Video Games

My good friend Olaf has a web site to help you play those old James Bond computer games. Check it out at the James Bond 007 Video Game Site.

Goldeneye

  • Year: 1997
  • Maker: Nintendo/Rare
  • System: Nintendo 64
You are Bond, James Bond.

You are assigned to convert operations connected with the GoldenEye weapons satellite. M will brief you on your mission and objectives from London. Q Brance will support your efforts with a plentiful supply of weapons and gadgets. Moneypenny offers you light-hearted best wishes and you're off!

Your mission begins in the heavily guarded chemical warfare facility at the Byelomorye Dam in the USSR. Look and shoot in any direction as you navigate 12 interactive 3-D environments. Use stealth and force as you see fit in matters of international security. Consider the military personnel expendable. You are licensed to kill!

I bought the Nintendo 64 game console for this game only, and it was well worth it. Although I really don't like shoot 'em up games like Quake or Unreal, I've really enjoyed this game. The game play is excellent, I really like the series of missions that you go on, it has a very fun multi-player mode, and the graphics are incredible.

If you don't have this game and you like video games and James Bond, you just have to get this game. Here are some sites that are devoted to the Goldeneye game:

James Bond 007 (Atari)

  • Year: 1983
  • Maker: Parker Brothers
  • Systems: Atari 2600, 5200, and Coleco Vision

Review by David Elliot from Ian Fleming's James Bond Declassified.

"Way back in pre-history (1983) a company called Parker Brothers produced some video games for the popular game systems of the day. One of these games was called James Bond 007. I have the Coleco Vision version, so that is what I'm focusing on for now. I have no instructions for it, only the cartridge.

This game is a side scrolling game. You have to go through four adventures:

  • Diamonds Are Forever
  • The Spy Who Loved Me
  • Moonraker
  • For Your Eyes Only

You are Bond in a special car that can go under water, in the air and in space. It's interesting too that in the documentation, the villain for the Diamonds Are Forever segment is named Serrafimo. The name Blofeld could not be used, so they used an alternate name. Instead of using something new, though, Parker Bros. used the name of one of the Spang brothers from the novel version of DAF."

The Duel

  • Year: 1992
  • Maker: Domark
  • System: Sega Genesis
You are James Bond -- jumping into fast and furious action on your TV screen.

A mad Professor plots to take over the world on a remote Caribbean island. He knows you -- the famous 007 -- are coming, and he's ready for you: hostages to serve as human shields; hundreds of merciless guards; and a cloning machine that can bring all your old arch enemies back to life!

To help you, Q has managed to plant special weapons all around the island. Your mission, James, is to rescue the hostages, survive increasingly tough levels against overwhelming odds and stop the crazy Professor.

You've got the license to kill -- and to meet beautiful women.

Just don't forget to save the world!

The 16-bit Sega Genesis was my very first game console, and I bought it because of this game. It is a typical arcade-type Sega Genesis game that has you (as Bond) try to stop a mad Professor on a remote Caribbean island from taking over the world (gee, that kind of sounds familiar, doesn't it).

The levels include the island docks, a jungle (please, no Roger Moore jokes here), the inside of a volcano, and a space shuttle launch pad. On the way, you get to rescue damsels in distress (they squeal when you rescue them), and fight Jaws, Yoyo, Bones (Baron Samedi), and Oddjob. You also get to blow up stuff.

Although the game has Timothy Dalton on the cover, there are virtually no traces of his movies in the game. The only downside to this game, as with most Sega Genesis games, is that you can't save a game, so you have to play it from beginning to end. I got close a couple of times, but I just didn't have enough time or the attention span to ever finish it.

The Stealth Affair

  • Year: 1990
  • Maker: Interplay
  • System: PC/DOS
As British super-agent James Bond, just back from holiday in Kuwait, you will find your self plunged headlong into the world of international espionage, sent across the globe in an attempt to find the missing, super-secret Stealth Bomber. The list of suspects include a Latin American dictator, the Russian KGB, and, possibly, organized crime.

To be successful you'll need to sift through puzzling clues, track down a host of nefarious villains, and untangle the threads of a worldwide conspiracy that threatens the safety of the glob (all the while dodging assassins' bullets, bombs, and babes!).

I played this game a long, long time ago on my 286 PC. It was actually a pretty cool game for its time, but it's definitely dated by today's standards. You control Bond (from a third-person's point of view) and use an activation menu to choose an action for Bond: examine, take, inventory, etc. The big downside to this game is the almost total lack of action; it's the exact opposite of a shoot 'em up type game.

To tell you the truth, I never did finish it; I think I got stuck in the cave. Anyway, I still have the game and I just bought a PC to compliment my Mac (I still use my Mac most of the time), so if I ever have time on a rainy day, I might fire this game back up and finish it. That is, if I can still get it to work!