Community:Zelda Dungeon

Introduction
Zelda Dungeon is a Legend of Zelda fan website created by Mases Hagopian on August 19th, 2001. The site prides itself on having complete and in depth game guides. The site has its own message board, The Dark World. It also features the review show courtesy of Mas & Vic.

History
Layout 1.0 was launched at the sites birth on August 19th, 2001 with I, Mases being the Webmaster. I created this poorly done layout using the Yahoo Geocities Site Builder. The site, Zelda Power, was the biggest inspiration for me in creating Zelda Dungeon. A lot of the early game pages and content were based directly off of Zelda Power. When the site was initially created, it was actually network of. A close friend of mine Danny originally wanted to create a site based off of the Final Fantasy and Dark Cloud series’. When he told me of his initial ideas, I brought up that I was interested in helping out and wanted to create a few of my own sub-sites. At this time, I had launched not only the Zelda Dungeon, but also the Mega Man Dungeon. However, after just one month of being online all of the other games pages were canned, Danny left, and Zelda Dungeon was the only part left standing. During November of 2001, after only about two months online, I began to lose interest with the site. There were no visitors coming in and without a partner I didn't have an ambition to continue. However, On January 3rd, 2002, Zelda Dungeon was first listed on the Google search engine and visitors actually began to start coming in. I remember the days of getting extremely excited when I got 10 visitors in one day. It was during this time I got my first affiliate, City of Clocktown, a now closed Zelda website. They helped me out greatly during the early days and gave me tons of advice. On March 4th of 2002, Zelda Dungeon got an account at Shorturl.com. The url was then zeldadungeon.vze.com instead of the long geocities url.

Layout 2.0 was launched on March 27th, 2002. This was Zelda Dungeons first html based layout. The Webmaster of City of Clocktown created the layout. More and more hits came in with the new design and we started affiliating with several large Zelda websites including Zelda Central, Links Legacies, and Zelda Guide. Geocities was no longer big enough to host Zelda Dungeon, so we moved to Chatville and were hosted by Zelda Odyssey. On October 27th, 2002, Zelda Dungeon hired its first staff member, Steph. She used to work at a Zelda site, Links Domain. After that site closed down, I contacted her and she came on board at Zelda Dungeon. It was great having another member on the staff that was able to contribute content. While much of her original content has since been re-done, her legacy at Zelda Dungeon will always be remembered as the first staff member.

Layout 3.0 was launched on November 23rd, 2002 and Victor of Zelda Central created it. It was quite an upgrade over the previous two layouts. The borders and navigation bars were much clearer and overall it was easier on the eyes. Zelda Odyssey started to have problems with their hosting and our site was experiencing downtime. The search for a new host had begun and on December 14th, 2002, we got accepted to be hosted at Zelda Universe, the biggest Zelda website on the net. Being hosted by such a huge website, Zelda Dungeon started to flourish with visitors. At this point I decided it was time for Zelda Dungeon to get its own domain. As I was just a little kid back then, I knew nothing about domains and I looked online for free domains. We applied to Acidmist, which was a website that offered free domain names. This was a great addition to the site and we were now located at zeldadungeon.com. After a few months we then applied for free hosting at Acidmist and we were granted it. At Acidmist we got free hosting and a free domain and all we had to do was put a small banner at the top of the site. What a great deal! While leaving Zelda Universe was taking a step backwards, having a brand new domain and an increasing fan base was taking two steps forward.

Layout 4.0 was launched on May 3rd, 2003. This layout was downloaded from a free template site, Free Layouts. It was good at the time, but then started to feel really plain after a few months. The black and blue was pretty nice and was quite different than the white layouts we previously had. On May 3rd, I hired one of most valuable staff members Zelda Dungeon has ever had in Cartoons. He initially joined the site as a content writer, but worked really hard right from the start and I eventually gave him access to the site. Much like Steph though, a lot of Cartoons original content contributions have since been rewritten, but his initial work was a great addition at the time. His time and devotion he put into the site was incredible. Several months later he became a co-webmaster of the website. Cartoons is one of the major reasons Zelda Dungeons is where it is at today. Zelda Dungeon thrived during this period and on the eve of our second birthday we hit the mark of 1000 visitors in a single day.

