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12,675 Views Added 02/12/2004 Add Comment PermaLink

A few years back, there were 2 unique delta force map sites that did nothing but maps. These sites were run by Panther (AKA Scott) & StevieB. While StevieB ran UK Delta Force, Panther ran Panther's Den. These sites were both generally small and weren't well known throughout the community. With the vision of a much larger site, with much more content and many more maps; Panther caught StevieB on msn one night with the idea to merge the 2 sites into one big one. Panther and StevieB started talking. What we were really going for was a map site bigger then the old Pancho&Heavy map site. We were thinking of ways to build a really big, popular site with many, many maps and other great stuff to offer. We were both pretty amateur at the time and really didn't know how to do this, but felt the need to try. After some discussions we started putting our ideas to work.

With most of our ideas coming together nicely, we thought we were missing something. We were missing a name for the site. While I (Panther) am not really sure on who suggested the name, it sounded great. The name was Delta Force Headquarters, it is now Nova Headquarters.

With the domain registered, host paid for and site design in progress, things was coming along great. It took over a month to put the 2 sites together. It all seemed final now. On August 4th, 2001 Delta Force Head Quarters (DF-HQ.com) was launched to the public. The original staff consisted of Panther, StevieB, Die_4_Me and ½dead with BLADE=GH= added shortly after.

Still not very well known through the community, the site almost started to die and we felt like giving up. Map submissions started to slow, our forums weren't very active anymore and things just weren't going to plan. But we decided to give it another shot. With a totally new layout we started to pick things up again. Map submissions started to flow and forums were becoming more active. The site started to reach 150 hits a day. This was a mile stone at the time. Our dream was coming true.

After a few weeks with the new design, things were looking great. Then a sad day hit the DF community in late 2001 / early 2002: The historical original Delta Force Barracks had closed. This is where DF-HQ.COM got its big break. Camouflage from Delta Force Barracks had forwarded almost all his hits to DF-HQ.COM! We would personally like to thank Camouflage and the old DFB for seeing all the work going into and potential in DF-HQ.COM. So many new people started to notice our site, and not a lot of people know that you had a big part in what DF-HQ.COM has become. If you're reading this, thank you!

With the help from Camouflage at the old DFB, DF-HQ.COM started to grow and become noticed. Map submissions and suggestions were coming so fast we couldn't keep up. We worked very hard, day in and day out trying to keep what Camouflage had given us. Things started to pickup and our dream was starting to come true.

We then, after having many problems with the site we registered our original domain name at, we were forced to buy a new domain name or stick with the company. That's when DFHQ.NET was registered and DF-HQ.COM disappeared. With a new domain name, another new layout, things were still going smooth.

With the site growing so fast and maps coming in by the 100's we couldn't keep up. This is when we found a great guy that goes by the name Challenger. He is a PHP programmer that did all of the custom PHP scripting on DFHQ.NET in early 2002-2003. He coded us our first map database. While this map database wasn't very featured packed, it made it easier on us to keep up with the maps that were coming in. But maps just kept coming in faster & we needed something more. Challenger again went to work, and coded what I thought was one of the better & simpler map db systems around. Thanks Challenger!

Now with everything going great our host started to fail us. DFHQ.NET has been through so many hosts, I couldn't count them on my fingers. We had trouble everywhere we looked and no host could provide what we needed. We finally hit the jack pot when I was referred to rackshack.net. Though it is pretty expensive it's what we needed to expand.

Sometime around 2003 we officially changed our name from Delta Force Headquarters (DFHQ.NET) to Nova Headquarters (Novahq.net) to support more NovaLogic games like Joint Operations.

With the site still growing, Panther and StevieB were getting tired and decided to hire some staff. Trilogy (Matt) and BlackBelt (Mike) were added to the staff. Both still with us today. Each has there own little portion of the site that they run.

In 2004, after years of learning PHP, Panther created an entire custom coded CMS for Novahq.net in PHP. It featured a totally integrated system for maps, files and everything the site contained. It allowed users to submit and modify their own submitted maps and content and the admins to easily moderate content throughout the whole site.

For it's 14th birthday in 2015, Panther released v2 of the Novahq.net CMS which keeps the site up to date with the latest software, hopefully allowing the site to continue on for another decade. Hopefully, NovaLogic releases a new game to make use of the system....

In conclusion, Novahq.net was formed from 2 very small sites. With a lot of frustration and failure on the way, we kept going. We now have one big, well known and active site. Today Novahq.net offers almost anything a player or squad could want for Delta Force and Joint Operations