Naming Conventions


Last Updated:
02/27/2007


There seems to be some confusion over the names of the characters and places on Captain N. I'll go through all of these one at a time and try to clear up all misunderstandings.


Spellings of Series' Titles

Captain N: The Game Master - The spelling shown on the theme songs is as follows:

Captain N
THE
GAME
MASTER

Since we usually spell the title on one line, "Captain N: The Game Master" is the appropriate way to spell it - as most people will agree.

The Legend of Zelda - The spelling shown on the theme song is as follows:

THE LEGEND OF
ZELDA (R)

Since we usually spell the title on one line, "The Legend of Zelda" is the appropriate way to spell it. I don't spell it "The Legend Of Zelda", because "of" isn't a main word; it gets lowercased just like "a", "an", "and", and "the".

Captain N & the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3 - The spelling on screen:

Captain N
& THE ADVENTURES of
SUPER BROS. 3 TM
MARIO

Since we usually spell the title on one line, "Captain N & the Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3" is appropriate.

Captain N and the New Super Mario World - The spelling on the theme song is:

Captain N
and the NEW
SUPER
MARIO WORLD TM

During the NBC commercial bumpers, they call it "Captain N and Super Mario Bros. World". I use the title that's shown on the screen instead. The appropriate spelling is "Captain N and the New Super Mario World".

Captain N & The Video Game Masters - The spelling shown on the theme song is as follows:

Captain N
&
THE
VIDEO
GAME
MASTERS

Since we usually spell the title on one line, "Captain N & the Video Game Masters" is the appropriate way to spell it. I often use "VGM" for short.


Spellings of People and their Titles

Kevin Keene - The main man. According to the closed captions and the comic books, his last name is spelled "Keene", not "Keane".

Game Master - It is spelled as two separate words as shown in the title of the episode "The Most Dangerous Game Master". The comic books, which are limited to just pictures and words, spell it as two words also. The Season 1 commercial bumpers, which were most likely made by NBC, are wrong. It is not spelled "Gamemaster".

N Team / N-Team - The closed captions sometimes spell it as "N-Team" and other times as "N Team". The definitive spelling for the TV series comes from the episode "The Big Game". Stacey and Gameboy are standing in the bleachers. While Stacey's doing a cheer, Gameboy displays a hologram that reads "N TEAM". So, for the TV series, the team's name is spelled without a hyphen. The comic books spell it "N-Team" more often than "N Team". For simplicity's sake, I use "N Team" for the TV series and "N-Team" for the comic books.

Stacey - There are four different spellings of this name, that I'm aware of: "Stacy", "Stacey", "Staci", and "Stacie". The name of the cheerleader in "The Big Game" is spelled "STACEY" in the closed captions. There is no other evidence in the episode, and I haven't seen the original script, so I call her "Stacey".

Mega Man - In Japan, where this character was first created, he is called "Rockman". When the games were brought over here, they changed the robot's name to "Megaman". I guess they thought "Megaman" would sound more like a superhero to American game players than "Rockman". The games switch between "Megaman" and "Mega Man". On Captain N, his name is "Megaman". This spelling was used in the title of the episode "Happy Birthday, Megaman" as well as in the closed captions for the episode. I, however, have decided to use "Mega Man" as the spelling for his name on this site, simply because I'm used to spelling it that way. Since the spelling "Megaman" was used in an episode title, I am definitely contradicting evidence presented in the show. I admit that.

Dr. Right - I get bothered about this one a lot. People keep insisting that the scientist's name is Thomas Xavier Light. Well, it is in the games, but not on the show. Only "Mega Man" and "Mega Man II" were out when Captain N began in 1989. The manual for "Mega Man" called the scientist "Dr. Wright". "Mega Man II" called him "Dr. Light", which is used now. The closed captions on "Happy Birthday, Megaman" called him "Dr. Right". When "Mega Man III" came out in 1990, it also used the spelling "Dr. Right". In the closed captions for "A Tale of Two Dogs", he's called "Dr. Wright" as in the "Mega Man" instruction manual. Since "Dr. Right/Wright" was spoken, I can't change the spelling to "Dr. Light". To do so would be to change the pronunciation as well, and that would be a contradiction of the show. Without access to any of the scripts, I have chosen to use "Dr. Right" on my site.

Dr. Wily - "Dr. Wily" is the spelling that most people use. The closed captions on Captain N sometimes call him "Dr. Wiley", sometimes "Dr. Wily", and, on "Mega Trouble For Megaland", "Dr. Wylie"! The first two spellings are actually used in the games (along with "Dr. Willy" in "Mega Man VII"), but I have chosen to use "Dr. Wily" on my site.

Robot Masters - This term was never used on the show, but I use it when talking about more than one of Dr. Wily's robot bosses. According to the closed captions, the robots' names are spelled as one word: "TOPMAN", "GUTSMAN", "ELECMAN". The Mega Man games switch between one word and two. I prefer to use two words: "Top Man", "Guts Man", "Elec Man". Without access to the scripts, I don't know if I'm contradicting Captain N or not.

Cuts Man - I realize that the spelling in the "Mega Man" manual is "Cutman". The episode "Mega Trouble For Megaland" calls him "CUTSMAN". Using the above rule for Robot Masters, I call him "Cuts Man". Remember, I go by Captain N first.


Spellings of Places

Videoland - According to the maps shown during the Season 1 opening theme song and in the episode "The Big Game", the name of the universe is "VIDEOLAND". When I spell it on this site, I use "Videoland". I've seen it spelled "VideoLand" sometimes, but I really don't like that spelling, since it means putting two capital letters in one word.

Lands - The Videoland maps uses "MEGALAND" and "KONGOLAND". So all video worlds with the word "land" attached are spelled as one word. Examples: Megaland, Kongoland, Bayouland, Hoopland. They are not spelled as two words: "Mega Land", "Kongo Land", "Bayou Land", "Hoop Land".

Worlds - The closed captions on the TV series spell the names of video worlds with the word "world" in their names as two words. So, "Baseball World" instead of "Baseballworld" and "Garbage World" instead of "Garbageworld". The comic books spell "Garbageworld". So use a space for the TV series but not the comic books.

Castlevania - The Videoland maps spell it "CASTLEVANIA". I know the games spell it "CastleVania" on the title screens, but I use "Castlevania", which is the logical spelling that's used pretty much everywhere else.

Northridge - Kevin's hometown is spelled as two separate words in the episode "The Big Game". It was spelled as "NORTH RIDGE" on the high school gym building in all shots except one. However, the closed captions for that episode call it "Northridge", as does the comic book story "WELCOME TO VIDEOLAND". Using that evidence, plus the fact that the city is actually spelled "Northridge", that is how I decide to spell it.


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