In this thread we can discuss any version of the best footy manager game ever made.
It all started in 1992 when two brothers, Paul and Oliver Collyer, decided to make a new football manager game, it was called ''Championship Manager'' and these two wrote the entire game in their bedroom at home before founding a development company to take the game further, Sports Interactive.
''Championship Manager'' became the most popular footy manager game in the 90s and 00s with several sales records, before SI split with publisher Eidos in 2003. After that SI went on with the game under a new name, ''Football Manager'', which it still uses today.
''So where the hell are the quarterbacks then?'' you might think, but no, this is a game about football, not football.
In this game you will be the manager of a football club, from almost any country in the world, in any league in the world... (well, almost I said!)
''And what does a football manager do?''
Well to get this out of the way, read spreadsheets, a whole lot of spreadsheets.
Another thing a football manager does is to press ''continue game'', yes, you will be pressing that ''just one more time'' a lot of times...
''Okay but now seriously?''
I was very serious but okay, things you can expect are buying/selling players, training them, creating a tactic for them, keeping them happy and motivated, renewing or ripping apart their contracts, heck you even have to send them home when they get the flu!
''And this is supposed to be fun?''
Oh yes! This game-series has wrecked marriages, got people fired from their real life jobs, and it's even played by REAL football managers and players!
On a personal note, since the 1997/98 version I have spent 1000s and 1000s of hours playing these games, and I probably will still do so when I am in the retirement home in a year of 30...
There's also a documentary on this game-series, the trailer :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsGR89gzYhE
''Okay sounds good, but how does it look?''
Screenshots of the latest version, FM16, incoming:
Also, an overview on NEW features in FM16 right here: http://www.footballmanager.com/games/football-manager-2016/key-features
''Okay, I am interested, now what?''
You can get the game on PC, MAC, Vita, iOS and Android.
But the Vita, iOS and Android versions are toned down, less options and smaller database.
Every year there's a new game, with major and/or minor updates to the game itself and ofcourse the latest data from the real world. (transfers etc)
If you want to start this series but don't want to pay full price you can definitely go for an older version, there's tons of websites dedicated to the game which will also have update data for older versions. So you can play with the latest transfers in an older version of the game if you want.
And do those websites have more stuff?
For sure, you can grab logo's, facepacks, kit-packs, new skins etc at f.e. :
www.sortioutsi.net
www.ftr.soccergamers.net
http://community.sigames.com (official forum)
www.fm-base.co.uk
http://sisportscentre.com/ (indepth articles/tutorials on training, tactics, player development etc)
Here you can also find indepth guides on most ingame stuff.
So why a thread about the whole series and not just FM16?
There have been threads about just one version before, but they usually die pretty fast, that's why I thought I'd try this way, in this topic you can discuss any FM version there is, if it's FM09 or FM15 Android, share you stories and ask your questions right here.