What games never sold as well as you thought they would? Chess, Traveller, Supremacy" -Kim Monk Sawmill Hobbyland Columbus, OH "I would say Pax Britannica died off much sooner than I expected, and I feel Pacific War will go that route, too." -Larry Whalen The Game Keeper Providence, RI "The Brotherhood, slow due to subject matter, but it's a good game. A game from a company that just did a "dog" will sell slowly. It matters who does the first game on a subject, too. Victory Games, Inc.'s Civil War hurt the sales of World Wide Wargame's Mr. Lincoln's War by being available sooner, though many of my regulars prefer the latter." -Steve La Prade The Game Shop Norman, OK "Supremacy, Milton Bradley's Gamemaster series, and the Star Trek Role- playing Game." -Al Younghaus Modeler's Mart Clearwater, FL "Up Front, Panzer Command and Game Designers' Workshop's Double Blind games. -Mark, Lindberg Hobbyland North Columbus, OH "Soldier King never sold as well as it deserved to." -Temis de la Pena The Compleat Strategist Falls Church, VA "Ringworld" Kevin Fortune The Compleat Strategist Boston, MA "Indiana Jones, Conan, Role-playing Game, DC Heroes, Sandman." -Jim Beers The Compleat Strategist Philadelphia, PA "Baby Boomers (For Trivial Pursuit), just Games' murder mysteries." JJ. Records Days of Knights Newark, DE "Western Publishing's trivia games, World Action and Adventure" -Wayne Godfrey Wargames West Albuquerque, NM "Air Cav because of Boots and Saddles, and my customers want to know why Oriental Adventures is $15. 00. " - Rich Petro War and Pieces Hartford, CT Trendspotter Welcome to Trendspotter, a new feature designed to present some of the data that "falls through the cracks" in our monthly survey. We have found that some good products are not getting the exposure they deserve, and this feature seeks to remedy that situation. We will be focusing on regional trends in sales as well as national trends, because what holds true on one coast does not help retailers on the other coast, or in the heartland. The most obvious thing going on this month is the very hot sales of Victory Games, Inc.'s two new games, Mosby's Raiders and Pacific War. Curiously, on the east coast, Pacific War at $45.00 is outselling Mosby's Raiders at $23.00. There seem to be some monster gamers left out there. In the area of adult games, Dr. Ruth's Game of Good Sex (Victory Games, Inc.) continues to prove that. "no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public." Sherlock Holmes, Consulting Detective (Sleuth Publications Ltd.) is a perennial seller, and retailers everywhere in the country report success with it. In the two and a half years since its first releases, Victory Games, Inc. (VG) has built a reputation among gamers for having the best of Simulation Publications, Inc.'s (SPI) design quality combined with the professional polish long associated with The Avalon Hill Game Company. Virtually every store we spoke to that stocks World in Flames (Australian Design Group) reports the game as a bestseller. Since we solicit three bestsellers in each category but only report the top two, World in Flames has not shown up as strongly as it should in our bestsellers survey. The game is produced by Australian Design Group, who gave us Empires in Arms, a strategic multi-player game of the Napoleonic Wars, two years ago. Likewise, those who stock Superior Models' Wizzards and Lizzards line of 25mm fantasy figures do very well with them. Again, everyone who had Ultima IV by Origin Systems in stock during November reported it in their top two sellers for software. Back to Table of Contents -- Game News #12 To Game News List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 1986 by Dana Lombardy. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com