Ten years running, two years into exclusively direct sales all systems green! 1997 was our best year ever (as you can see in the tables below). What might come as a shock to some is how good the year was even without DAK!

I ran two sales over the past year in an effort to clear out as much older inventory as possible. These were reasonably successful and I think the point of diminishing returns has been hit in that matter, so do not expect any further "across the board" sales on our line.

The first of these, in April 97, was more a test to see how many guys we could reach just using an internet mailing. The results were quite surprising and we moved a large number of games from back inventory. Later, I expanded our traditional Christmas sale to the entire line and we moved another major pile of older games. While we still have some older games hanging around in excess inventory, l feel those who were going to buy because of a sale would have done so already. So, there will be no further full-line sales, only spot sales on certain games.

DAK was, of course, the blockbuster for us this year. It hauled the freight that would take some five "normal" releases. Because of its success, our normally efficient office staff fell some 6 weeks behind in shipping games last summer...we had a core meltdown that took months to recover from. Offers came from all sides to give us assistance and one gentleman has been working on a fully automated invoicing system for us which I hope to have in place before next summer's rush on This Hallowed Ground.

This year was one of continuing to work out of the hole we were left in a few years back. We all but managed to get back fully into the black in my cash only books (the accountant's accrual stuff goes over my head). I am quite certain, we will have those books up to snuff in the coming year. Last year, I predicted that we would be out of that hole (-87,604 at the end of 1996) by the end of 1997. It didn't quite work out that way, but we are really close (-34,665 right now Jan 98) and we had a period where we were within 20K of zero during the late summer).

As I said last year, this year gives me no reason at all to regret our decision to "jump ship" on the retail system. In spite of the occasional report of a retailer telling his customers that we are out of business, we continue to grow, add new players, and are now stronger than we have been for years. Once again, those predicting doom will have to change the dates on their predictions (that's the nice thing about predicting doom, if it doesn't happen the year you say it will, you can always say "yeah, but wait till next year..."), and those who predict instant results will be disappointed.

Revenues and Releases

Year	Revenues	Releases
1988	$21,838	2
1989	32,044	1
1990	$53,962	3
1991	$104,614	3
1992	$171,442	5
1993	$262,373	5
1994	$323,262	4
1995	$366,509	7
1996	$288,799	4
1997	$434,375	5
w/o DAK
1997	$293,955	4

Cost of Manufacturing Games

(Cash put into Inventory)

1995: $186,571
1996: $49,830
1997: $77.651

Cash Expenses

1995: $424,137
1996: $255,636
1997: $396,664

Game Units Sold

1995: 17,932
1996: 8,996
1997: 9,158

Cash Flow

1995: ($57,628)
1996; $33,161
1997: $36,680

Customer List

Jan 95: 4,250
Jan 96: 5,100
Jan 97: 6,250
Jan 98: 7,075

Game Unit Sales

In Their Quiet Fields 175
No Better Place to Die 115
April's Harvest 120
Champion Hill 144
Gaines Mill 1,049
Matanikau 107
GD '40 148
Hunters from the Sky 127
Black Wednesday 147
Leros 176
GD '41
Semper Fi! 712
Raging Storm 626
Force Eagle's War 22
Enemy at the Gates 312
Tunisia 273
Hube's Pocket 563
DAK 1,732
Stalingrad Pocket 326
Ardennes 180
Yom Kippur 127
Crusader 1,190
Austerlitz 125
Marengo 124