Okay, this may seem odd that I'm going to pimp a print competitor, but this has been on my mind for the past week. If you haven't heard already, Computer Gaming World, the industry's oldest publication, is no more. That's because it's been renamed Games for Windows, The Official Magazine, which is a really lame name in my opinion. However, the folks at CGW did a magnificent thing by putting the first 100 issues of CGW on the Internet for free, in PDF format. The first issue debuted in 1981, folks, before most of you, I suspect, were even born.

I can't help but get flashbacks by looking at some of these old magazines. If I had to pinpoint it, I think I realized I wanted to have the job that I have today because of all the times I spent in the Monroe Public Library reading CGW. Every month, a new issue would come in and I would be there later that day, reading it in the library. I've tried to remember what the very first issue I read was, but it's tough. The "Loom" issue, though, certainly jogs some of the neurons in my head. I loved reading those issues and thinking that it must be the coolest job in the world to be able to write for this kind of magazine.

In those days, CGW was independent, and it was much more of a hobbyist magazine. Then again, the entire gaming thing was a hobbyist kind of thing. Check out some of the early issues and you'll see as many ads for games that a couple of guys made in their garage as you do for mainstream titles. But what I really love is the fact that you could write for pages and pages and pages about all sorts of things, like the best tank tactics to use in M-1 Tank Platoon.

The other great thing about this archive is that you don't quite realize just how much of a time capsule each individual issue is. For instance, TIME has made some of its old issues available in digital format, and it's fascinating to go through them. Everything from the articles to the advertisements opens a window to what life was like in the past. And if you're old enough like me, you'll be taken back to the day when that issue was new. I got the same feeling reading some of these old CGW issues. It's amazing just how much I remember some of the ads in these. And it's even more amazing just how great the games were, even though they are downright crude in terms of today's production values.

There's lots to admire in these old issues, and I smile at the "old" way of taking screenshots. You literally put a camera on a tripod in front of a screen and took a picture. With film, cause digital was still a couple of decades away. Those early days must have been a lot of fun.