Ultimate Soccer Manager
Encyclopedia
Ultimate Soccer Manager or USM is a soccer management video game serie for MS-DOS
, Commodore Amiga and Windows 95
, produced by Impressions
and distributed by Sierra
from 1995 to 1999. The game was never more than a minor hit in Europe (except in Germany
, where it was better received due to some similarities with managers produced by local software houses such as Software 2000
and Ascaron
), although it gained much support in Japan
.
The series was noted for its micromanagement, where the player had to do the job of the team manager and much of that of the chairman, from player training up to bank balance management. Other well known features were to bung
an opposing team for preferential market treatment, rig
or betting
on the outcome of the players' team matches. Interviews after the match where some answers were printed with different interpretations on the next days' newspaper (the player could reply a question about the game with "It was a game of two halves", and "He amazed us after the game by giving us an insight into the rules of football" would be printed on the newspapers).
In all three games, the game always kept the same visual style: the main screen is a bird's eye view of the stadium facility (where clicking on the grass brings the squad selection screen or in the stands for the stadium builder) and all screens are presented like the player was inside an office (TCM 2004 used a similar interface option). To increase the feeling of "being there", tables are accessed via teletext
, news from a newspaper
and fixtures are available by clicking on a sheet attached on a clipboard.
While improving with each game, most features were the same from the start of the series. The game compared favourably in all areas but AI
against its leading competitor, Championship Manager
. While similar in name, it has no relations with Ultimate Soccer
.
league system from the Premiership
down to the Vauxhall Conference. It was distributed as shareware, with a fully functional demo in which the player could only select then Second Division side Brighton and Hove Albion. The game allowed to watch games in top-down view, buy and sell players, manage the team, upgrade the stadium and manage commercial interests such as advertising and merchandise. The game statistics were for the 1995-1996 season.
, featured a more polished interface (plus teams and players of the 1996-1997 season and also the French
and German
leagues (although in the last the final name of the players had a letter swapped to avoid legal problems regarding licensing) which could be accessed with different executables. In Germany, a localized version of the game was released under the name "DSF Fussball Manager", DSF
being a well-known German TV sports channel.
and Windows 98
and included teams, players and statistics from the 1997-1998 season. The number of leagues increased to five, as both Italian
and Scottish
championships were added. Transfers required often a week or more of fax exchange between clubs and with the player agent, making the game more realistic than most other games in this aspect, which only required the player to bid for the player and agree wage and length, adding him instantaneously to the team. USM 98 was released as "DSF Fussball Manager 98" for the German market.
An update disk (also available as a stand-alone) named USM 98-99 was sold shortly after the game came out with statistics for the 1998-1999 season, which also included both Spanish
and Dutch
top two divisions, increasing the number to seven playable leagues. While several bugs were ironed (such as a giving one of the assistants a wage of £99'999'999, and then after offering him a new contract he would start paying the club around £13M weekly, a glitch that carried from USM 2), it became clear that many teams would allow their superstar players to end contract, allowing the player to pick them for free (although with a large salary). Similarly, you could loan a big-name player worth millions and then use him as a makeweight in transfer deals.
As the official pre-game editor included in the game was poor, some USM users produced enhanced pre-game editors. USM Data Editor (USMDE or UDE), of which the official web site was included in the USM Online web site (usm.footymanager.net), was called as the best editor. USMDE includes various features for USM98 editing, e.g., creating players, editing hidden stats, add-on file support for easy data update by USM fans, beta-released save game editing.
The best way to cope with these problems is to make a lot of savegames, for ex. every in-game month.
The game does not run properly on Windows XP. But it runs smoothly on Windows 98, so you can use a free software like Microsoft Virtual Machine with Windows 98 on Windows XP to run the game.
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
, Commodore Amiga and Windows 95
Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
, produced by Impressions
Impressions Games
Impressions Games was a video game developer founded by David Lester in the UK. He sold the company to Sierra Entertainment in 1995, who was then bought out by Cendant and eventually, Vivendi Universal ....
and distributed by Sierra
Sierra Entertainment
Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...
from 1995 to 1999. The game was never more than a minor hit in Europe (except in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, where it was better received due to some similarities with managers produced by local software houses such as Software 2000
Software 2000
Software 2000 was a video game developer and publisher based in Germany.The company was formed in 1987 in Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein, by brothers Andreas and Marc Wardenga...
and Ascaron
Ascaron
Ascaron Entertainment was a video game developer based in Germany. Founded as Ascon and later renamed in October 1996 due to the possible confusion with the Swiss company Ascom AG, the company produced titles primarily for the PC until it was made insolvent in 2009.-Background and history:Ascaron...
), although it gained much support in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
The series was noted for its micromanagement, where the player had to do the job of the team manager and much of that of the chairman, from player training up to bank balance management. Other well known features were to bung
Bribery
Bribery, a form of corruption, is an act implying money or gift giving that alters the behavior of the recipient. Bribery constitutes a crime and is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official or...
an opposing team for preferential market treatment, rig
Match fixing
In organised sports, match fixing, game fixing, race fixing, or sports fixing occurs as a match is played to a completely or partially pre-determined result, violating the rules of the game and often the law. Where the sporting competition in question is a race then the incident is referred to as...
or betting
Sports betting
Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome.-United States of America:Aside from simple wagers such as betting a friend that one's favorite baseball team will win its division or buying a football "square" for the Super Bowl, sports betting is...
on the outcome of the players' team matches. Interviews after the match where some answers were printed with different interpretations on the next days' newspaper (the player could reply a question about the game with "It was a game of two halves", and "He amazed us after the game by giving us an insight into the rules of football" would be printed on the newspapers).
