Why is championship manager 01/02 so popular?

[Brambi]

And Ronaldinho was so good he was like a reincarnation of Jesus

[Denther]

It's the first CM i bought.

I loved it, as every one said it was easy to just pick up and play. I also really liked the commentry. I then bought CM4 and hated it so went back to CM01/02.

I played it up until I bought FM08.

I think FM09 is better than 01/02 in terms of in depth gameplay and detail, but 01/02 is always good if you just want a bit of a quick manager fix without worrying about tactics and player motivation.

[Slothuus]

And Ronaldinho was so good he was like a reincarnation of Jesus

He was so awesome!

Ariel Ortega, Assane N'Diaye, Isaac Okoronkwo, Ibrahim Said, and then this young, offensive guy from Egypt who was absolutely stunning!

The Swedes were way too god! Selakovic was world class.

[Ferrari312]

I've tried downloading and installing it, but just couldn't get into it for some reason, simple things like comparing two players seemed to take 9 or 10 clicks to do, just little niggly things like that. I've left it installed on my comp and might come back to it at some point when I fancy chance, but it's FM09 for me right now.

I guess if I'd played the original I'd be more into it but I started at CM03/04, which I remember fondly, and FWIW I enjoyed more than FM05 and FM06, but from FM07 onwards I don't think I could even go back to that.

One question on 01/02 though - I quite like the idea of being able to blast through seasons and get far into the future, but for me the most laborious and time consuming part of the game is the matches themselves, so while I appreciate there'll be less processing delays, are match highlights also significantly shorter? Also how good/bad is the regen system (a big issue if you're wanting a long-term game, obviously )

[Denther]

I

One question on 01/02 though - I quite like the idea of being able to blast through seasons and get far into the future, but for me the most laborious and time consuming part of the game is the matches themselves, so while I appreciate there'll be less processing delays, are match highlights also significantly shorter?

It's commentry only, and you can seriously speed that up, or you can even set the match to 'instant finish'

[HL7]

I really miss CM01/02. I personally think CM00/01 was the best in CM series but things went horribly downhill after CM03/04. A list of issues I have with FM;

- Matches on key highlights last faaaar too long.

- In the 8/9 years or so since the move from text based commentary to 2D there haven't been any huge improvements to key areas of the game. AI managers still make baffling decisions, the transfer system is still dodgy (although it has improved) and training is still a laborious chore.

- The focus of the game has shifted from trying to challenge the manager (with the AI of other managers) to restricting the manager to make up for the AI's shortcomings (no arrows, sliders).

- There is now too much to do in between games, and hardly any of it is fun. Imo, the most fun thing in a football manager game is moulding a team capable of destroying everyone in its path. You can still do this but you have to wade through hours of guff whilst doing it, but of course, this is all realistic guff so that's ok

I do like the improvements FM has offered since CM01/02 but the core issues that were wrong with CM01/02 are still largely present today. My biggest problem was mentioned with point 2. Stop restricting my tactical options and over-complicating things, improve the AI and match engine instead. You can only paper over the cracks for so long...

I've saved my final point 'til last as well. Since CM1 SI have released yearly evolutions to its products with one major difference. At every major version SI took time out to revolutionise its series. This kept it fresh and new. When are SI going to revolutionise its FM series? We're essentially playing a game that has evolved from the original CM4. There can only be so far SI can take a game with yearly updates (as has been proved with CM1/2/3) before they need to regroup and take some time to make a new groundbreaking product.

Just my $0.02.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

OK, having had a few frustrations too many with FM09 over the weekend, culminating in my Ipswich keeper when 30 yards from anyone and on the far edge of his area electing to head the ball and then fall over rather than catch it!, which innevitably lead to a lead taking goal for Cardiff in the only match all season where the "underdogs" had not "surprised" me by getting the better result (up to that point), I have decided to return to CM0102 for a bit.

I know Richard Wright has a "reputation" but that was just silly.

