FM Retro-Gaming... which old is the best?

[Stepak1]

Hello everyone and good morning,

while waiting for FM25 I would like to go back to the past a bit and play an old editions of FM...

Which one - after all these years - do you recommend? I've always been very attached to FM12, but I've also had good reviews from FM14...

Which ones would you recommend? and what the problems were with various older editions (e.g. FM12 - pass through bug).

Thank you!

[XaW]

CM00/01 is still one of my favourite ones!  

I also head back to the first CM every once in a while.

[Andros]

which was the FM where the long ball forward to a target man (before roles and duties were implements) was overpowered?  Crouch could become a superstar and Bale was like 16 years old?  Must be FM2007 or 2008.  There was also an Italian target forward that could be gotten really cheap, starts with 'C', can't remember the rest of his name! Anyway, whilst I had played FM before that, this was the version that really hooked me.

 

Anyway, most results here will be subjective based on particular saves.  I would argue that the best version is always the latest one.  

[El Payaso]

4 hours ago, Andros said:

which was the FM where the long ball forward to a target man (before roles and duties were implements) was overpowered?   

FM 2007. I never got it to work that well though. I think the Italian forward was called Andrea Caracciolo. Other good options that I remember were Nikola Zigic and Steffen Iversen. Bale on the other hand was still a full-back back then.

FM 2007 was also probably the last edition where defensive midfielders played with real aggression and could actually be the best players in the team in terms of average rating. 

Edited April 1 by El Payaso

[JAwtunes]

Cm0001 and CM2 were my faves. If they had newgens I'd be playing them now

[Overmars]

The past versions I most enjoyed at the time were:

1. CM3 -- It was text, but it was still fun. It was a lighter version of the current FM series, but it was still easy to get addicted.
2. FM15 -- Lots of fun. The two broken bits were that there were way too many goals and the loan system was easily abused (ex. perpetual free loans of wonderkids).
3. FM11 -- First version that felt "advanced" to me. The main flaws were the ease at which a poacher on attack could dominate and the excessive amount of near post corner goals.

[Rodrigogc]

18 horas atrás, El Payaso disse:

FM 2007 was also probably the last edition where defensive midfielders played with real aggression and could actually be the best players in the team in terms of average rating. 

I think this was the era where midfielders were becoming all rounded, with Ballack and Gerrard probably being the best ones at the point. I remember that tactics like the 4-2-2-2 (2 DMs and 2 CMs) were the thing back then, if you had these agressive midfielders nothing could beat you.

[Marko1989]

On 01/04/2024 at 15:12, Andros said:

which was the FM where the long ball forward to a target man (before roles and duties were implements) was overpowered?  Crouch could become a superstar and Bale was like 16 years old?  Must be FM2007 or 2008.  There was also an Italian target forward that could be gotten really cheap, starts with 'C', can't remember the rest of his name! Anyway, whilst I had played FM before that, this was the version that really hooked me.

 

Anyway, most results here will be subjective based on particular saves.  I would argue that the best version is always the latest one.

I think you are talking about Bernardo Corradi. And I think that was FM 2006

[petertr]

On 01/04/2024 at 12:11, XaW said:

CM00/01 is still one of my favourite ones!  

I also head back to the first CM every once in a while.

Apologies for spamming a few threads with the same reply, but in case you are interested:

 

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.

[grade]

For me the game that hit the right balance in everything is FM07.

[jozza800]

On 01/04/2024 at 20:15, JAwtunes said:

Cm0001 and CM2 were my faves. If they had newgens I'd be playing them now

Yep, always ending up with a certain Argentinian forward with amazing finishing every save got a bit samey after a whie...

[Tony Wright 747]

FM07 was good if you are happy with 2D but IMO FM12 is still the best, so long as you ignore the known exploits

[Muja]

Do yourself a favor and start playing FM 2007.
Like you, I've recently felt the need to try out some of the past FMs that I own - and since I've been playing since the days of Championship Manager, I own a lot of them.

You can find a review I wrote for all the old editions here.

But I'd like to update it by telling you this: FM 2007 is by far the game, among all those I've tried, that has given me the most fun - and I'm still playing it now.

Yes, of course, it's very old, and this means that the database isn't updated (but I've solved this by going on holiday until 2024 and starting from there) and that some features of modern games are missing - of which I personally don't feel the lack.
Because you see, the point is that the BASE of the game is simply perfect.

What I love about this game is that it is DIFFICULT, but not artificially difficult. The AI opponents will give you a hard time.
Tactics are important, but the strongest team ultimately wins because player attributes are even more important.
And building a strong team is not easy at all, because the AI is very active in the transfer market: the big clubs are always scouting for new talents (which are plentiful thanks to a well-balanced influx of newgens) and every time you find an interesting player, you'll have to fight with many other clubs to get him.
This also means that the game world will always be balanced, even 200 years into the future - heck, the game could probably go on forever, and you'd still find perfectly built and strong AI squads to contend with.

