Perfect Dark (Rare) was released 20 years ago on the Nintendo 64

[Jinjo]

This game was so far ahead of its time looking back on it now. The campaign was amazing (what fps since then has used different difficulties in a similar way?) and the multiplayer too, so many options at the time. Even in spite of the glaring framerate issues I played this to death in splitscreen with my buddies. Ah, the fond memories of a simpler time indeed, where young Jinjo just was not fazed by a game running at 10-15 frames per second lol.

 

[Ororo]

I'd love to have Perfect Dark remake on PC, if the rumors of the new game are true, maybe they'll port it?

 

[daTRUballin]

FarSightXR50 Somehow I knew you'd be the OP of a PD 20th anniversary thread. :p

Fantastic game. Definitely one of my all time favorites. One thing that always upsets me is when people claim it's unplayable on the original hardware now. I've never even played the XBLA port and I can still pop in the old N64 cart from time to time and have a fun time. Always sucks when others can't say the same.

I've always had this weird distinct memory of going upstairs to my older brother's room and seeing him and some other dude (Friend? Cousin? Who knows?) playing this game. I think it was one of the dataDyne levels. I'm not sure if this was when the game came out in 2000 or maybe it was in 2001? I would've been like 3 or 4 at the time. I think it was my first time ever seeing the game and I went on to play through the campaign a few years later after my brother had moved out. Crazy to think the game is 20 years old!

 

[Droidian]

I loved all the Goldeneye references in this game.
Elvis the alien.
The bots.... don't get me wrong, playing 4 player golden eye with my middle school friends was the best but playing against (8)? Bots with different personalities was something else.
Then you had the controllable missile rocket launcher and the GOAT laser tha could track anyone through a wall and instantly kill them.

Also loved the ability to smack a gun off an enemy and take it.


Oh and props to anyone who remembers before the game released there was a website where you entered a "password" and entered into some database which was all just promo for the game.

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

x

 

[daTRUballin]

This is a must-read from Eurogamer!

Perfect Dark: the oral history of an N64 classic

Delays, technical problems and walkouts over money and crunch could have killed Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye. 20 years later, Perfect Dark's creators re

www.eurogamer.net

Click to shrink...

I just quickly skimmed through that article and wow! Very very long and very informative. Can't wait to get around to properly reading it when I have the time. Thanks for linking it!

 

[FarSight XR-20]

Anyone who skipped Perfect Dark because it wasn't GoldenEye really missed out; this is everything that game was and more. I still consider it the golden standard all games should aim for when it comes to gameplay customization.

Click to shrink...

Perfect Dark made GoldenEye multiplayer pointless:
- it had the best Goldeneye maps (Complex, Facility and Temple)
- 8 GoldenEye weapons
- 4 Bond dinner jackets

 

[onion]

I remember a feature that Nintendo made Rare remove was to be able to have your own and others faces in the game via the Gameboy Camera - such a great idea.

Nintendo didn't want to let you shoot famous people unfortunately so it was scrapped.

 

[Gen X]

My all time favourite #1 fps shooter. Bought on release day here in NZ and played it to death till I got all stars on Perfect Agent . Used to play 2 player split screen with a friend with max bots and we still had a laugh.

Bought it again on 360 and nearly got all the stars again but think I got distracted with other games. My only issue with the 360 remaster was the menu didn't change after you completed it like the N64 due to your progress not being loaded till after the screen.

Would buy again if I ever get another Xbox console.

 

[FarSight XR-20]

This is a must-read from Eurogamer!

Perfect Dark: the oral history of an N64 classic

Delays, technical problems and walkouts over money and crunch could have killed Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye. 20 years later, Perfect Dark's creators re

www.eurogamer.net

Click to shrink...

Fantastic article. The part about the framerate, the 64DD, the devkits, the RAM pack and how the game was unplayable at first is very interesting.

And I loved how they choose Perfect Dark as the name of the game. The 2 other intended names were pretty cool too.



