Runner up to the Hobbit, but these days, after living in New Zealand, that is kind of nice!
Merging an adventure game as classified with Strategy games seemed a bit odd at the time. Nice though. As time went on there were lots of versions of the game. The thing was, it was very popular. So, I was running the business, and I had to employ programmers to work with me on the conversions to other formats. The only problem coming out of this, was it was harder to write new games when I was so time starved, so busy!!
My parents bought me a ZX Spectrum for Christmas in 1983, along with a couple of games, one of which was Football manager. I was 12 years old and spent most of the morning guiding Rochdale (I think) up the leagues. I even got to the FA Cup semi-final but my dad inadvertently pulled the plug as I was preparing for the game. I was gutted!
I loved being able to break into the code and to try and figure things out. Yes, I admit, I cheated by upping the starting bank balance.
I also used to offload my top players before the final game as their skill values were often changed at the end of the season and I took the money while I could.
I played a couple of other footie titles religiously; The Boss and Football Director. But Footmall manager was the first.
Great memories Kevin.