As for the match engine, there's no 3D, but what you see in 2D is highly enjoyable. There's not a single identical goal, and the most beautiful part is probably watching the dribbles of your most talented players - really, in comparison to other editions, your players dribble for real, not just when they're on the flanks and with plenty of space ahead.

And about tactics, yes, there are those much-hated sliders. But you have the MAXIMUM freedom to customize your tactic and individual instructions as you prefer, without any restriction such as the preset roles that exist now. Everything is possible, and every strategy is feasible.

Winning in this game is highly rewarding. And losing can also be frustrating, but always with the awareness that it depends on you, and that against stronger opponents all you can do is give your best.

I've been playing FM 2007 for a few months now, and I can't stop. I'm once again caught up in the "just one more game" fever. I had been missing it for so long.

 

Edited April 3 by Muja

[oche balboa]

CM97/98 is where it all started for me. And i still have a dabble with that game from time to time. 01/02 was brilliant and i still play it. 

 

I want to play FM2007 again but can't find it digitally around 

[d d]

Shame, cant FM2007 digitally. It was a great game. so was 2010 and 2012.

[jens_dewit]

18 hours ago, oche balboa said:

CM97/98 is where it all started for me. And i still have a dabble with that game from time to time. 01/02 was brilliant and i still play it. 

 

I want to play FM2007 again but can't find it digitally around 

I was just about to ask... are older FM's to be found anywhere? (And can I get them on my Steam Deck?)

[dannyo666]

1 hour ago, jens_dewit said:

I was just about to ask... are older FM's to be found anywhere? (And can I get them on my Steam Deck?)

You can download for free legally some old FMs/Cms......

[kevhamster]

On 01/04/2024 at 12:11, XaW said:

CM00/01 is still one of my favourite ones!  

I also head back to the first CM every once in a while.

I've tried going back to CM01/02 as it's available for free these days, but I really struggle to go back to any version now without any visual representation of the match.  The 2D match engine was such a gamechanger when it came in!

[MorrisseyMuse]

On 03/04/2024 at 13:36, Muja said:

Do yourself a favor and start playing FM 2007.
Like you, I've recently felt the need to try out some of the past FMs that I own - and since I've been playing since the days of Championship Manager, I own a lot of them.

You can find a review I wrote for all the old editions here.

But I'd like to update it by telling you this: FM 2007 is by far the game, among all those I've tried, that has given me the most fun - and I'm still playing it now.

Yes, of course, it's very old, and this means that the database isn't updated (but I've solved this by going on holiday until 2024 and starting from there) and that some features of modern games are missing - of which I personally don't feel the lack.
Because you see, the point is that the BASE of the game is simply perfect.

What I love about this game is that it is DIFFICULT, but not artificially difficult. The AI opponents will give you a hard time.
Tactics are important, but the strongest team ultimately wins because player attributes are even more important.
And building a strong team is not easy at all, because the AI is very active in the transfer market: the big clubs are always scouting for new talents (which are plentiful thanks to a well-balanced influx of newgens) and every time you find an interesting player, you'll have to fight with many other clubs to get him.
This also means that the game world will always be balanced, even 200 years into the future - heck, the game could probably go on forever, and you'd still find perfectly built and strong AI squads to contend with.

As for the match engine, there's no 3D, but what you see in 2D is highly enjoyable. There's not a single identical goal, and the most beautiful part is probably watching the dribbles of your most talented players - really, in comparison to other editions, your players dribble for real, not just when they're on the flanks and with plenty of space ahead.

And about tactics, yes, there are those much-hated sliders. But you have the MAXIMUM freedom to customize your tactic and individual instructions as you prefer, without any restriction such as the preset roles that exist now. Everything is possible, and every strategy is feasible.

Winning in this game is highly rewarding. And losing can also be frustrating, but always with the awareness that it depends on you, and that against stronger opponents all you can do is give your best.

I've been playing FM 2007 for a few months now, and I can't stop. I'm once again caught up in the "just one more game" fever. I had been missing it for so long.

FM2008 is my fave in the series.  I love FM07 too, but 08 added more detailed scouting which is a game changer for me.  I'm currently making a modern update for FM08, thread coming soon!
 

 

[Rodrigogc]

3 minutos atrás, MorrisseyMuse disse:

 

I've been playing FM08 as well, the best skin of all time and a great version in general. I started a save with generated players instead of real ones, but I'd love an update. 

[MorrisseyMuse]

2 hours ago, Rodrigogc said:

I've been playing FM08 as well, the best skin of all time and a great version in general. I started a save with generated players instead of real ones, but I'd love an update. 

