Well, the history of The Desert Colossus surely isn't the Greatest Story Ever Told, but it's pretty interesting (at least for me). In honor of five (um, non-concurrent) years on the Internet, I have compiled a complex history of The Desert Colossus along with a small gallery of our faces and whatever little tidbits I could find that were worth putting up. Below you'll find a museum of old layouts and a history of each, as well as a Thanks section, and a fun little "TDC By the Numbers" section (off to the right). Enjoy!

Version 1.0 Where it all began...

First of all, excuse the pathetic screenshot. Despite my best attempts and years of lawsuits (not really), the old Desert Colossus still remains, more or less, alive and well at it's original location. The site itself was not my first, but it was still very amateurish in both design and implementation. My writing was immature and pubescent, compared to how I write today. If you check it out you can tell from the frequent "yays" and other flourishes that screamed "n00b!"

Nevertheless, and criticisms aside, this is really where it all began. I was very proud of this site, I thought it was a nice niche kind of Zelda site, with a charm all its own, which is relatively true. On October 20, 1999 I opened TDC for the first time, though not as a Zelda gaming site, but rather a companion site to a Zelda RPG group of the same name. After a few weeks I decided to launch a game guide to Ocarina of Time on it, and soon after a Link's Awakening guide followed. I got bored with the concept of Zelda RPGs and devoted TDC purely to the Zelda gaming series. What followed was a glut of improvement on the game guides, including ones for Legend of Zelda and Adventure of Link, as well as new sections like the Mailbag and even the debut of our much-loved Who Would Have Thunk It? section.

Around December of 1999 or so TDC got "headhunted" by the webmaster of Megaman Online, who informed me that his host, Videogame Zone Network (VGZN) was looking for promising sites to host and they asked me to join them. I of course agreed (since Angelfire is a death wish of sorts for website growth) and on January 9, 2000 Version 1.0 saw its last update.

Before I move onto the next chapter, I want to note that TDC in stage could not have been what it was (the good parts that is) without the help of three great staffers: La Resistance, Marco Bartoli, and Xvfiregodvx. They all played their special part in TDC's tale. Now, moving on...

Version 2.0 New and improved...

On January 15 of 2000, The Desert Colossus relaunched at the address zelda.vgznetwork.com (don't go there now, it's a search engine mirror) with a brand new layout and a determination to make our name known. By this time the staffers had left and I was on my own to this aim. Fortunately, I did quite well, making TDC a very popular site in its own little way. There was trouble in paradise though, and I didn't get along with VGZN's webmaster very well, and I ended up taking TDC elsewhere. It was good timing too, since VGZN, named Lusoris Online at that time, collapsed a few months later.

Version 3.0 Before the fall...

I wish I knew the date, but sometime in late 2000/early 2001 the Desert Colossus launched once more at colossus.zeldagames.com (nothing of ours is there anymore, though). I celebrated with a brand new layout, which was much more professional looking than the two previous ones. It was at this time that the Caption Game debuted as a feature, as well as the Pressbox, which was a fun little feature where readers could pose a question to Zelda characters and they would answer it in a comical fashion. Things went along swimmingly for sometime until mid-summer 2001 when, after a long period of intermittent downtime, zeldagames.com went down permanently and took TDC with it. I subsequently lost interest in rebuilding TDC, and it passed into obscurity as I let it languish in the Internet graveyard for nearly a year.

Then, in March of 2002, I was talking with an old affiliate (the webmaster of City of Clocktown, no longer open) and mentioned I was thinking of bringing back TDC. He was excited about the idea and mentioned it at some message board. Some viewers there saw it, as well as the webmaster of zeldauniverse.net. He offered to host The Desert Colossus at his site and I happily agreed.

Version 4.0 Begun again...

On March 28, 2002 TDC launched after nearly a year out of the game (er, metaphorically, of course) at the address colossus.zeldauniverse.net. Out of all the version thus far, this one was far and away the absolute best. At this time our popularity was immense and TDC as whole was doing very well. Unfortunately, after a few months, I once again lost interest, and pathetically just stopped updating. I will never stop regretting that action. Well, the result was TDC was removed from Zelda Universe's server, and passed once more into the shadow, waiting to be revived in the future.

Version 5.0 Begun again, once again...

Who's up for a metaphor? No? Too bad. Ironically in a way, much like the Hyrule that lay at the bottom of the Great Sea, it took the Wind Waker to bring The Desert Colossus up to the surface and back in the website business. After playing Wind Waker, I was re-energized with Zelda zeal and sought to somehow bring back TDC. I originally contacted Zelda Universe's webmaster, but he (and how can I blame him) refused to host us once more. So, I turned to my own means and bought hosting space and a domain name. On March 30, 2004, more than a year after TDC closed down for the second time, and two years and two days to the day Version 4.0 launched, version 5.0 debuted at the address www.desertcolossus.com. I originally sought to keep this site small and more archival in nature, but the Zelda zeal always hits me hard, and I couldn't help but expand. Now TDC is home to tons of great features, articles, games, and guides. We are one of the oldest Zelda sites, and certainly (at I think) one of the best.

As I said when I redebuted this site, I swear I will not shut down the Desert Colossus ever again. I will keep this site open as long as I can, and then some.

A Big THANK YOU Goes Out To...

La Resistance, Marco Bartoli, Xvfiregodvx, the old guard of staffers. You guys helped start TDC on the good path. Thank you!
Sirius for her diligent work as TDC's music editor back in the day. I know you will never read this, but nevertheless, your help was instrumental (no pun intended) in TDC's growth. Thank you so much!
Juliet Singleton for all her. Ever since we started, she and North Castle have been nothing but great friends to me and us. I wish her ever-continuing success at the helm of NC.
My affiliates and the Zelda Community for accepting TDC back into the fold despite two shutdowns, and for being great sources of inspiration.
Nintendo for making the Zelda series, and especially Miyamoto-san for creating Link, Zelda, and the rest. And how could I possibly forget you guys, the readers, the ones who drive me to make this site the best it can be everyday. Thank you all for your continued faith and and readership!

Well, I hope you enjoyed this section it was fun, and a little nostalgia-inducing to get into words. One last time, Happy Birthday to us, and here's to many more in the future!