RETRO – Snobbery, refinement, beautiful women, elegant cars, supervillains and undisguised violence surround the most famous and longest-running secret agent of all time, James Bond 007, whose computer adventures we have been able to take part in for more than a quarter of a century.

Yes, the very first James Bond game was released back in 1983, exactly 30 years after the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. Since then, we have been able to gun down filthy Soviets, SPECTRE agents and every other villain dreaming of world domination in side-scrolling action games, platformers, FPS titles and third-person shooters, all while slipping into the skin of 007, who constantly makes sure his bow-tied suit remains immaculate.

James, It Was So Long Ago…

The very first Bond game from ’83 arrived before the true golden age of the Commodore 64, so it was also released on machines that sound rather museum-like today, such as the ColecoVision, as well as the extremely popular Atari systems of the time.

The game was simply titled James Bond 007, and it allowed us to play through famous scenes from earlier films: Diamonds Are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me, Moonraker, For Your Eyes Only, and so on. On every level, hordes of enemies tried to reduce 007’s health meter to 000, while each stage required us to complete specific tasks tied to the relevant film. As a first adventure, this little arcade piece was not bad at all, and anyone interested in relics should still give it a look today.

An Interactive Novel?

Yes, however unbelievable it may sound in today’s action-oriented gaming world, the next James Bond “games” were interactive novels in which the program described where we found ourselves, while we had to type in our commands. Go west, kill russian, open door – those were roughly the kinds of instructions with which we tried to keep Her Majesty’s calmest-nerved agent alive.

One of these works was based on the Roger Moore film then hitting cinemas, A View to a Kill, while the other adapted an earlier classic, Goldfinger. Anyone who also enjoyed reading the original Fleming novels may still find it interesting to try one of these today, although patience is at least as important a weapon here as Bond’s Walther PPK.

Timothy Dalton Enters the Stage…

1987 was a defining year in the era of James Bond films: that was when the fox-faced Timothy Dalton put on 007’s suit, a Bond some people hated, while others consider him one of the best James Bond actors. Dalton appeared in only two films, yet both were turned into Commodore 64 games: The Living Daylights and Domark’s Licence to Kill.

The former was a side-scrolling shooter – back in the day, I thoroughly wrecked my friend’s C64 joystick before finally finishing it at his place -, while the latter was a top-down action game in which 007 had to climb onto helicopters, trucks and other vehicles after the on-foot action sections. Anyone who had seen the film had an especially good time playing through these scenes, but even without knowing the movie, it can still be said that this was one of the best early James Bond games.

Roger Rabbit in Trouble

After the success of Licence to Kill, Domark turned to adaptations of older James Bond films. Released for Amiga and newer Atari machines, 1988’s Live and Let Die and 1990’s The Spy Who Loved Me continued and refined the top-down driving formula.

The latter in particular was a huge experience, and rather absurd at the same time: with the Lotus Esprit supercar seen in the film, we could run over not only the villains, but innocent pedestrians as well, which hardly fit the image of a world-saving agent. The game stirred up a fair little scandal because of this, although in certain respects it can also be seen as a distant precursor to Carmageddon and the GTA games.

James Bond Does Not Disappear, He Just Changes Shape

The next James Bond game, 1990’s James Bond: The Stealth Affair, is especially interesting because, at first, it was not actually a James Bond game at all. The program was developed by the French Delphine Software and was a finely crafted side-scrolling adventure game for the Amiga 500, originally released under the title Operation Stealth.

Although the developers had originally wanted to make a James Bond game, licensing problems made that impossible, so the protagonist eventually became John Glames, a CIA super-agent. The story told a completely separate tale, but the atmosphere, the gadgets, the international intrigue and the tuxedo-clad spy fantasy were still clearly drawn from the world of the James Bond films.

Later, Interplay acquired the game, and because it also obtained the 007 licence, the hero officially became James Bond in the re-released, renamed version. Anyone who enjoys point’n’click and cinematic adventure games, and is not bothered by prehistoric graphics, should still take a look at it today: it is a strong piece of work, even if we separate it from Bond for a moment.

