We couldn't not finish off the birthday stuff without saying thanks to everyone, could we?

It felt crass to move on from our birthday celebrations without giving some sort of shout-out to the people that made it all possible and reflecting on the significance of it, so here it is. Usually Tim would do this, but he's off enjoying sunny Mexico, the lucky skiver.

Looking at the site now, the state of it when we started CE seems terribly quaint. Uploading whole pages of HTML for specials (we didn't have a pHp system that extended that far...), posting watermarked images from other websites (and not even putting them on our own server sometimes!) and having such a lax attitude towards spelling a grammer it would give me a weak heart these days. Four years later, we're much better. I even think we're semi-professional (but I'm a big-headed twat).

Buy we couldn't have got to where we are without the help of a lot of people though. Tim first, obviosuly, for his continuing hard work on nearly every aspect of the site. Our programmer Jan needs to be given muchos gracias for crafting the pHp system that was a huge leap forward to us, and makes updating the site a hell of a lot easier. Lammie too, whose art and design skills are to thank for the clean look of the site. But apart from individuals, everyone has mattered. Every staffer who has came and gone (Gerben and Jim stick out for me) and all who still stick with us.

Most of all we'd like to thank our readers to sticking with us, because this is all for you. As a principle, we believe you deserve a high standard of Nintendo coverage, and trying to achieve that is what keeps us going. I think we're getting pretty good.

And you know what? We're going to get better. I can promise you that. We're going to cover Nintendo's platforms better and we're going to write better. Expect big things, my friends. Or, more realistically, medium-to-large things.

So here's to another good year for the site! If this is our last one as Cube-Europe (new consoles, you know), we intend to make it a worthwhile one. Hope you enjoy the ride.

(Yeah, this would've been better posted yesterday, I know. But I was at the pub last night with some mates and, well, you can guess the rest...)