Back in the 1990s, video games were going through a change, with the technology making it possible for developers to create fully 3D environments and characters, and there were few as pertinent to this change as GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64. As one of the biggest movie franchises in history, James Bond is rife for an adaptation to the gaming world, and the 1997 title was one of the most iconic. Many who fondly remember their days of playing split-screen with their friends will also remember one aspect of that, the ability to screen cheat.
Being able to see where each player is during a deathmatch has been something of a burden in the early days of offline multiplayer experiences, in which each player had a segment of the same TV dedicated to their character. However, one museum in the UK has managed to solve this by making it possible to play Goldeneye 007 on the original console through four separate monitors.
As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, the Centre For Computing History in Cambridge has managed to pull off this spectacular feat, which is apparently the first time players have been able to do so. As one of the best 3D games of the 90s, the N64 release of GoldenEye was famous for its split-screen multiplayer, which allowed fans to take on the role of the smooth talking spy, or one of the many other characters and villains, and run amok against each other. The problem here was that players could easily cheat by seeing where their opponents were, as they all shared the same TV.
A video on Twitter shows that they've managed to use the classic Nintendo console, which runs the game through the system, but outputs it onto four monitors. There's some rejigging that needs to take place before a match can start, as the general image is stretched across all the screens, but the result means that four people can get to grips with multiplayer without being able to see their opponent's whereabouts easily.
In this modern age of gaming, this idea is taken absolutely for granted, especially as most matches happen online and on separate systems all together, often across different countries. However, this innovative and influential FPS game continues to inspire others that came after it, and in this bygone era in which the only way to play with friends was by sharing the same screen, the idea of playing GoldenEye 007 on a separate TV has been two and a half decades in the making.
GoldenEye 007 was released in 1997 for Nintendo 64.
Source: PCGamer, Centre For Computing History