goldeneye-pc-port/docs/index.md

title, description

title	description
GoldenEye 007 PC Port	A native PC port of the 1997 N64 classic, built from decompiled source with a software RSP. v0.2.1 for Windows, Linux and Steam Deck.

A native PC port of the original 1997 Nintendo 64 GoldenEye 007, compiled from the game's decompiled source with the N64's graphics coprocessor (RSP) running in software, the same architecture as the Perfect Dark PC port, the same Rare "Indy" engine family, one hardware generation apart.

Status: v0.2.1. The full single-player campaign runs at a steady 60 fps and is completable end to end; all 21 missions load and run clean on Windows and Linux (one intermittent Steam Deck/Linux crash remains, listed below), and audio (music + SFX) plays throughout. The known rough edges (cutscenes that still glitch, a handful of cosmetic rendering defects, missing features like real widescreen) are listed plainly under Honest status.

This is a pre-1.0 release, not a finished product — v1.0 is the target for a polished, feature-complete build; expect rough edges and missing features until then. See the README's Roadmap section for direction (PAL/JP support, real widescreen, LAN multiplayer under consideration, and more).

~32 s gameplay montage loop from live play sessions, running in the port.

Download

Platform	Bundle	Notes
Windows (x86_64)	win64.zip	Engine + runtime DLLs + the one-time asset tool.
Linux (x86_64) / Steam Deck	linux tarball	SDL2 is bundled, so it runs as-is on any distro, and sideloads onto a Deck with nothing installed.

Bring your own ROM. Both bundles contain no ROM and no game assets: you supply your own GoldenEye 007 N64 ROM (the Requirements table has the region filenames and SHA-1s). This release supports the NTSC-U (US) ROM; PAL and JP are on the roadmap. Then: unpack, drop the ROM in data/, and launch; the first run generates the derived assets automatically (no Python or other tooling needed). The full steps are in the Quick start; pre-built releases are legal to distribute precisely because they're useless without a ROM you already own.

See it running

Full playtest gallery: 19 in-engine captures from the v0.2.0 Windows playtest, across the campaign

Dam

Facility

Runway

Surface

Surface

Bunker 1

Silo

Frigate

Frigate

Surface 2

Bunker 2

Statue

Statue

Archives

Cradle

Cradle

Aztec

Aztec

Frigate

More captures may land here as playtesting continues.

Play it, or take it apart

• Try it yourself: grab a bundle above, bring your own ROM, and play the campaign. It's an early cut for exactly this: if something breaks, an issue with what you were doing is genuinely useful.
• Read the code: the game logic in src/ is unmodified decompilation; every hardware surface (video, audio, input, save storage, and the software-RSP renderer) is shimmed in the MIT-licensed port/ layer. Internals is the map; Porting notes is the catalogue of N64→PC bug classes hit along the way, a good read even if you never touch the code.
• Mod it: the port layer, build system and tools_pc/ helpers are MIT licensed and yours to extend: new video options, input tweaks, your own asset sidecar. CONTRIBUTING has the ground rules that keep it faithful to the original game.
• AI disclosure: development here was agentic — Claude Pro plus a local open-weight model on a single RTX 5090, as of August–September 2026. This project is as much a study of that process as it is a port: whether current LLMs can carry a codebase like this, and what actually goes wrong along the way. Game codebases have historically been a rough fit for LLMs — large, stateful, hardware-adjacent, unforgiving of a subtly wrong memory layout — more so for older local models, so this is a useful data point on where that stands now, for better or worse. Judge the result for yourself. I'm one person doing this in my spare time, not a team. See the full write-up for the setup, timeline, handoff workflow, and an honest assessment of what did and didn't work.

How it works

The R4300 game code is compiled completely unmodified; the decompilation's control flow is ground truth. The N64's Reality Signal Processor, the graphics coprocessor that builds and executes each frame's display list, is emulated in software: the port interprets the GBI stream the game emits and translates it to OpenGL, bypassing the RDP entirely. Everything else that would touch N64 hardware (video, audio, input, timers, save storage) is shimmed in a small dedicated layer, following the architecture of the Perfect Dark PC port from the same Rare engine family. Full detail: Internals; the bug catalogue: Porting notes.

Honest status

• Cutscenes still glitch, mostly with James Bond: in scripted sequences Bond is the one who gets misplaced, hovers, or spins; the other actors are fine for the most part now. Still the most visible gap in this release.
• Particle colours drift through a rainbow palette instead of holding grey/orange.
• Water levels show a moving seam; pixel strips at screen edges at non-integer scales; some front-end 3D models mispositioned or absent.
• Surface 1's 2D billboard trees render as a solid wall of tree texture instead of discrete sprites; under active investigation.
• No true widescreen (16:9 stretches the 4:3 view rather than expanding FOV); distant geometry can drop out on the biggest open levels; gunshot SFX can sound off during sustained/rapid fire.
• All unlocked is highly experimental — don't enable it until you have at least one save written, or it can break audio and mouse aim (D281).
• The F10 overlay's bottom row duplicates the selected item; an intermittent Linux/Steam Deck SIGSEGV remains, reliably reproducible via Facility's door-opening computer terminals (D255); front-end menu navigation needs the right stick, not the left, on gamepad (D282).
• No macOS/ARM support; no controller rebinding UI yet.

The full list, with root causes and fix status: the README's Status section and the finding log.

Documentation

• The two-agent development case study: goal, setup, timeline, the handoff workflow, and an honest assessment of what did and didn't work.
• Development process: how work was scoped, partitioned, and budgeted across agents; the finding-log discipline.
• Internals: architecture, the software RSP-emulation approach, GoldenEye-vs-Perfect-Dark engine differences, the phased plan.
• Porting notes: the recurring Nintendo 64 → PC bug classes hit during the port, with fixes.
• Building: full build and asset-extraction guide.

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Non-commercial fan preservation/research project. No ROM or game assets are distributed; you supply a ROM you already own. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Nintendo, Rare, Microsoft, MGM, Danjaq, or EON Productions.