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GoldenEye 007
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GoldenEye 007
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===Development=== ''GoldenEye 007'' was developed by an inexperienced team; eight of its nine developers had never previously worked on video games.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview">{{Cite web |accessdate=26 August 2011 |url=http://www.nowgamer.com/features/921602/the_making_of_goldeneye.html |title=The Making of Goldeneye |publisher=NowGamer |date=15 May 2011 |author=Paul Drury |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20120402052610/http://www.nowgamer.com/features/921602/the_making_of_goldeneye.html |archivedate=2 April 2012 |deadurl=no}}</ref><ref name="hollis-speech">{{Cite web |url=http://www.zoonami.com/briefing/2004-09-02.php |title=The Making of GoldenEye 007 |publisher=Zoonami |author=Martin Hollis |date=2 September 2004 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20110718160021/http://www.zoonami.com/briefing/2004-09-02.php |archivedate=18 July 2011 |accessdate=22 December 2011 |deadurl=no}}</ref> David Doak commented in 2004, "Looking back, there are things I'd be wary of attempting now, but as none of the people working on the code, graphics, and game design had worked on a game before, there was this joyful naïveté."<ref name="daviddoak">{{Cite journal | year=2004 | month=July | title=Desert Island Disks: David Doak | journal=Retro Gamer | issue=6 | pages=41–45 | id=ISSN 1742-3155 | url=http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/retro6.shtml | archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20050907191142/http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/retro6.shtml | archivedate=7 September 2005}}</ref> Due to the success of ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'', ''GoldenEye 007'' was originally suggested as a 2D [[Side-scrolling video game|side-scrolling]] [[Platform game|platformer]] for the [[Super Nintendo Entertainment System]],<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> but Martin Hollis, the director and producer of the game, proposed "a 3D shooting game" for Nintendo's in-development "Ultra 64" console.<ref name="hollis-speech" /> The intention for the first few months of development was for the game to be an [[Shoot 'em up#rail shoots|on-rails shooter]] similar to [[Sega]]'s [[light gun shooter|light gun game]] ''[[Virtua Cop]]'';<ref name="hollis-speech"/> ''GoldenEye''{{'}}s gas plant location was modelled by Karl Hilton with a predetermined path in mind.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> Although ''GoldenEye'' is controlled with a pad rather than a [[light gun]], Hollis credited ''Virtua Cop'' as an influence on the developers' adoption of features such as gun reloading, position-dependent hit reaction animations, penalties for killing innocent characters, and an alternate aiming system that is activated upon pressing the R button of the [[Nintendo 64 controller]].<ref name="hollis-speech"/> In addition to ''Virtua Cop'', [[Namco]]'s light-gun shooter ''[[Time Crisis]]'' has also been cited as an influence on the game. [http://www.joystiq.com/2012/09/03/james-bond-meets-virtua-cop-the-development-of-rares-goldeneye/] The development team visited the studios of the ''GoldenEye'' film to collect photographs and blueprints of the sets used in the movie.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /><ref name="Nintendo GoldenEye development">{{Cite web |accessdate=26 August 2011 |url=http://www.nintendo.com/goldeneye007/development.html |title=GoldenEye 007 Development |publisher=[[Nintendo]] |date=24 February 1998 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/19980224204736/www.nintendo.com/goldeneye007/development.html |archivedate=24 February 1998 |deadurl=yes}}</ref> Silicon Graphics Onyx workstations and Nintendo's NINGEN development software were used to create the geometry for virtual environments based on this reference material.<ref name="hollis-speech" /><ref name="Nintendo GoldenEye development"/> However, many of the missions were extended or modified to allow the player to participate in sequences which the film's James Bond did not.<ref name="hollis-speech" /> Hilton explained, "We tried to stick to [the reference material] for authenticity but we weren't afraid of adding to it to help the game design. It was very organic."<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> Initially, the designers' priority was purely on the creation of interesting spaces; level design and balance considerations such as the placement of start and exit points, characters and objectives did not begin until this process was complete.