CGDC Speakers Sound Off

The Computer Game Developers Conference officially announced its listing of over 300 speakers for the Long Beach, Calif. meeting of gaming minds.

The top names in the industry in all genres and aspects of gaming are expected to be there May 4 - 8. Highlighted speakers include Sid Meier of Firaxis and Civilization fame, Masaya Matsuura of Sony and PaRapper the Rapper fame, Richard Garriott of Origin Systems and Ultima fame, Richard Hilleman of EA John Madden Football fame, Dave Perry of Shiny of MDK fame, and Computer Gaming World's Johnny Wilson.

"In the rock world, stars of this magnitude would be Jimi Hendrix, Trent Reznor and Bono," said Jennifer Pahlka, director of CGDC. "In the world of game development they're the people who created a new genre of gaming with Civilization, envisioned the white-knuckle excitement of Quake II, or took gamers to a whole new level of experience with Ultima Online."

Attendees of the conference will hear keynote speakers expound on topics such as Blazing Fast Code, Legends of Game Design, Problems of Puzzle Games Design (with the creator of Tetris), and Masaya Matsuura's Audio Keynote, "The Genesis of PaRapper the Rappers.

In addition to the speakers, attendees can sign up for more than 350 classes - and wander though hundreds of exhibits focusing on the latest tools and technology for game construction.

"We're extremely thrilled at the star-caliber talents speaking and teaching at CGDC ‘98," added Pahlka. "These innovators drive the electronic entertainment industry with their talent and vision in every aspect of game development, both console, PC and arcade, nationally and internationally."

One of the CGDC events that is causing a stir on the Web is the Immersion 98 event on Sunday, May 3. At that time, 3Dfx will unveil the new Voodoo 2D/3D technology. In case you're out of touch with the 3D scene, many have heard of 3Dfx's Banshee project that will allow 3Dfx Voodoo power and the new 2D board to be enabled on a single board rather than have the standard 3D only boards that the company currently makes chips for.

To register or find more information about the conference, take a look at the CDGC Web site.