HTLOZ II Forums

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History

The History of HTLOZ

Hyrule: The Land of Zelda, or HTLOZ, was created in 1998, and eventually developed into one of the first popular Zelda websites. It was also infamous for its rumor mill, which churned out the Ariana Almondoz fiasco in early 1999. The site disappeared without warning early in 2002 when their host, Trintium Gaming Network, closed its doors. Chronologically, HTLOZ preceded hyrule.com.ar and later Zelda Universe as the most popular Zelda site.

Early HTLOZ

HTLOZ was originally founded as "Hyruleland" on Tripod in August, 1998, as part of the first generation of Zelda websites. The original staff consisted of Falco-X, Zerofoxie, and Wolfhang van Kraus. Visitors were quickly drawn to the site thanks to Wolfhang and Falco's "Dark Art" section and the artwork used in the site's presentation. With the site's popularity increasing, Falco-X expanded his staff to include Goldenboy7 and Ultima9999. Ultima9999 maintained HTLOZ's first forum, an "Inside the Web" board, where user registration was not required. Not much is known about this period because most of the users from that time period have vanished. The only lasting legacy of the Inside the Web forums was the infamous "TRIFORCEGUY" and his Triforce hoax. By October 1998, the site had taken on the name "Hyrule: The Land of Zelda," and moved to n64gamer.com. Shortly after this move, Spots joined the staff.

In February 1999, when speculation about the Triforce in Ocarina of Time was at its peak, HTLOZ unleashed a killer story: A reader by the name of Ariana Almondoz claimed to have found the Triforce, and had convincing screenshots to back it up. The result was explosive: Every Zelda site around the net came to focus on the story. The Odyssey of Hyrule in particular posted a full page on the story without permission, which gave rise to the first tensions between HTLOZ and The Odyssey of Hyrule (This would later be repeated with the publication of the Crooked Cartridge trick, but with fiery results). Within a week, a reader caught a giveaway in one of Ariana's images. Link's sword was sheathed on the wrong side of his back in a screenshot depicting him playing the "Overture of Sages." The entire story fell apart almost instantaneously, and community backlash towards the fraud was harsh. Ariana Almondoz's infamous hoax brought about the end for Ocarina of Time Triforce rumors.

Three months later, Falco-X updated HTLOZ's layout to the tabbed design that would be carried over to the final Flash version of the site later in 1999. HTLOZ disappeared shortly after the update, before re-emerging on its own domain at htloz.com with a new host, Trintium Gaming Network. Ultima9999 also switched the forums from Inside the Web to Casual Forums, and user registration became required for the first time. By June, HTLOZ began using Flash for its layout, featuring a movie on the splash page, various interactive elements in the site's navigation, and a few games.

By late 1999, the online Zelda community was in the midst of what has since been called a "Golden Era." It was during this time that tensions arose again between HTLOZ and Odyssey of Hyrule. The "Crooked Cartridge" code that The Odyssey of Hyrule's webmaster, Video Gamer X, had claimed as his own, had appeared without credit on HTLOZ's "Codes Bag" section. VGX responded by placing HTLOZ on The Odyssey of Hyrule's "Wall of Shame." Although The Odyssey of Hyrule had the Crooked Cartridge technique first, the trick's discoverer was in question. If anyone "owned" the Crooked Cartridge trick, it was it's discoverer, T-Dog. Furthermore, HTLOZ received the trick in a reader's email. Ultima9999 attemped to defuse the situation by removing the code, only to have it replaced by a defiant Falco-X. This was when the staff member "El Toro" appeared, who was simply an alter-ego for Falco-X. "El Toro" created a "Wall of Facts" page to dispatch HTLOZ's naysayers, in addition to a satirical take on The Odyssey of Hyrule known as "Maxwell Martinez's Page." After this exchange of words, tensions rose further, and forum members opened fire between boards. By early 2000, an exhausted Falco-X had moved the boards from Casual Forums to a locally hosted forum and password-protected them.

Fallout Shelter

On February 27th, 2000, following the closure of HTLOZ's forums, a user named Tempest launched an ezBoard known as the Fallout Shelter. This board was the first HTLOZ refuge, a tradition carried on by Indigo's Place, Gamer Crossfire, and HTLOZ II.

