Miyamoto Meets The Fans
By Andy Robinson

Eyes open... Jump up. "What's the time?! 9:30!" I get showered, dressed and I'm on the street heading towards the nearest train station.

I queue at the ticket machine only to find out it doesn't take notes. I walk down out of the station, into a corner shop and shamelessly buy a packet of chewing gum with a 10 pound note. I spend another 2 minutes queuing and purchase my ticket. Through the barriers and I'm on my way.

I took a quick photo, walked down the platform and the train arrived after a short wait. To be honest I spent most of the train journey thinking what I was going to write in this feature, there wasn't much of note on the train apart from a couple of film students discussing how they were going to film each other getting on a train as part of one of their projects.

After an hour or so I reached Tottenham Court Road tube station and as I got to the barriers I found out I'd bought the wrong ticket and I had to spend another lovely 5 pounds on a second ticket. Once I actually managed to get out of the station I was waiting at the traffic lights and glanced around. You could tell who was going to the Miyamoto signing because they were grinning like idiots.

I entered the Virgin Megastore, went upstairs to the wrong floor, came down again and realised the signing was on the basement floor. Boom. 500 people were already queued and waiting for the man to arrive, and he wouldn't be there for another 2 hours. I got onto the back of the queue and prepared for a long wait.

I spent about 2 hours standing in pretty much the same spot as an even bigger queue developed behind me. The people who had shown up for the signing were of every race and age. There were Asians, Indians, Whites, Blacks, Pensioners and small children. They'd all waited hours for only a 20 second meeting with Shigeru Miyamoto. However, the amount of kids calling him "Shiggsy" was quite disturbing.

At around 12:50 some bloke far in the distance at the signing table was standing in front of the crowd and saying something or other over a mic. I can only assume he was trying to assure the crowd that Mr. Miyamoto was actually going to turn up. I looked around at the prizes people were clutching to get signed, there was one women with a Mario figurine, another man had brought the whole top logo plate from a Donkey Kong Arcade Machine. Most of the kids there had brought copies of Mario Sunshine and Smash Bros. Melee.

The guy next to me was playing his GBA and seemed like a nice guy. I kept preparing myself to ask him what he was getting signed and start a conversation, but I never did in the end.

I took a few swigs from my bottle of Lucazade, my back was already starting to ache. And then finally, after 20 minutes of people walking on the stage and members of the crowd clutching their cameras and asking "Is he here?" Mr. Miyamoto appeared from a set of double doors and received a rapturous applause. He was treated like a rock star, everyone including myself was screaming, cheering and clapping as Mr. Miyamoto waved his arms in the air greeting the crowd of fans

It's time for business. Mr. Miyamoto laid out his set of pens and the first 15 (rather obsessive) fans in the queue who had most definitely camped outside for over 24 hours received their free copies of Zelda: Four Swords and had their items signed. The Zelda 64 soundtrack was played over the loudspeaker and it seemed to create a good atmosphere amongst the fans, I could feel the buzz in the croud. Everyone around me was playing mutliplayer GBA and talking about Nintendo games.

The atmosphere changed after I realized the entire Zelda 64 soundtrack had been played and I'd only moved 3 steps forward.

This was not good. Mr. Miyamoto had showed up 10 minutes late and in 20 minutes the queue had hardly moved. My fears were confirmed when a 20 something Virgin employee progressed down the line with the message "There's only an hour and a half left, we can't guarantee you'll get anything signed as he has to leave at three. Nothing more will be signed after three."

Not good. The smiles had turned to frowns, I heard conversations from lots of different people. "This is worse than the World Cup!" "I'd rather be England Manager!" "We're not going to make it!" "We'll make it. I know we probably won't but I'll keep telling myself we will."

Another 20 minutes passed and we had reached a position in the queue close to the exit where people leave after having something signed. It hurt, lots of happy people left with signed Zelda 64's and Mario Sunshine's and we all knew we probably weren't going to get them. I saw one guy get a silver Gamecube signed which caused a huge reaction from the people behind me "look, I told you there's a silver Gamecube!" I saw another guy get a huge Yoshi's Story cardboard cutout signed and he was applauded as he held it up on the way out. Oh, and remember the pensioner I mentioned?

I was getting desperate. I had worked out that Mr. Miyamoto was signing for one person every 20 seconds, he was very efficient. This meant that he would only get as far as about 10 people in front of me. I waited until the queue moved forward a little to a gap in the line, and then whilst the Virgin staff weren't looking I jumped about 15 people in the line. The only person who complained was a middle aged women with her kids "you better not be jumping in front of my boys!" I ignored her.

I usually wouldn't queue jump and I'm definetly not proud of what I did, it's unfair to the people behind you. But If I've waited four hours to meet my idol then that's when survival of the fittest comes in to play. Luckily no-one behind me missed out anyway.

