goldeneye-pc-port/README.md

GoldenEye 007 PC Port

A native PC port of GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997, Nintendo 64), compiled from the GoldenEye 007 decompilation: the original N64 game running from reconstructed source, not the Xbox 360 remaster. The first alpha, v0.1.0, is out for Windows and Linux and runs the full campaign with rough edges (see Status).

It's also a case study in AI-agent collaboration on a large, low-level codebase: two coding agents, driven by one person part-time, porting ~230 translation units of unmodified big-endian MIPS game code to a 64-bit desktop. See Background.

Technically, it follows the architecture of the Perfect Dark PC port, the same Rare "Indy" engine family, one hardware generation apart. The unmodified game C sources are compiled for the host; the N64's Reality Signal Processor (RSP) is emulated in software; every other hardware surface (video, audio, input, timers, save storage) is shimmed in a dedicated port/ layer.

Important

You must supply your own GoldenEye 007 ROM. This repository contains no Nintendo code or assets, and no ROM. Nothing here is distributable as a playable game — see Requirements and Legal.

In-engine, running in the port — Bunker 1 and Dam attract views, and a ~15 s clip (the clip itself has no audio track): mission dossier → Facility → Silo → Jungle → Archives.

Quick start

You supply your own NTSC-U GoldenEye 007 N64 ROM (.z64, big-endian) — no ROM or game asset is included or distributed. Then:

1. Download the Windows or Linux bundle from Releases and unpack it.
2. Make a data/ folder next to the executable and drop the ROM in as ge007.ntsc-final.z64.
3. Run the one-time asset step: python3 prepare-assets/prepare-assets.py (Python 3.8+, stdlib only).
4. Launch the executable from that folder.

Building from source instead: see Building. Read the Status caveats first — this is an early alpha.

Contents

• Quick start
• Background
• How this differs from the other GoldenEye PC projects
• Status
• Download
• Requirements
• Building · Windows (MSYS2) · Linux
• Running · Default controls
• How it works
• Project layout
• Documentation
• Credits
• Legal
• License

Background

The port used two agents handing work back and forth through shared written notes (a running handoff doc), directed by one person part-time:

• a local open-weight model — unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF:UD-Q4_K_XL on a single RTX 5090, driven mainly through the pi coding agent — which did the groundwork: the CMake build, the boot chain, the software-RSP integration, the offline asset-conversion pipeline, and the first rendered frames;
• Claude (via Claude Code — mostly Sonnet 5, with Opus 5 as an escalation tier for the hardest bugs), which joined for a collaborative phase covering the 21-level load/render/no-crash sweep, the ABI/layout finding catalog, the SDL input layer, and the front-end flow.

In short: ~3.5 weeks, one person part-time, two agents, ~430 commits, 200+ root-caused bugs logged. The full write-up (timeline, the handoff mechanism, commit/effort breakdown, and an honest "what worked / what didn't") lives in docs/dev/agentic-development.md. The workflow itself: docs/dev-process.md. To cite this project or its findings, use CITATION.cff (GitHub's "Cite this repository" menu).

How this differs from the other GoldenEye PC projects

This is a native port of the original 1997 Nintendo 64 game, built from its actual reconstructed source code, the same lineage as the Perfect Dark PC port. The other well-known "GoldenEye on PC" projects are something different: they machine-translate the shipped binary of the unreleased Xbox 360 XBLA remaster, a different game on a different codebase with no shared code with this one.

	This project	GoldenEye-Recomp / Steam Deck build
What it ports	The original Nintendo 64 game (1997)	The Xbox 360 XBLA HD remaster (built ~2007, never released)
How	Decompilation-based source port — human-reconstructed C, compiled for the host; game logic runs as written	Static binary recompilation — the shipped machine code is auto-translated to C; no source-level understanding
Lineage	GoldenEye 007 decompilation + Perfect Dark PC port engine family	Xbox 360 "…Recompiled" static-recompilation family
Renderer	Software RSP → OpenGL	Hardware (Vulkan)
Status	WIP alpha; see Status	Playable full game, higher frame rates, online multiplayer
Why it exists	A case study in AI-agent collaboration on a hard low-level codebase	A polished, playable PC release of the remaster

If you just want to play GoldenEye on PC today, use one of the recompilation projects: they are finished and this is not. What's here is the other half, getting the original game running from source.

