Zophar's Domain
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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. On September 20, 2000, the site was passed on to Sam Michaels, previously the site's CGI programmer.[1]
Zophar's Domain was intended as an "emulation hub," a congregation of wares and enthusiasts. The site was maintained by a number of people with unique "handles" who focused on a particular area of emulation. The frequency of news updates gradually decreased after the founder was no longer associated with the site. It features news and downloads for emulators, translation patches, utilities, hacks, and video game music. Within the online video game emulation community it was often referred to as "ZD."
Present state
From November 2006 to June 17, 2008, Zophar's Domain was inactive. Michaels has stated that it should be considered an "archive." In its prime, it was generally regarded as an excellent news resource, reporting on every area of emulation development. It had high coverage and popularity according to Alexa.[2]
On November 9, 2006, Zophar's Domain's 10-year anniversary, the site was voluntarily closed. Michaels promptly received an outpouring of support, proving that the site has a loyal fanbase, and restored the site for the foreseeable future after approximately 12 hours.
The logo was modified in late September 2006 and a cat was added sitting on the logo, on the insistence of several forumers.[3]
On June 17, 2008, a message on the site replaced the one stating archival, claiming that Zophar's Domain would be re-opening, and anyone interested in helping update the site should contact the webmaster, as well as the addition of a new forum system replacing the outdated WWWThreads.
Legal troubles
On February 19, 2002, Nintendo of America invoked the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and sent a letter to Zophar's Domain demanding that they stop selling Game Boy Advance Flash Linkers and turn over remaining stock to Nintendo. They stopped selling the devices, but the stock was never confiscated.[4][5]
As of July 2012, Zophar's Domain no longer provides commercial ROMs and ISOs; they only provide public domain ROMs now.