The guys behind me were alot more talkative than the other guys I was with. One of them had a huge poster inside a carrying case, the others were arguing amongst themselves whether or not they'd make it. Everyone seemed to be very nervous whether we'd get to the front, soon a Virgin employee started making his way down the line with another message: "Mr. Miyamoto has to go in 15 minutes, however he will come round and shake everyones hand and give out free Zelda posters." People were angry, many complained about how far they'd traveled or how long they'd waited. "Sorry, he's the nicest man I've ever met but he really has to go at three."

At about 2:50 we managed to get inside the little enclosed area in front of the signing table, I considered this a guarantee we'd reach Mr. Miyamoto. I mean, he wouldn't tell the people right in front of him that he can't sign their stuff, right?

The tension had reached fever pitch "come on, come on, please don't go Mr. Miyamoto." was a common comment among the people around me. A guy behind me was clutching a mint condition boxed Game & Watch, another had a copy of Majora's Mask. At 3 we were right in front of the stage and the people in front and behind me were almost wetting themselves over the tension of whether or not Mr. Miyamoto would leave right there and then. However a middle-aged Virgin employee with a gray moustache told us that Mr. Miyamoto would try and squeeze in a few more people.

I got my Gamecube box out of my bag, moved aside Zelda 1 and Mario World carts, and I ask the guy behind me with the huge poster to hold my bag whilst I got the Gamecube out and moved aside Pikmin, Zelda, the Ocarina Bonus Disk and everything else I'd brought with me. "Wow, what are you getting signed?" "The Gamecube" I answered. Everyone seemed to find it pretty cool that my Gamecube was modded. I later found out that the people behind me (including the guy with the poster) I actually already knew on the internet, and one of them I actually already had on my MSN messenger!

I was now only a few people away from Mr. Miyamoto. I was clutching my Gamecube by the handle and a business card I had quickly made the night before. As soon as the Virgin employee at the front gave me the go ahead I went up onto the stage and was greeted by the same guy with the gray moustache who was now taking the role of the Nazi luggage inspector. "What are you getting signed?" "Just this Gamecube" I answered "OK, put that card away mate". I put the card in my pocket momentarily. I reach Mr. Miyamoto and he took my Gamecube from me and slowly started writing his signature on the top of it with a silver marker. Old feelings were rekindled inside me, it was great to be in the presense of the great man again.

As he handed it back and shook my hand with a smile I showed him the card. He paused. "Ah!" he pointed at the card and shook my hand again. I also shook Mr. Aonuma's hand and he seemed suprised I even knew who he was. Unfortunetly I couldn't get anything signed by Mr. Aonuma as I was then quickly moved on by a Virgin employee. 

I went upstairs towards the exit and noticed the huge amount of people who were denied access to the queue and forced to watch from above. There must have been at least 200 people who didn't make it in time. After packing my Gamecube away neatly making sure it didn't smudge I went out of the store and traveled to a Game store around the corner called 'Computer Exchange', it's quite popular among hardcore gamers in London due to their huge Retro section.

Inside there were a few people who had been to the signing, among some of the worst choices of object to be signed was a copy of Official Nintendo Magazine (the worst mag ever - fact) and a third party N64 controller which was laughed at by staff at the store.

On my way back to the train station I decided to check in Virgin again. I went towards the balcony which was surrounded by all the people who were turned away by Virgin for coming too late. Mr. Miyamoto was still signing! He had stayed an extra 30 minutes and was still going strong! I talked to a few people and quickly found out that Virgin had closed off the basement floor and 12:30, and anyone who turned up afterwoulds was told they couldn't meet Mr. Miyamoto.

I soon became the center of attention as I told my story of meeting him at ECTS 2000 and showed the pics on my digital camera. I met a few people who I knew from the internet and after Mr. Miyamoto had very kindly stayed an extra hour to sign for everyone who had queued we left to have a drink at a local pub.

It was sad that Virgin had scared alot of the people queuing with the false information that Mr. Miyamoto would be leaving without signing for everyone. It became more about getting something signed than actually meeting the man, I would've been completely satisfied with a handshake and poster.

I arrived home at 6:40 and my back was well and truly killing me. After a few hours at my sister's house helping set up their new Sony Wega I arrived home to find my lovely GBA-SP waiting for me. However the true prize was my new improved Gamecube:

The day was fun. I had a great time meeting friends previously only known over the internet and hanging out with lots of other Nintendo fans. Although to be honest I appriciate my signed ECTS pass more than my signed Gamecube, due to the personal touch that is lacking from a public signing. It was extremely kind of Mr. Miyamoto to stay the extra hour and sign for everyone and he made alot of people happy. I salute him for being a true gentleman, he'll have a Shrine for many years to come.

Missed an Update? Click here!     Bored? Hit the Forums!