So long, and thanks for all the tips

   I know, I'm a bit late to the funeral, but as I sit here and watch my favorite college football team playing in the Outback Bowl, I need something to distract a bit from the beating currently being put on us.

   As the final issue Nintendo Power has now been released, I felt the need to reminisce a bit, and say goodbye to an old friend.

The magazine sprung to life in 1988, the year I turned three. So I wasn't a "fan" from the beginning, but I became a fan not that long after. Remember, this was a pre-internet world where it was tough to find tips and information in general on video games.

Back then I was solely in Nintendo's court, playing strictly on my NES, and then SNES. As I got to junior high school, I became a subscriber to the mag, now I would get my tips monthly, rather than whenever I could snag some cash and be in a store selling the mag.

Unfortunately, the internet was also becoming big boom, and I would skip the N64 instead moving to a Playstation. These two factors caused me to cancel my subscription. I mean I could get the tips online faster than monthly, and often in deeper detail, and I could get them for my new systems as well.

I still would pick up  a copy of the mag periodically. It never lost its quality, but unfortunately it has become another print death as more people flock to the internet. I'm as guilty as the next person. I mean heck, you're reading this meandering on the 'net, not in print anywhere.

I'll miss the comics and letters columns the most. Maybe later today I'll head out and pick up one last copy, before they pull them all off the shelves, just for all-times sake.