Developer David Doak takes us on a stroll through memory lane
“Slappers only, facility, heads-up 1v1, let’s go,” was the ultimateGoldenEye 007/64challenge in 1997.
My “slappers” was always “proximity mines only,” but you get the idea.GoldenEyewas an institution for a lot of people back in the ’90s, and years beforeHalo, helped usher in the idea of FPS games on consoles. It was also almost on-rails, which would have resulted in a completely different cultural impact.
AsGoldenEyedeveloper David Doakreminds us,GoldenEye 007was originally conceived as an on-rails shooter as a loving homage to theVirtua Copseries.This information was uncovered back in 2012during aGoldenEyepostmortem at GDC by Martin Hollis, but that revelation always immediately scoots to the back of my mind.
As Doak recalls this week, thatearly demo footagethat’s been cycling back around was how the game was originally programmed: “player movement was automatic and followed a scripted spline path. The original design was that the game would be more likeVirtua Cop / Time Crisis.”
By way of a Twitter conversation Doak manages to dig deeper after a fan shows him very early1995 SpaceWorld footage, explaining, “I think that this Archives footage predates the Silo. I wasn’t involved at this stage but it looks like the camera path might even just be someone (Martin Hollis?)manually ‘flying’ the camera.”
A lot ofGoldenEye‘s developers have moved on to other studios or out of the industry entirely, but every few years or so someone will reminisce and we’ll get a little more insight into our past. I for one enjoy these small little light bulbs that pop up every so often in the room of this iconic game.
