goldeneye-pc-port/.github/release-notes.md

GoldenEye 007 PC Port — v

Platforms: Windows x86-64 and Linux x86-64 (including Steam Deck), plus an experimental macOS Apple Silicon download (not notarized; see Running it). Region: NTSC-U (US) only. See Known issues.

Highlights

This release is v0.5.0 plus frame rates above 60, an experimental macOS port and a batch of fixes.

• Frame rates above 60. The Frame rate cap (Video.FpsCap) now offers 90, 120 and 144, and an Auto setting that matches your display's refresh rate (up to 144). Auto is the default on fresh installs; an existing ge007.ini keeps its value. Extra frames are blended between game ticks, so the game still simulates at its original rate. It costs one game tick of extra latency, does nothing on a 60 Hz display, and the Original N64 display mode caps at 60. This is my rework of f1zz1ec0ke's #137.
• macOS on Apple Silicon (experimental). There is now a macos-arm64 download (or build from source; see docs/building.md). Based on danturn's #95. A 21-level campaign sweep and live sessions ran without crashes on one M3 Mac, but it has not had the wider testing the Windows and Linux builds have, and the download is not notarized. Test reports are very welcome.
• Fixes you can see: geometry vanishing when you stand against a wall (#150), the Cradle catwalk shadow flicker, stale pixels beside the native-widescreen picture on front-end screens, and the first launch opening on the wrong monitor (#151).
• Crash fixes: the Linux end-credits crash (#152) and a crash when a guard spawned wearing a hat (#153).

Checked on PC at 120 Hz with VSync on a G-Sync display, and on the Steam Deck at 90 fps.

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What's new

Frame rate

• Auto, 90, 120 and 144 join 30 and 60 in the F10 Frame rate cap row. Above 60 the port draws extra frames between game ticks by blending the previous and current frame. It only applies when the display is faster than 60 Hz; on a 60 Hz display nothing changes.
• A fresh install uses Auto, so a 90 Hz screen runs at 90 and a 144 Hz monitor at 144. The Original N64 display mode sets the cap to 60.
• A fast camera turn, or a large change in what is on screen, falls back to a full frame instead of a blend.
• The Steam Deck at 90 is good on most levels (see the known issues).

macOS (Apple Silicon, experimental)

• On arm64 macOS the N64 address window sits at a high host base (set automatically by CMake). The 64-bit address fixes this needed (textures, input, animation and multiplayer crashes) are in the shared code and have no effect at base 0 on Windows and Linux.
• Build from source with Homebrew's GNU gcc; there is no download. The x86_64 macOS code (Julio C. Rocha's #88) is in the tree but was never verified on Intel hardware.

Settings and diagnostics

• The old front-end Velocity pointer mode is removed; the retired ini keys are ignored quietly (D574).
• The Linux/macOS update check no longer fails on a response over 64 KB (D575).
• Every log line is also written to ge007.log next to the ini; the previous run is kept as ge007.prev.log (D576).
• F10 slider labels no longer end in ".." at HUD scale 150 (D577).
• The crosshair look (colour, size, style, alpha, health colour) is your preference and is no longer reset by the Display mode presets (D440).
• The sound-effect and text-bank pointer guards check the real address range, so they work at any address base (D573, #108 with italoarruda).

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Install and upgrade

Downloads

File	Platform
goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-win64.zip	Windows x86-64
goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	Linux x86-64 (incl. Steam Deck)
goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-macos-arm64.tar.gz	macOS Apple Silicon, experimental

Each contains the engine executable, a README, license texts, and the one-time asset tool. No ROM, no game assets. The Windows bundle carries its runtime DLLs and the Linux bundle carries SDL2, so nothing needs to be installed first. The Linux bundle runs on glibc 2.31 or newer (Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 11+, SteamOS). The macOS bundle carries SDL2 and the C++ runtime and needs an M1 or later Mac on macOS 14 or newer.

Running it

You need your own GoldenEye 007 N64 ROM (US version, .z64).

1. Unpack the archive.
2. Make a data/ folder next to the executable and put the ROM in it, named ge007.ntsc-final.z64.
3. Run the executable from that folder. The first start takes a few extra seconds while it generates its asset files from your ROM.

