FM Time Machine: Back to FM05
Join me as I step into my FM Time Machine and revisit older versions. In this blog I go back to the start, explain why now (and why then if you want to get all time travell-y about it) and lay out some of my plans.
2004
It’s 2004 and I’ve been dropped off a day early by my parents to Uni. I wasn’t sure if there’d been a misunderstanding over the date or if they were just really eager to get rid of me. Either way when met with the completely empty block of flats they didn’t back down, they doubled down, provided me with the finest cutlery set for one that Wilkinson’s had and then left. I spent the first night in the halls, almost alone. I had my second hand laptop and some games. Now I’d love to say one of those games was FM05 but that wouldn’t come out until a couple of months later. I had to make do with CM99/00.
Fast forward a few months though and I’m well and truly addicted to FM05. My laptop manages to chug it’s way through and when the processing gets slow it’s fine. Time is on my side. I’m doing a Psychology degree and my days had maybe an hour or two of lectures in. I probably had more to go to but in the Sports Interactive induced FM daze I only really registered a few of them. I get some serious hours in and end up with a save that lasts me almost 4 years. Real ones. As far as I can remember anyway.
I’ve written about it here, but it led to the name I now use for most of my FM managers. I ended up in save at St. Johnstone, dominating the league over and over, largely thanks to my face in the game flying left winger/foward Rodrigo de la Vega.
The save game goes with me from halls, to 3 different student houses, and finally gives up the ghost during the first year of my PhD when the hard disk shattered. Taking out the mighty St.Johnstone and my laptop completely. During those 3-4 years I had dabbled with other FM’s. But none kept me engaged the way that FM05 did.
With the death of the save I was forced to move on. I enjoyed plenty of the FM’s that came after, and I always found it hard to go back to a previous version the way I had with FM05. I was very much on the bandwagon of moving onto the brighter and shinier version of FM when it came out. Whilst I don’t want to say I’d be jonesing for a new edition towards the end of FM editions lifecycle, it did get hard to maintain interest in the weeks before a new release. Often with good reason with new features and improvements making each FM an obvious upgrade on the last. Even with the pain of leaving behind the footballing world you had created (until the latest version where you could convert an older save across).
This year though, I decided to go back.
Why now? Why not FM26?
There’s a new game, FM26. After the long gap between FM24 and FM26, why am I not chomping at the bit to play and blog a FM26 save? I’ve actually put a lot of hours into FM26. At the time of writing in excess of 125 hours, which isn’t too shabby. But I can’t do it. I just don’t enjoy it. And whilst there have been some dips in enjoyment for me over the FM series (I’m looking at you 06 and 16) I’ve always been able to have a save that I’ve enjoyed deeply enough to pump hundreds of hours into. A save that has made me late for things, or stay up too late, or make dubious choices about my work/life balance and priorities. All of them. But not FM26.
I’ll do my best not to labour the point. FM26 has already been given a kicking. I was excited for in and out of possession tactics, a better looking and more indepth match experience, I also like the idea of the the transfer room. I was really hopeful about the potential of Unity. But the heart of the game has gone for me. It’s not simply that there’s a poorly designed and ill advised UI acting as a barrier to the fun. The real issue is that once you’ve fought your way through it and got used to the insanity and inconsistency of it you’re left with a game that has fewer features in than the last edition did. I can deal with bugs (and there are many), and I can deal with the UI eventually, but the immersion has gone. I don’t feel like part of the FM world, I don’t feel like I’m part of the matches, and I can’t do the things I loved to do in the past.
It’s not as simple as one aspect being an issue. But obviously for me the data being largely removed with the removal of the chalkboard and then not replaced anywhere, alongside the lack of access to useful data during a match, is a big problem. It’s not just the heat maps and passing maps/combo’s. It’s all the individual stats on a match and player level like passes received, crosses attempted, linked match events, dribbles…it goes on and on. But all of these things were available on a player by player basis, match by match, and could be accessed at half time if you really wanted to. You could split the data by time and by pitch area. You could select multiple variables and players and look at the overlay. You could play back player movement as a tracked map. It was amazing. You could do so much. You can see in this blog how I used it to calculate xG, and xGA, as well as PPDA before they even made it into the game fully. All from this one feature.
And maybe not many people used it. But you know what it would have been really useful for in this version of FM? Evaluating the position and movement for the In and Out of Possession tactics. And this is where it has a knock on effect for me. I can’t enjoy the tactics if I’ve got the limited and bug data hub instead. I can’t get fully immersed in the complexity of the game, after all that effort, and things like player development, youth saves, training, club and tactical philosophies without it. I can’t even micromanage really important games without it.
