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• Work selecting images for manuals, press and publicity for GoldenEye in 1997 was a disaster. Rare allowed some leaks of discarded and old materials, and this gave us the possibility to get a great deal of curiosities for the eternity. For example, the images on the back of the game’s box show an inexistent weapon that could have been the first version of the KF7 Rifle.

• The watch that James Bond uses in GoldenEye has the words ‘v2.01 beta’ on it. It could be a simple name given by the Q Branch for the last version of the gadget, or maybe a joke by Rare about the brand of watches that Bond wore during GoldenEye: Omega. It is, after all, changing a Greek character for other one.
• This watch really takes good note of the gaming time, and the player can check it just by looking on successive occasions. A similar choice made by Capcom years later on Dead Rising, for Xbox 360.
• Success and fame produced by the launch of GoldenEye went so far that the game eclipsed every other title based on Bond that was launched after it on PlayStation, N64 or superior hardware. When Nintendo and Rare refused to continue using the rights of the James Bond franchise declining the offer to adapt Tomorrow Never Dies, 007 went to Electronic Arts (and in 2007, to Activision Blizzard). The unfaithful EA even launch a ‘semi’-sequel of GoldenEye, titled GoldenEye: Rogue Agent at the end of 2004, available on various platforms. The game was highly punished by the critics because it used the fame gained from the original GoldenEye. It told the dark story of an applicant to the 00 section using part of the James Bond universe, but not including Bond himself. However, there were other famous characters like Xenia Onatopp, Auric Goldfinger, Pussy Galore, Francisco Scaramanga or Oddjob. It’s really strange that some designs made by Rare were recovered for the game, including Facility’s scenario.
• Apart from Facility, other original GoldenEye’s stages have been used on other games. Multiplayer maps Complex and Temple came back in Perfect Dark. Temple also came back for Perfect Dark Zero, but this time renamed as Ruins. However, some people think that some multiplayer scenarios of the original Perfect Dark were born from unused structures for GoldenEye.
• The huge variety of mines from GoldenEye were so successful among players that Rare take them back for their two following shooters, Perfect Dark and Perfect Dark Zero. We could say that they took the design of the gadget for free, but it wasn’t truly made up by them, as it’s part of production designer from the GoldenEye film, and also property of EON Productions. As it also happens with other gadgets, we are able to see Pierce Brosnan using these mines on the film.

• There’re two models for the bullet proof vests on GoldenEye. One of them is a suit not as sophisticated as the other one, and it’s weird that there’re two designs, as Rare usually tries to make the most of the resources used. Perfect Dark Zero, the second shooter made by Rare that used bullet proof vests, uses only one design. And we know well that they didn’t take the time to make two textures for the different stages of Alec Trevelyan’s face.
• It’s not a huge secret that face textures of the enemies in GoldenEye belong to members of Rare’s development team. The hard thing here is to know who’s who. There’s a way to find Duncan Botwood’s face, a veteran on Rare shooters and a key member of the development teams of GoldenEye, Perfect Dark and Perfect Dark Zero. His face is the one portrayed by the Navy Officer, a hidden character on the multiplayer mode.
• There are 20 different ways to kill an enemy in GoldenEye. Some may think that all this dangerous acting was done by some stuntman on a high-tech room. Well, that’s far from reality. It was done by Duncan Botwood himself.
• It seems that Rare not only wanted to adapt GoldenEye between 1995 and 1997, but also build the greatest temple to James Bond ever programmed when they started working on it. You can have clearly noticed that the films are referenced a lot through the normal game, but that also happens on multiplayer as the options are named after the films: Live and Let Die, You Only Live Twice, The Living Daylights, The Man With the Golden Gun and Licence to Kill.
• The acronym OHMSS, used in the heading of every document from the MI6 preceding each mission mean On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, which also is the title of another James Bond film from 1969. Another usual detail is the ‘For your eyes only’ logo on the Briefing papers, which also is the title of another Bond film from 1981, For Your Eyes Only. However, it’s also used on real life. In the silver screen, Bond got his first document with that logo in Thunderball (1965). Even the mission’s name makes reference to an operation classified as ‘For your eyes only’.
• Using the pad configuration ‘Dominio’ it’s possible to shot during the video sequences of the game. Thanks to that we’re able to kill many characters during that animation on lots of missions. For example, the immortal Baron Samedi during the final shot in Egyptian. Something that not even the third James Bond, Roger Moore, accomplished.
• Some may think that the possibility of shooting paint balls in GoldenEye was just a funny thing included by the Rare guys. Far from that, it’s another reference to the Bond films. We’re referring to Timothy Dalton’s first outing as 007: The Living Daylights. On the pre-credits scene of that movie, agents 002, 004 and 007 take part on a training exercise on Gibraltar. They’ll have to take a military base where the British soldiers are supposed to stop them. As they’re all fellow countrymen and the fact that it’s just a practise, everybody uses pink paint as ammunition. Until something goes wrong.

