Football Manager

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KeithPratt
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Football Manager

Postby KeithPratt » 10 Oct 2011, 21:10

I ill-advisedly installed this on my laptop about a month ago and swiftly waved goodbye to any life I had, having resolved to never play it again back in 2001 or so. It really is like getting some sort of cancer - your life is totally devoured by it and looking back I can safely say that I've probably wasted about six months in total of my life playing the game in total since it was first released in 1993.

However you can now upload your matches directly onto youtube!

My first achievement as manager was to take Ebbsfleet into professional football with a fine 4-2 victory over Cambridge in the BSQP playoff final.



I took Ebbsfleet all the way to League 1. However after six seasons I tried to call their bluff by increasing my wage demands - the result was that my contract ran out and they hired someone else. Hoping to get a better job, I kicked my heels for six months before rivals and neighbours Gillingham called with them bottom of League 1. I prised them away from relegation on the final day but the next season was mired in problems - at one point I had a total of 14 players injured and my initial hopes of promotion faded drastically in the new year. With no money to buy players and a bullying board, I resigned after leading them to the Johnstone's Paint trophy final where we lost to Bradford.

It took about a year to get a new job, with French side Amiens SC this time offering me a chance. I achieved promotion to Ligue 2 with them in my first full season. However the debt-ridden club were taken over in the close season and a week after tripling my wages with a new contract they promptly sacked me!

I'm now at Blackpool, having restored them to the Championship. We have no money and it's looking like a very tough season.

AARGH

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Tapiocahead » 10 Oct 2011, 22:39

You have stumbled on my secret passion. I'm still playing Football Manager 2009. I'm currently managing Bradford City in 2012/13 in mid-table Premiership having started in division 4 in 2008/9.

I am a long term Championship Manager/ Football Manager addict
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Re: Football Manager

Postby trans-chigley express » 11 Oct 2011, 05:13

Pussy is not a matter of fact wrote:I ill-advisedly installed this on my laptop about a month ago


Precisely why this game will never get near my laptop. I haven't played a manager type game for years but I know I wasted far too much time on old versions many years ago. They are hugely addictive. Don't tempt me!!

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Re: Football Manager

Postby The Write Profile » 11 Oct 2011, 07:43

Count me as another fan- in fact, sometimes I think my sum total knowledge of football is dependant on Football Manager- occasionally I some stringer's name in the Premier League and wonder why he isn't as good in real life as he is in the game :oops:. I've got the 2009 version, and I'm still playing it, after taking Kilmanorck to third place and then successive SPL championships (the latter of which was an undefeated season) and a rather haphazard Euro campaign, I've decided to do it easy and mess around with Manchester City, which I've won the EPL with, although I might try with a team that's more of a challenge- Man City has an almost comically large war chest and it really takes the fun out of it.

I think the game works because ultimately it's really simple- you pick players, set the tactics, and make transfers, and then it's (somewhat) out of your hands once it comes to the actual matches. Which can lead to some frustrating results!
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Re: Football Manager

Postby Fireplug » 11 Oct 2011, 08:11

Got the 2012 demo when it came out on Thurs/Friday, just as my daughter went for a weekend with her grandparents. I've already hit the half season limit with Newcastle (a solid fourth place) and I've started another with Barcelona which is a bit pointlessly easy.

I have spent way, way too many hours of my life playing CM & FM. It's diminishing returns now -- I'm excited each year when the new one comes out but I get sick of it pretty quickly and have usually burnt my interest out in a month. Not having the time for it is also a factor these days.

CM 2003-04 was the classiv version for me. I used to play that all night -- my wife would wake up and find me sat there, still swearing at the laptop at 7am...

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Xeopac » 11 Oct 2011, 08:56

I'm still playing Championship Manager 01/02 :oops:

I've recently embarked on the 2042/3 season with Villareal, having won the Premiership with Liverpool, Chelsea, Fulham, Newcastle, Man City, the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich and Hamburg and Serie A with Juventus, amongst other things...

I only started playing it again recently, but I'm already feeling like I need help.
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Re: Football Manager

Postby Fireplug » 11 Oct 2011, 09:10

Oops, I actually meant 01/02. Basic but very good.

It's well worth having a go at the new one. You can try the demo for free at www.sigames.com. More complicated but at least it will make things a bit more interesting for you.

