Which classic CM/FM database would you like re-imagined in the current game-engine?

[marksbros6]

Hi all. As I’m stuck at home (as I’m sure most of us are) with no sport or football to watch I’ve been exploring some old Championship/Football Manager games aka ‘going retro’ with a view to playing some classic squads/scenarios.

Got me thinking of the history of the game; we must have European/World football history represented from 1993-2020 and all the changes and up’s and downs for teams in that period represented.

So topic for discussion: which ‘classic’ CM/FM database would you like to see re-imagined with the modern game-engine. One of the best ‘ideas’ from SI was the ‘FM 1888’ April-Fools joke. If SI were to do that with their own ‘back-catalogue’ though which season would you like to see?

For me (as a Spurs and England fan) I’d have to pick the 1994/1995 season.

For starters this was ‘CM93’ territory/game engine, just missing-out on the CM2 game-engine. So would be good to see it on-screen with a decent gaming-experience.

I think that was the last Premier League season with 22 teams as well, so the game would look a bit different to what we’re used to.

Italian football was also massive in profile then. So many ‘big’ players from that Era in Serie A at the time.

For ‘my’ teams ’94 was the season of signing Klinsmann and the ‘Famous 5’ up front so would be fun playing with that and an ‘all-out’ attacking philosophy, as well as seeing if I could keep him around for more than one season. Especially now his frustrations are known regarding the lack of investment in the rest of the playing squad that year (that’s something that could be accurately modelled in the modern FM game-engine that isn’t as obvious in the older games).

For England; Euro 96 was just around the corner. ‘Old’ Wembley Stadium in the match engine. It’s coming home, it’s coming home… time to change history.

So; just putting it out there for fun; which ‘old’ CM/FM database would you like to see re-imagined using the modern game-engine?

(Honourable mention to CM 99/00, possibly my favourite CM version. Spurs back in Europe and would love to see Ginola swanning around on the 3d Match Engine).
 

[metallimuse]

If I could have any year as a database I wouldn't be far off you and would like to see 1992/93.

Reason being that that is the first year I have strong football memories.

My team Glasgow Rangers won the treble and knocked out English Champions Leeds United from the inaugural Champions League to reach the group stage were we were undefeated and only narrowly avoided getting to the final.

I'd love to manage that squad.

Also the Scottish national team were still qualifying for tournaments so I could take us to Euro 96 and win it on enemy soil .

This was also the decade when Italian football was the best in the world and all the stars went there, a league which I love managing in because of Football Italia in the 90's on channel 4. So would be great to have a play around in there.

Also, it would be 6/7 months after the USSR ended and that whole Soviet block so it would be super fun to play around in those emerging leagues and countries who would have little history...or am I getting that wrong? Did they still have individual leagues pre USSR break up? Did countries in that block still have national teams?

And more importantly these early 90's years would be super fun to play as it's the period before Sky and the Premiership and the revolution of football as a business. A time when a club from a small country could actually compete in Europe and the era of super clubs with buckets of cash existed.

[Ste]

You'd wonder what kind of rights issues they would have to anything Champ Man related but i've always thought they should have the option of changing the start year of a game so that we could roll back to certain seasons. Competition layouts would probably be difficult to roll back but i'd be ok with that. Then just allow any easy drop in of databases to add or adjust the roster, mod community could take care of the rest. At the moment it's far too time consuming to take an older CM3 database and make it work with the newer FM versions.

[marksbros6]

Yeah, it's a bit of a flight-of-fancy. Everything I read on the subject was that SI owned the database(s?) and the game-engine, and Eidos the branding and the game-interface. Only SI know for sure how accurate this is though.

Would love to see a 'streamlined' version of the modern-engine with the classic data in though. Maybe not as in-depth a game as the current one, maybe just the 'main' leagues for the era's we're talking about, maybe not as many media-features. And a more 'classic' presentation (older-looking stadiums and finances that are more realistic for the time in-question).

