Hey Folks,

I just wanted to drop a little note—which I also dropped on our SimCity episode—that today marks my fifth anniversary as a Retronauts host: My first time in the podcast captain's chair was on August 4, 2011 with our SNES 20th anniversary show. (Well, we recorded it a few days before that, but whatever.) It's weird to think that, just a few shows into my run, I mentioned Retronauts had just reached its fifth year of existence—I never could have dreamed that I'd be with the podcast another five years after that. At a particularly bleak and demoralizing time for 1UP, Retronauts was the one stable, fulfilling part of my work life, and it also kept me going during an unfortunately long and depressing period of unemployment. And even if USgamer, Talking Simpsons, and other projects having me spread pretty thin these days, I always find the time to pour as much research and production into my episodes of Retronauts as humanly possible—and I really think these past few years of shows have been the best we've ever done.

In the past, I used to think being self-effacing was a good, humanizing look, but the truth is people can always see through this sort of transparent facade. So I've learned to be proud of what I've done over the years, because when you're on a career path as relatively unprofitable as writing in podcasting, all you really have is what you've made—and the meaningful comments and feedback from people who enjoy it. And since this little blog post is on the verge of getting a little self-indulgent, I want to close by thanking all of you for giving me a chance and sticking with the show for all of these years, and Jeremy, for trusting me enough to turn Retronauts over to a guy with very little podcasting experience. We're about to celebrate our tenth anniversary in October, and I can't wait to see where the show will go next. Hopefully you'll still be with us!

- Bob