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Xeopac » 11 Oct 2011, 09:18

Fireplug wrote:Oops, I actually meant 01/02. Basic but very good.

It's well worth having a go at the new one. You can try the demo for free at http://www.sigames.com. More complicated but at least it will make things a bit more interesting for you.

That makes sense - my brother stayed up all night playing it once. As I was getting up for work, he greeted me with the message "we won the league" :lol:

Who said forty years of managing hasn't been a challenge? ;) I've still got to conquer La Liga and the French first division!

Having said that, an upgrade is several years overdue.
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KeithPratt
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Re: Football Manager

Postby KeithPratt » 11 Oct 2011, 09:29

Do you lot start off at the bottom?

I could never bring myself to start off at a Premiership club - for me the "realism" angle is the big thing.

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Qube » 11 Oct 2011, 10:03

I can only get the game every few years as I just spend too much time playing it. Always start with Oxford so that's naturally down near the bottom. I'm probably due to get the new one...

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Goat Boy » 11 Oct 2011, 11:30

Recovering addict here.
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Re: Football Manager

Postby KeithPratt » 11 Oct 2011, 11:36

I must say that I love the scraping about looking for bargains, freebies in the lower leagues - it seems so much more satisfying than lashing out megabucks for the big stars.

In my current game, the most I've spent on a player is £7000 for Shaun Pejic to bring him to Ebbsfleet and that's after 10 seasons. Virtually every club in the lower leagues has absolutely nothing to spend - my current club Blackpool have no money and I suspect I'm going to have to sell my 2 best players to have any chance of staying afloat. We're 2nd from bottom and without a win in September so far.

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Tapiocahead » 11 Oct 2011, 12:17

Pussy is not a matter of fact wrote:I must say that I love the scraping about looking for bargains, freebies in the lower leagues - it seems so much more satisfying than lashing out megabucks for the big stars.

In my current game, the most I've spent on a player is £7000 for Shaun Pejic to bring him to Ebbsfleet and that's after 10 seasons. Virtually every club in the lower leagues has absolutely nothing to spend - my current club Blackpool have no money and I suspect I'm going to have to sell my 2 best players to have any chance of staying afloat. We're 2nd from bottom and without a win in September so far.


My heart is more in the lower leagues I think, I love the scraping round for bargains. I'm almost disappointed to have done so well in this game for Bradford even if there is some satisfaction in having a team made up of players that cost next to nowt.

The sad thing is whenever Bradford City sign a player my only opinion about them is usually based on FM - I was delighted when we recently signed Kyel Reid. My first thought was AML from West Ham, great buy.
Turns out he's shite.
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Re: Football Manager

Postby JQW » 11 Oct 2011, 13:12

How about the original game of that title from 1982, written by Kevin Thoms? It first appeared on the ZX81, where it was text only and very limited, but over the years was ported to most other 8-bit and 16-bit machines, where it improved somewhat.

I remember spending hours playing the ZX Spectrum version in 1983, which looked like this:

Image Image

The game was written in BASIC, and was therefore slow. In particular t could take several minutes to sort the league table after a game, particularly at the start of the season. Also, due to memory constraints, leagues were limited to 16 teams, and the player database only contained a few dozen players.

And then of course there was the packaging, featuring "The Floating Head of Kevin Thoms!"

Image
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Re: Football Manager

Postby Tapiocahead » 11 Oct 2011, 13:17

I played that.. I always used to pretend that S McCall was Stuart instead of Steve.

I also used to play a game called Football Director where all the players were called stuff like I.ICHRAREIJT. You could edit the names, I remember winning the league with a team named after people in thrash metal bands - my star striker was Tom Araya.

I don't think I've ever told anyone this, not even my wife.
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Re: Football Manager

Postby Jock » 11 Oct 2011, 13:27

The RightGraduate Profile wrote:Count me as another fan- in fact, sometimes I think my sum total knowledge of football is dependant on Football Manager- occasionally I some stringer's name in the Premier League and wonder why he isn't as good in real life as he is in the game :oops:. I've got the 2009 version, and I'm still playing it, after taking Kilmanorck to third place and then successive SPL championships (the latter of which was an undefeated season) and a rather haphazard Euro campaign, I've decided to do it easy and mess around with Manchester City, which I've won the EPL with, although I might try with a team that's more of a challenge- Man City has an almost comically large war chest and it really takes the fun out of it.