<ref name="hollis-speech" /> According to Martin Hollis, "The benefit of this sloppy unplanned approach was that many of the levels in the game have a realistic and [[Nonlinear gameplay|non-linear]] feel. There are rooms with no direct relevance to the level. There are multiple routes across the level."<ref name="hollis-speech" /> Hollis also noted that the concept of several varied objectives within each mission was inspired by the multiple tasks in each stage of ''[[Super Mario 64]]'',<ref name="hollis-speech" /> a game whose 3D collision detection system was also influential for Hollis.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> Final N64 specifications and development workstations were not initially available to Rare: a modified [[Sega Saturn]] controller was used for some early playtesting,<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> and the developers had to estimate what the finalised console's capabilities would be. The final Nintendo 64 hardware could render polygons faster than the SGI Onyx workstations they had been using,<ref name="hollis-speech" /> but the game's textures had to be cut down by half.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> Karl Hilton explained one method of improving the game's performance: "A lot of ''GoldenEye'' is in black and white. RGB colour textures cost a lot more in terms of processing power. You could do double the resolution if you used greyscale, so a lot was done like that. If I needed a bit of colour, I'd add it in the vertex."<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> At one time, developers planned to implement the reloading of the weapons by the player unplugging and re-inserting the [[Rumble Pak]] on the Nintendo 64 controller, though this idea was discarded at Nintendo's behest.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> ''GoldenEye 007'' introduced stealth elements not seen in previous FPS games.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> David Doak, one of the game's programmers, explained how this was implemented: "Whenever you fired a gun, it had a radius test and alerted the non-player characters within that radius. If you fired the same gun again within a certain amount of time, it did a larger radius test and I think there was a third even larger radius after that. It meant if you found one guy and shot him in the head and then didn’t fire again, the timer would reset."<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> Rather than trying to release the game in tandem with the movie, the Stamper brothers made sure to give the team as much time as they needed.<ref name="Nowgamer Interview" /> It was developed through two and a half years, the first year of which was spent developing the engine and producing art assets.<ref name="hollis-speech" /> The game's multiplayer mode was added late in the development process; Martin Hollis described it as "a complete afterthought". According to David Doak, the majority of the work on the multiplayer mode was done by Steve Ellis, who "sat in a room with all the code written for a single-player game and turned ''GoldenEye'' into a multiplayer game."<ref name="David Doak Retro Gamer">{{Cite journal |year=2004 |month=July |title=Desert Island Disks: David Doak |journal=Retro Gamer |issue=6 |pages=41–45 |id=ISSN 1742-3155 |url=http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/retro6.shtml |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20050907191142/http://www.livepublishing.co.uk/retro/retro6.shtml |archivedate=7 September 2005}}</ref> The game was released on 25 August 1997, nearly two years after the film. The game's cartridge size was 96 [[Megabit|Mb]] (12 [[Megabyte|MB]]).<ref name="Cartridge size">{{Cite web |accessdate=31 August 2011 |url=http://casuallyhardcore.com/n64-goldeneye-007-retro-review/#.Tl5Q7D-we1E |title=N64 Goldeneye 007 Retro Review |publisher=Casually Hardcore |date=15 April 2011 |archiveurl=http://web.archive.org/web/20120331121825/http://casuallyhardcore.com/n64-goldeneye-007-retro-review/#.USC6Ed2VveQ |archivedate=31 March 2012 |deadurl=no}}</ref> In addition to the Nintendo 64 game, a racing version was in development for the [[Virtual Boy]], but was eventually cancelled before release.<ref name="GoldenEye Virtual Boy">{{Cite web |url=http://www.gametrailers.com/video/goldeneye-007-gt-anthology/52623 |title=GoldenEye 007 |date=11 July 2009|work=GT Anthology |publisher=[[GameTrailers]] |accessdate=7 May 2011}}</ref>
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