Excellent list. Is StreetSoccer your favorite tactical game? Are there any others that are close? How about the managerial games -- are any of them worth playing?

The best Geek list on the entire site!

Does anyone heard of FC Strategy? Seems like an interesting game. http://www.fcstrategythegame.com/

I was a sucker for all those manager type of games on the commodore 64 during my childhood.

Football mananager I & II, Football Director and similar titles really made my day.

If i can recall it right, there were i game i never tracked down, it was called "brian cloughs football fortunes" or something similar.
I know there were a boardgame that followed with the computer game.

Anyone here on the geek that have played it or have some photos for uploading ?

Would be a blast from the past.

Looking for a great managergame, which one is the best ?

Reviews that ive found:

This is unusual. A computer game for two to five players which comes complete with board, counters, lots of little cards and Bank of Toytown notes in £100,000 denominations. Has CDS flipped?
I don't think so. Zapping aliens is fine, but it's a lonely business. So it was onto the blower to enlist the aid of T'zer (On the 'ead, son) Maughan, Phil (Get stuck in there) South, Marcus (Are you blind, ref?) Berkmann and Rachael (Oo, err, is that the ball?) Smith.
Of course, BC's FF is a football management game, but that didn't stop Smiffy turning up in shorts and a number eleven shirt. Thank heavens nobody mentioned full team strip - she probably would have!
The aim of the game is nothing short of world domination - soccer style. At home there's a league to conquer and the cup to win. After the first season things get really exciting, because there are European competitions too. But success in these fields is only one step to acquiring management points. Teams start equal, but by the end of the game, one will be more equal than others. And the manager who's led it to fame and fortune is bestowed the title of Cloughie the Conqueror by the computer.
So it's off round the board, with the Spectrum shaking the dice. The squares you land on can help you supplement your squad, suck away your money, or crush you with the fickle finger of fate through chance events, detailed by the micro.
The computer's got a more important role in the second stage of each round. That's when the matches are played. Each manager enters their team's defence and attack strengths, which are the sum of each player's personal ability points. You start by choosing from a squad of thirteen, including two utility players, who're good anywhere except in goal.
At first the teams rate much the same, but as the game progresses each player has the chance to build up their squad, or find it decimated by bad luck and face possible bankruptcy. Auctions are one way to acquire stars, but the real strategy and excitement lies in private deals.
Spend too much early on and you might well have to sell that extra striker to raise capital, especially if his transfer could result in another manager's FA Cup chances getting hammered!
The computer calculates results for all the teams in the league, whether they belong to players or not, and then works out the league tables. You can set the skill level of the micro teams, to give the miserable humans an even tougher time.
After all that, it was inevitable that Rachael (Over the moon) Smith would make us all as sick as parrots. But that just goes to prove that you don't need to know anything about footie to enjoy this - you just have to be good at wheeling, dealing, bargaining and backstabbing!











Another review/synopsis:

Brian Cloughs Football Fortunes, is a football management game with a big difference. In an exciting departure from earlier computer simulation games. Brian Cloughs Football Fortunes combines an excellent range of computer based features with a fascinating board game. The result for the players is a package which gives the social aspects and skills of other best-selling board games with the flexibility and speed of play in which only a computer can supply.

Another review:

Allow me to introduce the first Atari computer game that is not played on the computer. Puzzled? Then read on ... CDS Software's second Atari release is a football managerial game which is played with counters, cards, and a real 40cm squared cardboard playing surface!

BRIAN CLOUGH'S FOOTBALL FORTUNES (quite a mouthful!) provides competition for two to five players who take on the roles of team managers, the idea being to steer their teams to the top of the league tables, triumph in cup competitions and emerge at the end of the season with a healthy bank account. It is said to have been designed with plenty of advice from this Brian Clough chappie, who presumably receives a good share of the royalties for having his photograph on the inlay card.

