The charts that fill period magazines look alike: a rank, a title, a publisher, a number in brackets for last month. They measured different things. Some counted what shops sold. The longest-running charts in the Spectrum and Commodore 64 magazines counted something else, and said so. “Our Hotline does not reflect sales but popularity,” CRASH told a reader in February 1985. Anyone using a chart as evidence has to start there.
Sales charts and Gallup
In the mid-1980s several sales charts competed, and CRASH did not trust most of them. “The trouble with Top sales charts, is which do you believe? They all differ dramatically,” it wrote. Many were “artificial in as much as they reflect wholesales rather than retail (ie. what the distributors want to see selling rather than what actually is selling)”. It thought the most reliable was the one compiled by the polling company Gallup, but Gallup’s monthly schedule did not fit the magazine’s.
Other magazines printed Gallup’s figures. Computer and Video Games advertised its “Gallup Top Twenty games chart” in February 1986 and labelled its chart “compiled by Gallup” that summer. Sinclair User printed charts compiled by Gallup for the magazine. Gallup was not beyond mockery. In March 1985 Big K caught “the Gallup (those lovely chart people) software chart” listing a Commodore 64 version of a game that did not exist, and quoted a Gallup spokesman’s reply: “It’s not our mistake.” In early 1986 Gallup split its chart into full-price and budget games. A CRASH reader complained that the split set “expensive and good programs” against “rubbish under five pounds”, and the magazine’s letters editor thought that “a bit unfair”.
A sales chart shows what sold in a given week or month. It cannot show whether anyone was still playing a game in the spring.
Readers’ charts
CRASH‘s Hotline chart was built from readers’ votes. At first they could phone them in. By July 1986 the only way was by post, on a coupon headed “My top five favourite programs in descending order”, and every month a £40 software prize went to the first form out of the sack. The magazine called it “Britain’s most important popularity chart — for Spectrum Software, at least”. In January 1988 it explained the point of it: “it is the games that are being played that get the votes, not the games that are in the shops this week or month”.
ZZAP!64 ran a readers’ chart for the Commodore 64 on the same model, and printed each leading game’s share of the vote. The ZZAP! Readers’ Top 30 for October 1986 had Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins at number 1 with 10% of the votes, International Karate and Leader Board on 8% each, and the previous month’s number 1, Uridium, on 7%. A number 1 in a readers’ chart could be the choice of one voter in ten.
Because readers voted for games they were still playing, a readers’ chart keeps good games for a long time. Match Day, reviewed at the end of 1984, was number 2 in CRASH’s chart in April 1985 and was still in it, at number 19, in August 1988.
Reading a run
A single position says little. A run of positions shows how a game’s popularity moved. These are CRASH Hotline runs:
| Game | Run | What it shows |
|---|---|---|
| Cobra | 13 (February 1987), 7, 2, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 10 … still 17 in April 1988 | A slow climb, three months at number 2, a long decline |
| Enduro Racer | 10 (August 1987), 3, 3, 2, 1 (December 1987) | A steady climb to number 1 at Christmas |
| Exolon | 5, 5, 1 (February 1988), 3, 1 (April 1988), 3, 3, 6 | Two separate spells at number 1 |
| Renegade | 10 (December 1987), 5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 (July 1988), 2, 4, 4, 6 (November 1988) | Four months at number 2 before reaching number 1 |
Renegade shows why the kind of chart matters. It was number one in Gallup’s Spectrum chart printed in Sinclair User in December 1987, when it was new in the shops. In CRASH‘s readers’ chart it did not reach the top until July 1988, and it was still in the top ten the following November: the game kept its players long after its sales peak.
Traps
Check what is being ranked. CRASH ran several charts side by side, and by July 1988 there were four: the Hotline Top 20, an Adventure Top 10, a Strategy Top 10 and a Video Top 10 of films. That month Platoon was at the top of the video chart, and Ocean’s game of Platoon was at 14 in the Hotline. ZZAP!’s voting forms asked readers for their favourite game, their favourite piece of Commodore 64 music, their favourite arcade game and their favourite video. A title and a rank do not say which of these they belong to.
One game can be in several charts at once. CRASH told readers to vote for games from the main review section in the Hotline, games from its Adventure Trail pages in the Adventure chart, and games “requiring specialised thought and planning (like war games)” in the Strategy chart. Some games fitted more than one. In July 1988 Lords of Midnight was number 2 in both the Adventure and the Strategy chart. In December 1986 Heavy on the Magick was number 1 in the Adventure chart and number 26 in the Hotline. A game low in one chart may be near the top of another.
A title is not a version. CRASH’s charts covered the Spectrum and ZZAP!’s the Commodore 64, so the same title in each is a different program. Uridium was in ZZAP!’s top five in autumn 1986; the Spectrum conversion entered CRASH’s Hotline at number 29 in January 1987 and was at number 3 by March.
Check the bracketed figure. The number in brackets is last month’s position, and it is not always right. CRASH’s August 1987 chart shows Cobra at number 3 as a new entry, “(-)”, although it had been third in July. The chart’s length changed too: the Hotline was a Top 30 in early 1987 and a Top 20 by August. A game that “left” the chart may simply have fallen below a shorter cut-off.
Sources
- CRASH issue 13, February 1985, page 78: letters page (Forum), reply on sales charts, Gallup and the Hotline.
- Big K issue 12, March 1985: news item on an error in the Gallup software chart.
- Computer and Video Games issue 52, February 1986: advertisement for the next issue (“Gallup Top Twenty games chart”).
- Computer and Video Games issue 57, July 1986: chart “compiled by Gallup”.
- CRASH issue 26, March 1986, page 47: letters page, reader’s letter on Gallup’s split into mainstream and budget charts, with reply.
- CRASH issue 30, July 1986, pages 50–51: Hotline and Adventure charts; how to vote.
- ZZAP!64 issue 18, October 1986, page 38: ZZAP! Readers’ Top 30, with vote shares.
- CRASH issues 36–58, January 1987 to November 1988: Hotline, Adventure and Strategy charts (the runs in the table).
- CRASH issue 48, January 1988: chart page, on how the charts are compiled.
- CRASH issue 54, July 1988, page 113: Hotline Top 20, Adventure Top 10, Strategy Top 10 and Video Top 10.
- ZZAP!64 issue 38, June 1988: chart voting form.
- Sinclair User issue 69, December 1987: chart compiled by Gallup (Renegade at number 1 among Spectrum games).