Here I must quote the entire writeup that inspired this one,
jkfghldagv's writeup on the letter
A:
Back in the day, console games were cool. They had controllers with buttons labelled by letters. Nowadays they use symbols. On the original NES, one such button was labelled A, and was useful for playing games such as Contra.
Back to my writing:
Letters or symbols, in relation to
console games:
As of this writing, the only major
video game console company to use symbols instead of letters is late 1990s upstart
Sony, on their
Playstation and
Playstation 2 consoles.
Nintendo and
Sega still label their buttons with
A,
B,
C,
X,
Y, and
Z, as do many
computer peripheral companies. Whether the
Microsoft X-Box will use letters or symbols on its buttons remains to be seen - the
X in the title is a good sign.
The X-Box system and controller design have been revealed, but I can't think of where I saw them, so I can't check how the buttons are labelled.
I think that Sony labelled their buttons with symbols to make their controller that much more distinct in comparison to others. I think it didn't work - I suspect it had no effect on the majority of people, and only served to annoy those who missed their lettered buttons.
Letters or symbols, in relation to
KMFDM:
After
ten years of
albums with
titles made of letters,
KMFDM released an album in 1997 whose title was composed of five symbols, a
flash of light (or
explosion), a
skull and crossbones, a
cartoon bomb, a
spiral, and a
fist striking a
horizontal surface. The change in
titular composition did not seem to affect anything else about the album, and I consider it one of
KMFDM's best albums. It is often referred to as their self-titled album, and thus called "
KMFDM", but nearly all
KMFDM albums before and after it had the "
KMFDM" above the cover illustration, and the album's title below the illustration. (The exceptions to this rule are the albums "
What Do You Know, Deutschland?" and "
Agogo") On the 1997 album, "
KMFDM" is above the illustration, and the five symbols are below it, clearly identifying them as the title of the album. Therefore, if I have to refer to the album by name, I call it "Symbols".