The Official Unoffical Older FM's Thread!

[MorrisseyMuse]

Hola peeps!

FM 2008 is my all-time fave in the series, blending the perfect mix of casual and in-depth simulation IMO.

I'm currently doing a modern update for FM08 (thread coming soon!) and it's got me thinking that there's no real dedicated area in the forums for the older FM's, in particular FM 06-08!  So I thought I'd create this thread as a place to show love for and discussion about all things older FM.

[KAS2]

Nice one. 👍🏻

FM/CM 02-03 for me, 100%

[MorrisseyMuse]

4 hours ago, KAS2 said:

Nice one. 👍🏻

FM/CM 02-03 for me, 100%

Ooh, do you mean CM 01/02, or the Xbox exclusive CM 02/03?  Both were/are awesome!  Back when I didn't have a PC of my own, I got an Xbox for Xmas with CM 02/03 and got really heavily into it.  It was brilliantly ported!

CM 4 was that year on PC of course and I eventually got heavily into that and CM 03/04 also.

[RinusFM]

7 hours ago, MorrisseyMuse said:

Hola peeps!

FM 2008 is my all-time fave in the series, blending the perfect mix of casual and in-depth simulation IMO.

I'm currently doing a modern update for FM08 (thread coming soon!) and it's got me thinking that there's no real dedicated area in the forums for the older FM's, in particular FM 06-08!  So I thought I'd create this thread as a place to show love for and discussion about all things older FM.

My favorite is FM08 as well. I started with FM05, tho. I wish there was a full updated FM08 database for FM24, so I could play that. Would love that a lot. Maybe even crazier to get newgens/regens like in real life, with a mix up of newgens. To keep the game fresh. it's strange not to get Odegaard, for example. Cause we know he will be there a couple of years after 2008. I don't follow football that much after 2009ish anymore, but FM still makes me play every year, haha.

[Arijit]

FM2008 was my first FM. I used to play Total Club Manager (EA Sports one), Football World Manager but never played FM. Then somehow I landed on FM 2008 and I fell in love with it. Simple gameplay yet addictive. I would love to see it modernized.

[Phil930]

Has to be CM 01/02 for me, which came out during my first year of uni away from home, network games across the dorm were classic.  The game was epic, and at a point in life where had so much free time to study, or rather, play CM!  

I still look back to Italia Manger 1993 which was my intro to the series.  A solid 1-0-5-5 formation banged in the goals, and with a friend we could complete a season one afternoon. 

[KAS2]

2 hours ago, MorrisseyMuse said:

Ooh, do you mean CM 01/02, or the Xbox exclusive CM 02/03?  Both were/are awesome!  Back when I didn't have a PC of my own, I got an Xbox for Xmas with CM 02/03 and got really heavily into it.  It was brilliantly ported!

CM 4 was that year on PC of course and I eventually got heavily into that and CM 03/04 also.

02/03 Xbox bud.

I've used CM since the very early days, like 93/94 I think it was, and the 02/03 Xbox was was truly the best imo.

Hell, we weren't fortunate enough to have our own PCs / Laptop a piece and **** back then were we. When I found the Xbox version it was amazing.

Ha. 🙂

[KAS2]

11 minutes ago, Phil930 said:

Has to be CM 01/02 for me, which came out during my first year of uni away from home, network games across the dorm were classic.  The game was epic, and at a point in life where had so much free time to study, or rather, play CM!  

I still look back to Italia Manger 1993 which was my intro to the series.  A solid 1-0-5-5 formation banged in the goals, and with a friend we could complete a season one afternoon. 

Italia 93, yeeeees. Sampdoria. Pagliuca in net, Ruud Gulit + David Platt in MIDs, Mancini up front.

Happy Days

[bigmattb28]

FM17 for me. Always go back to it. CM00/01 was where it all started for me though.

[Jonthedon26]

FM06 was probably my favourite, purely because I had a ridiculous Birmingham City team. Beckham and Veron in midfield, Lucarelli and Chevanton up top

[trevjim]

Started with CM99. Peaked at I think 08. The series for me has been on a steady decline since. 

The match engine is clearly better and some nice additions, but the overall game has become too "sim" and less "transfers and tactics". Obviously the media and press side is tragically bad and the UI is far too bloated.

FM touch was a return to the glory days before they removed it from PC.

23 was the first version I didn't buy in 23 years (I technically did but refunded it) 

 

Have been playing 24 on Steamdeck and its ok but still yearning for a change in direction from SI. Hoping the big changes in 25 will bring that. I don't care for graphics (play 2d) and just want them to realise what makes the games fun and focus on that instead of tedious stuff for the sake of it

 

 

[grade]

My fav continues to be FM07.