Layout 5.0 launched on November 25th, 2003. At the time it was my favorite layout to date. The layout was created by Avenged, then the Webmaster of a now closed website, Zelda Chronicles. The layout was a return to the initial Zelda Dungeon colors of green, and man did it have a lot green in it. While not noticeable in just the index picture available, there were over 10+ shades of green all throughout the site and I definitely felt it gave it a great Zelda feel. It had a feeling of old school Zelda with the official art from the original Legend of Zelda and the awesome Dark World banner at the top. During this time period I was able to affiliate with one of my biggest inspirations, Zelda Power.

Layout 6.0 hit the net on the on March 30th, 2004. This layout was our first layout to have a quick navigation of buttons at the top for each Zelda game. This was created by one of our many staff members that came and went over the years. Unfortunately he left before it was quite finished and it had to be patched together by Cartoons and I. Thus, the layout wasn't perfect and did get old rather quickly. Our site had outgrown Acidmist and we were having bandwidth problems every month. We also had to put up new pop-up advertisements and the site was constantly going down. After a search for a new host, we moved to what has been the greatest hosting experience I've ever been through with Telefragged. They gave us basically unlimited space and bandwidth and also had a whole lot better tech support than any previous host. When we did re-launch at Telefragged, we had lost our zeldadungeon.com domain name since Acidmist originally purchased it. We did lose a good amount of our visitors then but were able to quickly rebound. On July 28th, 2004 we contacted Telefragged about purchasing a new domain name and to our surprise they offered to purchase the domain name for us. We were now located at zeldadungeon.net where we can still be found today. Also, during this time period we switched over to Cutenews, which allowed other staff members to update easily without having to adjust html pages.

Layout 7.0 launched shortly after our 3rd birthday, on August 23rd, 2004. Our staff member at the time, MetalMallow created this layout. It was his first attempt at a Zelda Dungeon layout and it was pretty nice when it first launched. However, after a few months this one also fell off. I was never a big fan of this layout, as I just didn't like the plain white layouts that we use to have. However, the overall fan reaction to this layout was a good one. Hits began to flourish yet again and it was during this time that Cartoons launched our first attempt at a forum. It was a phpBB forum and began to pick up some popularity rather quickly.

Layout 8.0 launched on February 25th, 2005. The new golden look was a much better look than the previous white look we had. During this layouts era, Zelda Dungeon thrived to new heights and it was on April 2nd, 2005, that a new single highest hit total was reached at Zelda Dungeon when we received 3159 different viewers at Zelda Dungeon in a single day! With this milestone, Zelda Dungeon grew to be become one of the most well known Zelda websites on the net. It was also at this time when we started getting recognized by some of the largest Zelda sites when we affiliated with two greats in Ganons Tower and our old host, Zelda Universe. On April 25th, 2005 we re-launched a new phpBB forum as well after problems with the original forum. The forum began to pick up greatly right off the bat and became very active by the summer of 2005.

Layout 9.0 was launched on Zelda Dungeons 4th birthday, August 19th, 2005. Cartoons organized the creation of the layout with Henry of Zelda Dimension being the main man behind it. Zelda Dungeon's very own MetalMallow and Chance also contributed in making the layout. The layout was quite a surprise to me, as I didn't even know about it until the day it launched. The green had returned to Zelda Dungeon and it was a pretty basic layout. Looking back at it now, the layout was quite generic and really was not nearly as special as I initially thought it was. Nonetheless, it was arguably our best layout to date. During this time period Zelda Dungeon found another co-webmaster in Avenged, formally Chrono. Avenged was the Webmaster of his own Zelda fan website, Zelda Chronicles, but after some downtime he brought over his years of experience to Zelda Dungeon.

