GoldenEye 007 25 Year Anniversary Event Rundown - Article
by Christian Evans , posted on 16 May 2022 / 7,791 Views
GoldenEye 007 on the N64 is rightfully held in high regard as a seminal entry in games history and, personally, playing the game has always hit the top notes on the nostalgia scale. I had the privilege to attend the '25 years of GoldenEye' exhibition at the Centre for Computing History in Cambridge (UK), held on the weekend of 7/8th May, and am pleased to say it was an absolute blast.
Development documents were on display, such as the original script treatment, and various storyboard and menu sketches by Martin Hollis. Map designs by Karl Hilton, centred around the opening level (Dam), were also on view, alongside plenty of concept art and original costume design sketches by Brett Jones. There were lots of other promotional items and memorabilia around the game to peruse too, such as original posters, magazines, and articles. My favourite was the Bond-themed Christmas card designed by Brett Jones, which was handed out to fellow staff during development.
While the museum highlighted a plethora of different James Bond games for various systems, a dedicated area was set aside for a multitude of playable copies of GoldenEye on the N64, including gold controllers and a one player/two analogue stick control scheme. A unique four screen/four player set-up running on original hardware to counter ‘screen-cheaters’ was present; despite being really neat - and potentially expensive by all accounts - I did become quite nostalgic for the old cardboard and tape solution.
With its handful of localised variations outside of the language change, NTSC-J GoldenEye was there, as was the fan-made Goldfinger, and while GoldenEye 007 Reloaded was available to play on the Xbox 360, it wasn’t seeing much action. It was also interesting to play the cancelled GoldenEye Remastered for the Xbox; different systems included the original leak, the unmodified leak, and the Community Edition.
The crown jewel, however, was arguably the Saturday evening event, which saw three members of the GoldenEye team - Martin Hollis, Dr. David Doak, and Brett Jones - discuss their experiences and partake in a Q&A around the game. They were also more than happy to take photos with attendees afterward, and signed a ridiculous amount of GoldenEye and Perfect Dark paraphernalia, the likes of which haven’t been seen all under one roof since the halcyon days of Toys "R" Us. There was even the opportunity late on to take on Dr. Doak at his own game, under the watchful eye of Martin Hollis, in multiplayer deathmatch.
Given it became something of a cultural phenomenon, some details are relatively common knowledge, but for the uninitiated I'll give a quick rundown of what was highlighted. Tim Stamper, the co-founder of Rare (and at the time Creative Director), was sounded out by Nintendo, which had acquired the licence for James Bond and was targeting a game based upon the upcoming film GoldenEye. Nintendo’s rough idea was for a SNES side-scroller in the vein of the Donkey Kong Country games; however, little interest amongst the DKC team put any potential project in limbo. Martin Hollis, fresh from working on Killer Instinct, as a Bond fan, asked Stamper if anybody was actually doing anything with the licence, and ended up producing a pitch for a Project Reality game (the N64 code name at the time), which was heavily influenced by SEGA’s Virtua Cop. As stated by Hollis, had a deadline been stringently imposed on the team, GoldenEye could easily have been an on-rails shooter.
Despite the successful pitch, there weren’t high expectations from Rare or Nintendo, and a relatively small team of nine were tasked with the game's development. Of those present at this event, Martin Hollis was lead ‘visionary’; Dr. David Doak, originally employed as system administrator for Rare’s Silicon Graphics machines, moved onto the project having revealed how he was being courted for a job in New Zealand, but stayed due to the GoldenEye opportunity; and Brett Jones, straight from graduation and a self-confessed non-gamer, followed the instructions of a university classmate employed by Rare, admitted to lying in the interview about a love of gaming and Virtua Cop, got a job on the team.
All three highlighted the importance of the multiplayer mode to GoldenEye’s enduring legacy, which according to Hollis, after dumping ‘ten novels worth of code’ on his desk and asking if he could do it, was solely programmed by Steve Ellies in one month during the dying embers of development.
A whole host of interesting insights were divulged throughout the evening, some of my favourites being Dr. Doak’s seemingly never-ending absolution of fans, who would stop him in all kinds of places apologising for shooting him in the game; Brett Jones blindfolding fellow designer Duncan Botwood while in motion capture equipment - which was liable to be accidentally ripped from the wall given how restrictive the wiring was - in order to get a natural reaction when smashed in the knee; and Martin Hollis realising they might have something special, when with development ending, the other Rare teams had somehow got a ROM build of GoldenEye - according to Hollis a no-no between the teams - and walking past he would see them spending their entire lunchtimes on the multiplayer mode.
Not everything was as fondly remembered, including notably not being allowed music on in the office before 5:30pm, which was about ‘halfway through the day’ according to Dr Doak.
From a sales perspective, it was interesting to note that Nintendo of America’s strategy was to stuff the rental channels at Blockbuster in the belief that the multiplayer mode would drive people to buy a copy when they got sick of continually renting it out... and they did. The game would go on to become one of Blockbuster’s bestsellers. GoldenEye would release in August 1997 to critical and commercial acclaim, and went on to become the 3rd bestselling N64 game, with over 8 million copies shipped worldwide.
It’s hard to imagine a similar turn of events regarding a major licence, or franchise, stumbling into the hands of such a small inexperienced team in this modern era of expensive AAA game development. Perhaps that’s to our detriment, but the risk I suppose is perceived as being too great these days by the major studios.
One boon to the modern approach, partially driven by the thirst for extra content and hype, is all the various behind-the-scenes looks, artbooks, and interviews documented during the development process that we become privy to. Given the museum in Cambridge is dedicated to computer history preservation, I'm sure it would love to have such archival information for many of the games released in those early, pre-internet periods of gaming history.
GoldenEye is quite privileged in that regards, given the wealth of material garnered from the long-term popularity it has achieved since release. However, my take away from an event like this is that there are still so many unheard stories that can fascinate and delight, not just from those in and around making the games we love, but from those who live and breathe them after release - the players. In the same week that we lost a pioneer of the UK games industry in David Ward of Ocean Software, we always need to cherish the opportunities to listen to those stories whenever there is a will for them to be told.
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Great read! The timing of the 25th anniversary is perfect for a Goldeneye remaster. Hopefully the rumors are true!
Thanks, one of the first audience questions was about the remaster! Unfortunately they are very much outside that loop and have no idea, but would obviously love to see it.
If the remaster isn't released this year, I feel like it's never going to happen. Fingers crossed!
Good point. I hope it's just a remaster too but as the saying goes, be careful what you wish for lol
This is one awesome read and brings back so many memories. And I was already at college when GE was released, so the nostalgia filter is not an issue here, at least for me. The game was actually THAT good. Thanks a ton, @toffcrit.
Nice article! I'd have happily gone to this. Doak and that team are a bunch of legends in my eyes. Maybe an unpopular opinion but FPS games were much more fun with the less precise but more frantic shoot-em-all gameplay back then. Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Timesplitters 2 were all excellent and my top 3 all time in that genre.
Just want a Goldeneye remaster even more now. :/ Can't believe it's been quarter of a century.
Nice! :)
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