Namco or Namcot?

[Dones]

I have noticed that on some older Namco videogames, the name "Namcot" is used instead. Any videogame historians know why?

[spacecadet]

I have noticed that on some older Namco videogames, the name "Namcot" is used instead. Any videogame historians know why?

 

Which games?

 

It has to just be a typo from whatever American distributor they were using at the time. (It actually sounds like a French misspelling, but that would just be weird.)

 

NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.

[Breakpack]

NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.

 

Manufacturing has a 't' in it

[figgler]

I have some also. It's mostly Japanese Famicom games that come to mind. Perhaps that's a clue?

[Dones]

Which games?

[NovaXpress]

Here's the scoop.

 

Namcot is a name that was used for projects done in co-operation with Data East. Namcot is indeed Namco.

[Cootster]

I always thought that was just a not-quite-right trademark symbol . . .

[NE146]

Interesting.. I've wondered that in passing myself

[ZylonBane]

NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.

Quite a few sources state that NAMCO stands for "North American Company" (from when it was Atari's Japanese division).

 

So which is it?

[Cybergoth]

Hi there!

 

NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.

Quite a few sources state that NAMCO stands for "North American Company" (from when it was Atari's Japanese division).

 

So which is it?

 

I think the Nakamura name is right, because "Mr. Driller 2" on the GBA starts with a sample that sounds like "Na-ma-co". I was wondering all the time about this, until I just read this thread here...

 

Greetings,

Manuel

[Lost Monkey]

History of Namco:

 

http://www.namco.co.jp/eg/history.html

 

Is it correct? I don't bloody well know... but it IS Namco's site...

 

Can anyone verify the Data East/Namcot connection? I have/had several Japanese Pc Engine games with the Namcot name on them...

[spacecadet]

NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.

Quite a few sources state that NAMCO stands for "North American Company" (from when it was Atari's Japanese division).

 

So which is it?

 

It was never "Atari's Japanese division" - I don't know where that's coming from. As it says on Namco's own web site listed just before this, this is a Japanese company founded in the 1950's. It has always been independent. (I didn't realize they owned Italian Tomato, though!)

 

Let me say, though, that I must have been drunk or something when I said there was no "t" in "manufacturing". But obviously, this is not where the "t" in "Namcot" would have originated - I think what I meant to say was that there's no "t" in "Concern", which is where the "co" comes from, and the "t" obviously comes after "co" in that abbreviation.

 

Ok, I just asked my wife to translate a couple pages for me. According to this one, Namcot was just a "brand" name that Namco originally used when they started making video games. In Japanese, it would be pronounced (and written) as Na-ma-ko-to. It's not a silent "t" like you'd think it might be in English. I don't know if this was a play on words or something (if you add "-to" to a region name, it means it's a prefecture), or if they thought it sounded cool or what with the two pairs of similar-sounding mora - it doesn't say anywhere that I could find. I don't think it was related to Data East, it doesn't mention anything about that anywhere that I saw.

 

They may have changed it because it obviously didn't translate in English. We'd look at "Namcot" and either pronounce it "Nam-cott" or would leave the "t" silent (because we know Namco now). If they spelled it "Namcoto" in English, we'd pronounce like "Nam-kodo", which just makes no sense.

 

The company name was always called Namco, though. "Namcot" was just the name they put on their games for a while. It may have just been the brand name of their games division. Obviously, this is a company that does more than just make games, so they may have just been differentiating their businesses with a cool-sounding brand name (or so they thought).

[spacecadet]

Further clarification from the Japanese-speaker in the family - Namcot was apparently the name of the HOME games division. I was wondering why I don't remember it - they apparently used Namco on the arcade games at the same time. I've only ever seen Namco; I don't own any of the old home games.

[Jess Ragan]

I'd just like to know where the company "HomeTek" fits into the equation.

 

JR

 

P.S. Wouldn't the Japanese pronunciation of Namco simply be "Nah-Mu-Ko?"

[spacecadet]

P.S.  Wouldn't the Japanese pronunciation of Namco simply be "Nah-Mu-Ko?"

 

You're right, it's Na-mu-ko. I wasn't listening closely enough when my wife said "na-mu-ko-to." I just looked on their Japanese web site, though, and they show the katakana above the English name, and it's Na-mu-ko.

 

I would have thought it was Na-ma-ko because the "ma" would stand for "manufacturing" - they often pronounce the first syllable of a word when they abbreviate it. But they're not doing that in this case.

 

It's really kind of a weird abbreviation; it's not consistent even within the abbreviation itself.

[spacecadet]

btw, HomeTek is just the name of their US division. I don't know who came up with the name, but it's just what distinguishes the US and Japanese offices.

[spacecadet]

Ugh, sorry, HomeTek is their US *home* division, as the name suggests. (I used to deal with these guys all the time a few years ago as part of my job back then... I didn't deal with the arcade machines so I tend to forget that Namco still releases them in the US )

[Jess Ragan]

Thanks. I was always wondering about that!

 

JR

[Bruce Tomlin]

I would have thought it was Na-ma-ko because the "ma" would stand for "manufacturing" - they often pronounce the first syllable of a word when they abbreviate it.  But they're not doing that in this case.

 

It's really kind of a weird abbreviation; it's not consistent even within the abbreviation itself.

It's not an abbreviation, it's a transliteration of the pronounciation of "NAMCO".

 

Since there is no lone consonant allowed in Japanese except N (which changes pronounciation to M before B, M, and P, hence famicoM because "com" is from "computer", which has a P, and to make things more complicated, fami-com is a Japanese-style abbreviation), it has to follow the rules to add a vowel, which are everything gets a U, except T and D get an O. Hence, NA-MU-KO.

 

Even after reading this thread, I still haven't figured out where the T comes from, as in why was it chosen and what does it mean?

[CPUWIZ]

NAMCO stands for Nakamura Manufacturing Concern, so there's no "t" anywhere in the name.

Quite a few sources state that NAMCO stands for "North American Company" (from when it was Atari's Japanese division).

 

So which is it?

 

You are both wrong, it is Nakamura Manufacturing Company.

 

Trust me, I worked for Namco for over 5 years and I spent many weeks at headquarters in Japan. I have met Mr.Nakamura (he actually appeared out of nowhere in my office once, when I had the first 3D Pac-Man on the PS2 on my screen) and also Toru Iwatani (inventor of Pac-Man). However, not a single person was able to explain where the extra T came from, maybe a language problem but I doubt it.

[R4Z0RGR1ND3R]

You are both wrong, it is Nakamura Manufacturing Company.

 

Trust me, I worked for Namco for over 5 years and I spent many weeks at headquarters in Japan. I have met Mr.Nakamura (he actually appeared out of nowhere in my office once, when I had the first 3D Pac-Man on the PS2 on my screen) and also Toru Iwatani (inventor of Pac-Man). However, not a single person was able to explain where the extra T came from, maybe a language problem but I doubt it.

 

The T was a form of branding for the games division. How do I know? Because I have Batter Up the Jap version for Game Gear. Sometimes called Gear Stadium. It says on the back (crudely translated by a friend) Namcot, part of Namco 1986, 91.

 

Also Pac-man 3d was released in 1999 as Pac-man World. Which was released ONLY on ps1 and GBA and was due to be released on Dreamcast and N64 but was cancelled. SCEE distributed it in Europe. I love it when people lie to seem cool.

 

And to reiterate... one person already said it. There is no magical reason. Namcot to Namco is what Team Sonic was to Sega. Namcot usually made arcade games for Sega and Ninty. Games like Batters Up. It only appears in Jap games though.

Edited August 25, 2015 by R4Z0RGR1ND3R