Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic—Gaming Memories are Forever

Probably my favorite cover in the entire Boss Fight Books series— Taken with an iPhone 8  

I was barely seven when Goldeneye came out on the Nintendo 64 and the only opportunity I had to play the game would not be until a few years later when I slept over at a friend’s house. We booted up the game in the late hours of the morning and, while my memory is a bit vague about what levels we played or whether his Dad rented or owned the game, we spent two hours having a blast in multiplayer. With the game now a part of the Switch Online games catalog, I was able to experience that same joy again through the single-player campaign…after I figured out the updated control scheme. Yet, it is the story about how the Goldeneye 007 game came to be which made me appreciate it even more with a recent addition to the Boss Fight Books lineup. 

Written by English professor, Alyse Knorr, Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic is a book that provides an in-depth historical account into the how Rare developed one of the Nintendo 64’s legendary titles. There are two editions to this specific book—a regular paperback and a deluxe hardcover with design documents, pictures, and even a bonus chapter on how they developed the game’s soundtrack—and I backed the the latter during their Kickstarter campaign. No matter what edition you buy, Knorr’s in-depth account of both the game’s development and the James Bond franchise itself remains the same. Everything surrounding the Goldeneye 007 game gets through coverage—the history of Rare and Ultimate: Play the Game, what led to them and Nintendo claiming a license to Ian Fleming’s suave spy in 1995, the James Bond games which came after, etc—and the chapters dedicated to a specific aspect of development feel very much like an extended, behind-the-scenes feature for a film or television show. If you are wondering what the secret to Goldeneye’s memorable multiplayer was and how it came to be, or how they worked on the in-game models and animations, Knorr has you covered.

If you want to know how Grant Kirkhope and Graeme Norgate managed to make the iconic James Bond theme fit onto an Nintendo 64 cartridge, you will not be able to find it in the standard, paperback edition. It felt weird to me that there was a bonus chapter smack dab near the end of the book between the one on multiplayer and the other on the Nintendo 64’s struggles during Goldeneye’s development alongside how the team dealt with the violence in the game—with feedback from Nintendo and even MGM. The transition between them does not feel abrupt or awkward, but the absence of Kirkhope and Norgate’s contributions did not make any sense to me. If I instead decided on the standard edition, it would be the only setback to an otherwise well-detailed account.

The drawings, diagrams, and even reference photos do feel like a nice bonus feature with the deluxe edition. For someone like me who only had brief experiences with the game, it was cool to put faces to names, see how particular places and actors transitioned into in-game models, and how the menu’s manila folder UI developed into the file select and mission briefing screens. Players passionate about gaming history and development will be spoiled rotten with motion capture models, sketches of in-game areas, original design documents outlining what Goldeneye would be, and so much more. Both these additions and the bonus chapter combined make the deluxe hardcover feel more like the definitive edition of Knorr’s book, making it worth the US $29.95 price tag—double the price of the standard paperback at US $14.95.  

Even so, every edition of Alyse Knorr’s Goldeneye 007: The Making of an N64 Classic does the game justice in the same Boss Fight Books style—where personal narrative weaves itself with academic rigor. Compared to the other books I enjoyed—Matt Margini’s Red Dead Redemption and Gabe Durham’s Majora’s Mask—Knorr’s own experiences not only entwines itself into the stories of Goldeneye’s development, but compliments them gracefully. Her love for Goldeneye shows in both her personal experiences, and her own research and interviews with the development team. Anyone interested in the history of first-person shooters, gaming in general, or just fondly remember playing this game will find themselves with the perfect martini of a book—shaken, not stirred.   

In Sum: A love letter to a classic, late 1990s video game that goes above and beyond, but somewhat blows its cover with an extra chapter in hardcover that, while still thoroughly researched, would work better in both editions. Even so, it's a rich dossier—4 out of 5 Stars   

Boss Fight Books does sell the deluxe hardcover as an e-book for US $11.95 (at time of writing) in case you are interested in both the bonus chapter and the additional design documents, but do not want to shell out US $30 or prefer reading it in a digital format.