Championship Manager 2
Encyclopedia
Championship Manager 2 is a football management computer game in the Sports Interactive
's Championship Manager series
. It was released in September 1995 for PC - it was originally due to be released much earlier but the release date slipped several times as the developers refused to ship the game before it was completely ready. There was also an Amiga version in 1997.
football
commentator Clive Tyldesley
. The major criticism of this was that there were not enough comments and it quickly got stale and repetitive. Also, to use the audio commentary the games had to be "viewed" at a very slow speed.
Another milestone was the inclusion of playable Scottish leagues, albeit only in the PC version. For the first time in the series there was a selection of leagues to choose from at the start of the game - only one could be run at a time, however.
, menu-driven game and the user interface
was almost identical to previous games, albeit at a much higher resolution
.
. One version contained the Italian
, Belgian
and Dutch
leagues, the other contained French
, German and Spanish
leagues. Only one league could be run at a time but this was still a big milestone for the series and signalled the intent of Sports Interactive to expand the CM universe across the globe.
series to not be developed by Sports Interactive
, who felt that the system was not capable of running the game to a satisfactory standard. The Amiga version was very slow to run, lacked features (notable ones include the Scottish League, international management, player histories and backgrounds), it could not be installed to a hard drive, received exceptionally poor reviews (including 12% from Amiga Format
) and was repeatedly delayed, postponing the release until 1997.
There was however a hacked version by the group Fairlight, who hacked the game to be able to run off hard drive, and was able to load and save games to the hard drive which helped speed up the game immeasurably. At the time, Fairlight did comment why it was that Sterling Software didn't use Fast memory and hard drive which would have made the Amiga version that much closer to its PC counterpart.
Sports Interactive
Sports Interactive Limited is a computer games development company currently based in Old Street, Central London and owned by the Japanese software and video game company Sega. It is the developer of the popular games Football Manager, NHL Eastside Hockey Manager and Championship Manager Quiz, and...
's Championship Manager series
Championship Manager series
The Championship Manager series is a series of British football-management simulation computer games, the first of which was released in 1992.The Championship Manager brand and game was conceived by two brothers: Paul and Oliver Collyer...
. It was released in September 1995 for PC - it was originally due to be released much earlier but the release date slipped several times as the developers refused to ship the game before it was completely ready. There was also an Amiga version in 1997.
New features
CM2 was quite a leap forward, in terms of graphics, from previous versions. The game now had SVGA graphics and photorealistic background pictures. Possibly the most notable new feature was the one which is widely regarded as a big mistake - the audio commentary engine. As well as the traditional text-based match commentary, there was also optional voice commentary, provided by famous BritishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
football
Football (soccer)
Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a sport played between two teams of eleven players with a spherical ball...
commentator Clive Tyldesley
Clive Tyldesley
Clive Tyldesley is an English sports commentator, who since 1998 has been the main football commentator for ITV. He has commentated on eleven Champions League finals, five FA Cup Finals and numerous World Cup and European Championship matches.-Career:Tyldesley was born in Radcliffe, Bury,...
. The major criticism of this was that there were not enough comments and it quickly got stale and repetitive. Also, to use the audio commentary the games had to be "viewed" at a very slow speed.
Another milestone was the inclusion of playable Scottish leagues, albeit only in the PC version. For the first time in the series there was a selection of leagues to choose from at the start of the game - only one could be run at a time, however.
Gameplay
In terms of the underlying gameplay, not a great deal had been changed since the original CM. The look and feel had been improved but it was still very much a text-basedText-based
Usually used in reference to a computer application, a text-based application is one whose primary input and output are based on text rather than graphics or sound. This does not mean that text-based applications do not have graphics or sound, just that the graphics or sound are secondary to the...
, menu-driven game and the user interface
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
was almost identical to previous games, albeit at a much higher resolution
Image resolution
Image resolution is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail....
.
European league versions
Two new versions of Championship Manager 2 were later released allowing users to play leagues from across EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. One version contained the Italian
Football in Italy
Football is the most popular sport in Italy. The Italian national football team has won the FIFA World Cup 4 times , trailing only Brazil . Italy's club sides have won 27 major European trophies, making them the most successful European nation in the subject of football...
, Belgian
Belgian football league system
The Belgian football league system is a series of interconnected leagues for club football in Belgium.-The system:Below shows how the current system works. For each division, its official name, sponsorship name and number of clubs is given...
and Dutch
Eredivisie
The Eredivisie is the highest football league in the Netherlands. The league was founded in 1956 two years after the start of professional football in the Netherlands. It is currently ranked the ninth best league in Europe by UEFA....
leagues, the other contained French
Football in France
Football is the most popular sport in France. The Fédération Française de Football is the national governing bodyand is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of association football in the country, both professional and amateur...
, German and Spanish
Football in Spain
Football is the most popular sport in Spain. The Royal Spanish Football Federation is the national governing body and it organizes La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Spain national football team, current champion of the FIFA World Cup...
leagues. Only one league could be run at a time but this was still a big milestone for the series and signalled the intent of Sports Interactive to expand the CM universe across the globe.
Amiga version
The Amiga release of CM2 was developed by Sterling Games, making CM2 the first game in the Championship ManagerChampionship Manager
Championship Manager was the very first game in the popular Championship Manager series of association football management simulation games. The game was originally released on the Amiga and Atari ST in September, 1992 and then ported to the PC/DOS platform soon after...
series to not be developed by Sports Interactive
Sports Interactive
Sports Interactive Limited is a computer games development company currently based in Old Street, Central London and owned by the Japanese software and video game company Sega. It is the developer of the popular games Football Manager, NHL Eastside Hockey Manager and Championship Manager Quiz, and...
, who felt that the system was not capable of running the game to a satisfactory standard. The Amiga version was very slow to run, lacked features (notable ones include the Scottish League, international management, player histories and backgrounds), it could not be installed to a hard drive, received exceptionally poor reviews (including 12% from Amiga Format
Amiga Format
Amiga Format was a British computer magazine for Amiga computers, published by Future Publishing. The magazine lasted 136 issues from 1989 to 2000. The magazine was formed when, in the wake of selling ACE to EMAP, Future split the dual-format title ST/Amiga Format into two separate publications...
) and was repeatedly delayed, postponing the release until 1997.
There was however a hacked version by the group Fairlight, who hacked the game to be able to run off hard drive, and was able to load and save games to the hard drive which helped speed up the game immeasurably. At the time, Fairlight did comment why it was that Sterling Software didn't use Fast memory and hard drive which would have made the Amiga version that much closer to its PC counterpart.