Does Apple want to buy Nintendo? It seems unlikely to us, but that' s the latest internet gossip and speculation which is being fuelled by an article over on CNET, which has re-ignited the debate.

Any evidence for such wild mutterings? Well, to be honest there' s not a great deal. Last month, rumours from the US fingered LucasArts' tech director Mike Lampbell who' d apparently been switched to a secret Apple games project, which would apparently involve making iPod games. Conspiracy theorists immediately summoned the salmon of doubt to pooh-pooh this idea and speculated widely that Apple had another, bigger target in mind, namely Nintendo.

There' s little doubt Apple could afford a buyout after the success of the iPod, but would it make any sense? Well due to the way the stock market works, Japanese companies are notoriously difficult and costly to target with hostile takeovers, and given the effort its put into Wii and DS it' s unlikely Nintendo would sell, so maybe something else is going on?

Current conspiracy theory runs there may be some kind of deal going on with the new Mac Mini which could run Nintendo games or have Nintendo games made especially for it. With the Mac Mini being priced roughly the same as the PS3, the theorists suggest an acquisition of Nintendo would give Apple an instant ' in' into the console market with its new machine.

Seems like testing the outer limits of ' wildly speculative' to us, but certainly an interesting one to chew over on a quiet Monday afternoon.

If we see a new NintenMac appearing sometime next year you can spank us silly and call us Susan, but would an Apple-Nintendo partnership (however unlikely) float your boat?