Status

Alpha — playable, not polished. It runs the full single-player campaign with no known crashes, but some front-end 3D models and cutscenes are broken, in-level music doesn't play yet, and input has known rough edges. A full end-to-end re-confirmation that all 21 missions are completable start to finish is still owed (see below). Treat it as an early alpha of the porting work, not a finished way to play GoldenEye.

Phase 3 of 4 (audio + input) is in progress; Phase 2 (rendering) is essentially done. First alpha: v0.1.0. The port boots, renders, and plays through the front end and the campaign, but is not finished or fully stable.

Working

• Boot → Rare/Nintendo logos → gun-barrel → cast intro, fully rendered.
• Front end: main menu → mission select → difficulty → briefing → mission start.
• All 21 solo missions load, render, and are crash-free. A v0.1.0-era full-campaign playtest found two crashing levels (Bunker ii, Statue, one root cause) and an AI-pacing bug that blocked the final level (Cradle) from finishing; both were subsequently root-caused, fixed, and playtest-verified (D191, D193) — a full re-playthrough confirming all 21 missions completable start to finish on the current build is still owed. See docs/dev/LEVEL-STATUS.md.
• Software RSP (fast3d): textured world geometry, skeletal characters, HUD, the GE-specific color-combiner / render modes and G_TRI4.
• Input: keyboard + mouse (with mode-aware mouse-look) and SDL game controllers, mapped onto the N64 pad. Tunable via ge007.ini.
• File-backed EEPROM saves.
• Audio — software mixer (libultra audio layer → SDL, adapted from the PD port). In-level sound effects play; in-level music does not play yet (tracked as D77). Front-end/menu audio is unaffected.
• Windows and Linux (x86_64). Windows is the primary development and playtest path. The Linux build was built and smoke-tested (boots, renders, passes the level sweep) at v0.1.0; it has not been actively maintained or retested since.

Not yet working

• In-level music — silent; see above (D77).
• Cutscenes — frequently glitch: skipped, wrong camera, misplaced or hovering actors, wrong timing (D148/D160).
• Some front-end 3D models — the spinning Nintendo logo, and the MISSION COMPLETE / mode-select models — are mispositioned or absent. (The gun-barrel Bond intro renders correctly.)
• Outdoor levels' sky rendering is still being fixed (was solid black; now partially fixed with residual defects); assorted other cosmetic defects are tracked in docs/dev/GRAPHICS-BACKLOG.md.
• No macOS or ARM support; no controller rebinding UI; no widescreen.

Download

Pre-built Windows and Linux x86_64 bundles are published under Releases, starting with v0.1.0. Each contains the engine executable, its runtime libraries, and the one-time prepare-assets tool — no ROM and no game assets. See Quick start for the four steps to get it running, Requirements for accepted ROMs, and Status for the alpha caveats.

You can also build it yourself; see Building.

Requirements

You need a GoldenEye 007 (Nintendo 64) ROM that you legally own, in big-endian (.z64) format, matching one of:

Region	ROMID	ROM filename (in data/)	SHA-1
NTSC-U (US)	ntsc-final	ge007.ntsc-final.z64	abe01e4aeb033b6c0836819f549c791b26cfde83
PAL (EU)	pal-final	ge007.pal-final.z64	167c3c433dec1f1eb921736f7d53fac8cb45ee31
NTSC-J (JP)	jpn-final	ge007.jpn-final.z64	2a5dade32f7fad6c73c659d2026994632c1b3174

US is the recommended and best-tested version.

