Bundesliga manager

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Bundesliga manager
developer KRON Simulation Software, Software 2000
Publisher Software 2000, Eidos Interactive
First title Bundesliga Manager (1989)
Last title Bundesliga Manager X (2001)
Platform (s) Amiga , Atari ST , PC ( DOS , Windows ), C64
Genre (s) Football manager ( sports and business simulation )

Bundesliga Manager is a soccer manager simulation published by Software 2000 . The multi-part series was one of the best-known and most successful representatives of this genre in Germany , especially in the early 1990s . The developer of the first parts was KRON Simulation Software ( acronym for Werner Kr ahe and Jens On nen).

Bundesliga manager

Bundesliga Manager from 1989 was the first and eponymous part of the series. The game, released for PC, Amiga, Atari ST and C64, is a combination of sports and business simulation .

In the role of a manager, the player directs the fortunes of a professional club in the German Bundesliga . The goal of the game is the greatest possible sporting triumph, i.e. the championship. In order to achieve this desired success, the player has to make investments in the stadium and his own team. He can also prepare the weekly training for his team and create tactics for the individual game days.

The player has to take over a club in the amateur upper league (then 3rd league) with the aim of leading him into the Bundesliga.

Bundesliga Manager Professional

After the great success of Bundesliga Manager , the second part of the series was published in 1991 with Bundesliga Manager Professional . As with the predecessor, sports and business simulations were combined with one another. The game was released for PC, Amiga and Atari.

The league system was expanded and the player could now also take over a team from the 2nd Bundesliga or the 3rd league (at that time still amateur league ). A total of 64 teams were available. In addition, the players could choose whether they wanted to start in the current Bundesliga season (ie 1991/92) or in the founding year of the Bundesliga (1963/64). However, the selection had no influence on the composition of the leagues. B. Dynamo Dresden also played in the Bundesliga in 1963. In addition, the real Bundesliga was 20 teams strong at the time the game was published due to the German unity. However, this was not taken into account in the game.

The player's field of activity (training and game planning, team and club development) was largely taken over from his predecessor. However, there were some new features, including a newspaper that summarized the game of your own team and rated the players. The game is shown using animated scenes. In commercial terms, Bundesliga Manager Professional was also a great success and consolidated the game series' position as the market leader in the genre.

A short time later, two editor disks were published that could be ordered directly from Software 2000. One contained an editor with which one could edit the teams and players. The other added 40 new game scenes to the game and offered a game scene editor to create your own game moves.

In 1992 a limited edition was released for Christmas, which in addition to the current version of Bundesliga Manager Professional (version 2.0) also contained the two editor disks and a poster.

While the German version of the game is still licensed, the version with English clubs is available as freeware under the name The Manager .

Bundesliga manager hat trick

Bundesliga Manager Hattrick was released in 1994 for PC and Amiga.

Whereas with the two predecessors one was limited to only managing clubs, the player could now also direct the fortunes of a national team. This was possible both together with a selected club and only for one club or a national selection. In addition, you now had a free choice in terms of the league in which you wanted to start the game. If you had to pave your way from the lowest division to the first division with your club in the “career mode” with your two predecessors, you could now start directly there if you wished.

The game also included many new features, such as: B. a bank with shares and real estate trading or the possibility of wagering money in the football pool. In addition, the infrastructure of the club's premises was expanded to include various buildings (sausage stands, fan shops and other facilities). The sale of fan articles also moved a little more into focus.

The game was shown using precalculated scenes. In addition, it was possible to activate the so-called “reality mode”, through which additional, real-time calculated game scenes could be seen, which were highlighted with a text comment.

The game interface differed significantly from its predecessor and consisted of numerous menus that the player could move around on the screen according to his own ideas. Various modes also made it possible to deactivate certain menus and to have the associated activities (e.g. management of finances or training planning) run or calculated automatically in the background.

In the same year an add-on called "Supporter" was released, which added a club and player editor as well as new game scenes and more current season dates to the game. Also included was a diskette with patches and a book with tips & tricks for the game that came directly from the developers. This add-on was automatically included in the CD-ROM version released for the PC in 1995.

Also in 1994, a limited version was published, which in addition to the game contained a biography of the former professional footballer Jimmy Hartwig .

