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GoldenEye Hackers Find Hidden FPS Level

Thanks to Spong for its news story revealing cart hackers have found a secret test level in classic N64 first-person shooter GoldenEye, more than 6 years after the seminal FPS was released. The developers, Rare, had previously claimed that the secret level, Citadel, "...was a very rough test level designed during the early stages of multiplayer mode. It's not in the finished game in any shape or form." However, although "rough and loosely textured", the Detstar GoldenEye Project has found the level hidden in the production version of the game, and notes that "it's possible to visit this rumored arena with Gameshark codes."

27 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. Holy crap by Mukaikubo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I wonder if it's on my ROM, too... gah! Don't look at me like that, I can't go two hundred miles just to get back to my N64!

    1. Re:Holy crap by Kethinov · · Score: 5, Informative

      I just tried to get it working emulated for an hour now in both 1964 and Project64 and recieved no success. I'm going to bring up this topic on emutalk.net and see if there the details can be weeded out.

      --
      You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  2. I wonder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    Does this violate the DMCA? I don't want to get arrested for trying this...

    1. Re:I wonder by mattgreen · · Score: 3, Funny

      Oh please, this has nothing to do whatsoever with circumvention of any technology protecting copyrights. Take off your tinfoil hat.

      Since this is slashdot, however, I can just see someone replying to this post:
      "Maybe it does violate the DMCA, but I'm gonna fight the MAN by cheating in a video game! It's the moral thing to do!"

      It'd be modded a mixture of funny and insightful.

    2. Re:I wonder by Carnildo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Does this violate the DMCA? I don't want to get arrested for trying this...

      Maybe it does violate the DMCA, but I'm gonna fight the MAN by cheating in a video game! It's the moral thing to do!

      --
      "They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
  3. Drat !! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    And i thought i had completed the game ....

  4. Looks like Perfect Dark by mmcdouga · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Judging by the screenshots, it looks like a primitive version of some of the multiplayer levels in the sorta sequel Perfect Dark.

    Michael

    1. Re:Looks like Perfect Dark by hambonewilkins · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Agreed, it does like the "villa" multi-player level from Perfect Dark a little bit. I do find it weird that in the tight confines of an N64 cartridge they would have left in this unused level. Apparently, however, they thought they had removed it, according to quotes on that page. So, how does a whole level (albeit incomplete) slip through? I understand it's not loadable and is missing huge chunks but its still there. It reminds me of the hidden military secrets from the film "Cloak and Dagger"...

      --

      God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
    2. Re:Looks like Perfect Dark by Quay42 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      What a PR person is aware of and what is fact can be two very different things. You're assuming that:
      a) They actually asked the developers (rather than just giving an answer and
      b) They asked the *right* developer(s)
      c) The developers answered them honestly.

      --Josh

      --
      "Has anything you've done made your life better?" - American History X
  5. bad website by capoccia · · Score: 2, Interesting
    either slashdotting or poorly written asp. either way, all i get from the link is:
    Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a03ee'

    Expected ')'

    /ncld/styleGuide.inc, line 98

    inStr( hostIPs, ", 82.43.116.78" ) > 0 _
    ^
    1. Re:bad website by capoccia · · Score: 3, Funny
      more likely both: looks to me like a hastily written filter to prevent slashdotting

      actually, the whole site returns the same error:
      Microsoft VBScript compilation error '800a03ee'

      Expected ')'

      /ncld/styleGuide.inc, line 98

      inStr( hostIPs, ", 82.43.116.78" ) > 0 _
      ^
      It looks like the real problem is that they are behind on their service packs for Site Server 3.0.
      CAUSE
      When Rule Builder builds the rules file, it misconfigures the parenthesis in the condition.

      RESOLUTION
      To resolve this problem, apply the latest Site Server 3.0 service pack.

      STATUS
      Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in Site Server version 3.0. This problem has been corrected in the latest U.S. service pack for Microsoft Site Server version 3.0. For information on obtaining the service pack, query on the following word in the Microsoft Knowledge Base (without the spaces):

      S E R V P A C K


      (that last line is great! -- even microsoft is into the latest technology in server load reduction!)
    2. Re:bad website by sabNetwork · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Man, what stupid developers. Look at the included file that the error reported. It's world-readable. And it has some pretty revealing information about how their "security" system works.