Layout 10.0 launched on February 12th, 2006. The layout was created by Avenged and had a cool NES theme to it with the banner from the Legend of Zelda and the rest of the site from the Adventure of Link. It surely was very unique and a bit different to the symmetric look that Zelda Dungeon was stuck on in its previous 9 layouts. Unfortunately during this time period, Zelda Dungeon was in somewhat of a recession. In general the entire Zelda community was falling a bit after the delay of Twilight Princess and Zelda Dungeon wasn't able to avoid this plague. This layout was really a gem at Zelda Dungeon, but for one reason or another, it had a very short lifespan.

Layout 11.0, also created by Avenged, was launched on April 19th, 2006. At first the layout shined and I really enjoyed the A Link to the Past Dark World theme to it. The new look was very busy with images and links all over the place utilizing the entire layout. Unfortunately the general public had mixed reactions about it because of the bright gold-based color scheme. During this time period Avenged left Zelda Dungeon to work on his new anime site Planet Vegeta and to resurrect his Zelda website, Zelda Chronicles. Avenged provided me with the help I needed to keep the site at a high quality level during his time at Zelda Dungeon.

Layout 12.0 launched on August 19th, 2006 and was created by a new staff member. Jessica. The launch of the layout was somewhat of a debacle as we had a different layout ready to go but after many problems and delays we simply couldn't get it working just right. Thus, Layout 12.0 was put together in a relatively short period of time. I was not a big fan of the dull green in it and preferred several of our previous layouts. Not much happened at Zelda Dungeon during this time period. Cartoons was no longer a key member of the site and in the beginning of 2007 he decided to hang up his boots for good and retire from his webmaster role at Zelda Dungeon. While it was unfortunate to see him go, this was inevitable for the last year and half. Thus, during much of this layout I searched for new staff members and even new sites to potentially merge with to replace what was lost. Unfortunately there were several failed mergers with a bunch of large Zelda websites including Zelda Compendium, Zelda Legacy, and LegendofZelda.com.

Layout 13.0 was also created by Jessica and launched on February 25th, 2007. The bright baby blue look to it was quite different to anything that has been seen before and it began somewhat of a mini revolution at Zelda Dungeon. The site was changing with the inclusion of more video oriented content and even video based updates. One of these additions was the video game review show hosted by Mas & Vic. We take a look at classic title for the NES and put a bit of knowledge and humor into the show. During this time period I also hired a new staff member in Caleb. He has been a great asset to the site and he has rejuvenated my interest in making Zelda Dungeon the best game content site that it could be. Together we had worked together to re-write some of our old content with a new stress on well-displayed images and completeness.

Layout 14.0 was released on May 14th, 2007 and is the current layout here at Zelda Dungeon. Avenged makes his return as Zelda Chronicles joined up with Zelda Dungeon for a second time. The layout, created by Avenged, was a work of art. Easily the most graphically intense layout we've had to date. The site focus had expanded to cover more than just game content and now had an emphasis on other forms of content, such as articles, publications, and text sources from the Zelda world. The site also put more of an emphasis on community-based news, often updating on what has been occurring at some of our affiliates. The launch also saw a bunch of large Zelda sites join up as affiliates with the site including previous affiliates Zelda Power, Ganons Tower, Zelda Legends, Zelda Planet, and North Castle. With the release of Phantom Hourglass on October of 2007, Zelda Dungeon reached new heights yet again, surpassing 5600 visitors in a single day. I have worked together with Caleb, who was promoted to a Webmaster role, to put a new standard on our game content, with more of a strategy guide look to our walkthroughs. In October of 2007, Avenged had stepped down from his role as Webmaster of Zelda Dungeon. On October 15th, 2007, Zelda Dungeon also saw the launch of a brand forum. We had abandoned the phpBB forums and shifted over to the smoother, myBB. The new message board has developed a new identity of cutting all the general sections and stuck with the basics of pure Zelda.

Layout 15.0 released on November 22nd, 2007. This layout featured quite a different twist to your usual Zelda Dungeon layout. Created by Caleb, the layout tried to make the viewer feel like they were within a level. It is quite impressive and definately one of my favorites to date. With the launch of the new layout, Zelda Dungeon created a partnership with somewhat of an underground Zelda website, Zelda's Secret Ocarina. A site that featured rare findings within Beta incarnations of Zelda titles.