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. Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK... A computer game is a game composed of a computer-controlled virtual universe that players interact with in order to achieve a defined goal or set of goals. ... 1992 (MCMXCII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Football (soccer) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ...

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). Paul Collyer and Oliver Collyer are two English computer game designers and programmers. ... John Carmack, one of the worlds leading game programmers, working on Doom 3 using an IDE. Game programming is a subset of game development. ... Shropshire (abbreviated Salop or Shrops) is a traditional, ceremonial and administrative county in the West Midlands region of England. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location within the British Isles Official language English de facto Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked 1st UK... Sports Interactive is a computer games development company currently based in Islington, North London. ... Islington is an inner-city district in north London. ...

Championship Manager 1 (inc 93/94 update)

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. BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of high-level programming languages. ... Computer code (HTML with JavaScript) in a tool that uses syntax highlighting (colors) to help the developer see the function of each piece of code. ... Premier Manager 98 turned to be the last in the series to achieve success, even if only moderately Premier Manager is the name of a football management video game series started in 1992. ...

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. The C Programming Language, Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie, the original edition that served for many years as an informal specification of the language The C programming language is a standardized imperative computer programming language developed in the early 1970s by Dennis Ritchie for use on the Unix operating system. ...

Also released were Championship Manager Italia (followed by 1994 and 1995 updates), which simulated the Italian League, a French language version of the game called Guy Roux Manager which simulated the French League and also a little known Norwegian language version called Championship Manager Norge which simulated the Norwegian League. 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Championship Manager 2 (inc 96/97 & 97/98 update)

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 August 1995. The game again included up to date rosters 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. This was pulled from future releases. Six more versions of the game were released soon after, which featured playable European leagues, including the Spanish, German and Italian leagues (unlike in subsequent releases, only one of these leagues could be played at any one time) - these six versions were released as one stand-alone game. There then followed two more minor releases over the next two years, in the same way CM93/94 followed CM1 (this release cycle has been a common strategy for the CM series down the years). CM96/97 was released in 1996, and CM97/98 in 1997. 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1996 (MCMXCVI) is a leap year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year for the Eradication of Poverty. ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) is a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

By now the game included nine leagues from around the world (built up through a network of international data researchers), new competition formats to follow those implemented in reality, and many more tactical options. Some fans of the series still believe that the 97/98 edition is the best of the series and is still played by many fans due its addictiveness and simplicity today. It is also extremely popular because the CD is not required to play the game unlike the CM 2 and 96/97 editions.

Championship Manager 3 (inc 99/00, 00/01 & 01/02 updates)

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. 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

CM3 was built upon with three minor updates, CM99/00, CM00/01 and CM01/02. Each one added more data and more features.

In April 2002, Sports Interactive took the decision to move away from the PC platform for the first time since CM2, producing a version of CM01/02 for the Xbox. The success of the game saw a follow up, CM02/03 released seven months later. 2002 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December A timeline of events in the news for April, 2002. ... Sports Interactive is a computer games development company currently based in Islington, North London. ... The Microsoft Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console first released on November 15, 2001 in North America and Puerto Rico, then released on February 22, 2002 in Japan, and later on March 14, 2002 in Europe. ...

Championship Manager 4 (inc 03/04 update)

What all CM fans were waiting for, however, was Championship Manager 4. Released on 28 March 2003, CM4 broke all records on its release becoming, at that time, the fastest ever selling PC game on its first day of release. By now its fame was international; encompassing fans via online communities and buy-in through the additional leagues in the game. CM4 included thirty-nine leagues, plus four more in its minor update, CM03/04. On the gameplay side, a top-down view of the match engine was included for the first time, a significant shift from the "imagination" philosophy championed by Sports Interactive previously. Over 250,000 football players and non-playing staff are included in CM03/04, though many users may choose a smaller database for faster computer performance. 2003 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - → A timeline of events in the news for March, 2003. ...

