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An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

melmagazine.com

51–60 of 97 posts

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#51
post #3

> What emerged was a masterpiece that changed the industry and set many standards still seen in first-person shooters today. Erm, what? Quake already existed at that point. I always thought Goldeneye was poor compared to Quake, which was really mind blowing at the time.

Was GoldenEye the first FPS that could support 4-player versus on a single console?

To my knowledge yes, but quake predated it but wasn't nearly as accessible

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#52
> A lot of the cheats were added by the code team

I’m still amazed at how long it took for the cheat codes to become known. I remember scouring the early internet and finding nothing but guides. It wasn’t for years before I saw they existed. Other games had their codes published in magazines almost the same day they were released.

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#53

I wish I could go back to the days where our group would spend all our free time playing split screen GoldenEye at my friend's basement. If you were privileged enough (which we were) the 90s were a great time to be a child.

Goldeneye and Donkey Kong 64 split-screen were pretty much the go-to games for my friend group back in middle and high school (late '90s/early 2000s).

They stuck around even well after better consoles and games came along-- most of us ended up going down the Sony side of the PS2/Xbox/GC generation, which was limited to two players without a multitap. The N64's four controller ports were really a killer feature for the system-- it meant that the only thing you needed for four-way multiplayer was to have each player bring along their controllers from home.

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#54
So many awesome memories with this one. I liked how each multiplayer game had a theme: mines, pistols, etc. So you had to adjust playing style but you also got to choose. Led to a lot of variety.

Sadly there were only so many mines you could lay before the first ones started disappearing.

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#55
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing Goldeneye really brought was massive popularity. (More copies of Goldeneye sold in 1998 than Quake sales for 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999 combined...almost 2x.) It also became a benchmark for console shooters, good multiplayer or get out.

> The thing Goldeneye really brought was massive popularity. Exactly. I always thought Goldeneye was inferior to contemporary PC shooters, but for many who didn't have a powerful PC at the time, Goldeneye was their first FPS and they probably feel the same way about it as I do about the original Doom.

> for many who didn't have a powerful PC at the time,

In the late '90s I think most people did not have a PC at all. They were only just becoming affordable as the millennium hit. Surely console systems were more prevalent.

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#56

I'm impressed with how small the dev team was, how much fun they seemed to have working, and how much freedom and creativity they had. I wonder if we stifle innovation by building crazy large hierarchies.

Agreed, just look at the amount of innovation in indie games compared to AAA titles.

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#57
post #26
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Legal drinking age is five in the UK. It's 18 to buy alcohol.

Yup, and most savvy parents slowly acclimatise their children to alcohol by allowing them wine or beer on occasion with a meal when they are in their teens. Done right, by the time the child hits 18 they don't go crazy with booze, and treat it with respect.

By 18 I was pretty bored with booze, I'd done my "going crazy" phase from 15-18. Good times. (UK btw)

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#58

I wish I could go back to the days where our group would spend all our free time playing split screen GoldenEye at my friend's basement. If you were privileged enough (which we were) the 90s were a great time to be a child.

I remember in those days we used to ban playing oddjob because he had a shortness advantage

Haha, I think the "Oddjob ban" was pretty much universal ;)

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given rates of alcoholism and alcohol related disease and injury in the UK, I’d say that’s not working.

Wouldn't the more relevant statistic be the relative rates compared to the US?

Approximately 9.6 per 100,000 alcohol related deaths in the US per year, and approximately 14.3 per 100,000 per year in the UK circa 2014. This fits with WHO data from 2003-2005 showing that Americans on average consumed between 7.5-9.9 liters of pure alcohol while on average people in the UK consumed more than 12.5. It also fits with much higher rates of cirrhosis of the liver per capita in the UK, as well as hospital admissions related to alcohol (which are on the rise in the UK).

Re: An Oral History of ‘GoldenEye 007’ on the N64

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

18 was considered too young to have alcohol but it’s still old enough to join the military, legally sign contracts, etc.

That's the reasoning that was used to lower the drinking age after the draft/Vietnam War

Also the reasoning used to lower the voting age at the same time, with the 26th Amendment.
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