The “use real players” option was a little bit stupid, it just changed the names of all the players. SO MANY LEAGUES! There’s even a scroll bar. The quick start option loaded the game without things like player histories, though who these people are who couldn’t wait 5 more minutes I don’t know. You can see from the outset, things have changed quite a bit. This game builds bonds, man!Īnyway, enough of my prattling, let’s load the game up. I’m not ashamed to say I spent many hours playing network games in my teenage years, some of which were with a friend who went on to be my best man a couple of years ago. I can run 10 leagues if I fancy it, but the most important feature of all is the network game option.ĬM3 allowed you to connect with as many mates as you like and play the same game at the same time. I can setup pre-season friendlies but I don’t have to be in charge of them. I could set a tactic and use it forever, but I can also bring in my own backroom staff. What’s so good about it? Well, it was the perfect mix between the laid back 97/98 and the ultra detail of the more recent games. I should point out that the editor of this blog, Mr Darwen, has written two books from CM99/00 – I wasn’t going to compete with that! It’s also many people’s favourite ever version of the game, and I must say it pushes 97/98 extremely close for me in that particular title race. For this blog, I’m going to play through a season on 01/02, the final game in the CM3 era but therefore the most polished. The game went through some little tweaks from year to year, and by the time 99/00 was released I was equipped with a better computer and the dream was alive.
I did download the demo, that allowed me to play half a season, but it was on my old knackered computer (the one not quick enough to handle it) and it wasn’t really much fun as it took bloody ages to get through a week.
It is therefore with a tinge of sadness I tell you that CM3 is the only game in the series I don’t own, stretching back to 96/97 all the way through to the most recent Football Manager. Little did I know than 18 years later, I’d be blogging about that game but that’s one of life’s great ironies. Computers were starting to take a serious upturn and I remember being gutted to learn my old computer couldn’t handle CM3, and I was going to have to make do with 97/98. They then released CM3 and the series landed for real.
They knew what they wanted to achieve, made 97/98 playable without the CD and the popularity went through the roof. This was the management experience to end all management experiences, and the World went crazy for it.Īs I’ve mentioned in the previous posts, Eidos/Sports Interactive saw all of this coming. There was also a debut for squad numbers, reserve teams, many playable leagues and more players than Chelsea have out on loan. Launched for the 98/99 season, the game saw a radical change in layout and brought together all the best ideas from the series so far. My 96/97 season was irritating, as all my goalkeeper’s had crisp packets for hands and there were a record number of goals scored around the country.
As the title suggests, this was the second version of the series, and lasted from the 95/96 season right through to 97/98. Then I moved on to CM2, which covered the 1996/97 season. We had a great time laughing at the past. We played through CM93/94, the first iteration of the Championship Manager format and the second in the series. If you’ve not been reading the last few posts, how dare you enjoy the summer!? But allow me to catch you up.