And wow, I never saw this ! It seems it was Perfect Dark reveal at the Nintendo conference. I love it, so much a show, the dance is a lttle cringe but the music is so good.

 

[Kydd BlaZe]

My favorite game of all time. I spent hours upon hours playing against bots in the combat arena, exploring the Carrington Institute, and trying to complete the game on Perfect Agent. Perfect Dark was FAR ahead of its time and to this day, is unmatched as a total package.

Such a shame that half the talent left Rare to go make Timesplitters. Rare was truly never the same after that, and of course we ended up with the dumpster fire that was Perfect Dark Zero. I still managed t enjoy Dark Ops, but my goodness I couldn't believe the astronomical drop in quality from the original game.

I've wanted a true successor to Perfect Dark for nearly 20 years now, and I'm hoping that the recent rumors are true. However I feel that Perfect Dark is an FPS at its core. Transitioning to a 3rd person stealth game would be a totally different game, and it just wouldn't be Perfect Dark. But I'll take what I can get. I'm just happy that Perfect Dark is getting some love.

 

[Gen X]

This is a must-read from Eurogamer!

Perfect Dark: the oral history of an N64 classic

Delays, technical problems and walkouts over money and crunch could have killed Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye. 20 years later, Perfect Dark's creators re

www.eurogamer.net

Click to shrink...

Just finished reading that. Crazy the hours people put in, nearly 400hrs a month. And lol@the story about the tester wiping his arse on the Rare shirt:

 

[JaseC64]

How did I miss this? Awesome thread OP!

Best FPS of that generation!

 

[Prine]

This is a must-read from Eurogamer!

Perfect Dark: the oral history of an N64 classic

Delays, technical problems and walkouts over money and crunch could have killed Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye. 20 years later, Perfect Dark's creators re

www.eurogamer.net

Click to shrink...

Delicious, reading now!

 

[daninthemix]

This is a must-read from Eurogamer!

Perfect Dark: the oral history of an N64 classic

Delays, technical problems and walkouts over money and crunch could have killed Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye. 20 years later, Perfect Dark's creators re

www.eurogamer.net

Click to shrink...

This was really fantastic. Sounds like Rare was kind of a nightmare to work for though.

 

[Coen]

And wow, I never saw this ! It seems it was Perfect Dark reveal at the Nintendo conference. I love it, so much a show, the dance is a lttle cringe but the music is so good.

Click to shrink...

They'd already shown it to the public at E3 '98. I love how it mentions real-time ray tracing as a feature.

 

[Phantom]

Still the king for me. Might be an unpopular opinion but I don't think the whole package has been perfected better (wink wink). The soundtrack, alternate weapon options, coop/counter-op, local multiplayer, special missions, A.I. (at the time), atmosphere, cheat codes, it was really huge. Still puts to shame most recent FPSes too in terms of content and sheer ambition.

 

[AtomicShroom]

A very ambitious game but it just doesn't have the same feel that Goldeneye had. It's a bigger game with many more interesting mechanics but the world is not that appealing. Games need appealing characters, environments and aesthetics to become great.

GE is in my top 3 favorite games ever and PD is probably not even in my top 100.

Click to shrink...

Felt the same. Something about the environments/level design was very unappealing to me. First level was great, but many others were just "eh", and some were downright terrible (barren snow level, generic alien maze, generic factory level, etc.) The game felt cold and sterile.

 

[Phil's Empty Chair]

Still an amazing shooter to this day but I had more fun with Goldeneye.

 

[FarSight XR-20]

They'd already shown it to the public at E3 '98. I love how it mentions real-time ray tracing as a feature.

Click to shrink...

Wow, Trent Easton killed as soon as the 30 first seconds of the first level. Then he is killed again some seconds later. Then Joanna is shooting Elvis in the head. I wasn't expecting that, it was a very early version of PD and more like a showcase but this trailer is so weird when you've already played the game.

And it has the beta soundtrack of Deep Sea: Nullify Threat.