But started my FM career in CM97/98.

[Stewart91]

FM07 and 17 are my all time favourites.

I loved the skin so much in those old FM's.

 

[trevjim]

10 minutes ago, Stewart91 said:

FM07 and 17 are my all time favourites.

I loved the skin so much in those old FM's.

 

Yeh the purple theme of the last few years is a real bad look. The greens and blues of years gone by were great. (Thank goodness for custom skins)

[endlessxcircle]

Started back with CM 00-01 and played constantly up until around FM12 - which is where I felt the game started to lose its appeal. 

Have gone back to playing CM 01/02 in the past on several occasions because there's still a large community for it. Would dabble with some of the earlier FM releases but having moved across to an M1 based MacBook it's quite difficult trying to get any of them to run - if you can even find the game available to begin with. 

Do intend to try and see if I can get CM 01/02 up and running again though. It's always good to have around, as it's far easier to just casually pick up and play which kinda suits life a bit better.

[Dagenham_Dave]

This year's game is the best in the series overall, bar none, but of the older ones, FM17 probably still my favourite, although others have had moments that make them great

CM 93/94 - The first one (with real names anyway) and one I sunk in a ridiculous amounts of hours into, taking York to Champions League glory, one of only two times I've won the CL on FM, and I've played every edition. More on this later. 

CM 01/02 - The GOAT of the early series of titles, and still holds up today. I can still remember To Madeira scoring the winner for my Hibs team in the Cup Final. 

FM08 - Loved this version, and was the first version of the game where I blogged my save online, a relatively unsuccessful Ipswich Town save.

FM13 - The edition that rekindled my love for the series having been underwhelmed by the few before it. The birth of the FM Classic game mode, a much missed part of FM on PC. Should never have rebranded it as 'Touch' or made it a standalone. It was fine as it was called FM Classic and just being a selectable mode when you booted up the game. Shame on you SI for how you killed this much love part of the franchise. 

FM14 - Loved the end of the sliders and it made tactics fun again. Also had a sensational Hibs save on FM Classic in this game, one I still go back to now and again. This was also the year, where in the main game, I managed Droylsden in the Vanarama North. 9 seasons later I was still in the Vanarama North. With no money and no youth intake, this was a war of attrition, but it's the kind of save I love. Had the next game in the series not been so memorable, I may have gone back and kept going with it. 

FM15 - The game where I won my 2nd ever Champions League, this time with Hereford on a dafuge challenge, where all the glory was streamed on Twitch - the one and only time I was a content creator. 

And then FM17 - The equivalent of FM24 today, ie the most complete version of the game before they went and ruined all the graphics from FM18 onwards. The game itself was great anyway, but the matchday experience still hasn't been bettered. The lighting, the shadows, the wonderful variety in stadiums. It's another black mark for SI in how they allowed this area of the game to regress so much. Big pressure then for the 'new look' FM25. 

Edited November 5, 2023 by Dagenham_Dave

[Ranquelme]

If FM12 had higher difficulty because it seems to be the easiest I’ve ever played, I probably wouldn’t have bought another version. Loved the UI, it was a smooth game

[BuryBlade]

Started with CM2 back in 1995/96. Must have sunk thousands and thousands of hours into that because I played it for over a decade. First FM for me was FM07 when my friends showed me it and convinced me to stop playing CM.

I’m a firm believer that our favourite iterations depend heavily on how much we enjoyed our saves in that iteration. I had my best ever save in FM12 taking Sheff Utd to 10 straight Premiership titles. I still remember some of the players, the tactic, and some results. 
 

I tried going back to that save/FM last year but the quality of FM now is so far ahead of back then it was impossible to get back into it. FM23 had a lot of bugs and issues (especially Touch version on iPad) but the match engine was actually fun for me, and was the first iteration where I was able to manifest what was in my head (low block, overloads, and through balls) into the game. 

[superposh]

CM 01/02 for me. I still play it, probably always will. 

The last game that I sunk serious hours into was FM15. 

[Evan_Wylde]

It started in 1983, with the original FM by Kevin Toms on the ZX Spectrum. I couldn`t wait to come home after school, and play ! Even my Father enjoyed playing this, and I came home one day, to hear him laughing upstairs in the computer room, so I went up to see what was going on, and he proudly showed me how he`d used the editor, to change the name of all 64 teams in the game.