The key thing above is “I”. This is true for me. It may not be for others. And like I said its not the only issue or thing I’m missing. Another key thing is that it’s not 2004 anymore. I’m not a student with time to spare. I’m a Dad with a more than full time job. My life if full of responsibilities. I have less spare time, and what time I do have is precious. I’m not going to invest the time in something I’m enjoying less than other games in my library. I’m not going to suffer and tolerate a game that feels sub-par and less immersive just because of brand loyalty or because it’s the newest FM and it’s the done thing to play it.
Maybe a future patch will change this. But honestly I’m not holding out hope that SI are going to add the features and QoL changes I need (nor should they if it’s just me). I don’t think the next patch is going to bring back the chalkboard or it’s replacement. I don’t think the export/print option is going to appear. To be honest I don’t even think the issues with the data hub are going to be high enough priority to fix. I know there’s talk of the heat or passing map coming back in this announcement here. I hope if it comes back it comes back with all of the data that allows the creation of such maps, rather than just the map in isolation.
Until things change, whether this be a patch or FM27, I’ve got other versions of FM to play. I have some saves I’m loving in FM24 (Belfast Celtic), and from FM23 (Route One Rovers) still. But I’ve also got almost the full back catalogue of FMs.
6, 7 and 8 are missing on the list. I’ve got them. They are just hard copies in the loft somewhere.
It’s time to go back to FM05 – partly for nostalgia, partly to see if any of the vague claims made about muscle memory by Miles have any truth to them. But once I’ve had my fun with FM05 maybe it’s time to try the rest?
How does FM05 hold up?
Speed & UI
It is suprisingly fast. I know you might be thinking, it’s a 20 year old game on a modern PC. Of course it is fast. But if I remember correctly FM05 (and a worrying amount of later versions) weren’t optmised for multi-thread/core processing.
There’s a lot of blank space in the UI. Something it has in common with FM26 though the excuse here is that it was optimised for monitor sizes of the time. The average monitor size at the time was about 17 inches, whereas now it is about 24.
Although there’s 20 years of muscle memory to unlearn it’s not been an unpleasant experience. I know the argument is that because each FM with the exception of 26 has evolved on the past UI it should be an easy experience but there is quite a difference in layout and style from 05 to 24. What makes the relearning easy here is that the information (reduced in volume though) is presented in a fairly logical way.
The top menu contains the core areas, selecting one then changes the left hand menu to what is contextually relevant. If I select my team from the top, the left menu then breaks down the different teams, which in term breaks down into players, tactics, fixtures. It also includes the team relevant information like staff, transfers, finances, info and training. Which means all the core information is where you’d expect it to be, and takes about 2 clicks to access. The plus button next to items that have sub-menus can be expanded, so you can have the full tree a click away.
In terms of consistency as well the action buttons are always bottom left and bottom right. And the breadcrumbs on the bottom left make it easy to know where you are. Not that FM05 is so information and data dense that getting lost is common issue.
I know later FM’s have a lot more information to present so it’s not a fair or direct comparison. But by the same token it’s clean and consistent, and if more screen were added under this framework and under these design rules, they would work just fine.
Trash Talking
One of the past features I miss the most is the ability to select opposition players before a match to hammer in the press. You could pick players you thought were susceptible to mind games, break them in the press and then target them in the match for special treatment. And I still miss it in FM05 as it doesn’t exist yet. Sorry.
But what I do have is the option to do this before every game to the manager instead. I can start beef with people and start a slagging match. And I love it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not well done and often backfires. But from a role play and immersion perspective I can have my manager take a Fergie, Special One or even Holloway approach.
You can of course start fights and wage war via the press in later FMs but in some of the more recent versions you were limited in doing this in a much more reactive way. The press had to come to you, it needed to be in a conference, or in response to a manager that had said something. Whereas here, back in the day, you could pick up the virtual phone to the local rag.
Tactics: Farrows, Barrows and Sliders
I just want to make it clear that I’m not defending farrows, barrows or sliders but… I do love them. The farrows, barrows and sarrows in particular. For those of you too young to remember if you wanted a player to move in a particular way you would drag them to create an arrow. If it was forwards then it was a farrow and indicated where they would move when the team had possession, and if it was to the side or back then these were sarrows and barrows and were for the defensive, out of possession, movement. So like a proto-IP and OOP set up.