Pierce Brosnan in the Gun Barrel

After his two productions, Dalton was unexpectedly fired from MI6, and in 1995 a new actor, the charming and handsome Pierce Brosnan, put on the familiar tuxedo. The game adaptation of Brosnan’s first film, GoldenEye, however, was completed only two years later.

It was worth the wait: 1997’s Nintendo 64 title GoldenEye 007 is one of those rare console games that many people still mention today with misty eyes. Many also wish they could somehow experience again the fantastic feeling they had with this classic. GoldenEye 007 left such a deep mark on gaming that Electronic Arts later tried to release an FPS under the same title, focused mostly on multiplayer – “naturally”, that imitation turned out terribly.

And why is GoldenEye 007 still regarded by many as one of the finest James Bond games ever made? The single-player campaign was already excellent in itself, since it blended FPS gameplay superbly with stealth, sniper rifle use and many other solutions similar to things we would only get much later, for example in No One Lives Forever. The multiplayer, however, created a cult of its own: thanks to its many modes and possibilities, plenty of players consider Bond’s N64 adventure an even better party shooter than the Halo games.

My Name Is Arts, Electronic Arts

In 1999, the James Bond licence moved to the wealthy Electronic Arts, a company that was increasingly producing its games as if on a conveyor belt. EA eagerly pushed out fairly average titles based on the newer and newer Brosnan-era Bond films. Of course, games separate from the cinema entries were also made: these included various racing programs and two completely original James Bond adventures, Nightfire and Everything or Nothing.

The latter was especially memorable: Everything or Nothing involved such well-known stars as Christopher Walken, Shannon Elizabeth and Heidi Klum. Many consider this game the second-best 007 title after GoldenEye 007, and there is no doubt that its spectacular action sequences, its story, which was quite acceptable even by Bond-film standards, and its graphics, which were excellent at the time, were all in the right place.

Unfortunately, EA rather rushed From Russia with Love, the game based on the classic film and built on the same engine, even though the aging Sean Connery was also brought in to provide James Bond’s voice. With this final game, EA said goodbye to the James Bond licence, which then passed to Activision.

Daniel Craig’s Era: Quantum and Blood Stone

Activision’s first truly visible Bond entry was 2008’s Quantum of Solace, which adapted not only the film of the same name, but also the events of Casino Royale. The main version by Treyarch was built on the technological foundations of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, so the game became far more of a modern shooter built around cover use and firefights than a classic spy simulator operating with gadgets. Daniel Craig’s Bond received a video game face and voice in this form for the first time, while Judi Dench’s M further strengthened the feeling that Activision wanted to carry the rawer, tougher Bond of the Craig era into digital form.

Quantum of Solace turned out to be a solid but not era-defining piece: it had momentum, cinematic atmosphere and several memorable moments, but it did not bring the next Bond revolution that many expected after GoldenEye 007. The game was more of a confidently made, somewhat too familiar action-FPS, one that sometimes felt more like a military shooter dressed in Bond clothing than a true 007 fantasy. Even so, fans of the Craig era had reason to pay attention to it, because the way it connected Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace provided a good foundation at the time for a tight, modern Bond game.

The 2010 James Bond 007: Blood Stone was already a much more interesting attempt, because it arrived not as a direct film adaptation, but with an original story. Developed by Bizarre Creations, the game worked as a third-person action title, with hand-to-hand combat, a cover system, car chases and a cinematic pace that suited Craig’s Bond much more naturally. The story was written by Bruce Feirstein, Daniel Craig and Judi Dench once again lent their voices and likenesses to their own characters, and Joss Stone took part in the production both as a Bond girl and as a musical contributor.

Blood Stone was not a flawless game, but it had something that several official Bond adaptations of the period lacked: it wanted to function as its own cinematic experience. The shooting, bare-handed takedowns and driving sections did not revolutionize the genre, yet they came much closer to what one could expect from a modern, interactive Bond adventure. It is a shame that weak sales, licensing problems and the exhaustion of Activision’s Bond era prevented this direction from truly developing – because James Bond 007: Blood Stone clearly suggested that there was plenty of life left in it.

-Gergely Herpai BadSector-