Remarkably, the Fallout Shelter is still online and can be viewed to this day.

Late HTLOZ

Espio, Flare50, Shadik, Brian and Blazer later joined the HTLOZ staff. Blazer opened a new vBulletin message board, which soon grew into the largest Zelda forum at the time. Here, a new legacy was born: Tri-Link's Cafe. Founded by Da_#1_Link, TLC was a sprawling, off-topic thread in the RPG Forum that reached over 40,000 replies before HTLOZ's end, a record for the Zelda community that stands to this day. As a matter of tradition, Tri-Link's has been revived on each successor to HTLOZ, but none ever approached the scale of the original (GXF was closest with 20,000 replies).

HTLOZ's end finally came about in early 2002, following a brief hacker incident at the forums. Just when it seemed HTLOZ would be reopening the forums, Trintium Gaming Network, HTLOZ's free host, decided to close it's doors. Falco-X, presumably short on time and tired of managing HTLOZ, didn't seek an alternative. Displaced members dispersed to hyrule.com.ar, Ganon's Tower, and the impromptu HTLOZ refuge, Gamers' Talk Elite (Later known as Gamer Crossfire). HTLOZ was never seen again.

The partially restored archives of HTLOZ can be browsed here.

Early Gamer Crossfire (GXF)

Gamer Crossfire, or GXF, was the successor to the briefly-lived Gamers Talk Elite forums. Launched in 2002 by Zelda-King, GXF's original purpose was to provide a refuge for HTLOZ members. The forum's goals later shifted to include a general gaming website. Despite several attempts by staff members, a successful site was never launched.

During GXF's lifetime, there were several hosting issues which temporarily shut the forums down and left the community stranded for extended periods of time. There were two major server downtimes that threatened GXF's integrity. These two blackouts separate GXF into three distinct periods: GXF 1 (2002), GXF 2 (2003), and GXF 3 (2004).

Of all three versions of the GXF, the first resembled the original HTLOZ the most. GXF 1 had a large focus on RPG threads, user activity, and the rules were very similar to those of HTLOZ. Towards the end of 2002, the first server blackout struck GXF 1 and stranded the forum community. HTWOZ then briefly emerged during this time.

HTWOZ

In the fall of 2002, ex-HTLOZ staffers Blazer and Brian attempted the first HTLOZ revival. The new site was named Hyrule: The World of Zelda, or HTWOZ for short, after being denied the rights to the name HTLOZ. Complications arose from hosting arrangements, and the project caved within the first quarter of 2003.

For posterity, a small archive of HTWOZ can be found here.

Late Gamer Crossfire

After HTWOZ fell through in 2003, Zelda King restored GXF on a new server, marking the beginning of GXF 2. In this incarnation, Zelda King wanted to stray from being recognized as merely an alternative for HTLOZ users. Revised forum rules and the first attempt at a site were introduced in order to help establish a unique identity for GXF. In late-2003, the GXF community was shut down yet again due to server issues. Many forumgoers fled to the Ganon's Tower forums until GXF returned.

Just before the turn of the new year, GXF returned. This was last and longest-lived incarnation of GXF. vBulletin 3.0, still in development stages at the time, was adopted during this period. A Flash-based arcade for users gained popularity during this period, but detracted from posting and drew in guests who held no intention of joining the community. Zelda King, now going by the name King-X, implemented a vBulletin portal on the front page that focused on video games. He featured some of his musical work on the site, and opened the forums up as a place that visitors could use to share their own music.

GXF closed its doors shortly before the opening of HTLOZ II in spring 2005. The site later returned in early 2006 under the new acronym, "GCF." Relieved of the burden of official HTLOZ refuge, Gamer Crossfire set out to establish itself as a general gaming site. Due to waning activity, however, the staff decided to close Gamer Crossfire at the end of 2006. There are no plans for its return.

The Tri-Link's Archives contain threads and files from GXF.

HTLOZ II

A teaser page for the HTLOZ revival was posted on the domain htloz.net in early spring 2005. Gamer Crossfire announced its closure shortly thereafter, directing users to the new site. On March 1st, 2005, HTLOZ II launched.

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