The port also relies on the decompilation's asset-extraction step, which pulls the level, model, texture and music data out of your ROM at build time. That step, too, requires your ROM and is part of Building.

Building

Prerequisites: CMake >= 3.16, a C/C++ toolchain, SDL2, zlib, OpenGL, Python 3, plus the decompilation's own build dependencies (an IRIX MIPS toolchain via qemu-irix, used only for the one-time asset extraction). See docs/building.md for the full walkthrough and the asset-extraction details.

Windows (MSYS2)

# in the MINGW64 shell
pacman -S mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain mingw-w64-x86_64-SDL2 \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-zlib mingw-w64-x86_64-cmake \
          mingw-w64-x86_64-python make git

git clone https://github.com/jkdansereau/goldeneye-pc-port.git
cd goldeneye-pc-port
# 1. extract assets from your ROM (see docs/building.md)
# 2. build the port
./build-pc.sh ntsc-final          # or pal-final / jpn-final

Linux

Built and smoke-tested at v0.1.0; not actively maintained or retested since — the steps below are the intended path, not a continuously verified one.

sudo apt install build-essential cmake python3 libsdl2-dev zlib1g-dev libgl1-mesa-dev
git clone https://github.com/jkdansereau/goldeneye-pc-port.git
cd goldeneye-pc-port
# extract assets (docs/building.md), then:
./build-pc.sh ntsc-final

The executable is written to build-pc/ge007.x86_64 (on Windows, build-pc/ge007.x86_64.exe).

Running

1. Create a data/ directory in the repo root.
2. Put your ROM in it, named as in the table above (e.g. data/ge007.ntsc-final.z64).
3. Run the executable from the repo root: ./build-pc/ge007.x86_64.

Configuration is written to ge007.ini on first run.

Default controls

Action	Keyboard / mouse	Controller
Move / strafe	W A S D / arrows	Left stick
Aim / look	Mouse	Right stick
Fire (Z)	Left mouse / LCtrl	Right trigger
Aim mode (R)	Right mouse / LShift	Left trigger
Use / accept (A)	Space / E / X	A / X
Reload / cancel (B)	R / F	B / Y / RB
L trigger	Q	LB
Start	Enter / Tab	Start

Mouse sensitivity, Y-inversion and the aim/turn split are tunable in the [Input] section of ge007.ini.

How it works

The R4300 game code in src/ is compiled completely unmodified; the decompilation's control flow is treated as ground truth. Everything that would touch N64 hardware is redirected into port/:

• port/fast3d/ — a software RSP. It interprets the GBI display list the game builds each frame and emits OpenGL, bypassing the RDP. Adapted from the Perfect Dark port and extended for GoldenEye's custom GBI.
• port/src/gesched.c — replaces the RCP scheduler; instead of poking RSP registers it drives the software RSP directly.
• port/src/libultra.c — single-threaded shims for the libultra OS API (threads, messages, timers, PI/SI/AI/VI) over the host.
• port/src/{video,audio,input,fs,romdata,config}.c — the SDL2 / OpenGL / filesystem backends.

The 32→64-bit transition forces a small, cataloged class of mechanical ABI-only edits to ROM-serialized structs (pointer-width reconciliation); these change no behavior and are documented individually.

Where it diverges from the Perfect Dark port: GoldenEye's N64 serialized asset formats (level setup, models, backgrounds) are converted offline by a set of Python "sidecar" converters in tools_pc/, rather than fixed up at load time. See docs/internals.md and docs/porting-notes.md.

Project layout

CMakeLists.txt      PC build (parallel to the decomp's Makefile, which is untouched)
build-pc.sh         configure + build helper
src/  include/      the decompilation (game + libultra) - compiled unmodified
port/
  fast3d/           software RSP -> OpenGL
  src/              port layer (main, OS shims, video, audio, input, fs, ...)
  include/          port-facing headers
tools/  Makefile    the N64 build + asset extraction (from the decomp; do not modify)
tools_pc/           PC-port helper + analysis scripts
docs/               see below

Documentation

Key docs are also published as a site: https://jkdansereau.github.io/goldeneye-pc-port/.

