SOME STATS*
Counting not only the cost
"Quite interesting"
| The Matt Bielby Golden Age | The Mark Ramshaw Era | The Linda Barker Era | The Stuart Campbell Era | The Jonathan Davies Era | The Cam Winstanley Era | The Anarchic Collective Era | The Tim Norris Era | The Steve Faragher Era | Specials | Stats | Subs Letters |
AMIGA POWER's sales figures were calculated by the Audit Bureau of Circulation, an organisation whose name cannot properly be read without a moustache. (The name, incidentally, is why mag sales figures are known as "ABCs.") Every six months, the bureau tots up all manner of dull things and a roll of paper uncurls in vaguely sinister silence from a slot in the top of its head with the official numbers on it. Let us inspect some ABC-related STATS.
| REPORTING ISH |
ABC PERIOD |
ROUGHLY COVERS |
CIRCULATION FIGURES |
MIGHTY GAIN |
| AP16 | Jul-Dec 1991 | Golden Age | 55,173 | ---- |
| AP18 | Jan-Jun 1992 | Golden Age | 60,184 | +5,011 |
| AP25 | Jul-Dec 1992 | Mark Era | 50,222 | -9,962 |
| AP31 | Jan-Jun 1993 | Linda/Stuart Eras | 54,182 | +3,962 |
| AP37 | Jul-Dec 1993 | Stuart Era | 54,124 | -58 |
| AP43 | Jan-Jun 1994 | JD Era | 48,147 | -5,977 |
| AP48 | Jul-Dec 1994 | JD Era | 46,326 | -1,821 |
| AP54 | Jan-Jun 1995 | JD/Cam Eras | 30,486 | -15,840 |
| AP60 | Jul-Dec 1995 | Cam/Collective Eras | 30,486 | +0 |
| AP61 | Jan-Jun 1996 | Collective/Tim Eras | 18,704 | -11,782 |
A breakdown of reviews and scores. (See the individual era issues for details. Averages are calculated dead straightforwardly: total divided by number of items.) Qualifying reviews are of full-price games, budgets and (where applicable) CD32 games. PD games are omitted because of their non-commercial nature, reflected in the PD section scoring out of five rather than the normal AP percentage.
| REVIEWING PERIOD | REVIEWS | TOTAL SCORE | AVERAGE MARK |
| Matt Bielby Golden Age (AP01-AP15) |
565 | 35,614% | 63.03% |
| Mark Ramshaw Era (AP16-AP23) |
200 | 12,959% | 64.80% |
| Linda Barker Era (AP24-AP26) |
57 | 3,847% | 67.49% |
| Stuart Campbell Era (AP27-AP36) |
235 | 16,101.50% | 68.52% |
| Jonathan Davies Era (AP37-AP50) |
283 | 18,059% | 63.81% |
| Cam Winstanley Era (AP51-AP55) |
39 | 2,180% | 55.90% |
| Anarchic Collective Era (AP56-AP58) |
26 | 1,643.50% | 63.21% |
| Tim Norris Era (AP59-AP62) |
18 | 857% | 47.61% |
| Steve Faragher Era (AP63-AP65) |
10 | 387% | 38.70% |
A complete list of AP's 38 reviewers. (Note that 39 reviews were uncredited - compilations, mostly - so they bang around at the end like a kettle.)
| EERILY GLOWING REVIEWER | NUMBER OF REVIEWS | TOTAL SCORE | AVERAGE MARK |
| James Attwood (JA) | 1 | 79% | 79% |
| Martin Axford (MA) | 14 | 659% | 47.07% |
| Linda Barker (LB) | 6 | 406% | 67.67% |
| Matt Bielby (MB) | 38 | 2,650% | 69.74% |
| C-Monster (CM) | 2 | 101% | 50.50% |
| Colin Campbell (CC) | 36 | 2,176% | 60.44% |
| Stuart Campbell (SC) | 357 | 22,138.50% | 62.01% |
| Tim Cant (TC) | 1 | 32% | 32% |
| Jonathan Davies (JD) | 154 | 9,678.50% | 62.85% |
| Richard Doidge (RD) | 1 | 41% | 41% |
| Les Ellis (LE) | 19 | 1,193% | 62.79% |
| Steve Faragher (SF) | 40 | 2,716.50% | 67.91% |
| Karl Foster (KF) | 10 | 689% | 68.90% |
| Dave Golder (DG) | 25 | 1,504% | 60.16% |
| Dave Green (DGr) | 1 | 68% | 68% |
| Seb Grinke (SG) | 1 | 60% | 60% |
| Andy Ide (AI) | 4 | 260% | 65% |
| Gideon Kibblewhite (GK) | 1 | 3% | 3% |
| Chris Lloyd (CL) | 10 | 708% | 70.80% |
| Rich Longhurst (RL) | 15 | 983% | 65.53% |
| Paul Lyons (PL) | 2 | 138% | 69% |
| Sean Masterson (SM) | 10 | 780% | 78% |
| Steve McGill (SMG) | 53 | 3,563% | 67.23% |
| Paul Mellerick (PM) | 93 | 6,011% | 64.63% |
| J Nash (JN) | 60 | 3,211% | 53.52% |
| Tim Norris (TN) | 26 | 1,604% | 61.69% |
| Rich Pelley (RP) | 64 | 3,352% | 52.38% |
| Gary Penn (GP) | 42 | 2,661% | 63.36% |
| Adam Peters (AP) | 13 | 743% | 57.15% |
| Mark Ramshaw (MR) | 60 | 4,495.50% | 74.93% |
| Dave Robinson (DR) | 1 | 86% | 86% |
| Andy Smith (AS) | 1 | 20% | 20% |
| Tim Smith (TS) | 1 | 65% | 65% |
| Matthew Squires (MS) | 26 | 1,706% | 65.62% |
| Sarah Tanser (ST) | 1 | 70% | 70% |
| Tim Tucker (TT) | 53 | 3,595% | 67.83% |
| Neil West (NW) | 14 | 863% | 61.64% |
| Cam Winstanley (CW) | 139 | 9,626% | 69.76% |
| Unknown / uncredited (UK) | 39 | 2,928% | 75.08% |
The issues themselves. Note that "editorial" are pages that aren't ads (ie, the real bits of AP). Note also we've omitted the 32-page sampler ish AP Zero, which was available only to readers of Amiga Format.