      I'm not going to post specific details, but anyone with more than 30 seconds on their hands can figure it out.
      --

    3. Re:bad website by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Indeed.

      Copy of IIS & Site Server - $200 on Ebay
      Server - $100/month
      Post of the homepage of /. - $50 backhander to CmdrTaco
      Having your source code & security info linked to on the slashdot homepage - Priceless

  6. FPL by thegrue76 · · Score: 5, Funny

    They then went on to discover the secret level of that hot new First Person Live game. Known as "the outdoors," it was accessed by passing through a heretofore undiscovered "doorway"...

    1. Re:FPL by jspoon · · Score: 5, Funny
      "They then went on to discover the secret level of that hot new First Person Live game. Known as "the outdoors," it was accessed by passing through a heretofore undiscovered "doorway"..."


      I tried playing this level after I read the article, but I don't think it's finished. I couldn't find any weapons at all, nor any ammo for the shotgun I took along. Once I ran out of shells, there was nothing to do.

    2. Re:FPL by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      You don't need ammo to have fun in "The Outdoors". Try going into town and looking for the NPC called "the bank teller", then point your shotgun at them and input the cheat code "give me all the money". That triggers a pretty good action scene.

  7. Re:Who Cares? by The_Listener_1985 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The interest is entirly in the hunt. It's like hunting in real life. it's not about the meat, it's about the experiance.

  8. There's nothing cooler by IshanCaspian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    than finding some uber-secret in an old videogame. I often wonder why we don't see more developers putting uber-secrets in their games...the search for stuff can keep people interested in a game for years. Look at that little room in echo base in Shadows of the Empire...I must've spent days running around, looking for some kind of clue as to how to get up there...

    --

    But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
    1. Re:There's nothing cooler by Kethinov · · Score: 3, Funny
      I often wonder why we don't see more developers putting uber-secrets in their games...
      Perhaps they're there but simply haven't been found yet in other games...
      --
      You're right, I wouldn't steal a car. But if it were possible, I sure as hell would download one!
  9. Other hidden levels from Rare? by CyberVenom · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I played Diddy King Racing by Rare when it came out and finished all the levels I could find. (all the areas, plus space, plus everything again in mirror.)
    During the ending credits it lists the best times from the guys at Rare on each of the tracks, so in time-trial mode, I wenth through and beat EVERY SINGLE ONE in the hopes that I would unlock an ubersecret.
    Well, nothing new unlocked. But on the track select screen something that has always caught my eye my is that at the bottom-right, there is space for one more track, and if you move the view around fast enough close to it, you can see the corner of a frame around what appears to be another level. I always wondered if maybe there was a secret there. I never saw any mention of it online though.
    Maybe GoldenEye wasn't the only Rare game with an ubersecret?

    -CyberVenom

  10. Re:not surprising... by hambonewilkins · · Score: 2, Interesting

    After looking around it seems as though after someone cracked Goldeneye and found the push button codes they removed them from Perfect Dark. To this day, no one has found the push-button codes for Perfect Dark so it may be safe to assume they aren't there.

    --

    God Bless America. Why? Did it sneeze?
  11. back in my cheating days... by ooby · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was trying to crack the passwords on Rock 'n Roll racing. I was unable to start myself off with loads o' cash, but I did figure out what password locations defined the characters. I was able to then start with Olaf (before I found out there was an easier way). I also uncovered a viable password that gave you an unidentified character. Its face was the shadow of the planet's boss, and when the announcer ever said anything about me (i.e. Olaf light's him up), it just skipped the name. I'm not quite sure what this bug-character's attributes were. The major downfall with this discovery was that all of my friends were buying Playstations because the price had dropped to $200.

  12. Re:this is interesting by AvantLegion · · Score: 2, Insightful
    >> In many ways a far more varied and accesible game than DooM and Q1 ever were.

    Yet it pales in comparison to the likes of System Shock or Marathon.

    Still, GoldenEye was a fairly good game, except it was all but ruined by badly flawed technological execution. 15 frames per second doesn't cut it, and the N64 fuzzy haze was terrible.