In all three games, the game always kept the same visual style: the main screen is a bird's eye view of the stadium facility (where clicking on the grass brings the squad selection screen or in the stands for the stadium builder) and all screens are presented like the player was inside an office (TCM 2004 used a similar interface option). To increase the feeling of "being there", tables are accessed via teletext
Teletext
Teletext is a television information retrieval service developed in the United Kingdom in the early 1970s. It offers a range of text-based information, typically including national, international and sporting news, weather and TV schedules...
, news from a newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
and fixtures are available by clicking on a sheet attached on a clipboard.
While improving with each game, most features were the same from the start of the series. The game compared favourably in all areas but AI
Ai
AI, A.I., Ai, or ai may refer to:- Computers :* Artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science* Ad impression, in online advertising* .ai, the ISO Internet 2-letter country code for Anguilla...
against its leading competitor, Championship Manager
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...
. While similar in name, it has no relations with Ultimate Soccer
Ultimate Soccer
Ultimate Soccer is a 1993 soccer video game by Rage Software released for the Mega Drive/Genesis by request of Sega which even allowed their mascot, Sonic, to be featured in the game menus....
.
Ultimate Soccer Manager
The original version of the game provided the EnglishEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
league system from the Premiership
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...
down to the Vauxhall Conference. It was distributed as shareware, with a fully functional demo in which the player could only select then Second Division side Brighton and Hove Albion. The game allowed to watch games in top-down view, buy and sell players, manage the team, upgrade the stadium and manage commercial interests such as advertising and merchandise. The game statistics were for the 1995-1996 season.
Ultimate Soccer Manager 2
The second version of the game, USM 2 ran in protected modeProtected mode
In computing, protected mode, also called protected virtual address mode, is an operational mode of x86-compatible central processing units...
, featured a more polished interface (plus teams and players of the 1996-1997 season and also the French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
leagues (although in the last the final name of the players had a letter swapped to avoid legal problems regarding licensing) which could be accessed with different executables. In Germany, a localized version of the game was released under the name "DSF Fussball Manager", DSF
Deutsches Sportfernsehen
SPORT1 is a privately owned commercial German television channel. Until April 11, 2010, it was called DSF . It was founded on January 1, 1993 out of the television channel Tele 5 which had become the successor of the music video channel musicbox on January 11, 1988...
being a well-known German TV sports channel.
USM 98 and USM 98-99
This version of the game was updated to run natively on Windows 95Windows 95
Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented graphical user interface-based operating system. It was released on August 24, 1995 by Microsoft, and was a significant progression from the company's previous Windows products...
and Windows 98
Windows 98
Windows 98 is a graphical operating system by Microsoft. It is the second major release in the Windows 9x line of operating systems. It was released to manufacturing on 15 May 1998 and to retail on 25 June 1998. Windows 98 is the successor to Windows 95. Like its predecessor, it is a hybrid...
and included teams, players and statistics from the 1997-1998 season. The number of leagues increased to five, as both Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and Scottish
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
championships were added. Transfers required often a week or more of fax exchange between clubs and with the player agent, making the game more realistic than most other games in this aspect, which only required the player to bid for the player and agree wage and length, adding him instantaneously to the team. USM 98 was released as "DSF Fussball Manager 98" for the German market.
An update disk (also available as a stand-alone) named USM 98-99 was sold shortly after the game came out with statistics for the 1998-1999 season, which also included both Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
and Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
top two divisions, increasing the number to seven playable leagues. While several bugs were ironed (such as a giving one of the assistants a wage of £99'999'999, and then after offering him a new contract he would start paying the club around £13M weekly, a glitch that carried from USM 2), it became clear that many teams would allow their superstar players to end contract, allowing the player to pick them for free (although with a large salary). Similarly, you could loan a big-name player worth millions and then use him as a makeweight in transfer deals.
As the official pre-game editor included in the game was poor, some USM users produced enhanced pre-game editors. USM Data Editor (USMDE or UDE), of which the official web site was included in the USM Online web site (usm.footymanager.net), was called as the best editor. USMDE includes various features for USM98 editing, e.g., creating players, editing hidden stats, add-on file support for easy data update by USM fans, beta-released save game editing.
USM 2000
There was a planned 2000 version of the game, which was developed. However, the game was thought to be scrapped after Sierra UK became impatient with the game's development progress. The game was set to have an "all-new 3D match engine with advanced Artificial Intelligence". It is also believed that the coding was rewritten.Technical issues
The game sometimes crashes when is played for a large number of in-game seasons. The problems with savegames include: no possibility of viewing detailed info on some players (the game quits after double-clicking on player's name), wrong statistics about some players (ex. incorrect information about scored goals etc.) or even an unexpected exit of the game after viewing post-match statistics.The best way to cope with these problems is to make a lot of savegames, for ex. every in-game month.
The game does not run properly on Windows XP. But it runs smoothly on Windows 98, so you can use a free software like Microsoft Virtual Machine with Windows 98 on Windows XP to run the game.
External links
- USM Online at the Internet Wayback Machine