• Rare’s effort on having the best adaptation made his way to the music of the game. And no, it isn’t just simply related to the inclusion of the original James Bond theme by Monty Norman. Some levels, such as Facility, Archives or Cradle, use the original sound track that Eric Serra composed for the film. Rare’s composer, Graeme Norgate, took the musical background of the original soundtrack and create new mixes for the different stages of the game, taking into account the scenes where that music played in the film. So if you compare film and game, the musical connection is still recognisable on various moments and creates a very familiar atmosphere.
• The names of the different setups for the game pad in GoldenEye are in fact subtle winks to the James Bond film saga, as all of them make reference to Bond girls. “Honey” stands for Honey Rider, played by Ursula Andress in Doctor No (1962). She was the first and most known Bond girl, so it’s not too weird that her name is the one for the standard control mode. “Kissy” is Kissy Suzuki, or actress Mie Hama, from the film You Only Live Twice (1967). “Galore” is the feminine Pussy Galore, Honor Blackman in Goldfinger (1964). “Plenty” is the short-lived but unforgettable Plenty O’Toole (Lana Wood) from Diamonds Are Forever (1971). “Goodnight” is the innocent Mary Goodnight, played by Britt Ekland on The Man With the Golden Gun (1974). “Domino” is in fact Domino Derval (Claudine Auger) from Thunderball (1965). “Goodhead” is Holly Goodhead, the beautiful Lois Chilles in Moonraker (1979). And the last one is “Solitaire”, played by Jane Seymour in Live and Let Die (1973).
• Saving the possibility of the knife throwing, Octopussy is the ONLY James Bond film shot before GoldenEye that Rare doesn’t pay homage. It’s also the only film that had to face another James Bond adventure on its year of debut, as Never Say Never Again, a remake of Thunderball, was also premiered in 1983 although this one wasn’t from the official saga. If that wasn’t enough, it’s one of the favourite James Bond films of the one writing these lines and it’s also his birth year. In fact, this coincidence is so scary that you could think that Rare left that film aside knowing that he would notice that on the future, and so the connection between player, game and movie will come anyway. Probably not. But it’s scary.

All Bonds

• It’s well known that Rare included originally an option that allowed the players to select virtual replicas of Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton as additional Bonds in the multiplayer mode of GoldenEye. It’s also known that George Lazenby, star of On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, wasn’t included as he was the less-known Bond, or because that would make four Bonds including Pierce Brosnan, which was ideal for the N64 4-players multiplayer mode. Rare also included the photos of the different Bonds on the main saving files of the titles screen. All these options were removed due to unknown reasons, possibly some conflicts with image rights of the actors, although Rare programmers state that they played a multiplayer game with four Bonds before finishing the game. The winner of that epic combat, however, was never told. Maybe the world is not yet prepared to know that Sean Connery was killed by Timothy Dalton of Pierce Brosnan.
• Even though, traces of that option were left everywhere and remain today confirming that the option really existed. Some publicity stills that used old captures show a character wearing a white tuxedo like the one Sean Connery used on Goldfinger or Diamonds Are Forever. Other character with different tuxedo designs from the different stages of the film franchise can be seen on the instructions booklet. Maybe the biggest surprise is precisely included among those errors on the instruction booklet, as one of the stills on the multiplayer section shows one of the famous publicity shots of Sean Connery as James Bond among other photos of available characters.
• If that was not enough, Rare decided to include that four original tuxedos as available clothes on the multiplayer from Perfect Dark for N64 three years later. This way, programmers get that wonderful idea a little closer to the fans.
• But the long history of this deleted option doesn’t end here. In 2005, a program that edits the ROM version of GoldenEye, designed by the web The Rare Witch Project, got to the darkest corners of the code from the original game. Users SubDrag and Ice Mario got to the image archives contained in GoldenEye, and among them featured... the original photos of Sean Connery, Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton. Those images are kept within every GoldenEye cartridge, without letting the player know of their existence. However, they’re there and ready to be used. Editing the unofficial version of the game on PC, it’s possible to put the facial textures to the 3D model of the characters and get a rudimentary version of what could have been the legendary ‘All Bonds’ option. So, once again extra officially, we can confirm that phrase: Never say never again.

Acknowledges: we'd like to express our gratitude to RareNet, GoldenEye Detstar and Rare Ltd. for being key sources for some informations used in the making of this feature.