Supremo (...and CM)  Nice little games.   A two player situation.    Hi from Russia!   Soccer management gamez ?    My life as a football manager (CM2 hints and tips)

Would you like to share your thoughts about soccer management games with us? What are your criteria? Which one you prefer?

Supremo 98 is in fact two games in one - Sick As A Parrot (a league
management game) and Supremo International (an international management
game). Your Championship Manager fans may have read the Collyer brothers
interview in which they stated that they were inspired to write CM1 by (I
quote) "the classic games League Division One and Mexico 86 from Qualsoft".
I wrote both those games and Qualsoft was the original name of my publishing
company - now known as The Midnight Oil.

These two games were developed over 13 years for a number of computer
platforms culminating in Sick As A Parrot and Soccer Supremo 3 years ago. At
that point I decided it was time to tie the two games together so that they
would operate either individually as before or as one - the databases being
shared and the schedules being interwoven. It wasn't very successful at
first.

But with Supremo 96, then 97 (merely an update) and finally 98 the
integration became smoother and more natural. They can still be played
independantly if you wish but together they produce a serious improvement in
gameplay over the traditional soccer management game. The slightly
monotonous repetition of the league game disappears as you switch into the
much faster paced international mode every 6 or 7 matches and the off season
is filled every two years with the finals of the European Nations' Cup and
the World Cup Finals.

When I say that the games operate simultaneously I don't mean that you are
promoted to the international manager's job as I understand happens in the
latest CM but that you are a club manager and an international manager at
the same time. Your experience as club manager, in playing your league
matches, also aids you as international manager is seeing the performances
of prospective international players - including players from your own
league squad of course.

The games are thought to be much more sophisticated than the normal skill
numbers games (one reviewer referred to an earlier game as "the thinking
man's soccer management game").

There are no skill numbers in either game! Players are represented as in the
real world by press and coaches' opinions which, along with the match
performances, you use to discover the real qualities of players. It's more
difficult to begin with but as you get used to this you begin to develop
mental images of the players rather than thinking of them as a string of
numbers and the game takes on a more realistic and ultimately more
satisfying quality.

Once you have the players you must then handle them well to maintain
commitment, confidence and fitness and have them play in suitably matching
tactical systems to make the most of their skills. Young players come into
your youth squad at 17 and there is a sophisticated training system to
develop these into top class Premiership players and then perhaps world
class players in your international squad.

I was concerned about your review of the game because it missed out so many
of the features of the combined games. Supremo 98 is not just the shareware
demo with a slightly better match display (a 3D match flow display instead
of a 2D display). The shareware game is is in fact only 40% of the full
Supremo 98. It also comes with two edit programs, the first much more
comprehensive than normal allowing the gamer to produce his own leagues -
teams, players, qualities, the whole lot . There is also a customisation
program that will allow the gamer to define his own squad of club players
1st team, reserve team and youth players, right down to the last detail.
There's also a international squads edit program.

Supremo 98 is Sick As A Parrot, Supremo International, integration software,
league edit, international edit and customisation program all rolled into
one. In terms of your feature count it should be a least 3 points higher
than any of the other games and if we count the international game there are
about 22 leagues not 2 <vbg>

I've also started a service which I call Sick As A Parrot On Line. This uses
the internet to give the gamer a deal well beyond what he's been offered
before. For the price of Supremo 98, itself only 45% of the price of other
games from the high street retailer, he gets a subsciption to a web page on
which I drop upgrades of the game and updates to the data on a monthly
basis. He can download anything he wants, including the beta release of the
Windows version of the games (currently only SAAP has been converted but
Supremo International is about 3 weeks away) for the next 12 months. A
newsletter is sent out every month detailing the new additions to the site.
A supplement is sent out giving members details on accessing the site (it's
moved around for security reasons).