Maybe one of the weaknesses of FM09 (and strengths of CM0102) is that the imagination paints a constantly changing picture which is influenced by the mind. The 3d match engine is just what it is, I was liking it but for now that was the last straw. May well return fo FM09 in a while but with the season IRL wound down I think a lighter Footy Management fix for a bit is in order, and thats CM0102 !. Awesome how good the sounds were then and are not now (SI, shame on you!). Of course it took 3 goes at loading (Vista compatible?, just about!).

I wonder if new fans of the genre will love CM0102 for what it is, it lacks so many whistles & bells that the FM series has and I wonder how much of me enjoying CM0102 in 2009 is down to me reliving past glories & times when CM0102 was "cutting edge". Quite simply though, I do love FM09 (the 3d is a good thing overall) but given the choice of FM09 without 3d (which has irked me right now) or CM0102 I would go for CM0102.

Match 1: PSG 0-Ipswich 0 (Intertoto) - yes way back then they got relegated to the "Championship" and qualified for europe all in the same season.

.. cant wait for tonights session

[phnompenhandy]

CM01/02 was the game that finally ripped me away from the inestimable SWOS. From then on I was hooked on CM/FM. Great days, but I wouldn't go back to it now I play FM09.

As they say, 'nostalgia ain't what it used to be' - when I watch re-runs of comedies or Dr. Who I loved from the '70s, or I rediscover music I loved and hadn't heard in 30 years - it's never as good as I remember!

[lee50_11]

You don't even need to buy the game any more DevonSpurs, the game is available for download from the CM website (for free & leagally, of course).

will it run on vista 64?

[CJWO8O]

CM01/02 was the game that finally ripped me away from the inestimable SWOS. From then on I was hooked on CM/FM. Great days, but I wouldn't go back to it now I play FM09.

As they say, 'nostalgia ain't what it used to be' - when I watch re-runs of comedies or Dr. Who I loved from the '70s, or I rediscover music I loved and hadn't heard in 30 years - it's never as good as I remember!

I was a Sensible Soccer boy from about 92, I stumbled scross Championship Manager about that time and played both, I even had Championship Manager Italia that opened my eyes to signing big names.

SWOS lasted until about 97 and then it was all Champ Manager from then, I reckon aside from the last 4 years (I refused to buy FM due to a crash that ruined 8 seasons hard work at Crvena Zvezda) I have played it more for about 12/13 years.

I finally bought FM09 last week and its nice to be back.

Champ 01/02 was a great game, everyone from Belarus was good, Andri Sigporsson was probably the best for the money 210k

[Fire Island]

I used to like it, I preferred 03/04 myself but nowhere near the fantastic FM2009

[Jops14]

I did like 01/02, but it wasnt my favorite, and actually i have gone back ot it a fair few times, and everytime i go bakc its not as good as i remember, the interface just looks ugly, and i find it hard to get to grips with, despite having played it a lot back then. Although i was only 9/10 at the time, and i never actually won anything on it unles si was someone like barcelona.

But no i prefer the new FM's although a point mentioned earlier by HL7 is incredibly trued, this last year or 2 i have been wondering if SI ever plan to do a huge update and release an"FM2", because its almost getting to the stage where its just seasonal updates, and maybe its getting to the point where you think "what more cna you do" (although from the wishlist topic - alot!). But i do struggle to play 01/02, it just doesnt have the same feel, but i did quite like getting through a season in a few hours.

It makes me laugh in a way to see how much everyone hated CM4, because personally i loved it, and it was probably my second favorite, i mean it was painfully, humiliatingly slow, a joke almost, but i still found it a lot of fun, i didnt like the way players history worked, but i still loved it, even turned Bellamy into a £35M striker scoring 50 a season (in all comps).

But my favorite has to be CM00/01, i do have great memories of that. Kim Kallstrom & Mads Jorgensen were GODS.

Having said that i do love FM, 06 & 08 were great, and i do like 09, although its maybe a little slower and ;ess addictive but i still like it a lot.

But who knows, maybe Si put their best efforts in on even years! So 2010 could be great while 2011 might be naff haha!

[Mojo_Pin]

Anastasios Skalidis.......scored so many goals.