| AWARD | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
| Most pages overall | AP20 (148pp) | AP08, AP09 (140pp) | AP13, AP19, AP32, AP33 (132pp) |
| Fewest | AP63-AP65 (52pp) | AP62 (60pp) | AP58-AP61 (68pp) |
| Most editorial pages | AP13 (99pp) | AP33 (96pp) | AP20 (95.75pp) |
| Fewest | AP64 (46.5pp) | AP63 (46.75pp) | AP65 (47pp) |
| Most editorial pages (% of total) | AP65 (90.38%) | AP63 (89.90%) | AP62 (89.58%) |
| Fewest | AP07 (58.33%) | AP08 (60%) | AP29 (61.85%) |
| Most staff | AP29, AP36, AP41 (8) | 34 issues (7) | 13 issues (6) |
| Fewest | AP63-AP65 (1) | AP59-AP62 (2) | AP56-AP58 (3) |
| Most contributors | AP01 (13) | AP63, AP65 (12) | AP04, AP07, AP13, AP32, AP54, AP64 (11) |
| Fewest | AP42, AP43 (1) | AP38, AP41, AP45, AP46, AP55 (2) | AP37, AP44, AP47, AP56 (3) |
A few MIGHTY BEING FACTS.
| Longest staff reign (art) | Sue Huntley (AP41-AP65; 25 issues) | Sal Meddings (AP12 to AP19, AP29-AP40; 20 issues) | Jacquie Spanton (AP16-AP29; 14 issues) |
| Longest staff reign (other) | Stuart Campbell (AP01-AP39; 39 issues) | Cam Winstanley (AP21-AP55; 35 issues) | Mark Ramshaw (AP01-AP22; 23 issues) |
| Most appearances (art) | Sue Huntley (25 issues) | Sal Meddings (21 issues) | Jacquie Spanton (19 issues) |
| Most appearances (other) | Jonathan Davies (56 issues) | Stuart Campbell (47 issues) | Rich Pelley (45 issues) |
And FACTS about reviews.
| AWARD | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE |
| Most reviews | AP02 (63) | AP08 (49) | AP03 (45) |
| Fewest | AP64 (2) | AP55, AP59, AP61, AP62, AP63, AP65 (4) | AP53 (5) |
| Highest-marking ish (average %) | AP44 (77.80%) | AP52 (75.90%) | AP25 (75.13%) |
| Lowest (average %) | AP64 (7%) | AP53 (28.80%) | AP59 (32.75%) |
| Highest single mark | 96% (Rainbow Islands, SWOS 95-96) | 95% (SWOS) | 94% (Sensi 92-93, Cannon Fodder, Cannon Fodder CD32, Cannon Fodder re-release) |
| Lowest | 1% (Kick Off 96) | 2% (Int'l Rugby Challenge) | 3% (Edd the Duck 2, 4th & Inches, Dangerous Streets, Last Action Hero, Touring Car Challenge, Int'l One Day Cricket) |
| Reviewer prolificity | Stuart Campbell (357 reviews) | Jonathan Davies (154 reviews) | Cam Winstanley (139 reviews) |
| If PD games are allowed | Stuart Campbell (451 reviews) | Dave Golder (234 reviews) | Paul Mellerick (199 reviews) |
| Highest average (excluding single-appearance folk) | Sean Masterson (78%) | Mark Ramshaw (74.93%) | Chris Lloyd (70.80%) |
| Lowest | Martin Axford (47.07%) | C-Monster (50.50%) | Rich Pelley (52.38%) |
If all issues of AP were melded together, perhaps in some hideous catastrophe of SCIENCE and fire-setting, the single mega-ish would have 6,700 pages (of which 4,982.67 would be editorial, or 74.37%; and 1,717.33 would be ads, including 375.58 house ads).
The ish would contain 1,434 reviews (858 full price, 505 budget and 71 Hi-Ho Silver Lining) scoring a total of 91,663% for an AMIGA POWER average lifetime mark of 63.97%.*
There would be 26 staff, 71 editorial contributors and 61 other contributors. The ish would cost £245.38.* The coverdisks would not work.
Why not try compiling your own stats? For example, you could see who did the least amount of work while drawing a full-time salary. (No, don't bother, nobody would be interested in that sort of thing - J Nash.)