The Amazing History of Exploding Deku Nut

The Beginning:
1999 - 2000

Some of you may be surprised, but the actual history of the site begins here. Back then I was just a Zelda gamer and Exploding Deku Nut was just an idea rattling inside my head. During that time I began visiting numerous Zelda sites such as The Grand Adventures, Zelda Power and Kasuto.Net. Eventually I decided to give it a shot. Opening up FrontPage I produced this within an hour.

Needless to say it wasn’t very good, and initial frustration caused me to abandon making a site for now.

Early Ideas:
2001 - 2002

Roughly one year later, I decided to try again. This time I learned to use tables, rather then auto shapes in creating the layout. My tools around this time was MS Paint and FrontPage. I also invited my friend, Agent 101, to help me look for webhosts and fill the site with content. While we got some inital layout drawings finished, schoolwork would delay it's online counterpart for some time. 

Exploding Deku Nut is Born:
June 2002 - November 2002

Upon the arrival of summer, we finally sat down and created the site. We searched for up and down, high and low, days on end for a server, before finally settling on 50megs.com.

Then the big question came. What do we put on it and what do we call it? I'm sure as many webmasters know, finding an original idea for a Zelda site is both a challenging and frustrating process. However, whilst surfing through several Zelda sites, I noticed there was something major missing from all of them. Zelda Humor. Each site had a few jokes, some pictures, those horrible "You know you're a Zelda addict when.." lists, but never a substantial humor section. We would change that. We would make our site a Zelda humor site.

The idea to write satires came from three places. The first was a fanfic I had read years ago on the now defunct "Zelda Games". It was rather short and plainly titled story called “A Zelda Comedy”, but it showed me how funny the series could be if you have some imagination. 

The second inspiration came from “The Grand Adventures”. Specifically the “Say What” section of their site. I had initially wanted to do something close to that, but lacked an artist at the time.
 
Finally the last inspiration came from Canada’s "Royal Canadian Air Farce". Not only did it provide much needed humor, it gave us the idea to write Zelda satire.

With our site concept in hand we marched forward, triumphant we were about to create the best thing for the internet since email. However we still had to find a name for it. The original name I thought of back in 1999, was “Zelda Dimension”. A quick Google search revealed that name was already taken. So during the next 6 hours, we brainstormed names ranging from “Zelda Rocks” to “Big Fat Zelda”. Even my little sister tried to give us a few ideas (Zelda Awesome Yes!). Finally in desperation, I turned to my friend and said  "Well, there’s the 'Great Deku Tree'. What if we named it after an item?”

“Ok, what about Smashing Deku Stick, or Imploding Blue Bomb?”

It was at this moment a dawning revelation came to me. With dramatic slowness, I turned to my friend and spoke the words that would change the Zelda Community forever.

“Exploding Deku Nut?”

Silence lasted for 30 seconds. Then, simultainously we both erupted into laugher. The name was absolutely ridiculus, yet it fit so well we kept it.

Contrary to popular belief, we launched Exploding Deku Nut in the July of 2002 with nothing on it. It remained that way until the posting of our first satire on November 25th, 2002. With that post, Exploding Deku Nut officially became part of the Zelda community.   

Revision:
Early 2003 - November 2003

There isn’t much to say about our initial months, mainly because no one saw it. While we filled the satire archives with vigor, our site was virtually non-existent to the outside world. This was partially due to the fact that I had neglected to affiliate with anyone for the better part of a year.

But, in the summer of 2003, Layout 2.0 was launched. The frame layout allowed for easier affiliate updating and superior navigation. It was also during this time we experimented with different mottos for the subtitle. We tested three before we stayed with “Cause Humor Ain’t Just for Crazy People”

Finally with this all settled, I began to apply for affiliation. My first and currently longest affiliate was Lysia from Legends and Adventure. By the time the site turned one, we had a record 5 affiliates. Things were looking good.

