During the holidays, we are republishing some selection feature from the past 12 months. Compilation of arguments, interviews, opinions and more from NL staff and collaborators, you’ll find our usual blend of thoughtfulness, expertise, vanity, classic nostalgia, and — of course — enthusiasm for all things Nintendo. Happy holidays!
As you may have noticed, Golden Eye 007 is now 25 years old and can legally rent a car abroad. Rare’s popular shooter’s influence on the FPS genre and console video games in general has been enormous, and gamers have now been mulling it over and uncovering its secrets for two decades. past century and a half. It stands like a monolith in the game scene, an artifact that generates endless inquiry, discussion, and debate. What’s left to say?
Well, while we are all nervously waiting for the official announcement [Note. IT FINALLY HAPPENED!] Regarding the long-rumored remake — an announcement that seems to have been rumored at every major video game event over the past year — we thought we’d look back at the game’s 25th anniversary with 25 facts that you may or may not know, or at least may have forgotten! As we mentioned above, it’s one of the most discussed video games ever created, with lots of flashback articles, deep dives into the history, Developers autopsiesand even documentary to its name, so forgive us if you’re a veteran do know some of the nuggets we’ve picked out below.
So, after a brief pause to view our regular watch quest summary from branch Q, reload PP7, sprint diagonally across the dam, and head into the GoldenEye again. …
001: GoldenEye is developed by only a few people
Compared to the massive core teams and outsourced staff that build today’s blockbusters, the core GoldenEye development team at Rare consists of just 12 people (give or take, depending on the exact definition. of ‘developer’, but that’s a conversation for another article). Most of them have also never made a game before.
Here is a main development team role call:
- Martin Hollis, Mark Edmonds, Stephen Ellis, David Doak, Duncan Botwood, Karl Hilton, B Jones, Adrian Smith, Graham Smith, Graeme Norgate, Grant Kirkhope, Robin Beanland (music in public)
It was the upper team that worked extremely hard, and the bottom conditions will raise eyebrows properly these days, in two and a half years of a game, through iteration and testing, the result will be completely different from how it was originally envisioned…
002: Started as a Virtua Cop .-style on-rail shooter
Before the developers chose to allow the player to move freely, the original plan called for Bond to roam through the levels on a predefined path, with the player having only direct control of the gun. his gun.
According to game director Martin Hollis, the first line of his nine-page design document reads: “The game will be similar to Virtua Cop in terms of gameplay.” Yes, GoldenEye started life as an on-rails Time crisis-style, minus the shotgun, though other influences have come into play over time.
“We can’t pretend we don’t play Doom much,” Hollis told Edge magazine on Christmas 1997, a few months after its release. “[The game] from the beginning was considered a synthesis of Doom and Virtua Cop,” added artist Karl Hilton. mario 64gave the team ideas around mission goal design, about everything.
Asked by Edge in the same interview if the software id earthquake — the PC FPS multiplayer phenomenon of the time — affected the multiplayer component of GoldenEye, to which Hollis replied, “No, not at all,” with (Dr.) David Doak further explaining: “Really In fact, we just played Quake multiplayer for the first time yesterday.”
You can check out the original on-rails gameplay in original trailer used in this Nintendo 64 promo clip:
003: John Woo is another great inspiration
As David Doak discussed in his presentation at the Norwich Game Festival, John Woo and his films were another major influence on the game.
“We used to love John Woo and a lot of things in GoldenEye were inspired by John Woo. The whole ‘things explode’. […] And then Halo came along and suddenly there were two guns that were some kind of trademark, such as ‘double-handed’. And we just said ‘Ah, we did that five years ago: it’s called a double gun!’ But that’s the complete John Woo.”
Although you won’t find any slow-motion pigeon scenes in GoldenEye, Martin Hollis also note Woo’s explosive influence in the early design phase:
“I’ve taken a lot of the visual effects and kinetic moments from Hard Boiled or other John Woo movies. Especially the exploding stuff. Visually, there’s more to it than you think.”
004: Developers toyed with using Rumble Pak to reload weapons
Talking to Gamers now back in 2011, Steve Ellis confirmed an interesting, if impractical, idea that the developers had around reloading your weapon:
“At one point we intended to reload by having the player unplug and re-plug the rumble pack on the controller. Nintendo didn’t like the idea and I think it might have affected the pacing a bit.. .”
