Released in 2001, Nintendo GameCube (codenamed Dolphin during development) is a video game console, developed and marketed by Nintendo.
Unfortunately, the font used for “Nintendo” at the top is unidentified. With its round E, Handel Gothic is similar, but wider (and the Compressed style too narrow). Here’s hoping that someone else will do a better job than me and find it.
“GameCube” is based on Bank Gothic, thickened and modified, featuring a unique A along with a modified M and small changes towards the bowl area of B, see the comparison below.
Some stretching and thickening of the letterforms was needed to match the exact proportions.
The controller is designed by Shigeru Miyamoto, it uses an embossed Futura Condensed for Start/Pause texts and possibly also the buttons.
The official packaging for cables uses Japanese letters that follow quite closely the style of Bank Gothic. Since Bank Gothic doesn’t offer support for Japanese characters, it’s thinkable that Nintendo designed its own. Or maybe it’s just a different typeface with similar characteristics.
5 Comments on “Nintendo GameCube”
I think you’re right about Handel Gothic Compressed for Nintendo part. If you stretch horizontal scale to around 160%, convert the type to outlines, thicken up the horizontal strokes by shifting those points up/down, and then expand the N, T, E, and D to better match width of the O, you get something very close. They probably also split and mirrored right half of D to create the slightly squarer O. Similar to the modification of Bank Gothic letterforms for Gamcube part.
Patrick, it was Florian who suggested it’s Handel Gothic Compressed so that’s his credit. I was thinking about the O as well just never fully convinced unless proven otherwise. On my end, I still couldn’t come with any possible match so yea, this font is the only thing that might come close for now. Thanks for the comment.
I’ve been away from this site from ages due to life things, but I have a old draft about the Nintendo Gamecube! Fontendo, a Xitter user, identified Gamecube’s BIOS UI as Rodin/Rodin Wanpaku Pro and the “Nintendo” part of the logo as Frapple. The Nintendo Wiki identifies the Gamecube BIOS UI as Rodin NTLG. I’m not sure of the exact differences between the Rodin varients.
web.archive.org/web/2020101…
x.com/Fontendou/status/1673…
x.com/Fontendou/status/1252…
x.com/Fontendou/status/1299…
niwanetwork.org/wiki/List_o…
Fontendou can be hard to access due to Xitter’s login requirements, but they are a valuable resource and a good starting point when documenting any Nintendo (or Nintendo related) font uses. The Super Mario Wiki also has an excellent list for the Mario franchise (and related spinoffs): www.mariowiki.com/List_of_f…
Followup, here’s direct links from Fontendou’s personal archive:
fonten.do/Fontendou/status/…
fonten.do/Fontendou/status/…
fonten.do/Fontendou/status/…
fonten.do/Fontendou/status/…
Antonia, you pointed out that, while Handel Gothic is tagged as the closest match to the “NINTENDO” text, Fontendo identifies it as Frapple.
The problem with Frapple is that SummitSoft made this font in 2010, and thus nine years after the Nintendo GameCube. Its letterforms may come closer than Handel’s, but it’s not a perfect match either, and being non-existent in 2001, it can’t be the font used for the logo.
The logo doesn’t make direct use of Handel Gothic either. Still it’s thinkable that Handel Gothic provided the inspiration, with its round E. I believe it’s a custom drawn logo, and may or may not have taken clues from Handel Gothic. Here’s a visual comparison:
Middle: The Nintendo part of the GameCube logo
Bottom: Frapple