[thesandman]

I really miss CM01/02. I personally think CM00/01 was the best in CM series but things went horribly downhill after CM03/04. A list of issues I have with FM;

- Matches on key highlights last faaaar too long.

- In the 8/9 years or so since the move from text based commentary to 2D there haven't been any huge improvements to key areas of the game. AI managers still make baffling decisions, the transfer system is still dodgy (although it has improved) and training is still a laborious chore.

- The focus of the game has shifted from trying to challenge the manager (with the AI of other managers) to restricting the manager to make up for the AI's shortcomings (no arrows, sliders).

- There is now too much to do in between games, and hardly any of it is fun. Imo, the most fun thing in a football manager game is moulding a team capable of destroying everyone in its path. You can still do this but you have to wade through hours of guff whilst doing it, but of course, this is all realistic guff so that's ok

I do like the improvements FM has offered since CM01/02 but the core issues that were wrong with CM01/02 are still largely present today. My biggest problem was mentioned with point 2. Stop restricting my tactical options and over-complicating things, improve the AI and match engine instead. You can only paper over the cracks for so long...

I've saved my final point 'til last as well. Since CM1 SI have released yearly evolutions to its products with one major difference. At every major version SI took time out to revolutionise its series. This kept it fresh and new. When are SI going to revolutionise its FM series? We're essentially playing a game that has evolved from the original CM4. There can only be so far SI can take a game with yearly updates (as has been proved with CM1/2/3) before they need to regroup and take some time to make a new groundbreaking product.

Just my $0.02.

I agree. I started with 93/94, and 01/02 was my favourite.

I walked away after CM4, which I thought was a show stopper - I couldn't believe SI charged money for it, or didn't at least offer a loyalty bonus in the form of trading it in for a discount on the next version.

Didn't buy another version until 08. I've found that of course the game has come on in leaps and bounds, but the things that frustrated me in 01/02, STILL frustrate me in 08.

All the 'bolt ons' and extras are OK, but seem to get in the way. Training is completely disingenous, and transfers not much better. This will open a floodgate, but superkeepers still exist (prepares for flood of 'its ur tactix' responses), feedback on why things happen in the game is limited, and things happen for the AI that are impossible for the human manager.

The paragraph in bold sums it up for me.

Absolutely no doubt that the game is very impressive, and moved on in leaps and bounds, but the core of the game (which isn't press conferences and team talks IMO) seems to buried under all of these side issues - and the results of picking the wrong multi choice option with the press or team talks can be catastrophic, and have far too much influence IMO.

Don't want to sound harsh, but I agree. TIme for a new evolution!

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

But my favorite has to be CM00/01, i do have great memories of that. Kim Kallstrom & Mads Jorgensen were GODS.

CM00/01 - I signed Stan Collymore for Fulham in what is now the Championship, he was relly awesome!

[leedsfan88]

i still have the game and i really like the graphics remember less is more

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

i still have the game and i really like the graphics remember less is more

Exactly! This is not really my argument but which would you prefer, the CM0102 simplicity or a complicated 3d match engine which looks good but where players do things that real players would not do (ridiculous mistakes, catching the ball when no where hear it etc). I am NOT a critic of the 3d match engine because even the latest fifa match engine does not match what I see in my mind when the CM0102 graphics tell me the match story in their simple way.

[dishy91]

not sure if anyone has mentioned them, but Huntelaar was immense after a season or two, and also a young lad from Bosnia? called Hazemhemdovic or something along those lines (a striker)

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

not sure if anyone has mentioned them, but Huntelaar was immense after a season or two, and also a young lad from Bosnia? called Hazemhemdovic or something along those lines (a striker)

Bosnian Swede, Eldar Hadzimehmedovic, awesome, especially playing as one of the 2 AMC's in a 3421. Hard to sign at the start though at the level he is best suited (I would suggest Championship, old Div 1 is his optimum level). I really dont want to feel this but I find CM0102 much more exciting & less frustrating than FM09, which I still believe is a good game. Brian Wake is another gem, powerful a real battering ram (doesnt want to leave Carlilse and they dont usually need the money from his sale though so managing Carlisle is a very fun option, they can become great - and with the penultimate upgrade they start with £4m transfer kitty which buys a whole new team of players from several levels above Div 3). Interestingly he ended up at Gretna IRL about 4 seasons ago as the worked their way up the Leagues and was scoring very regulary alongside Doctor Duchar.

