GoldenEye 007 - Interesting Stuff (Part 1)

Tons of hidden, and other not-so-hidden things to be found in GoldenEye 007.
Many tidbits and interesting things to point out. So many that a second page had to be written.
(View Page 2)

 
 
Coincidental Carrier:
The GOLDENEYE is a saltwater bulk carrier from Limassol, Cyprus. The ship has been known to travel across the ocean, carrying payloads of steel products from England into the United States.




 
 
Flying Fiction:
Many GoldenEye fans have noticed that the name of the stolen helicopter from the movie was the "Tiger", while in the game it's called the "Pirate".








But there's another notable reference on the hijacked aircraft... The helicopter also has the name 'euro chopper' written on it. Turns out, Rareware got the idea for this name by altering an existing name. The name 'euro copter' is shown here on a scanned document. I always figured that 'euro chopper' was completely fictional, but Rare just changed the existing name copter to chopper. An interesting detail for sure.
Thanks to CommanderJinx for these images.




 

Hateful Hats:
Back when SubDrag was hacking Perfect Dark, he found an item with a skull on it. I'm not sure if this is of any relevance, but some of the guard's in GoldenEye actually have tiny skull patches on their hats. A very tiny detail that you normally wouldn't notice.

 
 



 
 
Arecibo Cradle:
The world's largest radio telescope, the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Of course, this is where the Cradle scene was filmed for the GoldenEye movie, and a similar structure was featured in the GoldenEye 007 game.



The whole aparatus weighs 900 tons, and the tallest of the three towers is 365 feet. 
 











Southpaw Tendencies:
Most guards are right handed.... Whether for variety or unintentional, there are some guards who shoot with their left hands.





 
 



Infinites:
Of course all guards in GoldenEye have infinite bullets, never running out. But when you pick up their gun, they'll have no more than 20 bullets for you. In upcoming game Perfect Dark, guards will apparently have finite bullets, meaning they will run out, and can possibly be unarmed and surrender!
 
 





 
Cave-javu...
Many have noticed some similarities between the Multiplayer Caves and the end of the Mission Jungle.

Rare has admitted that the Caves is actually a cleverly twisted, rearranged loop of the Jungle.



You can see some of the pillars are similar, and can find the same location, even the stalagmite on the ceiling.



 






Level name variations...
Each level has it's own name when you pause the game and check your mission status. But they are known by different names: The Dam is known as it's full name, while the Facility has the mission name.
The next level, Runway, has it's simple name. This goes on for every level, each having a different type of name.
Of course the one point to interest is the name Crypt for the Egyptian level.







 

A brief note...
Each level has it's own background, briefing, and so on. But in the case of the first Surface and Bunker, the backgrounds are the same. A mistake? Probably...





 




Hats off to the programmers...
Surely everyone has noticed the various colors of hats that some guards wear during the game. Rare didn't program these colored hats in a random just for fun way though. Each color of hat represents how much health the guard has. Black is the weakest, and purple is fairly strong. But the guards wearing blue hats have the most health.
 



 

Waiting for the return...
Some have caught a glimpse of this after the credits are finished rolling.
"JAMES BOND WILL RETURN".
That could mean a number of things, since Rare didn't specify that "JAMES BOND WILL RETURN IN A GAME FOR N64 DEVELOPED BY RARE."
Instead it remains true to the movies, because James Bond returned in subsequent films (and games).


 
 

Screen Shots:
In the second Bunker level, a few interesting things pop up on some of the computer screens. One, is a man on a skateboard.







The other (Karl) moving his mouth as if he's talking.



 






 
Russian Text:
Another note of how much detail Rareware put into the game... There is actually Russian text on walls, and boxes. Quite authentic. Even if they do say things like "bananas".





Here, apparently the word means "stop" - Which is exactly what vehicles do at this spot.

 
 








GoldenEye Movie:
If you collect the CCTV tape in the second Bunker, you can choose it in your inventory, and have a look to see it's actually the GoldenEye movie.


 




 



Scarred For Life:
Alec Trevelyan is caught in the explosion Bond sets in the Facility, which leaves him with a scar. But, here in the Facility, Alec already has a scar.
Thanks to The Deadly Scientist for submitting this.





 

Advertising is Rare...
Many of Rare's games have their logo throughout the levels. But in GoldenEye, I always assumed that there wasn't a single bit of Rare advertising in the game. But a Rare logo is found in the Depot, in front of the Train building. Thanks to SubDrag for this info.




 

Endless Graffiti:
The Depot level is filled with old train cars, and where there's a train car, there's graffiti.

The word "Psycho" is all over, as well as other assorted characters and logos.






Some quite interesting ones actually.











 

Just Face it Bond:
One thing I'm sure we've all noticed is the two different faces Bond has throughout the game. Both photos are Pierce Brosnan... But is there some link to the other Bond actors?





 


No Bonds Allowed:
The clever people at Rare included this sign in the Facility. It's the famous James Bond silhouette, of course with the line across it.






 


Assorted Armor:
There are actually two different types of armor for pickup in GoldenEye. The first being a full suit, which fills your armor completely.






The second is a small plate, that only gives you four bars.






 



Recycled Heads:
Every time you play a level, the guard's have different heads. There are about 25 unique heads in the game. But, there are only ever 4 heads used at one time in a level. Meaning it's the same 4 faces used again and again in that level. When you die or start over, it'll be a new set of four, or maybe even one or two of the same faces.
 



 
Ken "Klobb":
The picture on the left is one of the guards. The guard's faces were taken from Rare's staff, and others who helped in the games development.
This guards face was molded after Ken Lobb of Nintendo of America.
He's the same guy that the Klobb was named after; The weapon was formerly known as the Spyder.





 

How Many?
Have you even noticed the ways that enemies die after being shot? There are about 20 different ways that enemies die. Rare's Duncan Botwood acted out the deaths that were used for the game.
Duncan Botwood's face is also used on the Multiplayer Naval Officer character. In Multiplayer however, there are fewer types of deaths. To get you back into the action faster, the slow, painful (and rather entertaining) deaths were removed.  
 

Just like the Movie:
When making this game, the developers used actual blueprints of sets that were used in the movie. They also visited the studio to see the actual sets while the movie was being filmed. They went all out for realism and wanted the game to be like the movie. They did an excellent job, the game was changed a bit, but it doesn't matter because they ended up with an awesome game. As we've seen in the past, most games based on movies aren't successful, and vice-versa.
 
 

The AC -10 Award:
Surely if you play Multiplayer often, you've earned or seen or earned this award, but likely you didn't know what it meant.
The designers of the game took this from a particularly old game, where the better your armor class was, the lower number it received, as low as -10.



 

Crash Bandicoot in GoldenEye?
When I first heard about this, I thought it was just someone's imagination. But if you go to the Aztec level, there are symbols and drawings on the walls. In the very first room, look on the left side of the wall. There are a bunch of drawings and pictures. One of them definitely resembles Playstation's Crash Bandicoot, chained to a torture chair. It isn't colored, just scrawled on the wall. Check it out.
 
 

Oddjob's Height:
If you've seen the Bond movie Goldfinger, you would have noticed the henchman, Oddjob is a bit short - But, nowhere near as short as he is made out to be in GoldenEye 007. This is because a character was needed to be the opposite of the enormous Jaws.
They could have used Nick Nack (the vertically-challenged manservant) from The Man with the Golden Gun... But Oddjob is a much cooler character.