Zophar's Domain
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- For other uses of the word Zophar, see Zophar (disambiguation)
Zophar's Domain is an emulation website founded on November 9, 1996 by Brad Levicoff. The site's name comes from Lunar Eternal Blue on Sega CD, Saturn and Playstation. In 2000, the site was passed on to Sam Michaels, previously the site's CGI programmer.
Zophar's Domain was intended as an "emulation hub," a congregration of wares and enthusiasts. It's massive in coverage and popularity, the largest of its kind according to Alexa. [1] It features news and downloads for emulators, translation patches, utilities, hacks, and video game music. Within the online video game emulation community it is often referred to as "ZD."
At present, Zophar's Domain is very stagnant. Michaels has stated that it should be considered an "archive." In its prime, it was generally regarded as an excellent news resource for its large archives, covering almost ten years of emulation history.
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[edit] Attacks on the site
Between 2000 and 2002, ZD had a bitter feud with other emulation sites in the community, including one named EMU-LMAO (Emulation, Laughing My Ass Off), which was made to poke fun of other emulation websites for various reasons.[citation needed]
ZD faced a well-known hacking attempt while in its earlier CGI based days. In 2002, a moderator named "InVerse", a former staff member, posted users' private messages to the public, and deleted entire boards. This caused the forums to be shut down for a few days. Many believe that InVerse hacked the boards, but his actions were done using available features in the admin panel.[citation needed]
In a less-known (albeit arguably twisted) attack on the site, "Pachuka" also hacked into the site to prove he could be trusted. Soon after, he became a staff member again for a short period.[citation needed]
[edit] Legal troubles
In early 2002, Nintendo of America invoked the DMCA and sent a letter to Zophar's Domain demanding that they stop selling Flash Advance Linkers, which they eventually did [2].
Zophar's Domain does not provide ROMs, ISOs or BIOSes, and as such has been able to remain within the laws of copyright. The video game soundtrack section is a notable exception, but, though ZD had been the subject of video game industry attention for other issues, the soundtrack archives have never yet come under legal attack (as of December 2006).
[edit] Present state
On November 9th, 2006; Zophar's Domain's 10 year anniversary, the site was declared "dead". Michaels promptly received an outpouring of support, proving that he has a loyal fanbase, and restored the site for the foreseeable future after approximately 12 hours.[3]
With only 29 news items since April 2005 and only one since December 25th, 2005, the site is often considered to be "dead." Michaels stated on the forums that the site should be considered an "archive," rather than a news source.
The logo was modified in late September 2006 and a cat was added sitting on the logo, on the insistence of several forumers; in contrast to rumors of it signifying the archival or stagnant state.[4](registration required)