Doc	What's in it
docs/building.md	Full build + asset-extraction guide.
docs/internals.md	Architecture, the RSP-emulation approach, GE-vs-PD engine differences, the phased plan.
docs/porting-notes.md	The recurring N64→PC bug classes hit during the port, with fixes.
docs/dev/agentic-development.md	The research angle: the two-agent setup, timeline, handoff workflow, and an assessment of what did and didn't work.
docs/dev-process.md	The investigation workflow in detail — budgets, file partitioning, the finding-log discipline.
docs/dev/	The raw engineering record: the full finding log, per-level status, graphics backlog, playtest matrices, and docs/dev/game-behavior-reference.md (a secondary-sourced playtest reference for how the retail game is meant to behave — repo-only, code is ground truth).
docs/SetupGuide.md, docs/StyleGuide.md	Inherited from the decompilation this repo forks.

Credits

This port is a thin layer on a large amount of other people's work.

Prior work it is built on

• The GoldenEye 007 decompilation — years of effort by Larry Ficken ("kholdfuzion") and the project's contributors; plus zoinkity's GoldenEye documentation, which the decomp started from. This port is a fork of that repository.
• The Perfect Dark PC port (Ryan Dwyer and contributors) — the reference architecture for this port and the source of the fast3d software RSP.
• The Perfect Dark decompilation — the sibling decomp the PD port is built on.

Vendored / adapted code

• port/fast3d/ — the software RSP, adapted from the PD port. It originates with the Ship of Harkinian / libultraship fast3d (© Emill, MaikelChan; MIT — see port/fast3d/LICENSE.txt), which itself descends from sm64-port's fast3d and audio mixer.
• port/fast3d/glad/ — OpenGL loader generated by glad (David Herberth, MIT).
• The decompilation toolchain: ido-static-recomp (Emill / decompals), qemu-irix and rabbitizer (n64decomp).
• SDL2 and zlib.

Methodology

• Chris Lewis, "Decompiling a Nintendo 64 Game in 84 Days" (the Snowboard Kids decompilation write-up) — the agent-workflow practices in docs/dev-process.md are adapted from it.

Tools and models used to develop the port

• Qwen 3.8 (Alibaba Qwen team), run locally as the unsloth/Qwen3.8-27B-GGUF UD-Q4_K_XL quant; Unsloth (the GGUF quantisation and Unsloth Desktop, used as the local model server).
• pi — the local coding-agent harness.
• Claude / Claude Code (Anthropic).

Legal

This is a non-commercial fan preservation/research project, in the same category as the many other N64 decompilation and native-port repositories on GitHub. It follows the same conventions they do:

• No ROM and no game assets are distributed — not in this repository and not in any release. Textures, audio, models, level data and in-game text are extracted from a ROM you already own, on your machine, at build time.
• The repository is a fork of the public GoldenEye 007 decompilation and inherits its contents unmodified (see NOTICE for what that includes).
• No official logos, box art, or marketing assets are used. "GoldenEye 007", "007", "James Bond" and related marks belong to their respective owners (Nintendo, Microsoft/Rare, MGM, Danjaq, EON Productions).
• Pre-built binaries published under Releases contain only the engine (the port/ layer plus the compiled decompilation, with no game data of any kind), bundled with permissively-licensed runtime libraries (SDL2, zlib, the MinGW runtime; their licenses travel in the download). Any build, yours or ours, is useless without a ROM you supply.

This project is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Nintendo, Rare, Microsoft, MGM, Danjaq, EON Productions, or any rights holder in GoldenEye or James Bond. If you are a rights holder with a concern, open an issue and it will be addressed.

License

The original work in this repository, the port layer (port/), the PC build system, tools_pc/, and the documentation, is released under the MIT License; see LICENSE. Everything inherited from the upstream decompilation is covered by NOTICE, not by that license.