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]

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?

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]

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?

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?

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?"

[eskil]

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"?

You're joking, right?

[Moviefan2k4]

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"?

You're joking, right?

Nope, serious all the way. That's why when Nintendo announced a sucessor to the Wii, I was thankful they didn't come up with something like "Wii-Nii". Instead, they did "Wii-U", which almost sounds like a catcall whistle.

[Dan-Fu]

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?

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?

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?"

I always thought it stood for "Small Pocket"! 

[wiggy]

It stands for "Super Power", duh.  As in, "now you're playing with it".

[sheep2001]

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"?

You're joking, right?

Nope, serious all the way. That's why when Nintendo announced a sucessor to the Wii, I was thankful they didn't come up with something like "Wii-Nii". Instead, they did "Wii-U", which almost sounds like a catcall whistle.

I thought 1 in japanese was iti (ichi)?

[mariocaseman]

Back on topic, I do not have an answer to my first question:  Why did Nintendo abbreviate the Cube as GCN instead of NGC?  Anybody know for sure, maybe with an article on the topic? 

[zakurowrath]

Back on topic, I do not have an answer to my first question:  Why did Nintendo abbreviate the Cube as GCN instead of NGC?  Anybody know for sure, maybe with an article on the topic?  

Possibly because when comes to some names in Japanese they're backwards. Example in Japanese the last name of a person, Miyamoto Shigeru goes first I believe to show respect to the family name. In this case the family name of the console Gamecube goes first and it's first name Nintendo goes last. I could be completely wrong but it is a theory.

Another theory is NGC in the United States is a acronym of another company so rather than try to obtain the rights to it, they just changed it to GCN. In Japan however it is NGC  

[Dan-Fu]

Most likely the second one.

[amarthar]

Another theory is NGC in the United States is a acronym of another company so rather than try to obtain the rights to it, they just changed it to GCN. In Japan however it is NGC  

Most likely that is the case:
http://www.ngccoin.com/

The same thing was with the Dreamcast having a blue logo in the EU since the orange swirly thing was a logo of another company.