After heading back down into the basement where the signing took place, I had just caught Miyamoto's 'signing towel' when I turned and saw Tim Street, editor of NOM, standing tall and proud. Instantaneously, I yelled 'that's Tim Street!' and rushed up to shake the big man's hand. He was friendly and polite, and so I thought I'd ask him if he'd mind sparing a few minutes for a short interview. So there we were, sat on the sofas under the stairs to the basement of Virgin Megastore, Oxford Street, with my phone in my hand to take down short-hand answers, and only our on-the-spot brains to keep the questions going. And what a top bloke Tim is. He was with us for half an hour, happily chatting away, and then posed for a photo (as you will see) afterwards. Read on to find out what went down.

Cube-Europe (C-E): Thank you very much for taking your time out to talk to us.
Tim Street (T.S): No problem!

C-E: So Tim, what did you think of the day?
T.S: It's been excellent. There's been a really impressive amount of people turn up. It's the most I've ever seen at a signing session. It's great to see that Miyamoto recognizes the fan base of Europe. I'm very impressed.

C-E: And did you get anything signed?
T.S: No, but I've had plenty of stuff signed by The Great Man before. I didn't get here until about 1.30pm anyway.

C-E: That's great. Can you tell us about 'The Wind Waker'? Is it as good as 'Ocarina of Time?'
T.S: It's an excellent game. Of course, we've had the Japanese version in the NOM offices for a while now, and I love it, even though I can't understand a word that's being displayed. It's still got that amazing Zelda feel, and it certainly matches Ocarina in terms of graphics and gameplay. It's a shame it's taking so long for it to get a PAL release.

C-E: Yeah, we have to wait for all the translations and everything. What do you think about that?
T.S: Yeah, it's very annoying. I think that UK and USA should have the same release dates because there's very little translation needed there, with players from the continent given the chance to buy the UK game if they want to. Of course, there would be the translated versions into various other languages to follow.

C-E: What have you been doing to try and improve NOM? Because it got a lot of stick under Dave McComb for being quite a 'kiddy' mag.
T.S: You're right, the mag did get a bit of stick, but lately the image has changed, it's aimed at an older audience, and it's paid off. If you like, the magazine has grown up.

C-E: And what about Demo Discs?
T.S: Yeah, we've been trying very hard to get these in because we know it's like the ultimate giveaway for a magazine. We work very closely with Nintendo, but so far we haven't been able to get any demo discs.

C-E: What was your first Nintendo experience?
T.S: Ohhhhh�..(he thinks for a few seconds), probably playing Donkey Kong Game and Watch on my 8th birthday, back in the '80s. (ed. Don't worry Tim, we won't reveal the exact date!)

C-E: What are your 3 most highly anticipated titles?
T.S: Well, we've already got 'The Wind Waker' in the NOM offices, so I'd say Mario Kart 128, F-Zero GC and, if it exists, Mario 128.

C-E: What are your opinions on the Freeloader?
T.S: It's a good idea, but it's very flawed. We've had a lot of complaints at NOM, about how it doesn't work with certain titles, and that's all to do with the coding. It may well have been a case of them rushing it out because of such high demand.

C-E: What is to come from Nintendo in the future?
T.S: I think that there'll be lots more consoles. I hope that there'll be a lot more consoles, but like Satoru Iwata said, the moment that Nintendo stop making consoles is the moment that they quit the videogame industry. They have a huge fan-base, and they make the best games, but they may be in the shadows of Sony for a while, which is a shame. Hopefully Nintendo will be around forever.

C-E: Well, we shouldn't keep you any longer, so thank you so much for your time, it's been a pleasure.
T.S: Yeah, thanks guys, it was fun!

We'd like to take this opportunity to give a big shout out to Tim Street. It was great to interview you and get a few things signed by you, and it was generous of you to spare us some of your time, so thank you so much Tim!

You can see a picture of Tim Street with members of the C-E crew by clicking here
From left to right: Freddy Savory, Tim Street, Timothy Fagan and Duncan Rogers
Photographer: Steve Turner

Asking the questions; Freddy Savory and Duncan Rogers.