 

[DarkSora]

They'd already shown it to the public at E3 '98. I love how it mentions real-time ray tracing as a feature.

Click to shrink...

Interesting. The last part of the trailer has music from Timesplitters Future Perfect. :O

 

[King Dodongo]

Good on Gamexplain for sharing the love on this game. They even made an amazing stage in Super Mario Maker years ago.

 

[DeoGame]

Here's to another 20! (Please let the reboot rumors be true).

 

[FarSight XR-20]

Good on Gamexplain for sharing the love on this game. They even made an amazing stage in Super Mario Maker years ago.

Click to shrink...

Great video.

I forgot about this but the Dragon rifle disguised as a regular weapon on the ground while it was in fact set as a proximity mine was so vicious and cruel.

 

[tapedeck]

Great thread OP.

Yes this game was and is amazing, the 360 port running on 1X is so damn good, I still play it often.

Oh and I feel really old.

 

[Cess007]

A complete masterpiece, and one of my favorite games of all time. I completely remember my brother having to buy this game because it was rated M (I was 16 at the time) and getting home and playing with him for hours. It became our default game for playing with our N64.

The amount of time I sunk into the Multiplayer was absurd. Even games today don't have half of the amount of customization that PD had back in the day. My brother and I versus 8 bots, everyone using Farsight XR20 it's an experience I haven't forget even 20 years later.

 

[Blessed by Horus]

Give us what we want Microsoft.... I fully trust Darrell Gallagher with this IP.

 

[Blessed by Horus]

2015:
Ken Lobb: "Maybe we'll see another Joanna Dark game with Joanna by 2020. That would be an interesting year to bring her back."

2018:
IGN's podcast Unlocked 328 (January 2018), Ryan McCaffrey discussing about Perfect Dark rumors: "The Coalition, they are allegedly assisting on a new Perfect Dark game with another unnamed studio".
Then Alanah Pearce said she heard about it from sources.

At E3 2018, Phil Spencer said that he was talking with Gallagher (Studio Head of The Initiative) "about some things in our past that might be interesting" and pointed out how Gallahger loved "working on Lara Croft and Tomb Raider, kinda reworking some of that franchise".

2019:
The Coalition seems to be helping The Initiative


2020:
"old things :-)"


"The Initiative's unannounced AAA Xbox game has "weapons, gadgets, and camera surveillance"

The Initiative's unannounced AAA Xbox game has "weapons, gadgets, and camera surveillance"

According to a former employee's career profile

www.gamesradar.com

I guess we will find out in July if she will be back.

Click to shrink...

Appreciate this post. Like I said I fully trust Gallagher with Perfect Dark. I loved the remake of the Tomb Raider series and feel he can make a very dope PD remake. Joanna Dark could really become an iconic Xbox character. She has what it takes to stand besides Master Chief. A strong female character would be really good for the Xbox brand. Its about time MS dusts off that IP and give it the shine it deserves. No offense to Rare but I trust the Initiative and Coalition more than them with it at this point.

 

[ryodi]

One of my favourite games on the system and one I had to talk the Woolworths sales assistant into selling it to me because it had an 18 rating that I wasn't expecting. No one seems to have mentioned the awesome new into your get for completing the game.



It was a game that deserved better hardware when it was released and XBLA version is the best one to play. Hard to believe it's been a decade since that was released.

 

[blairjs]

So Much Content...

Highest Rated Rare Game of All Time....

...Yet Nothing has been done in the past 10 years...

 

[Chrixter]

Favorite FPS ever. Replaying Perfect Dark (and GoldenEye) on PC with mouse and keyboard these days is comfort food for me.

 

[Gen X]

I realised after my last couple of posts I never had the chance to play the campaign in co op or covert ops.

Out of interest is it playable on the Xbone or is it 360 only?

 

[Betelgeuse]

I realised after my last couple of posts I never had the chance to play the campaign in co op or covert ops.

Out of interest is it playable on the Xbone or is it 360 only?

Click to shrink...

