Arguably one of the greatest couch multiplayer games of its generation, GoldenEye 007 holds a cherished place in the hearts of many gamers who experienced this Nintendo 64 classic. It is hard to argue that the game hasn’t shown its age in recent years, though, and with the newly released 007 First Light driving a hunger and interest in the James Bond gaming universe once again, it is fantastic timing that we now have a native PC port of GoldenEye 007.
GoldenEye 007 Recomp is a native PC port of the cancelled Xbox 360/Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, meaning that the game runs as a real, native executable on computers; no emulation required. The recompilation comes with many modern enhancements and benefits, like 60FPS, online multiplayer, modern controller support, and more!
What Are the Benefits of a GoldenEye 007 Recompilation?
Developed by SunJaycy and released on their GitHub page, this recompilation was built by statically recompiling the original game into C++ with ReXGlue SDK. Essentially, the game was translated from the original machine code directly into a new executable on Windows. Doing this often offers improvements over emulation, which “simulates” the entire original hardware environment, by removing the overhead that comes with emulating a full system.
On the GitHub page, SunJaycy mentions the following features for the recompilation:
- Runs natively on Windows – no emulation, no BIOS
- Full, modern controller support
- Online multiplayer (someone needs to host a server that others can join)
- Post-FX filters
- Widescreen display
- Stable 60 frames-per-second
- In-game pause and settings menu
How Do I Play?
Keep in mind that, in order to play GoldenEye 007 Recomp, players must independently source a copy of the leaked Xbox 360 game files, since the GitHub does not provide any game assets or code. This is an interesting challenge because, as mentioned at the top of the article, the Xbox 360/XBLA version of this game was never released. While we can’t tell you where to find these game files, a bit of internet sleuthing will bring you to the right spot.
Once these files have been sourced, grab the latest prebuilt release from the Releases page on SunJaycy’s GitHub (currently V1.0 at the time of this article), and drop them into the assets/ folder next to the .exe file, then run the .exe file. Playing online requires a few additional steps that can also be found on the GitHub page.
An Exciting Future
This is just the latest in a slew of games with native PC ports, as fans show an increase in both knowledge of and proficiency in technical recompilation, along with a desire to experience these games with native, improved performance that often can’t be found with emulation. Direct recompilations not only provide an avenue for game preservation, but present opportunities to experience these games like they’ve never been before.
The recent increase of recompilation projects represents an exciting time in our hobby, as fans and enthusiasts alike are no longer content to wait for remasters and HD versions of their favorite games. Here’s to hoping we continue to see more and more of these exciting fan and recompilation projects!