Packaging is quality stuff. A double sized box opens up to reveal a treasure trove of contents – five plastic counters of the sort you would expect to find in a Tiddlywinks set, 112 'player' cards each endorsed with the name of a famous(?) footballer, his field position and his 'star rating', six 'immunity' cards; ten blank cards in case your favourite player is not included, £3,700,000 in cash (must be a new design from the Royal Mint!) and finally that multicoloured board. It has thirty-six squares around its perimeter each stating a situation that is likely to occur in the every day life of the team, accompanied by a suitable representative logo. Oh, yes!. There is a computer program included too, but I'll get on to that in a moment!

The concept behind FOOTBALL FORTUNES is as follows. Each manager is given a squad of thirteen players, including defenders, midfielders, attackers, utility players and of course the goalie. If a manager is not happy with his squad then he can make substitutions, loans, transfers or bid for extra players at the auction (this is where skill comes into the proceedings). After removing the squads from the pack of player cards, the remainder are shuffled and placed face down on the board. They become the auction pile (more about that later).

Next thing to do is appoint a banker and a computer operator. The banker gives an initial handout to each manager and will deal with future financial matters as they arise. The computer operator activates the computer-die for each manager, who moves his counter accordingly thus landing on a square that represents the situation he must deal with. I won't go into full details, but as a couple of examples, if he lands on an 'Auction' square then the auction pile is turned face up and bidding commences. The highest bid wins the player on the pile and the manager must pay the bank, or else! If he lands on a 'Manager's Luck' square then the computer operator obtains an appropriate comment from the computer, which could be good news or an absolute disaster.



After each manager has completed his move the computer operator calls up the fixtures list and inputs the team strength for each manager. The computer determines the results of the match on the basis of each team's 'star rating'. the managers can now collect gate money from the banker.

Having lost or made a fortune, the whole process begins again and so on until the end of the season. Every manager is awarded game points based upon his performance in the ten strong league, European competitions and F.A.Cup, together with his cash balance at the end of the game. There is no limit to the number of seasons over which the game can be played, this must be determined by mutual agreement. If it all sounds a bit complicated then don't worry, CDS have provided a comprehensive instruction leaflet which explains all of the rules in a clear and readable manner. They have even provided a FOOTBALL FORTUNES hotline number lest you get into difficulty.

Now for the bit I have deliberately left until last, and that is the computer program. The first thing I noticed was the loading instruction – 'Type RUN "C:"'. Surely not! Yes, the entire program is written in B-A-S-I-C. After a twelve minute wait (the fancy hi-res title screen deserves a mention) a READY prompt appeared. Just for the fun of it, I typed LIST, and there it was – not even protected in the customary scrambled variables format!

I typed RUN, and following another wait it asked for the names of the teams, the names of the managers and the skill level required (1-4). Each manager was then allocated his initial squad, and the tape started turning, yet again, until six minutes later when ... another READY prompt! Everything about the program seems to involve a delay. I have nothing against Basic being used but I have no doubt that using it in a program whose primary purpose is sorting out data was a big mistake.

The screen display consists of a pleasantly redefined character set on a multicoloured graphics mode 0 background. It presents a menu from which the league and point tables can be viewed as well as issuing random 'Manager's Luck' and 'Selection Problems'. One nice feature is the 'teleprinter' which springs into operation whenever match results become available.

One of the more essential features of the program must surely be the automated die, however it did not seem to work on my 800XL. Whether this was due to Revision B(ug) Basic or a programming error I am not sure, but each time I selected the die option my computer locked up – which meant reloading the entire program.

BRIAN CLOUGH'S FOOTBALL FORTUNES is a fascinating board game which, in my opinion, should have been marketed as such. The program does a grave injustice to the Atari's capabilities, which is a great shame as it lets down an otherwise praiseworthy package.

C'mon CDS, you can do better than this. A great package but what about the program to go with it?



Paul Rixon




Anyone have a copy of the boardgame ?
Would be great to have a couple of photos and some rules posted in a file section.