millions and then use him as a makeweight in transfer deals. As the official pre-game editor included in the game was poor, some USM users produced enhanced pre-game editors. USM Data Editor (USMDE or UDE), of which the official web site was included in the USM Online web site (usm.footymanager.net), was called as the best editor. USMDE includes various features for USM98 editing, e.g., creating players, editing hidden stats, add-on file support for easy data update by USM fans, beta-released save game editing. A 1999 update was released, which received a score of 79 from French review magazine Joystick. USM 2000 There was a planned 2000 version of the game, which was developed. However, the game was thought to be scrapped after Sierra UK became impatient with the game's development progress. The game was set to have an "all-new 3D match engine with advanced Artificial Intelligence". It is also believed that the coding was rewritten. Updates (2012–present) After posting on a Facebook group dedicated to the game, Ande Pearson and Dane Smallbone decided to work together to update all player and team data for the 2012–13 season. The data file was made available to download from the Facebook group titled 'Ultimate Soccer Manager Update'. As the update proved popular, they have since updated the player and team data up to and including the 2017–18 season and introduced up-to-date sponsors and advertisers to the game. A community of developers and gamers also discovered the presence of a hidden cheat menu. They release a small application named USM Tweaker allowing to alter some behaviors in the game, like preventing to be fired or pausing the transfer of players. Technical issues The game sometimes crashes when is played for a large number of in-game seasons. The problems with savegames include: no possibility of viewing detailed info on some players (the game quits after double-clicking on player's name), wrong statistics about some players (ex. incorrect information about scored goals etc.) or even an unexpected exit of the game after viewing post-match statistics. The best way to cope with these problems is to make a lot of savegames, for ex. every in-game month. The game does not run properly on Windows XP. But it runs smoothly on Windows 98, so you can use a free software like Microsoft Virtual Machine with Windows 98 on Windows XP to run the game. External links USM Online at