I looked to see what he`d done, and every team was now called something silly, Div 1 now had a top 4 of Dogs, Cats, Monkeys & Fish, and down at the bottom Poop, Turds, Bottoms & Boobies were fighting relegation, and he`d done this all the way down the leagues. Had to admire his effort, as I`ve thought about doing something similar on a current version, but not sure I could come up with that many silly names !

Lot`s of ZX Spectrum games in between then, The Boss, The Double (LOVED this one !) FM 2/3 & the World Cup one, and some others I`ve forgotten.

And then in 1994, I was in my local Boots, and saw CM93/94, and gave this a go, and this was light years ahead of football management games on a computer ! I`d not played them for a while, and this was my return to the genre, but I just could not stop playing this ! Even when it took 2 hours to update at the end of a season, I`d go downstairs and watch TV, or just have a sleep for a bit, and once it was done, I was back to playing.

Lent my Amiga & that game to a friend one weekend, and couldn`t wait to get it back, and carry on playing, and he didn`t want to give it back !

Then it was the 95/96 version, and I think there was a 96/97 version also ? There were also several European versions you could get, and I have a few of them something in the house, but I recall the Italia one had an issue where you filled the squad up, and couldn`t sign any more players, so I just stuck to the UK one. It was also the version I`ve spent the longest game time on, without stopping. 36 hours straight on that one, as my Father had 2 long shifts at work, and in between them he slept, so I got to use the PC whilst he was busy, and I had to get in as much time as I could before he wanted it back. I remember one of those versions, had Ian Harte as a LB, and if you had him charging forward, he would score 40+ goals a season !

I got the CM 99/00 & 00/01 versions, but it was CM01/02 that got me addicted again. It was only when FM took the step of adding in game highlights, that I left that one behind, but had so many great saves on it, it was probably the most exceptional Football Management game ever created. If modern FM could create a version that resembled this, and gave us back Classic/Touch then I`m sure it would make a lot of us older players very very happy.

I know the game is still being kept going, but I`ve not looked into it.

I did get CM4 & CM03/04, but didn`t play them much, and one of them I`m sure I refunded as it was a mess ! So back to CM01/02

I did enjoy FM05, but what grated me was the training module, and having to manually change everything each week, so I went back to CM01/02

I LOVED FM07, and that`s probably the version I`ve spent the most time on after CM01/02, I played that for a few years, and went back to it after not liking FM09 very much.

FM09  was the last time I waited outside a store just before 9am in the morning, waiting for them to open, and pick up a copy off the shelf, and marvel at it, and read the back, before taking it to the cashier, and taking it home, ready to dive into it for several days. It was enjoyable, and such a change from the dots moving around the screen, but after a few months, I grew a bit bored of it, and yearned to play CM01/02 or FM07 again. So I went back to them for a few years.

Never been happy about the move to steam, but I reluctantly bought FM13, and played it for a few months, before going back to FM07.

Not wanting to go through steam each time, I then picked up FM10 & FM11 in charity shops, and I LOVED them both ! I have an old PC that still runs FM11, and I jump back into it now and then, but such a shame that microsoft stopped those games from working on Windows, as I`d love to have them there to play if I fancy a game, and not have to deal with petulant children every 2 days, wanting a new contract, and being offended over something.

I bought FM16 & FM18, but never really got into them, and went back to older versions. Reading how great FM17 is, I really should have grabbed that version, but hope to find a copy of it one day, and not for the silly prices I see it for online.

FM19 was the version I`ve played the most of, since they went to steam, and I`m playing a save at the moment. I did grab a copy of FM21, but just couldn`t get on with that, and felt the constant demands of players was too much, and I had a nightmare getting the resolution right each time I loaded it up, and some things that I`d gotten used to in FM19, seemed to be missing, so I went back to FM19.

FM24 was the first one that had me thinking about buying in the first 6 months of release, and haven`t felt that way about an FM game for 15 years. I`m going to hold off for now, and see what it looks like in the next few months, after an update or 2, but will wait for it to come WAY down in price before buying it.

These games do give me so much value for money, but something about dropping £30+ for an FM game, the way the series has been over recent years, never sits right for me, and I don`t think current versions have done enough to earn my money. But hoping once this current version gets settled, and they can work on the issues it has, then I`ll be leaving FM19 behind, and getting into FM24.

Thanks for reading, if you made it this far !

[cleiria]

Started with CM97/98.

My fav continues to be CM 01/02, i still play it.

In terms of FM, is FM07.

[trevjim]

14 minutes ago, cleiria said:

Started with CM97/98.

My fav continues to be CM 01/02, i still play it.

In terms of FM, is FM07.

