Features// Miyamoto draws out strangest New York Nintendo fans – Full picture exposé

Miyamoto in New York - Page one of one

Posted 26 Sep 2005 15:16 by
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By Joseph Chagan

Yesterday Nintendo of America held a very rare and special event in its newly-opened Nintendo World store in New York City. For the first time in about 3 years, according to the ever helpful Nintendo PR guy JC (or CJ. Or JP – whatever, he’s very helpful), Shigeru Miyamoto sat down and signed autographs for some very grateful fans. SPOnG was on hand to take some photos and chat with some people who appeared to be homeless as they slept in the streets of Manhattan.

As advertised, the first 200 people in line were allowed to get one item autographed each, as well as their choice of two different DS skins, both exclusive to this event. As you can imagine, this brought out the most rabid of Nintendo collector and fan.



As a special Bonus for the especially-devoted campers, the first ten people were given the opportunity to allow their Nintendogs to download and play with Miyamoto's very own Nintendog Jack. He is a bread not available in any of the currently released versions of the game and sports a Mario cap.

A voice message for the lucky few is also transmitted with Jack and is available for your listening pleasure right here.

Though like all great love stories, Jack and SPOnG had to be torn apart. We attempted to hang on to him for as long as possible but the system automatically sent him home after about 12 hours. Suprisingly though, once you have finished playing with Jack you get the message that Miyamoto has been added to your friends list followed by another message that a new litter of jack russell terriers has just arrived at the kennel!


We here at SPOnG are now in the elite group of about 13 (including Miyamoto himself) to have this option, We are now officially better at being Nintendo fans than you, provided of course you own Nintendogs and care.



This fellow crafted his very own revolution shirt which he proudly told everyone he passed about as he walked up and down the length of the line (which wrapped about half way around a city block and then doubled back). In total there where probably around 500 people queued up, more than 200 of which had slept there.



This fellow thanked Mr. Miyamoto for 20 years of fun, in honour of the 20th birthday of the NES next month. These years had clearly been a dedicated couple of decades, with all forms of exercise given over to sitting. On a sofa.



Now this made us laugh for almost a whole second. Look at the man wearing an Xbox Live T-shirt. He’s wearing it to a Nintendo event. How funny is that?



This fellow was decked head to toe in Nintendo merchandise, and was one of two people friendly enough to volunteer the information that they where currently sporting Nintendo underwear. When questioned as to the frequency of said underwear’s washing, neither wearer offered comment.



After shaking hands with the man himself some attendees were also lucky enough to bump into Nintendo’s own head of jingoisms (not official title, we think) Reginald Fils-Aime. While speaking to Reggie this fellow’s mother, who accompanied him to the event, proclaimed to the crowd that he someday hoped to work for Nintendo.

Little advice, if you manage an interview: ditch the hat. And your mum.



A wide variety of Nintendo memorabilia was carted out to receive the Nintendo Seal of approval from Miyamoto himself. Surprisingly, this was the only power glove in attendance. Sadly, no Virtual Boy units or Super Scopes were to be seen.



This fashion trail blazer was unfortunately not alone in his cord-wrapping endeavours. In his defence, he was the only attendee to chose to go with the headband style, as apposed to the now-very-much-passé' belt buckle, a la captain-N.



Despite rigorous bag checking at the entrance, this devoted fan still managed to sneak his guns in, complete with matching Zelda Logos.



This persistent fan brought his E3 Zelda t-shirt to be signed as well as three DVDs of his demo reel for submission. After nearly 5 minutes of sob story and pleading (or whining, depending on your perspective) the fine folks from Nintendo respectfully declined. Why is Miyamoto so horrible? Why would he refuse to take a few moments to look over the work of someone who has bothered to come and see him? These questions and many more the Mario creator will surely take to his grave.



This gentleman had by far the most unique item to be signed of all we saw. This rather standard looking NES controller was actually hollowed out and converted into a fully-functioning cell phone. He still carries a second phone for placing calls but this one is quite capable of receiving.



Even the genius behind the NES controller cell phone was not immune to Miyamoto's puppet master-like control.



Possibly one of the cleverest queue members to be seen in the seemingly unending line of people was this girl who had the bright idea to use a pool raft as an inflatable mattress. Stories that she spent hours wondering why she had let her boyfriend talk her into sleeping on the ground outside remain unconfirmed.



Here we have Nintendo’s own Luigi and Link throwing up the devil horns for our cameraman. Perhaps this is the edgier Nintendo we’ve been hearing about…



Wario told our reported that, "…everyone should hang loose". Peach said, “buy my custom-made hats". We say "Since when did Princess Peach wear a plumber’s hat?". But we can kind of be jerks sometimes.



Unlike the well paid and often photographed booth babes at most video game events, Miyamoto genuinely enjoys Nintendo fans, even the sweaty ones. We were told that he would love to do this sort of thing more often but is of course very busy bringing the next-generation of all of Nintendo’s franchise's to the eager masses. Honest!