Despite its high sales, CM4 was generally not well-received by hardcore fans of the series for several reasons. First, many users found the game to be very slow on computers which had previously had no difficulty in running CM series games (although arguably this is a common issue with software). The original release contained some functional bugs which in some cases rendered the game farcical - the score in matches could randomly change and lower division clubs were able to sign superstars with ease. In one memorable bug, non-league club Northwich Victoria moved to a stadium with a capacity of 850,000. Sports Interactive also irritated some fans with the euphemistic term "Enhancement Packs" used to describe what were essentially patches to fix issues in the original release. While these "Enhancement Packs" and the next release, CM03/04, did iron out many of these problems, in some cases irreparable damage had already been done by the release of CM4 and the company's perceived reaction to criticism. Some users also found this version slightly less difficult than its predecessors. Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program that prevents it from working as intended, or produces an incorrect result. ... Northwich Victoria F.C. are an English football team based in Northwich, Cheshire. ... Sports Interactive is a computer games development company currently based in Islington, North London. ... A software release is to create a new version of the system or program and release it to the user community. ...

The split

The creators of Championship Manager, SI Games, split with publishers Eidos, and signed a deal with Sega, and a new series called Football Manager has been created. After the split, both parties kept their intellectual property. SI Games kept the base code, the game database and programming of the game, whilst Eidos kept the name "Championship Manager" and its interface. Eidos Interactive is a publisher of video and computer games based in Britain. ... Sega (セガ) (pronounced seh-gah (IPA: seɪ.gə) in the U.S, see-gah (IPA: siː.gə) elsewhere ** elsewhere = where? Japan = [sega]) is an international video game software and hardware developing company, and a former home computer and console manufacturer. ... This article is about a computer game. ... Intellectual property, or IP, refers to a legal entitlement which sometimes attaches to the expressed form of an idea, or to some other intangible subject matter. ...

The former working partners are now in direct competition - Eidos and Beautiful Game Studios producing future Championship Manager titles, and Sega and Sports Interactive with Football Manager. Beautiful Game Studios is a computer game devolpment studio based in London, England. ...

Although under a different name, Football Manager is very similar in gameplay terms to the previous CM games, whereas CM5 is somewhat different due to the change in developers.

This emergence of the Football Manager series and the fierce marketing battle between the two could spell danger for EA Sports' Total Club Manager series and other, less successful football management games. EA Sports is a brand name used by Electronic Arts since 1993 to distribute games based on sports. ... TCM 2003 cover Total Club Manager (short: TCM) is the name of EA Sports football management series, except in Germany where it is known as Fussball Manager. ...

Championship Manager 5

Both Football Manager 2005 (FM2005) and Championship Manager 5 were slated for an original release date of October or November 2004. However, the release date of Championship Manager 5 was put back by Eidos to March 2005, due to the extent of work discovered in coding the game from scratch. This allowed Football Manager 2005 a clear run to establish itself ahead of the release of CM5. This article is about a computer game. ... Look up October in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... November 2004 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December See also: November 2004 in sports November 2004 in science Events Deaths in November • 30 Pierre Berton • 29 John Drew Barrymore • 26 Bill Alley • 24 Arthur Hailey • 23 Rafael Eitan • 18 Bobby Frank Cherry • 16 John... ← - 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in March • 31 – Terri Schiavo • 30 – Mitch Hedberg • 29 – Johnnie Cochran • 27 – Wilfred Bigelow • 26 – Paul Hester • 26 – James Callaghan • 21 – Jeff Weise • 21 – Bobby Short • 19 – John De Lorean • 18 – Gary Bertini • 17 – George F...

On release, the game contained an unusually high number of bugs. Even though BGS published a downloadable patch on the day of release, many users felt that CM5 was unplayable. Key problems included difficulties transferring players (either in or out of a club) and a very unrealistic match engine. Perhaps one of the biggest issues discovered by people purchasing CM5 was the fact that the player database was not particularly reliable. The database had been made 'for the fans by the fans' in previous games. This was probably the biggest strength of the CM brand. BGS had employed a professional firm to create much of the player database and they had apparently failed miserably, despite the best efforts of the in-house research team. Other issues also arose shortly after CM5 was released. Features like hotseat multiplayer games, although never stated as being developed for CM5, disappointed some by their absence when the game arrived. Other small things like player histories were not in evidence in the final product either. Hotseat or hot seat is a multiplayer mode provided by some computer games (usually turn-based games), which allows two or more players to play on the same computer using the same single set of input devices (e. ...