Great to know there's interest out there!  I'm gonna create a thread very soon for my update, but I'm not sure which forum to put it in currently as there's no place for older FM versions in the Editor's Hideaway, so may just slap it in General Discussion here.

[Muja]

5 ore fa, MorrisseyMuse ha scritto:

FM2008 is my fave in the series.  I love FM07 too, but 08 added more detailed scouting which is a game changer for me.  I'm currently making a modern update for FM08, thread coming soon! 

I see!
I liked 08's ME more than 07, to be honest.
But 08 had some that I consider major flaws:
- newgens were very bad: low starting CA, low phisical attributes all around, weird distribution of CA (best penalty and free-kick takers in the future are mostly central defenders);
- AI transfer activity was very flat, no more than 1 or 2 good buys per year, most players would spend 10 years in the same team;

As my favourite part of FM are long term saves, these flaws unfortunately prevent me from having fun with 08  

[LucasBR]

Cm01/02

Tsigalko, the best player in any manager game

[dannyo666]

FM 15 for me...playing t atm and lovin it

[The Gaffer101]

FM 12 

[DaddyPig86]

CM 01/02.

Cherno Samba.

[Kickballz]

8 hours ago, The Gaffer101 said:

FM 12 

Fm 12 seems to be fondly remembered, but that was the ME where scoring headers from crosses was completely broken. If you didn't play that style then it was probably ok, but I could never look past that flaw.

For me fm 07 was decent, and the next match engine where it clicked was not until fm 17.

[El Payaso]

I think I clocked most hours with FM 2008 which was also the biggest reason for my final high school year being only okayish. 

I had a journeyman save with it with KSV Hessen Kassel which i took to the Bundesliga. After a poor start to the season, I continued to Spain with Recreativo and finished with Udinese. I think about 5-6 seasons in total which is a big number for me. I also had separate saves with Chelsea and Udinese. 

The main annoying thing with this version was the quality of finishing which could be really badly off. Also the lack of aggression compared to FM 2007 was really easy to notice and this led to some crazy amount of goals especially in smaller leagues such as Finland. 

In general I would say that FM 2013 was the best. If you look at videos on YouTube, you can still see that the match engine was really well balanced and I think that this was also one of the last versions where all good newgens didn't have crazy physical attributes straight from the start. 

Honorable mention could go to FM 2009 where it was quite difficult to make your team play well. I had enjoyable international saves with both the Finnish and Mexican national team. Would have played this version way more if I had a better computer and I wasn't in the army that year. 

And the worst ones? FM 2017 was by far the worst and FM 2010 takes the second place. Neither of these games had very little to do with real football, especially in terms of the match engine. 

[the_hdk]

17 hours ago, The Gaffer101 said:

FM 12 

This  FM 12 is still the best in the series and yet to be surpassed.

[oche balboa]

Shame you cant get FM06-10 anywhere unless you buy a CD-Rom version of the game 

[kevhamster]

On 07/04/2024 at 13:23, the_hdk said:

This  FM 12 is still the best in the series and yet to be surpassed.

FM12 is the one on my Steam account which shows the longest playtime, although FM24 is catching up quite fast and I suspect will overtake it by quite some distance by the time FM25 comes around.

[dannyo666]

21 hours ago, kevhamster said:

FM12 is the one on my Steam account which shows the longest playtime, although FM24 is catching up quite fast and I suspect will overtake it by quite some distance by the time FM25 comes around.

Why 12?May load that up later on...cant remember playing it tbh...Scouting/ME etc all good?i play 2d so don't care about graphics

[kevhamster]

10 minutes ago, dannyo666 said:

Why 12?May load that up later on...cant remember playing it tbh...Scouting/ME etc all good?i play 2d so don't care about graphics

Honestly can't remember, it's been 5 years since I booted it up according to Steam.  But it's the one I've played for the longest time on my Steam account.  I suspect I had more hours in FM08 and FM10 as I had good long-term saves in both of those, but I bought boxed copies of those before integration with Steam was mandatory for FM, so I couldn't swear to it.

[the_hdk]

On 09/04/2024 at 14:20, dannyo666 said:

Why 12?May load that up later on...cant remember playing it tbh...Scouting/ME etc all good?i play 2d so don't care about graphics

very fast first of all. very well optimized. UI was also great.  simulation was great too. and tactics was more simple...but felt like you had more impact.

 

in many ways fm24 is better. but since 12 none of the games had that speed.

[MichaelNevo]

I could have just the thing for you in around a months time! I'm currently rebuilding TheMadScientist's fm2019 (1966-1967) database and it will be available on FM2024 steam workshop! The database is almost in it's complete state as of right now, but there's a few things I need to do with it to make it epic.