So that was the night Miyamoto went to New York. We doubt he took as many staying awake drugs as we did and he looked a lot healthier than us too. Let us know what you think of all this in the forum as we go fire up eBay. Erm, we mean… …something else.
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Comments

TigerUppercut 26 Sep 2005 15:25
1/16
Well I liked it!
LUPOS 26 Sep 2005 16:39
2/16
TigerUppercut wrote:
Well I liked it!


ditto!
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TigerUppercut 26 Sep 2005 17:01
3/16
Probably my fault, cocking something up during upload.
:-S
Nice work Mt Lupos anyway. You do indeed rock hard.
kid_77 26 Sep 2005 20:28
4/16
'bot. head. hurt

Ditto 26 Sep 2005 21:30
5/16
Awww! Doggie!

*Cough* Umm, sorry, but that dog is darn cool.
LUPOS 27 Sep 2005 00:23
6/16
Adam M wrote:
Awww! Doggie!

*Cough* Umm, sorry, but that dog is darn cool.


i let out an audible gasp when it said he left... was tryign to decide how long to hold onto him... then *poof*


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tyrion 27 Sep 2005 07:47
7/16
Rubbish title now eliminated.

That is all!
imnotregret 27 Sep 2005 11:18
8/16


hurrah! this is me at the last one in london three years ago. i got my zelda cart signed, now i wish i'd carted my 64dd along... bah and humbug. next time... next time.

so what does the store look like?
pooma 27 Sep 2005 15:01
9/16
Great Job
enjoyed the pics with comments along with them.
great for those who couldn't be there.
:)
Pooma
TigerUppercut 27 Sep 2005 18:19
10/16
imnotregret wrote:
so what does the store look like?
I was wondering the same thing.
Lupos?
:-)
LUPOS 27 Sep 2005 23:36
11/16
TigerUppercut wrote:
imnotregret wrote:
so what does the store look like?
I was wondering the same thing.
Lupos?
:-)



arrrggghh!!! bastard
i only had one measily memory card so i tired to restrict myself to mostley nerd photos, but i shall give ya what i got...

establishing shot #1 lots of metal and blue neon... very tastefull with hard wood floors, quite modern and still kind of cozey i suppose would be the best sumation... not a bad place to stand for countless hours.

numero 2!

nerds on stairs!

LOOK! all the cool gameboys you cant buy in the states... jerks!

and the close up... i wants me a naruto gameboy real bad

original famicom... complete with colapse'n zapper.

original nes complete with non-colapse'n ROB

more nerds on stairs... maybe i have a thing for stairs?

wide shot of the upstairs, guy on the far right in helpfull PR man... and dude in the pink shirt is the surprisingly friendly security man who kept all the geeks in line. also the cool glowy white area in the back has snazy pod chairs infront of big azz plazmas so you can sit and play new gamecube games. i think th epods include speakers but im not sure

lucky shot -o- regi making a funny face infront of a big azz plazma!

regi signing micro faceplates on top of the rare merch... he left a permanant ink mark on one of the glass cases... jerk! j/k

giant plazma of nintendo fun!

this is a game boy that was blown up in the gulf war and still works... some how i doubt those buttons can be pressed though... which seriosuly hinders the game play i imagine.

these are some guys from cheap ass gamers who do soem sort of weird fake interview thing... i belive the john lovitz looking fellow goes by "the wombat" and speaks in a comical (sort of) voice... but more imprtantley is the shiny cricle of nintendo video magic just behind them!

ok thats about it... no shots of the down stairs at all.. sorry... all in all i really like it... only place i have managed to find DS accesories in stock oddly enough.

i may swing buy again some time in the near future if anyone is actually that interested... also just as a note the staff are all wearing dress pants and lovely blue nintendo shirts and are actually all avid gamers, its a requirment for employment, good to have knowledgable staff... the manager told me about how she got her first NES with ROB when it came out.

and now we will have a brief question and answer period followed by soem snacks....

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tyrion 28 Sep 2005 08:14
12/16
LUPOS wrote:
and now we will have a brief question and answer period followed by soem snacks....

What sort of snacks? Will there be prawns? I like prawns. Ooh! And cheese, there has to be cheese. And those little nibbly biscuit things, you know, the little ones. And there has to be pickled onions on toothpicks, otherwise I'm not coming.

Questions? What?
LUPOS 28 Sep 2005 10:32
13/16
and here i was thinking cocktail weeenies, pizza bagels and hot wings.... hmm....

tyrion 28 Sep 2005 12:29
14/16
LUPOS wrote:
and here i was thinking cocktail weeenies, pizza bagels and hot wings....

Oh, a classy do! Well then, what colour was the head salesperson's wig?

Where are my hot wings?
imnotregret 28 Sep 2005 15:50
15/16
hmmm, i don't like prawns, but i'm all for the pickles...
LUPOS 28 Sep 2005 22:06
16/16
tyrion wrote:

Oh, a classy do! Well then, what colour was the head salesperson's wig?

Where are my hot wings?


uh... the manager was a blonde lady... she can be seen standing behing the regilution as he signs ont eh schwag case...

and your hot wings are over here in merca... they come from atomic wings in manhattan, a small chain of 2 (or 3) that makes the best most authenticaly buffalo like wings outside of buffalo... or so says my buffalovian friend Mike M (aka the masked avenger i belive). you can have em next time you venture to the land of right side of the road driving as i dotn think tehy woudl survive the shipping... no one likes a soggy box... no sexual bun intended.
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