Platform: Nintendo GameCube

The GameCube is technically not a cube. Its dimensions are 5.9 x 6.3 x 4.3 inches, making it more of a rectangular prism.

The trophy representing Meowth in Super Smash Bros. Melee is a reference to his appearance in a tech demo shown off at Spaceworld 2000 called "Meowth's Party", which itself was based on a recurring ending musical number from the Pokémon anime. In his trophy he is holding the same red guitar that he performs with in the tech demo. The flavor text for his trophy even directly mentions this tech demo:


A version of Meowth's Party eventually made its way into the GameCube release of Pokémon Channel.

In an interview with VGC for The GameCubes's 20th anniversary, veteran Rare developer Martin Hollis revealed that not only was he among the first people to see "Project Dolphin", but also that he was possibly responsible for the GameCube's name and theme:


Nintendo did indeed trademark "Starcube" lending more legitimacy to Hollis' suspicion.

Among the files uncovered in a massive 2020 breach of internal server data from Nintendo are documents surrounding Project BB2, a never-released, iQue-branded version of the GameCube for the Chinese market. According to an executive summary from January 30, 2004, this system would've played games off of CD-ROM and DVD-ROM discs rather than the GameCube's proprietary format; consequently, it also would've been compatible with audio CDs and DVD video like the Panasonic Q. Project BB2 was also intended to feature karaoke support, owed to karaoke's high popularity in China.

At Spaceworld 2000, after Shigeru Miyamoto showed off a tech demo for a GameCube controller prototype he revealed another variant of the Gamecube controller called the "Wavebird". This Wavebird prototype design looked like a missing link between the design of the Virtual Boy controller and the GameCube controller, having long and slender handles like the Virtual Boy but being much bulkier everywhere else like the GameCube controller. It did end up matching the final design of the default GameCube controller.

In the GameCube 20th anniversary VGC interview, it was revealed that former Nintendo of America VP of marketing Perrin Kaplan thought that there was one aspect of the GameCube that he and NoA were not fond of and made them extremely nervous about the console's perception:


Nintendo of Europe was not to easy on the color either with the company's veteran Shelly Peirce revealing that one person referred to it as a "Fischer-Price record player". However Pierce remained optimistic because he felt that what Nintendo was doing was uniquely different than the competition.

The Brazilian release of the Nintendo GameCube has special code that patches a crash glitch that can only be found in NBA Courtside 2002. This patch does not exist in any other version of the hardware.

The GameCube is unusual for its era in that early models carried an output socket for digital audio and video at a time when competing consoles exclusively outputted analog signals. The digital out port was used by the GameCube's component and D-Terminal cables to support both higher audiovisual fidelity and the ability to play games using progressive scan rather than traditional interlaced video. Because the format used, component video, is still analog, the cables required a proprietary digital-to-analog converter chip, meaning that third parties were unable to manufacture their own versions.

The component and D-Terminal cables were sold exclusively through Nintendo's website before being quickly discontinued due to a lack of demand, as few commercial televisions at the time supported component video; additionally, later models of the GameCube remove the digital out port entirely. However, the cables' high demand on secondhand markets resulted in fans creating adapters for the digital out port, using the raw signal to make the console compatible with digital HDMI cables.

At Spaceworld 2000 during the unveiling of the GameCube, there were five models that came from backstage each one holding a uniquely colored GameCube, the hot pink color never seeing an official release. Each GameCube featured a small window cut into the jewel (black circular disk atop the GameCube) allowing for the player to see the disk and disk tray. These prototypes do not actually function as they were made just to be shown at Spaceworld 2000.

At Spaceworld 2000, Shigeru Miyamoto showed off a prototype for the GameCube controller. The most glaring difference between this controller and the final design are the color and shape of three buttons:
• The A button being blue, like the Z button rather than green, but keeping it's circular shape.
• The B button being green, like the final A button rather than red, and bean shaped like the X and Y buttons rather than circular.
• The start button being red like the final B button as well as being bulbous and protruding as compared to the final start button being flat, grey, and made of rubber.

An accompanying tech demo used assets from Luigi's Mansion including one of the basic ghosts which reacted differently depending on what button was used:
• Using the A, B, X, and Y buttons made it spit out the corresponding letter
• Stretching for the L button and squishing for the R button
• Emitting a slower version of Boo's laugh for the Z button
• Emitting a normal ghost noise for the control stick
• Changing orientation for the C-stick
• Emitting sounds similar to that of Pikmin for any of the D-pad directions

The inclusion of the Pikmin noises makes sense as Luigi's Mansion contained a trailer for Pikmin upon release.

Although the GameCube Controller itself was well beloved by fans, head of Platinum Games (and former Capcom dev) Atsushi Inaba said it was actually quite frustrating to develop for for devs like him and he wasn't a big fan of it and it's layout and design.


Inaba, however still praised the system's software and hardware, saying that it was very easy to develop games for the console itself.

At Spaceworld 2000, it was announced that a version of the Gamecube Memory Card that would have expandable memory via an SD card would be released. However, this never came to fruition.

A similar device that allowed for the plugging in of an SD card into memory card slot was released alongside Dobutsu no Mori e+ in Japan, however this was only to take screenshots and did not allow for the saving of game data.

The original slogan for the GameCube, "The Nintendo Difference," was meant to distinguish Nintendo from its competitors as an entertainment company first and foremost.

According to former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi, the GameCube's cheap price was the result of Nintendo's perception that gamers cared only about the games themselves, and that game consoles were just pieces of hardware that were required to play the games. As a result, Nintendo decided to make the GameCube's price significantly lower than the competition's in order to make the former's titles more accessible to consumers.

The GameCube was the first Nintendo console to lack a launch title that starred Mario as the protagonist.

Nintendo had once patented and developed a prototype motion controller for the GameCube; this controller went so far into development that game developer Factor 5 experimented with them for potential use in their launch titles.

There exists a GameCube Service Disk that was used by the Nintendo World Class Service to test and diagnose problems with the console and peripherals. It is assumed that once Nintendo retired the World Class Service, they took back the disks and destroyed them, which would explain why there are very few ever found.

This disk contains a fair amount of unused content, from unused sounds and unused test pictures to stereoscopic 3D test pictures.

The Panasonic Q was a version of the Nintendo GameCube that had the ability to play DVDs, audio CDs, and MP3s. The console ceased production after two years and only sold 100,000 units. One cause of the console's failure was that it was actually cheaper to buy a GameCube and a DVD Player separately.

The GameCube controller's design possibly originated from a prototype controller for the Virtual Boy. They were both purple, and had a similar shape.

The GameCube is actually capable of rendering stereoscopic 3D. The GameCube was going to have an add-on that would attach to a TV and enable it to properly display 3D games. The first planned game for the add-on was Luigi's Mansion. The add-on was eventually cancelled as it would have cost more than the console itself.