The early 2000s were a huge time for innovation in gaming platforms, and resurfaced clips from 2002's E3 show that the beloved GameCube console was originally planned to have an attachable LCD screen. This would have made the GameCube, already a relatively portable platform, even more portable.
Nintendo has long been a hardware innovator in the industry, and these kinds of forgotten moments in history tell a lot about where the company is at today. The current flagship console, the Switch, has the built-in LCD screen as one of its main selling points. Its predecessor the Wii U may have been hindered by its execution, but the experimentation was still key to future success. It seems that the company's ambitions towards such a console long predate even this and perhaps start with the GameCube.
Footage from a Nintendo expo at E3 back in 2002 shows that a planned attachable LCD monitor was in the works shortly after the console's initial release in September 2001. The screen would have had a 4:3 aspect ratio and a 320x240 resolution -- limited by today's high-resolution GPU standards. But this would have been a great portable play option at the time, adding to the console's other portable features like the handle on the back. The idea was that players could easily carry their consoles round to a friend's house and set them up. The relevant discussion begins at the 22:00 mark in the video.
The E3 clip features the late Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's former CEO, discussing the choice to include peripherals like this official screen. Early models of the GameCube featured a digital output when consoles were still run on analog output. Five years later, the PlayStation 3 would be the first console to launch with fully digital output. Though the digital output was eventually removed from the GameCube, Iwata commented that it was in part due to proposed attachments like the screen that Nintendo made the decision to include it in the first place. He even revealed that the LCD attachment had limited 3D capabilities. Accessories like these for GameCube and later consoles have always been a big part of Nintendo's hardware appeal and success.
Nintendo's ambition has very often been greater than what was possible with the technology of the time. There are a number of reasons why the company may have decided not to release this particular attachment in the end. It may simply have been too expensive. It will never be known for sure, but clearly the seeds of what would become the Switch and the Wii U can be seen as far back as the GameCube. Had Nintendo not dared to experiment with such technology back in the earlier console generations, the Switch may not have been the enormous success it has become.
Source: Kotaku