The GameCube's Secrets, Revealed

Hidden intro screens. Controllers that don't exist. Dolphins. The GameCube has quite the collection of secrets and easter eggs.

Did You Know Gaming's latest video takes a look at the venerable Nintendo GameCube, which turns thirteen years old this year. And, like pretty much every other game system, it's far from just a receptacle for great games—it's a device with its own little interesting story. After all, a lot of things can happen in four years' development time.

Have a look:

In case you can't watch the video, here are some of the more fascinating pieces of trivia:

• The GameCube's development codename was Dolphin, and this is referenced in several of its games: for example in Super Mario Sunshine, which takes place on Isle Delfino, and Pikmin, where Olimar's spaceship is called Dolphin.
• Nintendo actually patented and developed a motion controller for the GameCube—Rogue Squadron series developer Factor 5 even experimented with implementing it in their games. Obviously, the controller was scrapped.
• Before it was released, Nintendo showed off the GameCube's graphical capabilities in several tech demos. One of them was an animated 3D music video featuring several Pokémon, including an electric guitar-wielding Meowth. Some people took this as a hint that a new Pokémon game would be coming, and they were proven right, eventually, with the release of Pokémon Colosseum in November 2003 (or March 2004 in the 'States).
• The GameCube was the first Nintendo console not to launch with a game that had Mario as the protagonist—however, it did launch with a Mario franchise game, in the form of Luigi's Mansion.
• There were two alternate intro screens for the GameCube: one was accessed by holding the Z button on the controller, and the other by plugging in three other controllers and holding the Z button on all of them.
• The texture used by the GameCube logo on the intro screen is actually the same shiny metal texture used by every game on the system.

GameCube - Did You Know Gaming [DYKG@YouTube]

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