A release on the Mac platform was subsequently cancelled, again giving headway to the rival Football Manager which is available for Mac as standard in their dual format CD-ROM.     The first Macintosh computer, introduced in 1984. ... Dual Format is a technique used to allow two completely different systems software to reside on the very same disk. ...

At time of writing, a second downloadable patch is available that does contain significant improvements. It is available for download or by phoning Eidos support. Work meanwhile continues to address issues still remaining within the game, especially in regard to the simulation of matches. BGS Senior Programmer, Steve Screech, regularly posts on the Championship Manager forums detailing his progress along with Troy Lonergan and Chris Jones who work in design and research respectively. There is no word on whether a third patch will actually be released though at this stage.

A scaled-down version of the game was released on Xbox and PlayStation 2 in March 2005 and is known to contain many of the same bugs and data errors as the PC version. The Microsoft Xbox is a sixth generation era video game console first released on November 15, 2001 in North America and Puerto Rico, then released on February 22, 2002 in Japan, and later on March 14, 2002 in Europe. ... The PlayStation 2 (PS2) (Japanese: プレイステーション2) is Sonys second video game console, the successor to the PlayStation and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3. ... ← - 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in March • 31 – Terri Schiavo • 30 – Mitch Hedberg • 29 – Johnnie Cochran • 27 – Wilfred Bigelow • 26 – Paul Hester • 26 – James Callaghan • 21 – Jeff Weise • 21 – Bobby Short • 19 – John De Lorean • 18 – Gary Bertini • 17 – George F...

Championship Manager Online

In an effort to compensate for the lack of an online multiplayer mode in CM5, Eidos teamed up with Jadestone to create Championship Manager Online (more commonly known as CM-Online or CMO) a completely separate online game based on the Championship Manager series. CM-Online is a subscription-based MMOG and as the game is based solely online, players do not need to buy any software, they just pay a monthly for membership of the game's website. A massive multiplayer online game (MMOG) is a type of computer game that enables hundreds or thousands of players to simultaneously interact in a game world they are connected to via the Internet. ...

Championship Manager 5 Solo

In August 2005, Eidos released a version of Championship Manager for Java-enabled mobile phones, called Championship Manager Solo. The game was developed by Dynamo Games and was released for phones on the 3, Orange and Vodafone live! services. 2005 : January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December- → Deaths in August August 31: Michael Sheard August 26: Lord Fitt August 24: Jack Slipper August 24: Maurice Cowling August 24: Dr. Tom Pashby August 23: Brock Peters August 22: Lord Lane August 21: Robert Moog August... 3 is a mobile phone operator in Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Israel, owned by Hutchison Whampoa. ... Orange SA is a major mobile phone operator. ... Vodafone live!â„¢ is the brand name for the multimedia portal service of mobile phone operator Vodafone, which was initially developed by Japans J-Phone under the J-Sky brand. ...

Early reviews of the game, such as those on The Guardian website and MobileGameFAQs.com were complimentary of the game's addictiveness and playability and suggested that it was one of the best mobile games available at that time. [1] The Guardian is a British newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. ...

Championship Manager PSP

On December 9, 2005, Eidos annouced a version of CM for the Sony PSP, called Championship Manager PSP. This game, developed by Gusto Games, is essentially a cut-down version of Championship Manager 5, featuring fewer playable leagues and a smaller player database, thus allowing it to run on the PSP. December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... The finished PlayStation Portable, and a variety of accessories. ...

Championship Manager 2006

Eidos have announced that the follow-up to Championship Manager 5 will be released, on PC, in Spring 2006 under the name Championship Manager 2006. Details of this game are scarce, but one new feature has been confirmed: the inclusion of a "3D TV aspects" in the match engine [2]. The timing of the release has already provoked skepticism, as it will occur just prior to the end of the season - a time when many players change clubs, and clubs are promoted and relegated.

External links

• Eidos' official Championship Manager website
• Eidos's website
• Sports Interactive website
• The Dugout Popular Fan forum for all the CM and FM games
• ManagersNet.net An Israeli CM fansite
• Review of Championship Manager Solo