Today marks the 25th anniversary of the launch golden eye 007 on the Nintendo 64. The first-person shooter based on the James Bond film of the same name debuted in the US on August 25, 1997 and made an unexpected impression. Not only because it became a bestseller and received notable reviews, but also because it paved the way for the emergence of FPS – a genre that is still in its infancy and mostly reserved for PC – in the realm of consoles.
It is still considered one of the best video games of all time and has a sizable fan base. This has led to several unofficial projects to remaster and upgrade it so it can be played on new consoles. Though it didn’t always sit well with Nintendo or MGM, the owners of the saga’s intellectual property. Connection.
But apart from what the game itself offers, golden eye 007 stands out for its innovative development process. Not only because it was part of the progress in releasing games with 3D graphics, but also because when Rare (at that time Rareware) started working on it, the Nintendo 64 was not yet on the market, there were no console development kits.
golden eye 007pioneer of FPS on consoles
As its name suggests, golden eye 007 presented an argument based on golden eyethe seventeenth film in the James Bond saga and the first film to feature Pierce Brosnan as 007. It’s amazing that a video game hit the market. almost two years after the feature film das well as Martin Campbellwhich debuted in 1995.
Despite the discrepancy between dates golden eye 007 and its cinematic counterpart, the game’s release was not completely left to chance. The rare title was released a few months before the premiere Tomorrow never dies, the second film with Brosnan as James Bond. This allowed the video game to benefit from said film’s promotional campaign despite not being based on it.
Although Rare started in 1995, by the end of 1994, it began to consider making a James Bond game. However, the first idea was not to isolate golden eye 007 to the Nintendo 64, which began development in 1993 under the code name Project Reality, but also to the Super Nintendo. However, the possibility of producing shooter A first-person shooter with 3D graphics for the next generation of consoles quickly changed plans.
As we mentioned earlier, the studio responsible for the game had no Nintendo 64 development kits available. Not only that, but also I also didn’t know what the final specs of the device would be.. As a result, project leaders were forced to use the SGI Onyx, a $100,000 to $250,000 graphics supercomputer, and use ballpark estimates of the N64’s technical capabilities.
To simulate level scenarios based on the film, the team golden eye 007 received plans and photographs of film sets. However, not all of Rare’s planned features made it into the final version of the game. The multiplayer originally included characters from other Bond films, but these had to be removed as they did not receive permission to use the likeness of Sean Connery, the first actor to play 007 in the film.
On the other hand, the developers wanted the action of reloading the weapon to be done by ejecting and re-inserting a cartridge. Ramble Pack, a device that adds vibration to the console’s controls. But Nintendo did not sanction this.
golden eye 007 It was released to the public on August 25, 1997, received the most accolades, and became an instant bestseller. In fact, it is the third best-selling Nintendo 64 game in history, with just over 8 million copies sold. In this rating, he is second only to Super Mario 64 D mario kart 64.
Heritage
golden eye 007 became a cult video game years after its original release almost hit the xbox 360. In 2008, Rare worked on a remaster of the game for the Nintendo 64, which was made available to the public through Xbox Live Arcade. However, the plans were canceled as the parties involved – Nintendo, MGM, and Microsoft, the then owner of Rare – were unable to reach an agreement.
Since then, an unsuccessful version golden eye 007 for the Xbox 360 has been the subject of endless rumors and leaks. However, officially, she never saw the light of day.
Yes, there were other very promising unofficial projects, but they didn’t succeed either. met years ago Goldeneye 25, a reverse made in Unreal Engine 4, which was supposed to be released in 2022 in honor of its 25th anniversary. But it had to be canceled when MGM sent a cease and desist request to the project manager.
In 2021, a fan used the level editor away 5 on PS4 to recreate all scenarios from golden eye 007. The initiative called golden scream, was also decommissioned when MGM urged Ubisoft to remove it. What was striking in this case was that the developer did not use the source code for the Nintendo 64 version, but copied the look of the levels by hand and made them freely available.
Officially, several James Bond games have been released since golden eye 007. Even a reversion under the same name for Nintendo Wii and DS in 2010 and for PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. But none of them received the slightest recognition as the original N64 name..
Source: Hiper Textual
