{"id":19779,"date":"2025-08-16T08:37:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:37:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/i-didnt-realise-the-games-impact-for-years-the-making-of-the-original-football-manager\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T08:37:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:37:14","slug":"i-didnt-realise-the-games-impact-for-years-the-making-of-the-original-football-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/i-didnt-realise-the-games-impact-for-years-the-making-of-the-original-football-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I didn\u2019t realise the game\u2019s impact for years\u2019: the making of the original Football Manager"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Kevin Toms created the first footie tactics simulation in the early days of the gaming industry, it became a phenomenon \u2013 and a source of cherished memories<\/p>\n

If you were a football fan who owned a computer in the early 1980s, there is one game you will instantly recall. The box had an illustration of the FA Cup, and in the bottom right-hand corner was a photo of a smiling man with curly hair and a goatie beard. You\u2019d see the same images in gaming magazines adverts \u2013 they ran for years because, despite having rudimentary graphics and very basic sounds, the game was an annual bestseller. This was Football Manager, the world\u2019s first footie tactics simulation. The man on the cover was Kevin Toms, the game\u2019s creator and programmer.<\/p>\n

The story behind the game is typical for the whiz-kid era, when lone coders would bash out bestselling ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 titles in their bedrooms and then end up driving Ferraris around with the proceeds. As a child in the early 1970s, Toms was a huge football fan and an amateur game designer \u2013 only then it was board games, as no one had a computer at home. \u201cWhen my parents went to see my careers master, I said: \u2018Ask him if it\u2019s possible to get a job as a games designer,\u2019\u201d says Toms. \u201cHe told them: \u2018It\u2019s a phase, he\u2019ll grow out of it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading…<\/a>
\nWhen Kevin Toms created the first footie tactics simulation in the early days of the gaming industry, it became a phenomenon \u2013 and a source of cherished memories
\nIf you were a football fan who owned a computer in the early 1980s, there is one game you will instantly recall. The box had an illustration of the FA Cup, and in the bottom right-hand corner was a photo of a smiling man with curly hair and a goatie beard. You\u2019d see the same images in gaming magazines adverts \u2013 they ran for years because, despite having rudimentary graphics and very basic sounds, the game was an annual bestseller. This was Football Manager, the world\u2019s first footie tactics simulation. The man on the cover was Kevin Toms, the game\u2019s creator and programmer.
\nThe story behind the game is typical for the whiz-kid era, when lone coders would bash out bestselling ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 titles in their bedrooms and then end up driving Ferraris around with the proceeds. As a child in the early 1970s, Toms was a huge football fan and an amateur game designer \u2013 only then it was board games, as no one had a computer at home. \u201cWhen my parents went to see my careers master, I said: \u2018Ask him if it\u2019s possible to get a job as a games designer,\u2019\u201d says Toms. \u201cHe told them: \u2018It\u2019s a phase, he\u2019ll grow out of it.\u2019\u201d Continue reading…Technology | The Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Kevin Toms created the first footie tactics simulation in the early days of the gaming industry, it became a phenomenon \u2013 and a source of cherished memories If you were a football fan who owned a computer in the early 1980s, there is one game you will instantly recall. The box had an illustration …<\/p>\n

\u2018I didn\u2019t realise the game\u2019s impact for years\u2019: the making of the original Football Manager<\/span> Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":19780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/costops.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}