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| 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 indepth content. The current site Co-webmaster is Chrono, formally of Zelda Chronicles. He is responsible for some of the great content found at the site as well as the current Layout that is featured at Zelda Dungeon. Caleb, the most recent addition to the website, also contributes by providing very indepth content for several of the Zelda games. | | {{Infobox_Website |
| | | image = [[File:Zdungeon19.png|300px|Screenshot of the Zelda Dungeon homepage]] |
| | | url = http://www.zeldadungeon.net/ |
| | | language = English |
| | | owner = [[User:Mases554@legacy41957662|Mases Hagopian]] |
| | | webmaster = {{List|[[User:Mases554@legacy41957662|Mases Hagopian]], [[User:Caleb|Caleb Simpson]]}} |
| | |release= August 19th, 2001 |
| | | status = Active |
| | }} |
| | [http://www.zeldadungeon.net/ Zelda Dungeon] is a ''[[The Legend of Zelda (Series)|Legend of Zelda]]'' fan website created by [[User:Mases554@legacy41957662|Mases Hagopian]] on August 19th, 2001.<ref>[http://www.zeldadungeon.net/History.php History of Zelda Dungeon]. Site launch date of August 21st, 2001.</ref> The site's main purpose is to provide the most in-depth Zelda game guides possible, utilizing screenshots, maps, and artwork. |
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| Notable former staff members include Steph, the first staff member to be a part of the site other than Mases. She contributed by adding some of the initial content pages for several of the Zelda games. Cartoons is also very notable as he was the Co-Webmaster at Zelda Dungeon for nearly 4 years. His work at Zelda Dungeon including writing content and articles, but during his later days at the site, his focus was directed more towards fan interaction. He was the original creator of the old Zelda Dungeon forums as well as several of the Zelda interactive sections found at the site today.
| | Zelda Dungeon is also a former [[Community:Zelda Wiki|Zelda Wiki]] mastermind. The site was one of the earliest masterminds to join the project, but Mases formally resigned this status in mid-2011. |
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| In its current status, Zelda Dungeon has shifted towards more video based content in addition to the indepth textual and visual content that is accustomed to Zelda Dungeon. This new video content includes video walkthroughs complete with a dubbed voice over. It also includes the video reviews of Mas & Vic, who take a look at classic titles for the NES.
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| Zelda Dungeon now also has a shared forum with another popular Zelda website, Zelda Legacy. The forums are titled the Chamber of Sages and are a growing forum in the Zelda community.
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| http://www.zeldadungeon.net/
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| ==History== | | ==History== |
| | Zelda Dungeon was initially launched by Mases Hagopian on the date of August 19th, 2001. The website has had a rocky history which includes seventeen different layout designs, several site mergers, three different major forum incarnations, and dozens of staff members. In March of 2008, Zelda Dungeon won [[Exploding Deku Nut|Exploding Deku Nut's]] Golden Mirror Shield Award, a lifetime achievement award given to a website who has had significant contributions to the Zelda community.<ref>[http://www.explodingdekunut.net/interactive/giamain/lifetimeachievement2008.html Golden Mirror Shield Award]. Exploding Deku Nut's 2008 Golden Item Awards.</ref> The website currently stands as one of the most popular Zelda websites, reaching an audience of over 7500 unique visitors per day. |
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| [[Image:1.0.PNG|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 1.0]]
| | ==Community Forums== |
| '''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.
| | The current forum community at Zelda Dungeon was established on October 16th, 2007.<ref>[http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/showthread.php?t=12 New Forums Launched]. First post made at the Zelda Dungeon Forums.</ref> As of June of 2010, the forum has accumulated over 2,100 members and over 104,000 posts.<ref>[http://zeldadungeon.net/forum/ Zelda Dungeon Forum Community]. Statistics displayed at bottom of the forum.</ref> |
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| [[Image:2.0.PNG|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 2.0]]
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| '''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.
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| [[Image:3.0.PNG|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 3.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:4.0.GIF|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 4.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:5.0.JPG|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 5.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:6.0.JPG|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 6.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:7.0.jpg|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 7.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:8.0.jpg|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 8.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:9.0.PNG|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 9.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:10.0.JPG|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 10.0]]
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| 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.