Another Layout:
Late November 2003 - Late January 2004

And just like that disaster strikes. Well, it wasn’t that big of a disaster, but it taught me the importance of making backups. Around December my computer crashed, deleting all my files. Fortunately I had a backup from the 5th of December, but I wanted to use this opportunity to create a more appealing layout. So when the computer was back up, I got Photoshop 7.0 installed, and went about creating the 3rd version of EDN. It appeared late January.

AlL y0ur PHP's are b3L0ngs 2 US!:
April 2004 - September 2004

Up to this point, I had been updating each page whenever I added a single affiliate. This is fine when as site has 5 pages. But when one is close to 100 it becomes a waste of time.

That’s how I was introduced to the magical wonders of PHP. PHP looked like it could solve all my problems and more. So during Easter Break I spent a week learning the mechanics of PHP. This was also when I started using the ZGames navigation bar in my layouts.

All in all, I managed to get every thing working with PHP and the site was up in time for "Stop Annoying Characters Day" on July 19th, 2004.

It was also during this time I received my first instant message regarding my site. Before then the only correspondence I ever had was through email, so this marked the first time someone actually contacted me to say they liked the site. These first two people happened to be Dinker and Linker from…”Dinker and Linker”. They were big supporters of the site and later major members of the forums.
 
Layout.php?crazyhard=neweverything.php:
September 2004 - November 2004

While browsing through a forum that I used to post at,  I stumbled on a topics discussing amazing free webhosts. Archaic Sage of Rauru's Return posted a link to dhost.info. DHost seemed to be offering the amazing package of 100MB space, 300GB of bandwidth, supporting PHP, mySQL with no ads, for free. I saw this as a chance to remove these meddlesome ads once and for all. So I signed up. I had plans to purchase a domain name, but threw that out when I discovered DHost didn't support it. Forced to stick with the old dot.tk name, I began transferring the site over. I also used this time to create a more cleaner layout. What took the longest was making a PHP based layout, with almost two weeks passing by with no updates. Fans were patient, waiting and still waiting for the site to reopen. Finally with an amazing brown layout and a new phpBB board, I opened EDN for the first time without any ads or popups. (Minus of course the dot.tk ones)

Hosted by the fantabulous Legend of Zelda.com!:
December 2004 - January 2005

EDN has gone though many servers, but this was the first time I was offered hosting by a fellow webmaster. Alex, the webmaster of LOZ.com offered to host my site around late November - Early December. I was quite reluctant at the start, seeing as I had just switched hosts and everything. However in the middle of December, DHost servers started crashing. I myself could not access my page or forums for over a week. Fearing this could be a frequent problem, I accepted the offer and moved the site to LOZ.com. The move took longer than I expected, it always does, but in the end it was a good decision.

Nothin much 'cept an Image Gallery:
January 2005 - June 2005

During this time I continued to update the site, though school and work cut down the time significantly. The odd satire and content was written here and there. But the biggest update made was Layout 7.0.. My host also installed an image gallery to store pictures. It also doubled as a "Post your own Fan Art" gallery.

The Zelda Community "Revolution":
August 2005 – December 2005

This period of time was a rather turbulent one in the Zelda community. A mix up between two of my affiliates left the community in pieces. People were siding with one site, boycots were occuring. It seemed the whole community was tearing itself apart. Seeing the problem, many sites decided it was time for fans to work together, rather than compete with each other. It was with this idea that TML of "The Grand Adventures" founded "Zelda Blog", a site run and updated by several prominent webmasters and article writers. "Zelda Blog" allowed members from different sites to write articles for the blog. I was privileged at being one of the original article writers and decided to continue my series, "A Somewhat Serious Articles" on Zelda Blog

I also finally launched a project that I had been keeping a secret for over a year: "Accidentally Linked" a Zelda webcomic, created, written and drawn by me. Accidentally Linked allowed me to further expand the range of Zelda humor into webcomics, something that I had wanted to do since I founded the site.