Would be a good alternative for those who find the modern game a bit in-depth and long-winded, and maybe teach some newer players about this period of Football we all lived through.

[Boy_Wonda]

97-98 or 01-02 for me. They were the two games that really did it for me. Some absolute CM legends on those databases too.

[marksbros6]

57 minutes ago, Boy_Wonda said:

97-98 or 01-02 for me. They were the two games that really did it for me. Some absolute CM legends on those databases too.

Surely the 96/97 season if your team's Newcastle mate?

[DementedHammer]

Not within the CM/FM era, but personally, I'd love to play starting in the 1966 or 1986 seasons.

Edited April 21, 2020 by DementedHammer

[marksbros6]

18 hours ago, DementedHammer said:

Not within the CM/FM era, but personally, I'd love to play starting in the 1966 or 1986 seasons.

Looking to play the World Cup’s?

[DementedHammer]

Partially. But it's also the season after West Ham won the Cup Winners Cup. It would be a fun save trying to improve on that, Especially getting to play with such a famous crop of players in the squad. 

The 85-86 season was West Ham's highest ever league finish, eventually finishing in 3rd. It would be a fun save trying to finish a couple of places better. 

That said, I don't usually play FM as West Ham, as I prefer extreme lower league management. I'm currently managing a team in the Essex Senior League. 

[ALGF]

97-98 as a Barnsley fan, even though we got relegated it was our only ever season in the top flight

[r0x0r]

As a gooner, CM03/04 would be my dream year to be ported over. See what I could do with The Invincibles.

[marksbros6]

6 minutes ago, r0x0r said:

As a gooner, CM03/04 would be my dream year to be ported over. See what I could do with The Invincibles.

Year ‘to forget’ for me! Helder-bloody-Postiga...

...and he knocked us out of the Euros...

[99]

2003/2004 was my favorite year watching football, with my FC Porto, a year after winning UEFA Cup (now Europa League), winning no less than the Champions League. Legends like Vitor Baía, Deco, Ricardo Carvalho and a manager no other than José Mourinho. Just incredible. I was never so happy in my life (regarding football).

[Jops14]

Probably 02/03. Always baffles me as a Newcastle fan how Robson got that team to 3rd. Or 03/04 and see if we can kick on from there.

[Boy_Wonda]

On 21/04/2020 at 12:49, marksbros6 said:

Surely the 96/97 season if your team's Newcastle mate?

Pre-broken Shearer - that's probably a good shout!

Don't really play with them too often though! 97-98 would be good because of the Barnet squad - Sean Devine and Scott McGleish were legends.

[marksbros6]

On 26/04/2020 at 10:09, Boy_Wonda said:

Pre-broken Shearer - that's probably a good shout!

Don't really play with them too often though! 97-98 would be good because of the Barnet squad - Sean Devine and Scott McGleish were legends.

Thinking about it I'd not mind playing 97-98 season (and taking England to France '98) in the CM3 engine. Played it in CM97/98 recently, but would be awesome to play it in CM3 as it was just that much deeper a game.

 

Outside the CM-era of classic databases I think there'd be a lot of mileage in a 'FM 1960' game. So many great teams and players. The game was very different back then (no substitutes, different formations, different style-of-play). Competition-formats were different; old 'European Cup' and 'Cup Winners Cup'. 

For me Spurs had a great team, doing the double in '61, playing  in the European Cup in '62, winning FA Cups, Cup Winners Cup. Would be great to take charge of them.

England, of course, had a home World Cup. There were SO MANY great players in that era as well.

 

Always liked the April Fools joke SI did about the 'FM 1888' game and the screenshots they mocked-up. Would be really good managing in a completely different era of football.

 

The company that owned the Championship Manager name after SI brought out a CM '80's and CM '70's mobile game, which I bought. Wasn't the same though as a properly realised PC-game with all the depth.