Now this could be abused, and often was. A farrow from MC to the strikers would often result in a player just waltzing through without players picking them up. But there’s something to be said about the satisfaction of imagining your manager pointing somewhere and saying, run there, and then the player actually running there.
Sliders existed for most team instructions. And I’m going to take a slightly controversial opinion here maybe. These were much maligned at the time as not being realistic. No manager says, press 17 notches, pass 12. That’s a perfectly legitimate critique of how it was represented and how precisely abstract it could be.
However, being able to choose 5 options on a linear scale it still just a slider. It’s just one without precision. A 20 point scale in 05, and a 5 point scale in 26.
And that may be more realistic, it’s fine. But honestly if used realisticly the sliders of FM05 aren’t too far away from how we’ve now gone on to represent things. It’s a bit like whether you present attributes for staff as text descriptions (which fit a range) or the numeric values directly. Underneath it all it’s still just the same values. Playing much more direct is just 20 for passing directness, much shorter just 1. It’s much of a muchness. Again I’m not defending sliders and saying bring them back, but I don’t mind them.
Match Day: No talking, no shouting, not much of anything
The match day experience has some similarities with FM26. I’m not talking the engine or graphics. It’s all 2D here (a really nice looking 2D to be fair). But similar in the sense that beyond the limited information I get in between highlights I don’t actually have much to do other than make subs. FM05 was a time before team talks: pre, half time, final or for subs. In that sense FM26 has the edge.
But again, no shouts here. Arguably the same rollercoaster/rail shooter feeling of being strapped in for the ride. However, whilst you can make the case there’s more data available in FM26 the data that is in FM05 feels a bit more immediate despite it’s limitations.
Behold the split view. Behold the full team stats. Yes xG isn’t a thing but I feel a reasonable defence here is that it wasn’t a thing at all in 2004/5. But what I’ve got here is a UI that lets me see a reasonable amount of information. I can basically see most of what is available. As a result I don’t feel horrendously disconnected from what is going on.
There may not be widgets either but I can also use split view to have the 2D highlights on the left or right so I can keep the other side for action zones, player ratings, match stats, league updates and live scores…
Initial Verdict
At the time FM05 was a pretty revolutionary installment and set the tone for years. It was impressive especially coming off the back of the studio split and the relative size of SI at the time. Looking back on it now it is still a joy to play. It is straight forward, quick, clean and easy to navigate. Yes it looks dated but I’m essentially playing a spreadsheet, I can handle a dated aesthetic if the information and navigate is clear.
It’s missing a lot of features I’ve grown to love and feel are essential. The depth of stats and chalkboard, some of the media interactions, team talks and shouts. Some quality of life issues are there as well, no i icon to hover over for a quick check of player attributes (so sort of like FM26 on some screens?) for example. But then there are somethings it does that FM26 doesn’t. And that’s not a “does it better” judgement, just literally there are somethings we had 20 years ago that we don’t have now. Like exporting/printing pages to extract data!
In the course of a lunch break I was able to holiday a season, take over a newly promoted club with 0 players and staff, recruit, sort out tactics and set pieces, and get about 2 months into the season. From an hours play. The match engine itself holds up well enough if you can handle 2D. It’s not as sophisticated as I may be used to, but it is effective.
To me it feels very much like how I’d want FM Mobile or Touch to be. It is FM-Lite. Quick, clean, accessible. Still comparable depth and immersion to other titles but easier to click through. The pay off in terms of depth, detail and sophistication might not be at the levels of later titles but the relatively easy and painfree experience means a happy medium is there.
Maybe it’s the rose tinted nostalgia talking, but reskin this with team talks, shouts, extra stats and a new database and…I’m convinced it would shift units still.
And is it more or less immersive than 26? They both are missing the data, and some key features are missing in FM05. But, ever the contradiction, for me FM05 edges it because there’s less to fight. I can get deeper into what game there is, and feel more connected to the limited information in it. Whereas the detail in FM26 is partly lost because it’s so lost in the design. I’m not saying FM05 is inherently better or more complex. In most way it isn’t. But it is more enjoyable for me.
What next?
Well, I’m going to carrying on playing my Gateshead dafuge challenge style save. I’m hoping to get to the point where I can sign face in the game Rodrigo de la Vega again. Some names for lower league nostalgia below, I even snuck Ross Turnbull in on loan.
But, I’m also going to try some of the other older version of FM as part of the time machine. The next stop will be FM09. Partly because it’s reasonable jump from 05, and I had a good save in the past with it. But mainly because I can’t be bothered getting the hard copies of 06, 07, or 08 out of the loft.