I don’t have a subscription any more, but to give myself something to read on the flight when I went on holiday last month I decided to pick up a copy of PC Zone. It just so happened it was the 200th issue, and as such featured a decent-sized nostalgia piece with memories from former writers, some of whom returned as guest reviewers. Former writer-turned-TV star Charlie Brooker even turned up to give his opinions on Euro Truck Simulator (a sort of newer version of King of the Road) – which you might have thought was beneath him these days, frankly. And Mr Cursor on the back page as well – what more could a 90s geek ask for?

Despite what I wrote here about the magazine’s best days being long gone, it’s since struck me that such an observation wasn’t all that objective. Nostalgia can never be discounted and there’s no way of telling whether the old Zone I claim to love so much would have been so impressive to me had I been a perpetually-frowning man just about on the right side of 30 rather than a greasy schoolboy back in the mid-90s. Now I think about it, I’m pretty sure I was sceptical of a redesign at some stage (late 90s I think) and even started muttering back then that “it’s not as good as it used to be”.

With staff leaving and arriving on a regular basis it seems unreasonable to expect a magazine to never suffer a dip in quality. I reckon you have to stick with your favourite, checking out the competition now and again to see if there’s anything better out there (I keep buying Edge as I think it’s what ‘grown-up’ gamers should read, but the tone of the whole thing just annoys me) and hope it comes good again.

200 issues isn’t bad going either. I think I might even renew my subscription – if the magazine ever folded, all we’d be left with is PC G*m*r. And no-one wants that.