“Though it’s not a site updated every other day as some, North Castle has proven that slow and steady can do just as well as the fast and timely, mainly because North Castle is a site that plays things differently. It speaks of history, community, stories, and folklore, which remain to this day the true roots of the Legend of Zelda series. It’s no doubt that North Castle should win this award; it easily deserves that and much more.”
- The Missing Link, Founder of ZeldaBlog -
It takes a great deal of work to run a website.
It takes a great deal of work to run a website for a number of years.
Yet as fans of the Zelda series, we webmasters spend our free time designing, coding and writing; all in an effort to create a website that fellow Zelda fans can enjoy. Our initial enthusiasm can be great at first, but overtime some find that drive start to wane. Our desire runs dry; we move on to other interests and in many cases end up closing the site.
So if there is any thing that serves as a counterpoint to that example, it has to be North Castle.
Founded in the summer of 1997 by Lady Juliet, North Castle started out as little site in a very small Zelda community. After all there were only four games in the series, and no one really knew how well this “Ocarina of Time” would be, especially making the jump to 3D. But Ocarina of Time was a hit and with it the Zelda community exploded, with numerous sites focusing their attention solely on the new arrival.
However North Castle decided to keep its focus on the games before Ocarina of Time. Even when everyone was embracing the excellence that was Zelda 64, North Castle already started to distinguish themselves from the pack; providing a home for the “Vintage Zelda” games, so to speak.
In addition focusing on pre-OOT games, North Castle grew to include several unique sections including: an extensive fan written history section, the “Dreambook” where the endless possibilities of the series could be explored and even a romance section for all the die hard LinkxZelda shippers out there. NC also began to focus on Fan works, their archives containing everything from fiction to artwork to humour, you name it. To this day it still have one of the largest collection of Fan works in the community.
But what North Castle is probably most well known for is its longevity. It is the oldest active Zelda site in the community today, having been open for almost 13 years. Despite its age, North Castle is still a popular website, and also features one of the largest and oldest Zelda forums in the community.
For some people, being a leader has become synonymous with having the latest info, extensive game content, a huge media database, or even just being a frequent updater. These are all to be commended of course, but being a leader in the Zelda Community means much more than just the face value of a site. It means creating a website that shows your passion for the games. It means building something that has an impact on the Zelda community. It means sticking through the highs and lows of the community and becoming a respected icon over the years. And for 12 years North Castle has done exactly that.
Thus it is my pleasure to award this year’s Golden Mirror Shield for Lifetime Achievement to North Castle. Congratulations to Lady Juliet and the many people that have made North Castle what it is today and best of luck in the years to come.
