General Category > General Discussion
Why GCN? What is DS?
mariocaseman:
The first 3 Nintendo consoles had acronyms that made sense: NES, SNES, N64. But why the hell is the GameCube GCN? Really irritates the hell out of me. All I could find on Wikipedia is that Japan abbreviated it correctly, but other regions did not. Anyone know why?
Also what does DS stand for? On the Nintendo DS and 3DS the D and the S must stand for words, but what?
gru3som3rick:
I believe the ORIGINAL meaning of DS was "Developers System" way back when. Now it stands for Dual Screens I believe. The "i" added to the "DSi" was supposed to mean "eye" as in it has a camera now...
I could be very wrong, but I thought I remember reading that in a GamePro or something YEARS ago.
Forte:
--- Quote from: mariocaseman on July 28, 2012, 08:13:01 AM ---The first 3 Nintendo consoles had acronyms that made sense: NES, SNES, N64. But why the hell is the GameCube GCN? Really irritates the hell out of me. All I could find on Wikipedia is that Japan abbreviated it correctly, but other regions did not. Anyone know why?
Also what does DS stand for? On the Nintendo DS and 3DS the D and the S must stand for words, but what?
--- End quote ---
It might not be the reason, but NGC makes me think "Neo Geo (Color)", not Nintendo GameCube, so I've always preferred the GCN designation for the GameCube.
As far as DS, I always figured "Dual Screen". I still haven't gotten a straight answer for what the SP in GBA SP is for, some people say Special? Was that ever clarified?
Moviefan2k4:
The DS does stand for "dual screen", and the 3DS is a combo of that and 3D technology. The Wii was originally codenamed "Revolution", which I always preferred. The word "wi" is Japanese for "one", while "ni" means two. How masculine would any guy feel about walking into a store, and asking for a "wi-ni"?
gru3som3rick:
--- Quote from: Forte on July 28, 2012, 08:24:47 AM ---
--- Quote from: mariocaseman on July 28, 2012, 08:13:01 AM ---The first 3 Nintendo consoles had acronyms that made sense: NES, SNES, N64. But why the hell is the GameCube GCN? Really irritates the hell out of me. All I could find on Wikipedia is that Japan abbreviated it correctly, but other regions did not. Anyone know why?
Also what does DS stand for? On the Nintendo DS and 3DS the D and the S must stand for words, but what?
--- End quote ---
It might not be the reason, but NGC makes me think "Neo Geo (Color)", not Nintendo GameCube, so I've always preferred the GCN designation for the GameCube.
As far as DS, I always figured "Dual Screen". I still haven't gotten a straight answer for what the SP in GBA SP is for, some people say Special? Was that ever clarified?
--- End quote ---
Yeah "SP" does stand for special, look here: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/gameboyadvance_sp/faq.jsp#sp The second to last FAQ from Nintendo is "What does SP stand for?"