This section is for the history of Goldeneye 007 prior to release. Sometimes you'll also hear this period called "beta" GoldenEye. The game was in development for about two and a half years and it went through countless changes before release. A prerelease cartridge has never leaked so we dig into old videos, screenshots, and articles to do some video game archeology.

These screenshots are from a defunct website called MundoRare. It's the best collection we have of good quality prerelease screenshots. You can hover over some images to see a comparison screenshot from the final game. We don't know when these were taken, but my best guess would be Q4 1996. It can't be said for sure but I feel like most of these are from the same build of the game.

TODO: expand this section.

The defunct website MundoRare posed the question to programmer Mark Edmonds, "Was the last blank space in the cheats menu where the ‘All Bonds’ option should have been placed?"

‘All Bonds’ wasn’t a cheat option actually. On the folder screen where you choose between the four saved games you could switch between the different Bonds for a new saved game by using the D-pad.

— Mark Edmonds (Source)

It's really interesting you could have chosen your preferred Bond actor every time you started a new save. That would have been so cool!

Mundorare: "Was the ‘All Bonds’ option removed due to legal problems with the other Bond actors, as it’s been long said?"

Yep. I remember the main problem was going to be the cost of using their likenesses – I remember some figure like $1M would have been needed for one of the actors.

— Mark Edmonds (Source)

Not for actual legal problems, more to forestall them - Pierce Brosnan’s contract covered us using his likeness in the game, but other actors would have needed their own special contracts for that (I assume that is the case, since that’s how it normally works).

— Duncan Botwood (Source)

In an interview with Victor Lucas of The Electric Playground, Dr. Doak also had this to say on the matter:

The impression I got was that their [MGM's] big concern was that Sean Connery would want money, and when the other ones found out Sean Connery was getting money, they'd want money.

— Dr. David Doak (Source)

3. Briefings

Briefings were changed as seen in this video. Originally the Background page came first and the Objectives page came last. In the final that order is flipped. In some cases briefing text was also changed, but those changes are gone over on the individual level pages.