Smashing Rumble Pak with a satisfying click would be a neat way to give a little extra immersion in the secret agent world, that’s for sure.
There are downsides to this idea, though, especially the unwieldy button on the underside of the controller that you’ll have to press to remove the Rumble Pak whenever you need to take off a clip. There’s also the issue that not owning a force-feedback peripheral will leave you without ammo, though we assume this will be more of an optional mode than a requirement.
Still, real experts don’t need to reload…
005: You can beat the game with just one bullet (and a lot of patience)
A few years ago, speedrunner ‘Goose’ proved that it is possible beat the whole game with just one bullet.
Using a variety of neat techniques worthy of 007 itself — plus lots of karate chops — the speed runner slapped and snuck past the guards, tricking them into destroying the gear and finishing aim for him to finish every level of the game without a shot being fired.
The only insurmountable obstacle that needs a bullet there? The lock on the gate leads to the dam on the first level, Dam.
006: Last minute multiplayer added
Okay, okay, you already know this. GoldenEye multiplayer was included at the end of production and It only took six weeks to make. “It was probably around March or something when I decided that would be a very good idea despite the deadline,” Hollis said. edge magazine. “At the time, everyone said split-screen wouldn’t be fun, it wouldn’t be good.”
“I remember the first night when we put it in four-player mode and it ran at 8Hz or something,” recalls Doak, “and Bond running around like he was in a car. push, and everyone is Bond and it crashes all the time. five seconds.”
Hollis continued: “We made arrangements to accommodate it. “It was Stephen Ellis who was tasked with doing the multiplayer and he did an excellent job.”
Not half! Despite being a last-minute addition, for many of us it’s fond memories of getting together in the big CRT with the three friends who defined the game and made it what it is. A beloved classic game.
007: Martin Hollis regrets naming the game’s worst gun
Undeniably the least effective weapon in the gameThe infamous Klobb is named after producer Ken Lobb, Nintendo’s primary contact with the team and a supporter of the GoldenEye project within Nintendo itself.
Hollis said: “I kind of regret naming such an incompetent weapon after him. edge magazine“because I’m super into this man. He’s amazingly enthusiastic about the game, even after so many years in the industry. It’s a little unfair that we’re naming a weapon that’s so invincible. such use of his name. And I apologize for that.”
Doak recalls joking with Lobb when the producer discovered the group’s tribute to him:
“I remember one day, Ken excitedly came up and said, ‘Guys! You guys named a gun after me!’ We told him, ‘That’s good news; the bad news is we named it after you because it’s loud and inaccurate.'”
All guns in the game are based on real-life guns, although their names have been changed to appease a worried Nintendo. Other renamed weapons include the DD44 Dostovei, another David Doak nod, and Bond’s iconic Walther PPK. Where did ‘PP7’ come from, you ask? Maybe a combination of PPK and 007?
“Sound good,” Hollis said.
008: As an ending drama, it came too late
Yellow eyes the film was released in November 1995; The GoldenEye game came out in August 1997, twenty-one months after the movie.
It seems unthinkable that the power would give developers a nearly two-year delay, but that’s exactly what happened. That’s not to say there’s been no response, with Nintendo reportedly trying to cancel the game at a point, but in the end the dev team was given the time it needed. It ended up benefiting from advertising for the next movie, There is always tomorrow.
And hey, From Russia with love up to 43 five after the movie! By comparison, GoldenEye’s release was positively swift.
009: Oddjob players officially cheat
It has become part of the GoldenEye lore that picking Oddjob – who is considerably shorter than any other character in the multiplayer part of the game – is only for absolute fraud or, when pressed, the younger siblings you’re told to ignore and shoot mercilessly regardless.
Debate rages on playgrounds across the globe as to whether the Golden Finger minion is fair game, but for the developers who added him to the roster, it’s no big deal. debate.
Programmer Mark Edmonds says in an interview with Mel’s magazine. “But that can only add to the fun when you all sit there side by side and scold/poke/hit the person who chose him.”
Artist Karl Hilton added: “It was fun to take out and there was no motivation from any of us to change it.”
in him Classic post-production GDC (definitely worth a look), says Martin Hollis:
“With me, [Oddjob] is a problem of social dynamics. You should pressure your friend not to be a cheater […] These little quirks, a little sketchy, I really feel strongly give the game personality.”