[Ferthepoet]

I think part of what made it great is that football was at a very interesthing point one year, last year of old transfer system before bosman ruling came into force, two group phases in the CL, group phase in World Club Championship, clubs going plc, clubs going trhough financial slumps.......

[InterWolf]

Argh can't get it to work! It says not enough memory to start a game? Any ideas to help as it runs fm 09 fine?

[Snootch]

It kept me busy this year until I had a computer that could run FM09 properly.

Anyone remember Tó Madeira? Absolute legend.

[fabulas4]

it was easy great to play no bugs and easy to understand and make tactics and great youngsters

[InterWolf]

arrrgh now it says i need to insert the CD!

[peter199]

My personal preference is the CM2 series (one league a game, and audio commentary), I played the German game and the Portuguese game. Audio play by play, different backgrounds... Just Awesome for its time... CM 97/98 Comes close and the 98 and CM3 series was worse in my opinion... CM4 got back on track...

And yeah, it seems that every CM had a certain country with way overrated players.

FM08 were the scandinavians...

CM 97/98 were the French...

[Cockney Hammer]

Im always playing it

Still play FM 09 but i like CM as it doesnt try to hard and its so quick and still very good and realistic.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

I think part of what made it great is ...***EDITTED*** two group phases in the CL, group phase in World Club Championship, .......

So true, except from inclusion of the UEFA new group stages the Real Life competitions structure reflected in CM0102 is almost perfect. Restriction on loans is a shame but that was real life in 2001! Cant blame CM0102 for that. If you are going to play as Cardiff though EDIT THE 2ND KIT ! - yellow & white really dont = high text definition :-(

Have played for part of every year since release and still now discover new match text commentery! Awesome !!!

[Nessaja Wolf]

Just thought i'd mention that the game is updated to March 2009 on here

http://www.champman0102.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=6

and can also be patched.

[clayton373]

personally my favourate aswell, one player springs to mind, CHERNO SAMBA!!

[Ferthepoet]

Because it was the game game where Leeds was the best team in the world

[wsm999]

Was this the version you could buy players for nothing or was that just 99/00?

[djwilko6]

The necromancer has arrived!

[rent_boy11]

i started playing manager games on premier manager 97, yes i said premier manager and i thought it was the best game ever on PC. It was mainly because you had to start as crap third division teams and work your way to the top and you could finish a season in about an hour. I first played a CM/FM game when CM4 came out and i was very dissapointed that it was no way near as good so i didnt buy a manager game until CM 2007 which was a bag of boll***s but i didnt realise SI had started making FM. I bought FM 08 when it came out and I thought that this was the best game ever on PC so it seems that the first good game you play in a series is usually your favourite

[Timtom84]

Brings back good memories that game.

Be sure to sign To madiera was a legend in 01/02.

[thebigman1985]

is there anywhere i can dl 97/98 from as i cant find it to buy at a reasonable price

[HotshotUK]

CM 01/02 was very fast and You had to deal with Player Personality and the board if things doesnt go well. It was more of Arcade Champ Manager which it made so much Fun!

Does anyone know the Super Tactic for CM 01/02?

[aw083]

I did love 01/02 and played it until I could finally buy an XP laptop and run FM. So that was about four to five years. But CM 97/98 was the first version of the game I played and despite the annoying part of not being able to have something like more than 10 active transfers at one time, it was the best game for me because it was what got me into the series. And 12 years later I'm still playing.

[tigerhgrrrrrr]

CM 01/02 was very fast and You had to deal with Player Personality and the board if things doesnt go well. It was more of Arcade Champ Manager which it made so much Fun!

