to hold the game.

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If you can install it to a pc then it may be as simple as transferring the data from pc onto Micro SD card and trying. Obviously you will need to have a card big enough to hold the game.

Thats not a bad idea actually, I do usually overcomplicate stuff. Will give it a try! Thanks!

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