Goodbye to 1up

When I was eight or nine(possibly a few years older, I can't quite remember) during the early 90s, my father bought a few issues of EGM. They were a glossy magazine that showed these intense and incredible look at videogames that you didn't see in the likes of Nintendo Power or Game Pro. It intimidated me and fascinated me then, later when I was in high school in 1999, I subscribed to EGM. It was a huge and incredible resource to read. When EGM pushed for 1up when it first came out, I have to admit that I ignored the site, as the flash intro was too much for my terrible internet connection. I didn't pay too much attention until several years later, around 2006 or 2007, and I got a MP3 player and looked for things to go play on it. I noticed that EGM and 1up had a podcast network, and listened. I walked 5 miles to get to class(largely for exercise and to save money) and that took about an hour and forty minutes, plenty of time to listen to a podcast. Listening I found myself loving the amusing banter and insightful discussion about games, even when everyone got on tangents I was enchanted. It made an overly long walk a wonderful thing, and not simply an empty time hole. I tried to watch the 1up Show, but my internet connection was still terrible and could not play it well. The few episodes I saw convinced me that if there was a way to make a good TV show about videogame news and reviews then this was it. However, after EGM and GFW(formerly CGW) closed, and around the great culling of staff in 1up, I was actually sad that I wouldn't hear from many of these people in the podcasts; the podcasts were wonderful. The CGW team was a must listen, and the flagship podcasts were always a great listen, Retronauts was always illuminating and fun even if the hosts insisted that they were simply saying random things about the games, and a special call out to the Oddcast in in order here ad it always made me laugh; I can't even remember all the titles of all the podcasts that I listened to so I feel bad for not naming all of them.

I attended community college for a few years listening to those podcasts, with a slight bit of frustration, as I never actually could afford any of the current gen consoles(PS3, XBOX 360, and Wii, for reference), though I had a decent PC at the time and could at least enjoy PC games(to the limit that my poverty would allow). So while I have fond memories of 1up, they're tinged with frustration and regret from being unable to do as much as I could have wanted, employment in my home town was scarce, I could only do so many small jobs for relatives until there was no more work, and nothing really got better. Now I have a future ahead of me that will pay well, though it's still going to leave me filled with regret, I've missed most of this (long) generation, and 1up closed down before my money problems ended. This is where I feel that I should utter a curse to how unfair it all is. And well I should, it is unfair. The only thing that I can really do now is try to move on, buy the old systems and the best games for them, and keep reading. Thank you everyone that worked hard at 1up in it's life, you did something amazing.