This seems to be a common theme. Hopefully SI look at this and realise what made these games special 

[iAlwaysWin]

Si get alot of stick for there FM games but to be fair theres more good FM games than there is bad ones, and for me FM 2007 and FM 2008 where really good FM games, used to go my beloved Boca Juniors and Riquelme would run riot every game. If you wanna go old school Championship Manager 2 was a solid game well ahead of its time.

Edited November 5, 2023 by iAlwaysWin

[MorrisseyMuse]

On 03/11/2023 at 01:49, KAS2 said:

02/03 Xbox bud.

I've used CM since the very early days, like 93/94 I think it was, and the 02/03 Xbox was was truly the best imo.

Hell, we weren't fortunate enough to have our own PCs / Laptop a piece and **** back then were we. When I found the Xbox version it was amazing.

Ha. 🙂

Nice! I used to load Argentina as 1 of the 3 playable leagues just so I could buy Cavenaghi and D'Alessandro lol

[MorrisseyMuse]

CM 01/02 and FM 07 seem to be the most popular amongst series fans?

I sank many hours into both, the main reason why FM 08 is my fave is due to it introducing scout reports that were sadly lacking in 07, making accurate scouting of transfer prospects pretty tough!

 

I've played the update on champman0102.co.uk and it's awesome! I'd love to do my own version of the update but FM 08 update has dominated my editing over the past few months and my FM24 stat update will begin again in the morning!

[MorrisseyMuse]

8 hours ago, BuryBlade said:

Started with CM2 back in 1995/96. Must have sunk thousands and thousands of hours into that because I played it for over a decade. First FM for me was FM07 when my friends showed me it and convinced me to stop playing CM.

I’m a firm believer that our favourite iterations depend heavily on how much we enjoyed our saves in that iteration. I had my best ever save in FM12 taking Sheff Utd to 10 straight Premiership titles. I still remember some of the players, the tactic, and some results. 
 

I tried going back to that save/FM last year but the quality of FM now is so far ahead of back then it was impossible to get back into it. FM23 had a lot of bugs and issues (especially Touch version on iPad) but the match engine was actually fun for me, and was the first iteration where I was able to manifest what was in my head (low block, overloads, and through balls) into the game. 

I can certainly see this.  I remember some amazing careers in various CM games and I'm still proud of my 23 year old self getting City to 4th in FM06 lol FM 08 was the season when City were taken over and got a bank balance and some decent players, so definitely happy memories there!

I just loved the older FM UI though, it wasn't perfect but it was much faster to navigate than current FM.

[MorrisseyMuse]

On 03/11/2023 at 00:50, RinusFM said:

My favorite is FM08 as well. I started with FM05, tho. I wish there was a full updated FM08 database for FM24, so I could play that. Would love that a lot. Maybe even crazier to get newgens/regens like in real life, with a mix up of newgens. To keep the game fresh. it's strange not to get Odegaard, for example. Cause we know he will be there a couple of years after 2008. I don't follow football that much after 2009ish anymore, but FM still makes me play every year, haha.

I've spent the past few months on/off creating an update for FM08.  Of course it gets reset to a degree with every itineration of FM as I'm basing it on the latest FM db, with my own modifications.  I'm gonna create a thread for it soon as it's nearing a playable 'demo' stage now with at least a handful of Premier League teams updated to a good level.

[Zek]

For me three versions stand out:

FM07 was my first FM so I'm a little biased towards it, but I like how quickly you can go through a season. I bought it again in a thrift shop a couple of years ago, but that one seems to have a somewhat game-breaking bug with Dutch teams.

Also fond memories of FM10. It may have been a bit on the easy side, though. I'm not good at this game (and certainly not back then!), but no matter what tactic I would create in FM10 I'd get decent results at worst. This was the version I put the most hours in.

FM13 Classic is another one I played a lot. That mode was just what I needed to rekindle the FM-fire, as I felt the gameplay of full fat FM had already started to feel a bit slow by then. When looking at it from a business perspective, I understand why they axed the PC version, but I'm still sad it's gone. The fact we never got a pre-game editor for it had always felt disappointing to me, too.

[petertr]

In case anyone is interested, the people on the CM93 facebook group figured out how to update the game data and a few other things, and are playing an updated version at the moment.

Facebook group 576960316361770 "Championship Manager 93-94" - I don't think I would be allowed to post a direct link.  Feel free to PM me if you need it.

[MorrisseyMuse]

i was hoping to create a thread for my FM 2008 update today, but the latest news of another, final official update for FM24 has made me delay it.  I could have alot of work ahead of me once that releases! lol

So no thread yet and I imagine it may be here in the General Discussion where I post it anyway, as there's no place for older FM updates in the Edtior's Hideaway.