I love a bit of CAKE

Crack out the cocktail sausages and don your party hats, because today the Virtual Console Archive celebrates its first birthday along with the North American release of the Nintendo Wii.

When we started this site over twelve months ago we saw it as a side project that would keep us busy once we'd ran out of things to do over at The Mean Machines Archive. Little did we know that the VCA would go on to become arguably the net's leading authority on all things Virtual Console related.

Since we started out we've been featured in leading UK games magazine GamesTM, starred on a German videogame cable TV show and even had a Facebook group founded in our name! Thanks to all of you for making this site such a success, without your support and comments we probably would have given up long ago.

The Virtual Console has sure come a long way in such a short space of time. When Nintendo announced the service there were voices of derision - surely this was just a short-term way of making a bit of extra cash for the company? Thankfully, Nintendo has shown these critics to be completely incorrect; the VC continues to be supported with some truly amazing releases. Who could have predicted a year ago that we'd be seeing games like Sin and Punishment - a title never before released in the West - on the VC?

Going into 2008 it's vital that Nintendo keep the momentum going and possibly get a few more N64 games online, but with the recent addition of Turbografx-16 CD titles and NeoGeo support - not to mention the glorious promise of WiiWare titles - we don't doubt that it's going to be a really stunning year for Wii-owning retro gamers.

On a side note, I'd like to personally thank Drake (AKA Marcel Van Duyn), who joined the VCA team a few months back and has become a solid member of the crew - the speed with which he posts our news updates continues to surprise me!

More thanks go to Jordan Hall (AKA DivineOmega) for creating The Virtual Console Forums on our behalf. It's been a great resource for our readers who want to go beyond just throwing up the odd comment on our reviews page and has become a nice little online community.

Last but not least we need to thank our pal Ant Dickins at NintendoLife for the offer of hosting the site when our increased traffic meant we could no longer afford to stick with our old hosting company. He's a diamond geezer and we recommend you check out NintendoLife for any news on the Nintendo Wii and DS.

So raise your glasses, my friends. Here's a toast to the VCA, Nintendo's continued support and - most of all - you guys, for making this site such a comprehensive success!

Long may it continue!