  13. Re:not surprising... by Gothic_Walrus · · Score: 2, Insightful
    Yes...and that's what we thought about the Goldeneye codes. What year were those found in? 2000? 2001?

    And in Banjo-Kazooie for the N64 - anyone else remember the day that we FINALLY learned how to get the eggs? Sure, they might not have done very much, but they were in the game...

    Let's not give up just yet...I've got a feeling that the codes are, in fact, in the game somewhere. It's just too bad that it'll take another five years to find them. :)

    --
    Goo goo g'joob.
  14. You're insane by caitsith01 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Let me preface this by saying that I am an avid FPSer and I have played Quake 1, UT (the original) and QIII very extensively, and more recently Counter Strike, MOHAA and similar on-line games. I spend a lot of time playing QIII on a LAN.

    Let me also say that Goldeneye is, along with Quake III, the game I have had the most fun playing in a multiplayer FPS environment. With all due respect I must suggest that if you felt that it wasn't a serious FPS, it may have been due to the company you kept. I played Goldeneye obsessively for about 4 years with three other guys who were all big FPS players too. We knew every nook, every cranny, every angle to bounce a grenade, the sound of every door, the likelihood of scoring a kill with every weapon. It became too impossibly tense to play with just two people, because we were all within such a narrow band of skill and knowledge that the score would invariably end up at 9-10 or in many cases 10-10 in deathmatches. We played so many tense games with prox mines, so many crazy grenade launcher shootouts, so many RCP-90 bullet-fests that it's actually kinda disturbing.

    Granted, the single player levels were at times completely impossibly hard. Granted, some of the multiplayer levels weren't great. Granted, the graphics are poor by PC standards. But some of the levels were simply glorious - stack, archives, temple, facility - wonderful, wonderful levels with just the right distribution of weapons and spawn points. In a level like the stack, the simple graphics were actually important to the gameplay as they let you see your opponent even in blocky Nintendovision. I'll never forget the enraged screams of newbies playing with us in hideous 20-19-0-0 slaughters of the innocents; the glory of a perfect grenade lob in the temple, dropping on the victim from seemingly out of nowhere (id should learn from the Goldeneye grenade launcher, what a weapon); the joys of rampant screen cheating or shooting blind using the radar.

    I must also ask - did you play the standard deathmatch, or one-hit kills? We decided to try the latter early on, and from that day forth there was never any question of which we would play. With one hit deaths the interesting variations of the different weapons really becomes a factor; grenades and rockets become altogether more tricky; and the weapons capable of shooting through walls and doors vastly more important. In this mode the game also showed what a great controller the N64 controller really is: in facility we were able to hit specific letters in the warning signs at the other end of the corridoor using the magnum.

    As time has passed (and the original gang of Goldeneye or 'bond-age' freaks has dispersed) I play it less and less; nonetheless, I would trade Far Cry, UT2K3, MOHAA, Counterstrike, all of them, for Goldeneye. Ah, memories.

    Thus endeth the rantings.

    --
    Read Pynchon.
  15. Re:Who Cares? by bugnuts · · Score: 2, Funny

    It's like hunting in real life. it's not about the meat, it's about the experiance.

    funny, I thought it was about the beer.

  16. Lots of games have undiscovered secrets.... by Fluff+the+Tiger · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Most games have cheats and hidden levels that are probably never discovered... my own personal experience of this was about 10 years ago, when for my birthday as a little boy I got spiderman for the Sega Master System. I had a game gear, so I had to play the game through a third party sms to gg convertor( remember those?) . Unfortunately for me, the power cable into my game gear was the wrong size, so any big movement would make the gg short out, sort of like that way when you hold the light switch half-way between on and off. Anyways...while on one of the last levels of spiderman i accidently moved the power cable, the light of the GG fli ckered on and off, until I was presented with a level select screen ( i have no idea how this happened, and have been unable to replicate it) - i chose the last level and completed the game :) Note that on Gamefaqs there has never been any mention of this level select - but by sheer chance , I have seen it - if this one game has it then im sure many , many others have cheats that have never been discovered too :)