Scenarios
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Below is a listing of SPI's 'top ten' bestsellers for each 2 month period in 1980. The number below is the issue of S&T where these were reported, and below that is a list of the games RELEASED by SPI in that same two month period.
RED: These are PREORDERS - the game has not been released at this
point.
GREEN: Subsequent time this game has been on the list.
YELLOW: The game was released this month OR is new on the list this
month.
(If the game is in yellow in the released games list, it means it is
also on the Best Seller list!)
| SPI Bestseller List, Jan/Feb 1980 | SPI BestSeller List Mar / Apr 1980 | SPI Bestseller List May/ Jun 1980 | SPI Bestsellers List Jul / Aug 1980 | SPI BestSeller List Sept/Oct 1980 | SPI Bestseller List, Nov/Dec 1980 |
| 1. DeathMaze | 1. Pea Ridge | 1. Pea Ridge | 1. Kursk | No data released... | No data released... |
| 2. Creature That Ate Sheboygan | 2. Drive on Washington | 2. Battle for Stalingrad | 2. SPI Baseball | ||
| 3. Demons | 3. Empires of the Middle Ages | 3. Drive on Washington | 3. Empires of the Middle Ages | ||
| 4. AirWar Update | 4. DeathMaze | 4. Empires of the Middle Ages | 4. DragonQuest | ||
| 5. Vector 3 | 5. Battle for Stalingrad | 5. SPI Baseball | 5. Creature that Ate Sheboygan | ||
| 6. Titan Strike | 6. Creature that Ate Sheboygan | 6. Kursk | 6. Pea Ridge | ||
| 7. Bloody April | 7. Demons | 7. NATO Division Commander | 7. Battle for Stalingrad | ||
| 8. StarGate | 8. NATO Division Commander | 8. Creature that Ate Sheboygan | 8. DeathMaze | ||
| 9. Great Medieval Battles Quad | 9. Air War Update | 9. DeathMaze | 9. Leningrad | ||
| 10. Army Group South Quad | 10. Kursk | 10. Leningrad | 10. Drive on Washington | ||
| 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 |
| Game | Game | Game | Game | Game | Game |
| AirWar Update | BERLIN '85 | SPI FOOTBALL | BARBARIAN KINGS | ACROSS SUEZ | BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ |
| Bulge | LENINGRAD | WILSON'S CREEK | TIME TRIPPER | ARENA OF DEATH | BIG RED ONE |
| Deathmaze | NATO DIVISION COMMANDER | WRECK OF THE BMS PANDORA | TITO | DALLAS | CITIDEL OF BLOOD |
| Demons | WORLDKILLER | DRAGONQUEST | FIFTH CORPS | HOF GAP | |
| Battle for Stalingrad | Drive on Washington | DM SCREEN (DQ) | KAISER'S BATTLE | ||
| Patton's Third Army | Empires of the Middle Ages | PALACE OF ONTONCLE (DQ) | |||
| Eric Goldberg's KURSK | BLADE OF ALLECTUS, THE (DQ) | ||||
| PEA RIDGE | |||||
| SPI BASEBALL |
Sad to say, I have no further information. Clearly, SPI has only a year to go at this point. But there are another 30 games in that year. We can only assume Time Tripper, Across Suez, Hof Gap, Sword and the Stars, Jackson/Corinth, and Dawn of the Dead would have made this list in 1981.
And note something VERY different about this list vs. earlier years: NO BESTSELLERS in preorders! This had to be a VERY BIG SHIFT to the SPI guys, and might partially explain later events. Where all the previous years saw SPI collecting enough money BEFORE the game was printed to push the game to the top ten list, NO GAMES reached that status in 1980. So in business terms, gamers were no longer supporting the R&D time that SPI was underwriting.
Also note the general price of the games on this list: As we now know after the fact, the 1" games were making SPI no money by the end, no matter how many were sold. The cost of the box cost nearly as much as the list price.
And also realize by this point, SPI was far more heavily invested in retail, as opposed to mail order. Thus, where they pocketed 100% of a mail order exchange, they likely got only 50% of the retail transaction.
And when those retail stores and wholesalers went belly up in the 1981 - 82 resession, guess who didn't get paid? Ouch.
The fact that SPI survived at all in the terrible market conditions of the 1970s is a tribute to the quality of their product and their unique relationship with their customers.
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