They shaved the word Computer from the original Computer Games Developer Conference moniker, but aside from that cosmetic change, little else was noticeably different at this year's event.

　　Attendees were, however, treated to keynotes by three of the most well-known individuals in console gaming.

　　Following addresses by Sega of America president Bernie Stolar and Sony vice president Phil Harrison, Shigeru Miyamoto - the powerhouse designer behind Zelda, Donkey Kong, Mario Cart, and loads of other Nintendo games - took the stage with a translator to talk about his current game in development, his history as a game designer, and his work on the award-winning Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time.

　　Never one to disappoint, Miyamoto began his speech by talking about his history as a game designer. He said that even as the industry has gone through many crises, he's been able to make games throughout the many ups and downs. Miyamoto said, "I like making games so much that I'd make them for free but..." even a gaming god needs to make money to pay the bills. And Miyamoto is the type of stock that Nintendo wants to keep well funded.

　　Miyamoto claimed that his strength as a game designer doesn't come completely from his creativity but from his ability to create games with technology in mind. He said to developers that each of them has hit a wall in game development at some point, and many have released unfinished games "to their own mortification." Miyamoto thinks that the problem with these failed games doesn't lie in design but the failure to match that design to the available technology. "Until the technology is complete, it is difficult to build games." No doubt he was referring to the previous Sony keynote, in which the company discussed its upcoming 128-bit technology that will eventually become the PlayStation 2.

　　"The role of designer is understanding the system itself," Miyamoto said boldly. "How will the ideas in my head be used by the computer? How will I present my ideas to the user?" Yet Miyamoto says that he isn't a technologist with tons of engineering knowledge and says in addition that his work with great teams has aided him in building games. And because of that philosophy, all Nintendo designers must undergo technical training as a prerequisite to building games. But Miyamoto fears in some ways that technology can't compete with human ingenuity and the birth of new games. And while he sounded as though he was harshly criticizing the industry, he concluded by saying that he too was guilty of talking about technology more then design or software at times.

　　Then Miyamoto went on to talk about his greatest work yet: Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. The game started as Miyamoto and four or five teams began working on the basic elements for the game: scenario planning, definitive links to past Zelda games, camera angles, objects that Link could handle, motion capture, sound and special effects, and how the flow of time would work. At one point, he even had the crew rip apart some of the already completed work to help fine tune the game - much to the team's disappointment. But in the end, the extra work was appreciated by the Zelda team, as the game itself feels very polished.

　　As Miyamoto began to talk about the future of game design, he said, "Will I make a Zelda for the next Nintendo system?" The crowd cheered, expressing its high hopes, but Miyamoto said that for now, the answer is no. His reasoning, he explained, was that all the elements in Zelda were already available in other games a year before Zelda's release. With a new system, the game would have better graphics but might not be as fun to play. And Miyamoto complained that he didn't feel the same "freshness" he felt when he completed games like Donkey Kong.

　　In one funny moment, he explained that during the end of Mario 64's development, Japan was hit with Tamagotchi fever. Miyamoto at one point thought that Mario was a lost cause since the Japanese were becoming obsessed with a game that only had ten dots. The crowd laughed and Miyamoto smiled and said in English, "Yes, I'm serious."

　　Then Miyamoto showed off an early version of his new game, Talent Maker. The game will use a small camera mounted to the Nintendo 64. You snap a picture of your face and skin (the process of stretching the photo over a 3D model) it onto the character of your choice. Rather than having to enter your name into the game, your face dons the character you're playing. To show off Talent Maker, a female-looking character moved toward the screen doing dancing moves, but the character was hidden as a dark shadow until it came close to a screen bearing the smiling face of Miyamoto. With dancing games being all the rage in Japan, Nintendo would have needed an offering sooner or later, and this seems to be its answer.

　　For now, Miyamoto remains Nintendo's best weapon and seasoned vet in console gaming. And considering how much he's grown as a designer, and how much optimism he has for gaming's future, the legend of Miyamoto is still being written.