GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion

[thenoisydrum]

This can't be anything new so sorry if it has previously been discussed.

On this level there are 3 Silo launch pads:

1st one where we begin the game
2nd one where we can look up and see 2 soldiers above us
3rd which has 2 catwalks leading across on 3rd and 4th levels.

My question is about the 2nd one. If we look up, the soldier on the next level up is easily identifiable. The next one up however isn't. We can aim up and shoot him but his location isn't anywhere on the game map.
What's that all about? Is it just a mistake or do you think a leftover from when you possibly had to launch the Silo from that particular pad

I've just spent the last hour with painball mode on trying to suss it all out.

[Dragonsbrethren]

There are actually four launch tubes in the Silo map. That soldier is on an inaccessible walkway, SubDrag hacked codes a long time back to start you up there, but nowadays with the setup editor it's as easy as putting a pad up there and setting it as the solo start point. The soldier might be left over from an earlier version, or he might just be there for added detail. What's interesting is that behind the real door up there is a fake door that is part of the background (like the one in Runway), it shows the old Silo door design which looks like a combination of the existing Silo doors and the elevator doors.

There is also an easter egg that can be seen in that launch tube; when you enter it from the fuel room there is a soldier with his back turned to you. Ammo hoarders may switch to unarmed to take him out, since that will kill him instantly when he hasn't been alerted. Whoever did the stage setup made it so the shutters at the top of this launch tube would open whenever Bond was unarmed. The soldier was clearly put there intentionally to show off the easter egg.

Silo is one of those interesting stages that had a lot of changes made to it over the course of its development. The starting launch tube originally had a working elevator which took you to the top walkway (where you find Ourumov in the final version). That tube also has an inaccessible walkway (look down from the top, the first walkway you see is inaccessible), which also had a soldier on it in prerelease screenshots. The third launch tube encountered also had an elevator, that one was never seen in use but it's clearly visible in an old side view shot of the Silo and pads for its doors still exist.

There's a bit more info here.

[thenoisydrum]

Interesting Dragonsbrethren and thanks for the link

[radorn]

DB, are you saying GE originally was meant to have elevators?
how come they removed it?

[Dragonsbrethren]

Full Version

No idea why they cut it; it seems to have been working flawlessly, but note that there is a jump in the footage between riding the elevator and getting off. It might not have worked as good as this makes it look. I don't subscribe to the theory that this was recorded during the "shooter-on-rails" stage of the game because all of the interviews I've read make it sound like that stage never even existed - that it was a FPS from the beginning with shooter-on-rails elements (the aiming mode, reloading guns, etc.).

One thing I forgot to mention about the silo is the ladder and vent near the start point. If anyone doesn't already know, that vent leads to a duct that goes in a little ways, then turns to the left. There's a large (compared to the duct) room with a fan in the ceiling, with a vertical ventilation shaft as large as the silo launch tubes. This was the original start point, but it was probably cut for being pretty pointless and the fact that the "spinning down the silo" intro camera is awesome. The clipping for the ladder, bottom of the silo, and ducts was never completed, so it was probably cut at least after the clipping format changed.

[radorn]

Ah, you were talking about that.

Well, here's my two cents.
I have seen that video at the time in a promotional VHS tape distributed with magazines back then. I sadly no longer have any of them. I wish I did.
Anyway. Comparing that with this you'll realize that this sequence is most probably from the on-rails GE beta. The way the camera and the gun move and the fact that the released game lacks elevators pretty much settle it.

http://www.zoonami.com/briefing/2004-09-02.php

"I had prepared my first ever game design, a 9 page document. The first sentence of that design may be a surprise to you. It was: “The game will be similar to Virtua Cop in terms of gameplay�. For those not familiar with Virtua Cop it is an old classic, an on-rails shooter, made by Sega, and released first in the arcades. So yes, for the first months, GoldenEye was partly envisioned as a simple on-rails shooter only with no lightgun. But I also wanted it to be a FPS. At this point the team was happy to contemplate making two modes for the game, an on-rails mode and a FPS mode. Yes, there was some vagueness here. You have to understand, we didn’t know what the control of the N64 would be like, so it made designing the control system difficult at such an early stage. We didn’t have any N64s, or anything like them."

A bit later he says:

"So, in the specific case of GoldenEye, and with the benefit of hindsight, the gameplay model was Virtua Cop with a bit of Doom, plus some Mario 64."

and, lastly:

"We ended up with innovative gameplay, in part because we had Virtua Cop features in a FPS"

My interpretation is that it started as a predominantly on-rails shooter sytle with some FPS elements but gradually (or drastically) the "ratio" was inverted.

[Dragonsbrethren]

Heh, my memory must be going, I swear I remember that in reverse (that the game would be like Doom with elements of VirtualCop).

[DK25]

on rails as in not controlling the movement?

[radorn]

Yeah, like virtua cop, time crisis, etc.
The genre may allow variances such as allowing you to look arround, but it always involves your character being driven along a predefined route without the possibility of you taking direct control.

[Wreck]

Just imagine where GoldenEye would be now if it were an on-rails shooter...
Only a few of them stand the test of time, and they severely lack in replay value. And most importantly, our beloved multiplayer either wouldn't exist or just be lame co-op missions!
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[DK25]

sorry im only 14 never played virtuacop but have heard of it.
On my 4th birthday i got Goldeneye it was 1998
IT's still fun to me
suprisingly it still works after almost 11 years