Does anyone know the Super Tactic for CM 01/02?

Use the out of the box 4132 but tweak to suit. Not sure it is a "super tactic" but it works well.

[Bill Paisley]

because it was very very easy to win everything with certain cheat players.

[Si_Blanch18]

I loved CM 01/02 For one reason JUSTIN GEORCELIN, best striker i've ever had on any football game scored over 300 career goals for my Stoke team that won everything bar the Champions League i stopped playing it once he reached 27 though as i decided to get a life lol but it was addictive!!!!

[Praczy]

CM 01-02 was simple, easy and fast! It made tactical importance low and introudced many successful new features and there was in those days no such things as bugs!!

ORYLY? Notes from the last patch:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

* West Ham duplicate strikers bug fixed

* Finnish Premier Division teams corrected

* Games not running in all languages fixed

* ARSE command problem fixed

* England + English Conference + Scotland problem fixed

* Australian NSL: Number of teams entered to comp fixed, number of foreign players allowed bug fixed

* Player surnames not appearing on Team of the week screen fixed

* Fixed problem with Polish First Division relegations

* Fixed problem with Argentine Second Division

* [Korean] Extended length of Media strings

* [Korean] Updated Korean player and team data

Sounds like bugs to me, some pretty serious too.

Anyway, as for the opening question

1) It's free now

2) It's recent enough to be playable on Windows, have decent graphics, enough options etc, yet simpler (and faster) than later games.

[BustaRaymes]

I've started playing CM2 when I was 10, all CM's until CM4 passed and I enjoyed them all. So much that when I did try to play FM, it never really got me going and eventually, I always returned to CM01-02. I even play CM2 on my (very) old computer now and then, and CM4 sometimes looks at me from behind my laptop too.

When you're playing it for the first time these days, you won't like it. But when you're used to it, because you've played it from the start, it just won't let you go. There's so much possible that you just keep on starting new games over and over again, just because 'you'd like that club to be big too'. For me, it started with Plymouth Argyle when I was 16, now it's still on with Italians Cascina. Blyth Spartans, Stalybridge Celtic, Brighton & Hove Albion, Rochdale, Liverpool, Compostela, Sabadell, Barcelona, Cork City, Wexford Youths, Top Oss, Telstar, HFC Haarlem, Feyenoord, PSV, FC Groningen, Roda JC, Hertha BSC, Bayern Munich, and lots, lots more have all been the best in their countries, Europe or even the world. China, Senegal, Denmark, Scotland and USA have won World Cups.

FM09 was the first to get me to play it for a while, and when I had the possibility to get FM10 for free, that was the moment I turned to FM. Finally got a good save underway, starting to understand the tactics. It was a big leap forward when you're used to CM.

But really, sometimes it's really good to be back. At the moment I'm playing CM01-02 again. Still love it.

[DanTheMan999]

Whilst some people will see it in Nostalgia, others obviously aren't, those people who play the game now and still love it.

Personally, I prefer playing it to FM2010. There were less bugs (yes there were), I understood the match engine, there were no sliders, training was easy to learn but hard to master, it was fast, the game didn't even feel generic. Every time you ran it different things would happen, especially in the transfer market and manager wise. Everytime I boot up a FM2010 game I'll see that Plymouth will sign Roeder, and that X player has gone to whatever club, and it always happens the same.

Sure, FM2010 has improvements on CM01/02, and it should, it's 9 years older!

[SCIAG]

There were less bugs (yes there were),

Rubbish, there were far, far more bugs, it's just you couldn't tell they existed because you didn't watch the match. Need I point out the massive "buy players for free" bug?

[DanTheMan999]

Rubbish, there were far, far more bugs, it's just you couldn't tell they existed because you didn't watch the match. Need I point out the massive "buy players for free" bug?

Sure, I'm not going to you pointing it out.

And I'll think you'll find you're comparing two radically different match engines there. There was a reason you couldn't see it, it wasn't programmed in that way.

And whilst the bug you mentioned there is a bad one, how about the Diablo exploit, which is almost just as bad?