Updating from an earlier version: unpack into a new folder and copy your ROM, ge007.eep (your progress) and ge007.ini (your settings) into its data/ folder. Don't copy the old pcmodels-* / pccg-* folders: the new version makes its own.

macOS (experimental): the app is not signed with a Developer ID or notarized, so Gatekeeper blocks a downloaded copy. After unpacking and before the first launch, run this once in Terminal, then start ./ge007.aarch64 from the folder:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-macos-arm64

I have only run it on one M3 Mac, so please report what Mac and macOS you tried and what happened.

Steam Deck: do the steps above on the Deck, then add the executable as a non-Steam game. The options overlay opens with Select and is fully controller-driven.

Full steps, controls and troubleshooting are in the bundled README.md.

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Known issues

Issue	Impact	Workaround
On the Steam Deck at 90 fps, firefights in the centre of Bunker 1 and 2 can drop several fps	Performance, Deck only	Set the frame cap to 60 for those levels
Jungle can feel slightly less smooth at 90 fps than other levels	Feel	Frame cap 60
Cradle's turret explosions may draw wrongly	Cosmetic; reported, not yet investigated	None
After alt-tabbing away, the picture can look hazy until it settles; fast repeated alt-tab is wonkier and takes longer	Cosmetic, Windows	It recovers on its own; alt-tab again or give it a couple of seconds
macOS (Apple Silicon) is experimental, tested on one Mac, and not notarized	Platform	Run xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine <folder> before the first launch; reports welcome
PAL and JP ROMs aren't supported in release packages	NTSC-U only	Use an NTSC-U ROM. Both regions convert, build and boot from source; packaging is still open
Changing aspect ratio inside a level can briefly glitch the gun/hand model, rarely	Cosmetic, one-off	Change the ratio from the front-end PC Options, or accept it
Saves from v0.4.0 and earlier can hold fake unlocks from All unlocked	Save data	Not repaired automatically. Since v0.5.0 the option never writes the save; keep a backup of data/ge007.eep from before you used it
The first frame of a level takes a little longer while its textures upload	Brief FPS-counter dip	None needed
Far objects almost fully in fog are now hidden as on the N64, except in widescreen where a faint distant building edge can still show (e.g. Surface's dish from the start area); 4:3 matches the N64	Cosmetic	Higher Draw/LOD distance shows more

Faithful original-game quirks are not port bugs. The full list, with workarounds, is the known-issues table.

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Fixes and changes, with finding labels

• Frame interpolation above 60 fps (D578, rework of #137). 120 fps with VSync on G-Sync/VRR: black frames and OLED flicker fixed (D583). Steam Deck 90 Hz pacing (D583).
• #150 geometry disappearing when too close to a wall: the near-plane clip now cuts at the camera plane (D579).
• Cradle catwalk shadow flicker: a D579 regression, fixed (D584).
• Native-widescreen stale pixels on front-end screens: the canvas sides are cleared (D579 follow-up).
• #151 the first launch opens on the primary monitor (D581).
• #152 Linux end-credits crash: a garbage text pointer is rejected (D582).
• #153 hat-spawn crash: the object record type was read from the wrong byte on a little-endian machine (D580).
• #108 SFX / text-bank pointer guards (D573).
• Velocity removal, update-check fix, ge007.log, HUD-150 sliders, preset scope (D574-D577, D440).
• macOS arm64: one address-model header, the 64-bit pointer fixes and a display-locked tick (D586, D591, D594, D595, D599-D604, D607-D613).

Verification

I did not re-run the three-platform reference-frame gate for this release; the last full run was for v0.5.0. For v0.6.0 I checked the frame-rate path and the fixes above by playing on Windows and the Steam Deck, and the macOS build with a 21-level sweep and live sessions.

Thanks

f1zz1ec0ke (#137, the frame-interpolation design this release reworks), danturn (#95, macOS), Julio C. Rocha (#88, the first macOS groundwork), italoarruda (#108), dolent (#120-#123, already in v0.5.0), plus reporter credits on the issue numbers named above.

Verify the download

sha256sum -c goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-win64.zip.sha256
sha256sum -c goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz.sha256
shasum -a 256 -c goldeneye-pc-port-<version>-macos-arm64.tar.gz.sha256   # macOS

Source & docs

https://github.com/jkdansereau/goldeneye-pc-port, built on the GoldenEye 007 decompilation, with its architecture modelled on the Perfect Dark PC port. Non-commercial fan preservation/research project; not affiliated with any rights holder. AI disclosure: built through agentic AI coding (Claude Code + a local open-weight model), directed by one person in their spare time. See the README's How it was made section for the full account.