I think the game works because ultimately it's really simple- you pick players, set the tactics, and make transfers, and then it's (somewhat) out of your hands once it comes to the actual matches. Which can lead to some frustrating results!

Any tips for the real Killie manager? :lol:
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KeithPratt
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Re: Football Manager

Postby KeithPratt » 11 Oct 2011, 13:29

Tapiocahead wrote:I played that.. I always used to pretend that S McCall was Stuart instead of Steve.

I also used to play a game called Football Director where all the players were called stuff like I.ICHRAREIJT. You could edit the names, I remember winning the league with a team named after people in thrash metal bands - my star striker was Tom Araya.

I don't think I've ever told anyone this, not even my wife.


Does anyone remember "TRACKSUIT MANAGER"? It was released around 88 or 89, giving you the chance to manage an international team. I was obsessed by it.

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Re: Football Manager

Postby Tapiocahead » 11 Oct 2011, 17:36

Pussy is not a matter of fact wrote:
Tapiocahead wrote:I played that.. I always used to pretend that S McCall was Stuart instead of Steve.

I also used to play a game called Football Director where all the players were called stuff like I.ICHRAREIJT. You could edit the names, I remember winning the league with a team named after people in thrash metal bands - my star striker was Tom Araya.

I don't think I've ever told anyone this, not even my wife.


Does anyone remember "TRACKSUIT MANAGER"? It was released around 88 or 89, giving you the chance to manage an international team. I was obsessed by it.


Rings a bell - was it released by Gremlin?
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Re: Football Manager

Postby Qube » 13 Oct 2011, 10:01

I remember having "Gary Lineker's Superstar Soccer" or something similay on the Amstrad. You managed and played, but when you played you only had control of one player, an odd combination.

Image

Image

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Re: Football Manager

Postby atomic loonybin » 13 Oct 2011, 11:28

JQW wrote:How about the original game of that title from 1982, written by Kevin Thoms? It first appeared on the ZX81, where it was text only and very limited, but over the years was ported to most other 8-bit and 16-bit machines, where it improved somewhat.

I remember spending hours playing the ZX Spectrum version in 1983, which looked like this:

Image Image

The game was written in BASIC, and was therefore slow. In particular t could take several minutes to sort the league table after a game, particularly at the start of the season. Also, due to memory constraints, leagues were limited to 16 teams, and the player database only contained a few dozen players.

And then of course there was the packaging, featuring "The Floating Head of Kevin Thoms!"

Image



I'm more worried about what that pink thing is lurking in the bottom left corner!

Used to love the Toms game. Probably my first bit of 'programming' (ha!) was breaking into the BASIC of this game and changing all the names, then saving the revised program to a new tape. As far as I remember, the player names were the current England squad - K Keegan, T Woodcock, P Shilton &c. and you just bought extra players; no transfer market. I guess licensing and rights hadn't been invented by then. The problem was that the difficulties levels were so simplistic you'd either win every game or lose every game, depending on settings. I do remember winning a cup final 5-0 which is probably when I thought 'this isn't very realistic'. The aforementioned Football Director (they must have been getting desperate for titles back then) was a great leap forward.

I remember having the original Championship Manager for the Amiga. Again, a great leap forward but my abiding memory of that was the time taken to set up a new season for play - it literally took three or four hours of grinding away to get the game into a position where you could start playing again. For a while I did the stats for a few of the teams for the Collyer brothers - my name is in the booklet for the 93-94 version (I think) - because they asked round fanzines and message boards for volunteers. You got these huge spreadsheets to hand fill in with about 20 categories per player, marked out of 20 and orders to 'be honest'. So if you ever wondered why Boro were always awful in the game - it's my fault.

The last FM/CM I bought was the 2005 version, and I didn't think it was much fun. It had become more about beating the game rather than playing it as a football game, if that makes sense. You know, playing ridiculous formations that really wouldn't work in real life, scouting the internet for players because they were good 'in the game', and making basic errors during matches which the players would sort out for themselves if it was a real game. But it's an itch that always wants to be scratched around the time it comes out.


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