Games - Championship Manager series

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	Games - Championship Manager series

Championship Manager is a series of English computer games, the first of which was released in 1992. Championship Manager (sometimes abbreviated "CM", "ChampMan", or "Champ") is a football (soccer) management simulation. It is one of the most popular computer game franchises of all time.

The Championship Manager brand and game was conceived by two brothers: Paul and Oliver Collyer. In a scenario typical of many self-made computer game programming teams in the early days of the industry, the original Championship Manager game was written from their bedroom in Shropshire, England. Since then, they founded a development company to develop the game further, Sports Interactive, and are now based in Islington, North London. Oliver now only works for the company on a part time basis, but remains co-Chair, with his brother. The Collyer brothers and Sports Interactive are no longer involved with the development of Championship Manager (see below).

Championship Manager 1

The release of the first version of the game was not an outstanding success, and sales were steady rather than spectacular. Reviews ranged from the encouraging to the dismissive; the original CM was written in BASIC, a programming language not well suited to programming high performance computer games. Other limitations included the fact that generated names were used for each team, whereas its key competitors of the time, such as Premier Manager and The Manager included real players in the game.

Championship Manager 93/94

The release of Championship Manager 93/94 one year later built on the original game, ported to the C programming language, adding a real life player database and other features. By now Championship Manager had built a large following amongst hardened football fans all over the UK.

Championship Manager 2

If the Championship Manager 1.x series laid the groundwork, the success of the franchise went stratospheric with the release of Championship Manager 2 in September of 1995. The game again included up to date squads for each team, added photos of each ground to build an atmosphere of the teams you were managing/visiting, and included a now infamous in-match commentary engine with the voice of famous British football commentator Clive Tyldesley.

Two seasonal updates followed over the next two years.

Championship Manager 96/97

Championship Manager 96/97 was released in 1996 and was the first game to feature a non-British league as playable in the standard game - in this case the Italian leagues. It also included several rule changes to reflect the many changes going on in the real life world of football at that time, such as the Bosman ruling.

Championship Manager 97/98

Released in 1997, this version of the game included nine leagues from around the world, new competition formats to follow those implemented in reality, and many more tactical options. The game remains very popular amongst fans of the series, mainly for its simplicity compared to the huge, processer-intensive games that the series has delveloped into. This game was a huge milestone for the series, in that it is the first version which allows several nations/leagues to be run alongside each other.

Championship Manager 3

By the time Championship Manager 3 was released in March 1999, the game had cemented its status as the football management game of choice amongst die-hard football fans and statisticians throughout the UK. CM3 boasted fifteen leagues, online play, and the database had swelled to encompass over 25,000 real life players, backroom staff and the like. New features within the simulation itself included unprecedented control over football tactics, scouting and training.

Championship Manager: Season 99/00

This was the first of the seasonal updates to CM3 and saw the American MLS added to the list of playable leagues. It also included more media involvement, board interaction and improved scouting functions.

Championship Manager: Season 00/01

Ten more playable leagues were introduced for this version, including Australia, Greece, Northern Ireland, Russia and Wales. It was also the first version of the game to come with an official data editor - something which has been continued for all subsequent versions.

Championship Manager: Season 01/02

No new playable leagues were added to this version of CM (until a patch was later released that added South Korea's K-League to the game) allowing the developers to fine tune the game's mechanics. As a result the game is one of the best in the CM series - still widely regarded as the best version of all-time amongst fans. CM01/02 also contained one of the most infamous players in CM history - the fictional Tó Madeira.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Championship Manager series ]

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