Bundesliga Manager Hattrick is considered by many fans to be the best part of the series and, thanks to its variety of option menus, was groundbreaking for subsequent soccer manager simulations.

In the UK , the game was released under the title Football Limited .

Bundesliga Manager 97

Bundesliga Manager 97 was released for the PC in 1996.

The fourth part of the Bundesliga manager series is a playfully revised version of its predecessor. Most of the features from Bundesliga Manager Hattrick were retained, so that there were hardly any differences in content. As one of the few innovations it was now possible to hire additional employees, e.g. B. an assistant trainer or a medical supervisor. As with Bundesliga Manager Professional , there was again a newspaper that, in addition to match reports, now also provided information about transfers and other news. In addition, every now and then you had to give interviews in which the player could choose between three possible answers ( multiple choice ). The game was shown in 3D for the first time, and the respective game could be viewed in different camera settings. The individual game scenes and the cup draws were highlighted by comments made by football coach Helmut Schulte .

At first glance, Bundesliga Manager 97 promised a similarly high entertainment value as its predecessor, but instead, after the release, there were massive upsets among the fans of the series, as the game overall made a rather unfinished impression. Due to a large number of bugs , the product was almost unplayable in its originally delivered state. The CD-ROM of the first edition was also completely unprinted. Software 2000 attributed the error to an oversight; the wrong master was simply sent to the press shop. However, instead of exchanging the faulty versions for a properly functioning copy for the disgruntled buyers, Software 2000 simply decided to keep releasing new patches over a period of months in order to eliminate at least the worst bugs. The release of a game that was fraught with numerous errors resulted in an enormous loss of image. In the competition with Ascaron's kick-off competition , the previously market-leading Bundesliga manager series fell behind; none of the following editions should repeat the success of the first three parts.

In the English-speaking world, this part of the series appeared under the title Total Football Management .

In 1999 the game was released again as a bugfixed Gold Edition , but this did not contain any new features.

Bundesliga manager 98

Bundesliga Manager 98 was released for the PC in 1998.

Just over a year after the debacle with Bundesliga Manager 97 , Software 2000 released its successor. This was the first version that ran purely under Windows . Bundesliga Manager 98 was also the first part of the series that was developed without the help of the series founders Jens Onnen and Werner Krahe; they had previously left the company and later founded their own development studio.

By and large, the game was little more than a bugfixed version of Bundesliga Manager 97 with only a few small features added. It was now possible to arrange friendly matches against other national teams in World Cup mode or to determine the respective players who should take the set pieces (corners, free kicks, penalties) during an encounter. In addition, team bonuses could be set again; Bundesliga Manager Hattrick had already had this option .

This part was also later republished in a gold version, but again without any further changes in content.

Bundesliga Manager Champions Pack

A short time after the publication of Bundesliga Manager 98 , a compilation was released in the same year that contained the first four parts of the game series ( Bundesliga Manager , Bundesliga Manager Professional , Bundesliga Manager Hattrick and Bundesliga Manager 97 ) on a CD-ROM. The individual manuals have been combined into one large one. The games were available in their current versions, but were not expanded or revised. This meant that all season data of the individual parts were up to date , for example with Bundesliga Manager Hattrick it was the 1995/96 season.

Bundesliga Manager X

The last part of the Bundesliga manager series appeared in 2001 and was also the first to have to do without a license from the DFB. The only original data that the game contained came from the Austrian Bundesliga.

With this part, Software 2000 endeavored to catch up with the now much more popular Kick series. The first edition, however, was practically only a "rough version", because many game-relevant features were only available with a major patch, which among other things added a text mode for the game display and introduced active negotiation rounds and a career mode. The game gained significantly in realism, because now it was possible for the first time in this series that you could be fired from your club if too many failures; a player could also change clubs and take on a new team.

As with the two predecessors, the game was displayed in 3D again. The game scenes were calculated in real time and commented on by Jörg Wontorra .

After Software 2000 went bankrupt in 2002, Blackstar Interactive published a revised version of its Back-to-Games series under the title Bundesliga Manager X - Edition 2002 . However, apart from the old patches and adjusted fictitious season dates, this offered no further innovations.

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