Anxiety, Animosity, E3:
January 2006 – May 2006

I can honestly say that for the 7 years I’ve been part of the Zelda community, this period of time was the most irritated I have ever seen fans become. During this time the launch date and such for the Revolution and therefore, Twilight Princess was still unknown. Articles were popping up all over the place; mainly expressing discontent with the long wait, hype, etc etc.

Then came the bombshell. Nintendo changed the console name from its codename “Revolution” to “Wii”. Suffice to say, this caused a firestorm of laughter, criticism, and debate across the gaming community. For Zelda fans, our disbelief also permeated every aspect of our conversation. Either way, Nintendo refused to budge an inch, stating that Wii was the perfect name for a global console.

It was finally on E3 that we got the information we were starving for: a look at how the game would be played with the Wiimote. The demo excited some and turned off others. But it was enough to satisfy most fans until the release date would finally be announced.

Frozen in TIME:
June 2006 – July 2006

The end of E3 also marked another milestone in the history of EDN. The a server move on the part of LoZ.com caused the PHP links I used to cease working for some reason. This coupled with the desire to have staff members to post their own content led me to install a new content management system for EDN. Freezing the site once more,  I decided to take the opportunity to change layouts again.

I'm obligated to mention dramtically at this point that little did I know what I was getting into.

I had not counted on the fact that work and other commitments would siphon away all my free time. Also, I had never done an interface design before, which only added to my growing stress and agitation.. In the end, I had put over 100 hours of work designing and coding Version 9.0 of the site. While this change did make updating pages much simpler, it also cost me an entire summer of content updates. Finally, on July 31 the site reopened: stronger and more powerful than you could possibly imagine. 

+100 to Waiting:
August 2006 - November 2006

If the first seven months of 2006 was painfully long, the remaining four was even longer. Since the Gamecube version of Twilight Princess was pushed back, people who needed their Zelda fix needed to get a Wii, and get it now. So on Novemeber 18th, 2006, I with thousands of other crazys, camped overnight infront of stores to pick up their precious Wii's and copies of Twilight Princess. Communitywise, the hype that had surrounded TP for so long brought a boon of new websites into the fold. I really didn't notice, since I was glued to my monitor for the remaining 5 weeks of the year.

Site Slowdown, Zelda Blog Closes:
December 2006 - November 2007

2007 was not a good year for Exploding Deku Nut. The fact that I can summarize an entire year in this little paragraph is testiment to that fact. However, over the summer I restored the remaining FIFTY pages that were left out with the CMS change last year. Changes to the 2007 Golden Item Awards introduced two new categories: The Golden Light Arrow and The Golden Mirror Shield. I also revoked the rule that prohibited a site from winning twice, resulting in two sites winning two awards each. Sadly, other responisbilities meant EDN had to be neglicted like the poor webmaster I am. Also my HD decided one day it hated me and failed spectactularly. Thus I had lost a year and a half worth of PSD files, including the much anticipated Layout 10.0. Such crying will never be heard again.

This year also saw the closure of Zelda Blog. With time constraints and few submissions from other writers, TML made the decision to close the blog down, while leaving the site in readable format. It's closure surprised alot of people in the community in addition to spawning several, if not shortlived, "copycat" sites

The Astounding Return of Exploding Deku Nut
November 2007 - January 2008

Since 2007 had sucked so epically, I vowed 2008 would be the defining year for Exploding Deku Nut. This 'defining year' started on the site's fifth birthday with the launch of Layout 10.0: Hyacinthine Phosphorscence. The layout change was also accompanied by upgrades to the CMS code, the oft forgotten image gallery, and changes to the forums. All which you can't really see, but trust me it's there. I also spent the time updating old pages such as the About Us section, Contacts page, Site History, and Site Staff.

In December, Zelda Blog was mysteriously absent from the internet. TML posted a message decribing how his server HD also decided one day to hate him and thus take all his server content and flush it down the tube. With the loss of all the files, TML decided to close the site down for good. After attaining permission from TML however, I began the process of saving what articles I could find on the Internet Wayback Machine, to host here on EDN. 

 More history as it writes itself, now go back and read those satires