Zophar's Domain

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. [ [http://www.zophar.net/oldnews/2000_09.html News Archive - September 2000] ]

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. [ [http://www.alexa.com/data/details/main?url=zophar.net Site Information for: zophar.net] ]

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; in contrast to rumors of it signifying the archival or stagnant state. [ [http://www.zophar.net/wwwthreads/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=diaries&Number=288469&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1] (registration required)]

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in helping update the site should contact the webmaster, as well as the addition of a new forum system replacing the outdated WWWThreads. Two different betas of the new site can currently (as of June 27, 2008) be accessed.

On August 4, 2008, Brad Levicoff (Zophar) reappeared after a lengthy eight year internet presence absence. He is currently an active poster on Zophar's Message Domain and enjoys contributing what he can to the emulation forums community.

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. [ [http://slashdot.org/yro/02/02/20/1627204.shtml NOA to Sue for Flash Advance Linkers] ] [ [http://www.zophar.net/getnews.phtml?num=3857 From: Nintendo of America, To: ZD] ]

Zophar's Domain does provide commercial ROMs and ISOs, up to and including the Fifth Generation of video game consoles. [cite web | url=http://roms.zophar.net/ | title="Zophar's ROM Archive" | date=March 2008]

References

External links

* [http://www.zophar.net/ Zophar's Domain]
* [http://web.archive.org/web/19990430015359/http://zophar.net/ Zophar's Domain archived page, April 30, 1999]
* [http://www.zophar.net/oldnews/2000_09.html Zophar's Domain News Archive, September 2000: Site News: The End of an Era: Brad 'Zophar' Levicoff to depart ZD, Sam Michaels left in charge]