Those familiar with Nintendo hardware and its development codenames will know that the GameCube was once called ‘Dolphin’. In fact, it’s probably one of the most famous codenames in console history, alongside ‘Revolution’ for the Wii and ‘NX’ for the Switch.
It is known that there was a prototype of the GameCube, but only pictures of legendary equipment blurry enough to be mistaken for a UFO or Bigfoot. Now, however, we have a fresh look at the ‘Nintendo Dolphin’ courtesy of Console Variant on social media. The account posted an image of the console with a clear view of the logo and disc tray.
At this point, it’s unknown whether ConsoleVariations actually owns the device, as the post explicitly states that they’re not allowed to upload photos online, but finally getting to see the device in such clear detail is a treat.
We’re particularly fond of the logo itself. The color scheme is probably closer to the N64 than what the GameCube would eventually be, but you can still see some similarities to the final product. Overall, though, the whole thing looks cheap compared to the GameCube; like the Nintendo DS prototype Reggie showed off at E3.
