Railways
I may be imagining this, but I'm sure that railways have improved in the past few years. Ever since I've been in America, I've noticed on my return that trains are cleaner, smarter and generally better. Of course, I said this and two trains I wanted to catch this week were cancelled - according, if I heard the man at Lime St station correctly, due to points failure at Chigley. It's all Lord Brockett's fault. Damn aristocrats.
I've also come into possession of Football Manager 2005, the first football computer game I've had for nearly 2o years. When I got my first computer (a ZX Spectrum +2: those were the days), the must-have games were Karl-Heinz Rumenigge's International Football, and Football Director. For those of us without compatible computers - what happened to Commodore? did sponsoring Chelsea kill them off? - or the requisite joystick skill, Footy Director was the only game in town.
Quite why anyone thought the idea of being a Director was an appealing concept goodness only knows, but everybody thought the game was IT. You began with 12 players, the best of whom was usually injured if the computer thought you were getting too good, and replacements could be signed for as little as £10,000. Games were played by watching the names of the teams and waiting for the score for change: a bit like watching teletext but marginally less exciting.
I believe that Football Director 2 actually included graphics of a stadium, but by that stage the +2 was showing signs of wear and tear, as will happen to a machine that took 15 minutes to load anything. And do you remember saving games on audio tape?
I spent about an hour on Football Manager and got through a pre-season game with Gloucester. This could take years. The one disappointing aspect, compared to FD, is the (otherwise impressive) use of real players. Half the fun of FD was selecting your friends and feeling the slightly pathetic thrill of scoring a last-minute winner at Swansea.
This comes of too much Roy of the Rovers as a boy. I certainly daydreamed about Des Lynam remarking, with just a twitch of the eyebrows, that 'Cambridge [or whomever], under their 12-year-old manager Best of Badgers, have now gone 23 games unbeaten...'
Apparently my public is confident in my abilities. Considering that we accidentally played the last half-hour against Gloucester with the sub goalkeeper at centre-half, I should say that's somewhat generous.
I've also come into possession of Football Manager 2005, the first football computer game I've had for nearly 2o years. When I got my first computer (a ZX Spectrum +2: those were the days), the must-have games were Karl-Heinz Rumenigge's International Football, and Football Director. For those of us without compatible computers - what happened to Commodore? did sponsoring Chelsea kill them off? - or the requisite joystick skill, Footy Director was the only game in town.
Quite why anyone thought the idea of being a Director was an appealing concept goodness only knows, but everybody thought the game was IT. You began with 12 players, the best of whom was usually injured if the computer thought you were getting too good, and replacements could be signed for as little as £10,000. Games were played by watching the names of the teams and waiting for the score for change: a bit like watching teletext but marginally less exciting.
I believe that Football Director 2 actually included graphics of a stadium, but by that stage the +2 was showing signs of wear and tear, as will happen to a machine that took 15 minutes to load anything. And do you remember saving games on audio tape?
I spent about an hour on Football Manager and got through a pre-season game with Gloucester. This could take years. The one disappointing aspect, compared to FD, is the (otherwise impressive) use of real players. Half the fun of FD was selecting your friends and feeling the slightly pathetic thrill of scoring a last-minute winner at Swansea.
This comes of too much Roy of the Rovers as a boy. I certainly daydreamed about Des Lynam remarking, with just a twitch of the eyebrows, that 'Cambridge [or whomever], under their 12-year-old manager Best of Badgers, have now gone 23 games unbeaten...'
Apparently my public is confident in my abilities. Considering that we accidentally played the last half-hour against Gloucester with the sub goalkeeper at centre-half, I should say that's somewhat generous.
posted by BoB at 2:42 PM
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