Well technically anyway. Zelda Power started of as "Zelda 64 On-Line" back in early 1998. I worked on the web site in January and February and finally got it onto the internet for a public launch on March 26th 1998.

Back in those days, the internet was still in it's infancy - there didn't appear to be many flashy web sites around and certainly running a database content web site like we do now, was no easy feat.

The website was designed to be pretty basic but as informative as possible. I literally updated the site at least once a day - maybe more! It mainly started of with as much information I could gather about the Ocarina of Time as well as hundreds of screen shots that I could find.

Unfortunately, the web site was hosted on a friend's server and I wasn't allowed a major amount of space which caused problems at times. As well as this, I did have a weird URL to the web site which I can not even remember now! Eventually a web forwarding service allowed a easier URL of "http://fly.to/Zelda64online" which made it easier for people to access the page.

The site took a month or so to really start getting visitors. I had about 20 a day for a month, but I was still happy with this. After a month or so it started to rise, but there was another Zelda web site which was doing the business and taking away my viewers!

From memory, that web site was Z64. They were getting 400-600 people visiting a day. That was my "target". I would be happy if I ever got that amount of people, and for me - it would be good to know that people took my site seriously.

One day a few months later, I managed to get hold of an exclusive 1 minute video of new Zelda ocarina of time action. I hosted it and nicely - Z64 told people about it. For a few days my site was being viewed by 600 people a day. The mail started flooding in as well, which prompted me to open the "rumor" section which became one of the most popular parts of the site.

Then an email dropped in. It was from someone known as Viper from a gaming network. Truth be told, I have forgotten the name - but the site was envolved into www.consolecity.com.

Viper offered me the chance for a proper web site host, as well as some ad revenue. I was happy about this and the web site was reborn with a new design and web address.

We had access to a chat channel on the server which was hugely popular back in the day. We used to have anywhere up to 30-40 people at a time and this is where i spent a huge amount of my time as well as making many new friends.

The web site eventually was re launched as Zeldapower.com in around Feb 1999, although whether or not it re-launched with a new design I am not sure - it could have been as late as 2000.

I was just finishing college at this time, when one of my tiwanese friends from the course went back home and got a job at Nintendo in Japan. Yes, thats right - this is where the "Ask Sam" segment was born. This was a huge seller of the web site - we had huge amounts of interest for it, including some magazines willing to pay big bucks for Sams contact. Alas, Sam nearly got into trouble at least twice so this was not a good idea. After a year or two of doing this, Sam's girlfriend was involved in a car crash and we thought best to call it a day - as well as the obvious risks of being caught at work for supplying us with information.

The web site also hosted several fan games including my own "Virtual Link" and "A Twist of Fate" games. They proved very popular along with several other games, including a series of games by Kao - another Zeldapower.com staff member.

In late 2000 Zeldapower.com moved to another gaming network. I was offered a better server and a few benefits such as tickets to E3 in 2001. The Gamecube was set to be shown and I took along a friend (bear in mind I'm in the UK so the travel was quite a distance) and we had a great time. Downtown LA left a lot to be desired but the couple of weeks I was in the area was enjoyable.

Meeting Shigeru Miyamoto was a highlight, the whole thing was literally a once in a lifetime experience for me.

Unfortunately later in 2001 problems arose and that certain gaming network closed down.

From memory, one of our staff members - Kosovar - found a host and got the web site all set up. Without Kosovar, the site probably would not have returned. Big Thanks for that.

The site has had it's problems every so often, including being down for a few months. But it wouldn't still be around for the dedicated work of Kosovar and Kao so if you get the chance, say thanks to them.

Unfortunately myself, I do not get to spend as much time as I used to working on the site. But the early days will be something I'll never forget, especially the great people I got to know from the web site and chat room.

I hope you all enjoy the latest design of Zeldapower.com and it's slowly starting to get back all the great stuff that was available on previous versions of the website.

Happy Birthday Zeldapower! And may the Zelda Legacy continue!