I also sent you a copy of the introductory newsletter. I'm happy for you to
include it on your site if you wish and I'll be glad to answer any queries
about Supremo 98 or SAAP On Line at email address: machoward@bigpond.com

A final comment that may interest your Championship Manager fans. I read a
posting from Brian Walker (I think that's his name) who says he was the
production manager for CM1 and 2. He was promoting his soon to be released
new game which I don't think is CM3 but I'm not sure. He was boasting of two
new features in the game, not just new features perhaps, but ideas that
would transform the soccer management game as we know it. In fact both
features are already in Supremo 98 and have been in my games for 16 years!
One of them was that the skill numbers will be dropped and result in "a
process of discovery" as I described above for S98. Whether or not CM3 will
do the same I'm not sure. In CM2 the Collyers already moved in that
direction (of removing the dictatorship of the numbers) by putting in hidden
numbers that modified the stated ones. I don't know if they're now going to
go the whole hog and remove the numbers altogether.

According to this guy (and I stress I know nothing more than he says), Eidos
have disbanded the CM programming team and the Collyers will be back on
their own in programming the game. Perhaps that explains the delay - I can't
believe they really wanted to miss the World Cup and the enormous interest
it will generate in soccer and consequently soccer games.

If anyone is interested there is a site dedicated to Supremo 98 at:
http://www.users.bigpond.com/machoward/
Mac Howard

I agree with you that WFM [Football Manager for Windows 2.0] is a great game.
Too bad there aren't more freeware games for the poor among us!
But SMS2 [Soccer Management Simulator 2] is my absolute all time favorite!
I love the match presentation....the best for a manager I think.

Bryan

When it comes to the games I did like USM2 a lot, but now I'm very
tired at it. I don't think there is a game out there, that can attract
a two player situation. When I play FM-games I think it's more fun to
play with somebody else (so you don't get tired of it so fast). And
therefore the big problem is the match situation. If you could play the
matches at the same time, and just show highlights when something is
happening in the match, I think that would solve the problem. But in
the most games you have to wait until the other player's match is
finished (USM2,PM97). And if you are going to play 20 seasons or so,
that would take a awful lot of time.

I don't know if you heard about a game called Football Limited. But in
that game they solved the problem quite well. They showed the
highlights from you and your friends team (having a clock ticking from
1 to 90). And they also showed another game if it was important for
some reason to one of the players. Also the games On the ball (league
edition) did it quite well.

I have just ordered Total football management, and I'm looking forward
to play it. I like when there's a lot of features and what I heard ,
it should be that i TFM.

Thomas

Many people like Championship Manager but I don't understand them. This game
has rich database but I can't really manage my team - only line up and
scouting. And database isn't correct. For example, russian and Ukrainian
teams have unreal players.

I like to see my team playing. That's why I like PM97. Is the best in this
mode. FSM is good too. But match engine is poor. Let them have of FIFA98!!!

To tell the truth I have my own scenario of SMG. If somebody can do it real
PC game.

In Russia there isn't good copies of SMG. That's why I am obliged play
CD-rip "pirates" versions of these games. I can't buy license full versions
because there are not in sale.

Alexey

Living in Australia, our access to soccer management games is very limited.
Please tell me if there are any "gamez" sites on the net where I can download
some of the full versions of these games, particularly Football Fanatic v1.7.
Your site is great, so keep up the good work.

            Gregor
 
Answer: No, I haven't fount such sites (if anyone knows such sites, please let me know).
The only full version games on the net are:
Football Manager for Windows 2.0 (freeware)
Haavard Bjaastad's Football Manager (shareware)
Charl Gerber's Football Manager Series (for many european leagues)

THE first piece of advice I can give you is this - if you don't have a lot of free time, don't bother starting playing this game. It's so hideously addictive you will find that you miss your favourite TV programs, ignore loved ones, and dispense with such unnecessary distractions as sleep. You could sit down one evening to play,  only to be distracted several weeks later as the police breaking your door down because you forget to go to work, your cat is now a pathetic skeletal figure lurching around the kitchen and you smell worse than an old folks home. Still want to play? Yes? Then welcome to the truly wonderful world of football management.[...]
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[NOTE: These hints are for the pre-patch version of CM2, and were published in the PCPOWERPLAY CD issue 19]