TSA: First of all, welcome back to the Zelda community! Let’s get started. How did IZC get started back in the day? What inspired you to start up a Zelda fan site, especially during the “birth” of online Zelda communities?

Ice: Ice's Zelda Central (IZC) was, in many ways, just an extension of what I was doing at the time in my offline life. Playing the games, making maps (How many of you made your own map to the last temple in Zelda 2?), writing, etc. I had also been remixing Zelda tracks in various formats (including MIDI) both online and offline for a couple years before IZC was even on idea in my head ...

I was also in charge of a little fan club that was very into the series. We had boxes and boxes of maps, newsletters, custom strategy guides, artwork, tapes and tapes of music I had made, editorials, and tons of fan fiction. So IZC was just a natural extension of my activities at the time.

The old splash page. Brings back memories.

Ice: The big difference is that this time, I know web technology much better. Through my schooling and a couple jobs I've had, I've learned PHP, Java, Javascript, Perl, SQL, database management, graphic design, etc. ... what's somewhat interesting though is that I felt the calling to continue IZC as it was when I last left it. I know this has been a somewhat unpopular decision, but IZC is not about flashy graphics and high-powered site engines (though those elements are slowly creeping in). I wanted to have the feeling of picking up where we left off ... I felt that this was essential to keeping the same spirit that we had. I wanted our evolution to be a natural progression, not just the product of sudden redesigning and retooling. Any revamps will happen naturally.

Another big difference is that when I started, there were fewer than 10 Zelda sites. Now there are thousands. I was just taking my offline activities onto the web, and what people saw when they looked at IZC was the product of my (and other peoples) Zelda fanaticism. It was almost as if they were sifting through our club's boxes of Zelda-related material. To many people, that was neat. But in today's community, not too many people want to sift through boxes looking for cool stories and info. Many people would rather have it dressed up and fed to them at lightspeed. There's nothing wrong with that, certainly, but IZC still uses the "sift through box" approach. That's what's still fun for us right now.

Ice: Problems can come from any and all directions. Most problems I've seen come from a simple lack of respect ... in my mind, everyone is entitled to their own viewpoint, and everyone is free to make their own contributions. We should have a unified stance toward the acceptance of everyone's different take on the legend. Sadly though, there is a certain amount of "elitism" that I see from time to time ... in general, I much prefer the smaller sites that focus on fun, or sharing a certain webmaster's music or art.

Ice: We all knew IZC would be back. There was too much history, and too many IZC staff members/visitors still around for the memory and ideas to die completely. Several people tried to start up new IZC's, and a few people tried to impersonate me, but we dealt with them ... IZC could only be started by a unified section of the staff. I entertained the idea of bringing it back in 2001, even did a web feature on the development on Zelda 64 at IZC's original address, but we decided against bringing back IZC at that time. So there were no revivals ... only a very long hiatus.

Ice: Music has always been an intense passion of mine, even when I was a small child. I've made a sort of semi-career out of it; I've recorded three albums, been on a few small tours (the biggest of which went on when I was still running the old IZC). Some old fans still remember the "Platinum Ecstasy" songs I'd have on IZC ...

The music of Zelda attracted me because I was such a huge fan of the series. Some of the first songs I ever figured out on my own were Zelda songs. When I got my MIDI keyboard, I was tracking Zelda songs in no time. It's really neat, because I created a lot of Zelda files that are still being passed around to this day.

Ice: I was heavily involved in OCRemix (and VGMIX.com) while IZC was on hiatus. In 2004 and 2005, when I was doing a lot of Zelda mixes, I started to get the urge to do IZC again. After one of my several fresh starts over at OCR and VGMIX (as a musician, I'm constantly unsatisfied with my work of course), I came across Lord of Shadow, who had been following a few of my recent efforts, and I was given a glimpse of the modern Zelda community ...

I was aware of the ZREO project, and to be quite honest, it just wasn't my thing. I was more into the work of people who were doing innovative remixes of the Zelda themes, and ZREO was based on running MIDI files through good sound modules and programs like Vienna. I've been doing that for years on my own systems, so ZREO just wasn't to my own personal tastes. I applaud their efforts though.

Ice: There is significantly less value placed on MIDI by the general public. On standard sound cards, the sample quality is less than that of Zelda 64's, and that turns people off. High-speed internet connections and P2P have facilitated the trading of MP3 files, and because of the much-higher sound quality, these files are preferred by most.

What attracts me to MIDI is the fact that it's just neat for me to be able to manipulate music on the fly. With the sound modules found in studios, I'm able to take digital information and play it back any which way I feel like ...

But for those of you who think MIDI is dead, ask famous composers like Danny Elfman what kinds of sounds you hear when you hear a lot of his work. It's not a band or an orchestra ... it's MIDI, played back on expensive sound modules.

(Editor's Note: Koji Kondo's interview with Nintendo Power awhile back revealed he listens to fan MIDI remixes, so that's another important reason to stick with MIDIs!)

Ice: Each game can change the series in a drastic way. Personally, I like the older games, because those were what I grew up with. They left a whole lot more to the imagination, and that sort of thinking is what spawned an entire generation of Zelda sites that were all so very different from one another.

Ice: I'll keep my thoughts about Twilight Princess to myself until I spend a significant amount of time actually playing the game, though I will say that this time around, it looks like their focus is on making a game that will attract a huge (and somewhat new) demographic. If the game attracts a new demographic, then the community might be facing a new demographic as well.

Ice: Just about any type of system or medium can lend itself to the creation of a "Zelda experience". The games will be different from what we're used to, but that's not necessarily bad. The Zelda series seems to try to focus hard on innovation and keeping things fresh, so new technologies will definitely lend themselves toward that end.

Ice: I can't predict the future (and I'm not ABOUT to ask that fortune teller of ours!), but I suppose that we'll just evolve until we dissolve. I would say that our biggest accomplishment is getting letters from people who enjoy the site and believe in us. No matter what we look like or sound like in the future, we just want people to enjoy the site. Who knows ... IZC isn't rocket science, it's rock n' roll =)

Ice: The timeline is up in the air. At this point, there are not enough hard facts to construct a viable theory. You might as well just throw a bunch of magnetic alphabet letters on the fridge and call it the timeline.

We've entertained the theory that each game is simply a different version or take on the same legend ... much like how ancient civilizations wove tales of epic heroes and gods, it could be possible that we as gamers are just experiencing different tellings of a popular legend.

To TSA and everyone at The Hylia, best of luck with the site and with everything else you do; it was good chatting with you.

TSA: Thanks for your time Ice!