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| [[Image:11.0.JPG|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 11.0]] | | ==Zelda Dungeon Wiki== |
| 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.
| | [[File:Zelda Dungeons Wiki (2021).png|300px|thumb|right|Screenshot of Zelda Dungeon Wiki]] |
| | After resigning as a [[Community:Zelda Wiki|Zelda Wiki]] mastermind, Mases launched a wiki of his own in February 2011, known simply as "Zelda Dungeon Wiki." This wiki was meant to be an extension of Zelda Dungeon's content pages in wiki format. |
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| [[Image:12.0.JPG|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 12.0]] | | {{Clear}} |
| 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.
| | ==Staff== |
| | Zelda Dungeon currently has ten listed staff members, including two active webmasters.<ref>[http://www.zeldadungeon.net/Staff.php Staff]. Listing of Zelda Dungeon staff members.</ref> Below is a listing of the site staff and their duties. |
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| [[Image:13.0.JPG|left|thumb|250 px|Layout 13.0]] | | *Avenged - Former webmaster who wrote content, updated with news, and administered the forums. He currently runs his own website, Zelda Chronicles. |
| 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.
| | *Axle the Beast - Writes content, moderators the forums, and runs the Curiosity Shop (the Zelda Dungeon Mailbag) |
| | *[[user:Caleb|Caleb]] - Webmaster who specializes in both site and video based walkthroughs. Also is one of the masterminds by the layouts and coding using at the site. |
| | *Cartoons - Former Webmaster and Forum Administrator who still comes around from time to time to help in the behind the scenes work at the site. |
| | *Dabombster - Former webmaster who currently comes around from time to time to help with content and advise on various projects. |
| | *[[user:Dark link01|Mr Mosley]] - Former Forum Administrator who helped to run day to day operations while also (and will continue) writing content for the site. |
| | *Hanyou - Is one of the article coordinators at the website. Also helps in moderating the Mature Discussion of the forum. |
| | *Jake - Serves as the News Coordinator, posting Zelda news as well as articles from around the community. |
| | *Jo - Media coordinator of the website. This includes working on uploading music and fixing up the soundtrack pages of the website. |
| | *Joseph - Serves as the Facebook Coordinator who is constantly posting news posts and interesting images, videos, and other tidbits at the ZD Facebook page. |
| | *[[user:Josh|Josh]] - Content specialist who writes walkthroughs and works on various other content for the site. |
| | *Justin - Site Administrator who helps with the behind the scenes coding of the site. |
| | *Kate - One of the image gallery managers. Uploads images to the gallery. |
| | *[[user:Mases|Mases]] - Webmaster who runs the day to day operations of the website, including providing news, writing walkthroughs, writing game content, as well as acting as the diplomat of Zelda Dungeon. |
| | *Petman - Helps out as an editor of the team and is in charge of the article department at Zelda Dungeon. |
| | *Scott - Content specialist and adviser in the content and layout department of the website. |
| | *[[User:Steven|Steve]] - General adviser and image specialist. |
| | *Din_Akera- Co-Creator and Co-host of Z-talk, the Zelda Dungeon PodCast |
| | *Rishian- Co-Creator and Co-host of Z-talk, the Zelda Dungeon PodCast |
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| [[Image:14.0.JPG|right|thumb|250 px|Layout 14.0]]
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| 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.
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| | ==External Links== |
| | * [http://www.zeldadungeon.net/ Zelda Dungeon] |
| | * [http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zelda-Dungeon/82676373293 Zelda Dungeon Facebook] |
| | * [http://www.gamefaqs.com/features/recognition/73289.html Zelda Dungeon GameFAQs account] |
| | * [http://www.youtube.com/user/TheZeldaDungeon Zelda Dungeon YouTube account] |
| | * [http://www.veoh.com/users/TheZeldaDungeon Zelda Dungeon Veoh Account] |
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| [[Category: Zelda Sites]] | | [[Category: Zelda Sites|Z]][[Category:Zelda Dungeon Community]] |
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