Absolutely works on XB1. Runs and looks great, in fact.

 

[Deleted member 19626]

Perfect dark on the n64 was the best experience. I was 11 and my friends and I would play all summer up late on our profiles, since I remember it recorded stats which I thought was amazing. Also that laptop gun blew my mind

 

[tapedeck]

One of my favourite games on the system and one I had to talk the Woolworths sales assistant into selling it to me because it had an 18 rating that I wasn't expecting. No one seems to have mentioned the awesome new into your get for completing the game.



It was a game that deserved better hardware when it was released and XBLA version is the best one to play. Hard to believe it's been a decade since that was released.

Click to shrink...

Ohhh man I remember letting that Perfect Dark idle screen roll on my TV in my room just cause it looked and sounded so damn cool. So many feels...

 

[Mr. Tibbs]

x

 

[Prine]

Wow, what a brilliantly insightful article which uncovered ALOT about Rare's management. To me, Rare had this mysterious alluring quality about the way they published games, they'd not share anything up until the game is near gold, and out of nowhere they'd deliver a groundbreaking game.

But I'm astonished how the article highlights the human cost behind these hits. The Stampers don't come off well at all, I didn't know they were so heavy handed with the way they ran Rare, no music allowed at work, indirectly pressuring young devs to give up their spare time to work on games, the way they treated Martin Hollis and Doak even after all teh success they achieved and brought for Rare. Fascinating stuff. I didn't really think Fee Radical was a jibe against the Stampers, but Doak's being vocal about his frustration with how Rare was run makes me think otherwise.

And wow, well done on the team picking up and completing Perfect Dark considering the critical state it ended up in as soon as the core team left. David Doak didn't even touch it until the Xbox version released !

DOAK: I was really busy at the time. I played through it on the Xbox version. That was the first time I played through the whole thing.

Mark did such great stuff with the multiplayer, with the bots and stuff, all the deployable weapons. There's a whole bunch of stuff in Perfect Dark which is really important and innovative in that space. By the time we were doing TimeSplitters 2 and Future Perfect, we were ripping it all off.

Click to shrink...

Perhaps the best gaming related piece ive read in a long time.

 

[master15]

This is a must-read from Eurogamer!

Perfect Dark: the oral history of an N64 classic

Delays, technical problems and walkouts over money and crunch could have killed Rare's spiritual sequel to GoldenEye. 20 years later, Perfect Dark's creators re

www.eurogamer.net

Click to shrink...

Absolutely fascinating. I had watched a handful of behind the scenes videos and read a few interviews from some of the main players but this really got into working environment at Rare at the time which was fascinating.

Wonder how different game would have been if Hollis and other guys remained...

Wow, Trent Easton killed as soon as the 30 first seconds of the first level. Then he is killed again some seconds later. Then Joanna is shooting Elvis in the head. I wasn't expecting that, it was a very early version of PD and more like a showcase but this trailer is so weird when you've already played the game.

And it has the beta soundtrack of Deep Sea: Nullify Threat.

Click to shrink...

Also noticed they hadn't implemented the reload animations yet, so it went off screen like Goldeneye. I always love how certain handguns were cocked gangster style, I loved doing this in Mr. Blonde's revenge mission.

 

[Mik2121]

Not many games put as much care and thought on the weapons in their game. And as many have said, the amount of content on this game is insane.

 

[FarSight XR-20]

I always thought that Mr. Blonde was a giant...

Appreciate this post. Like I said I fully trust Gallagher with Perfect Dark. I loved the remake of the Tomb Raider series and feel he can make a very dope PD remake. Joanna Dark could really become an iconic Xbox character. She has what it takes to stand besides Master Chief. A strong female character would be really good for the Xbox brand. Its about time MS dusts off that IP and give it the shine it deserves. No offense to Rare but I trust the Initiative and Coalition more than them with it at this point.

Click to shrink...

I think Rare isn't interested in making sequels of their old IPs anyway. At most they could offer some advices like they did with Battletoads or Killer Instinct.