Gaming Device Names....

[Gruntfuggly]

Canoo, Wiz, Dingoo, Pandora, Gameboy, Gamegear, Gizmondo?

When are we going to have names you're not embarrassed to tell people?


"What's that you've got?"

"Oh, it's my Dingoo."


The Lynx was slightly better, but it's now named after a deodorant...

 

[torpor]

You know what, I sort of agree? "Caannooo" wtf is that? "Pandora"? Wow, is that named after that gay blue movie? "Dingoo" .. did it eat your Baaaaby?

I've renamed my Pandora "w1xer-unit-1" anyway ..

 

[quartercast]

Wonderswan, Colecovision, the list goes on!

 

[gruso]

I remember when everyone laughed at Xbox. What stuffy middle aged marketing hack came up with that? It'll fail for sure!

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Caanoo is way too close to 'kandoo' kids toilet paper for my liking...

 

[dnlgreenwood]

With the game gear, im more concerned about being seen with it than having to say its name... my game gear freaks my mom out, lol.

anyway, companies should get users like us to come up with the name... or vote on one...

When (if) I get a Caanoo people would probably think its a Gameboy, and the same would go for a Dingoo...

-Hey, whats that strange device you have there?
+Hrm? oh, its just my Magnavox Odyssey.
-Sounds like something out of a science-fiction movie.
+Indeed.

heres my list of system names i like/dont like:
Like:
Magnavox Odyssey (sounds sci-fi... im a sci-fi fan.)
Master System
Mega Drive
Gameboy
Nintendo 64 (i just say n-64 if im in a hurry)
Lynx (short, and somehow appealing. doesnt sound out-landish like dingoo.)


Don't like:
Atari 2600/7800 (its a mouthful! I just say atari, 2600, or 7800.)
NES (what do you call it? ness? N-E-S? nintendo? nintendo entertainment system?)
SNES (i just call it a sness.)
Genesis (why Genesis? why not... Sega Exodus? its not the first Sega system...)
Wii (sounds like a few other types of wiis.)
Caanoo (canoe?)
Dingoo (goo?)
Gameboy Advance SP (too long. I just call it a gameboy.)

 

[johncross85]

It's certainly not just handhelds that suffer from bad naming. Wii (admittedly a visual pun of sorts)? Even Playstation only sounds okay because we have got used to it. I think I prefer names that don't try to describe what the device does so I actually like Dingoo, Wiz et al. Can you imagine a car company naming it's models in the same style as the Gamegear or Playstation? New in 2011... the BMW MovePerson featuring the SteeryQuick handling pack...

john

 

[ndbsolar]

I agree with the OP. The worst name must surley be the Wiz though, what were they thinking? It's even worse than the Wii :blink:

 

[cosam]

It could be worse... Remember the the Megawonder? The Casio Loopy? The FM Towns Marty?(?!)

 

[Xabier]

I remember when everyone laughed at Xbox. What stuffy middle aged marketing hack came up with that? It'll fail for sure!

Some people call it "porno caja" meaning porn box

 

[mali]

I've renamed my Pandora "w1xer-unit-1" anyway ..

Used mainly for watching porn, I suppose

 

[kasi]

I've renamed my Pandora "w1xer-unit-1" anyway ..

Used mainly for watching porn, I suppose

I'm afraid, few people do understand that joke in an English speaking forum.
I'm just glad I don't have to make my living from creating such names. I'd probably end up naming every device Horst.

@johncross85: You forgot the "very expensively" in that cool car name of yours. And then you should quickly register your trademark.

 

[torpor]

mali/kasi: w1xer.at == hand-held hacking. It was the most appropriate name for my personal projects that I could think of ..

BTW, I'm Australian, we're rather fond of calling each other "wixers" (English: wanker) for fun .. but not profit.

 

[u9i]

My only grief with these names are they don't work very well in my language. I cannot change their form (is that what it is called?) without sounding like an idiot. Well, that, and the fact that caanoo sounds like a boat. I remember how stupid Playstation sounded when it first came out too.

/Uni

 

[mali]

I'd probably end up naming every device Horst.

:lol:

@torpor
Thanks, I didn't know

 

[Exophase]

No matter how horrifying the name sounds at first it always eventually grows on you.

"Gamegear" seems okay to me at least. What about "Turbo Express"?

 

[Crazyteknohed]

Surely the award for the worst-named handheld should unequivocally be handed to the Gamate?

- "What's that you're playing with there?"

- "This? This is my Gamate."

- "Come again sunshine? Your gay mate?"

 

[Optimus]

Surely the award for the worst-named handheld should unequivocally be handed to the Gamate?

- "What's that you're playing with there?"

- "This? This is my Gamate."

- "Come again sunshine? Your gay mate?"

Hahaha!!!

Funny enough also for the people in my country, gamate if spoken in the way greeks would read latin words without the english pronounciation would mean "You (plurar) are fucking" coming from the greek verb "Gamaw" (Fuck). (Irrelevant thing: Those funny mix ups with your native language can be quite disturbing sometimes. I was looking at some subjects for my final master thesis and one that was a bit interesting was calling it's algorithm "Gamma-ton" (http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/69205/gamma_ton.pdf). I would never be able to present such a thesis without laughing hysterically. "Gama ton" in greek is like saying "Fuck Him!". Ahhh,. crap )

Anyway, back to the names, I would never think most of these names are weird. Some are good sounding to me, but yes Caanoo is a bit weird and I have a good funny time telling people "I am going to buy a Caanoo", but I guess it was a silly marketing choice for the name to be similar to Dingoo? I never thought though that the Wiz was chosen to sound similar to Wii. Didn't crossed my mind but yes it makes sense now.

 

[b1ueskycomp1ex]

I've never been able to figure out how the Wii went from being the "Nintendo Revolution!" to the Nintendo Wii. The WIZ is a pretty terrible name for a device, especially considering the 1978 movie. The Caanoo is just another awful gaming device name from GPH. I've never had much of a problem with the older devices. I mean, the gameboy implies it's a small gaming device, the gamegear sounds like it's GEAR for playing GAMES, etc.


Although a large 8-bit ship comes to mind when I think of the Commodore 64.

I personally think names like the Magnavox Odyssey, Dreamcast, Megadrive, etc. are great. They at least provoke a sense of wonder or excitement.

 

[klikklak]

I have to agree with u9i about difficulty with grammar and suffixes when pronouncing names. That's why a good name might sound silly in english, but it would have very easy structure and phonemes. Numbers and letters seem to do a good job if you've got a global audience, but they're a bit boring. Caanoo while silly is actually really easy to pronounce on a number of languages. ok, I just checked my own, but I think germans and japanese should find it reasonably easy as well.

The more popular consoles always just end up with nicknames in any case.