Month: February 2021

“90 bugs left”: Rare devs talk about the nearly completed Goldeneye 007 remake

Members of the 360 remake’s dev team tell all—including the reason it was canceled.

  • The original Goldeneye 007 remake team, hanging out with cardboard Pierce Brosnan; this photo was graciously provided to Ars Technica by original team member Ross Bury (bottom-left). [credit: Ross Bury ]

At Ars Technica, our love of classic shooter video games usually revolves around the PC, but it's hard to talk about that golden age of shooters without talking about Goldeneye 007. Rare's first shooter for the N64 was an astounding technical achievement in 1997, and many of its innovations still hold up nearly 25 years later... but that's only part of its modern mystique.

Unlike many classic '80s and '90s games, Goldeneye 007 never got a formal re-release on newer game systems. But it nearly happened. I've spent years reporting on leaks about an Xbox 360 remaster, helmed primarily by original studio Rare, which was nearly completed and then canceled. Last week, those years of teases exploded when a near-final beta dated August 2007 leaked—playable from start to finish on Xbox 360 hardware and emulators.

In light of the latest leak, I spoke via email to two of the Goldeneye 007 remaster project's eight original team members, artist Ross Bury and programmer Mark Edmonds, to fill in as many gaps as they could remember 14 years later. I tracked those names in part because they're not credited in the leaked game's normal credits sequence, but rather are visible when looking at any in-game computer terminals. When pressed about his involvement, Bury began his first email with two modest answers: "Not sure that there's too much to tell," and "I'm pretty sure I'm no longer under an NDA regarding it."

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UI-Framework: Qt-Fork könnte KDE Probleme bringen

Bisher erzwingt eine Vereinbarung mit der KDE-Community eine gewisse Offenheit von Qt. Ein harter Fork könnte das mittelfristig ändern. (KDE, Qt)

Bisher erzwingt eine Vereinbarung mit der KDE-Community eine gewisse Offenheit von Qt. Ein harter Fork könnte das mittelfristig ändern. (KDE, Qt)

Team-Xecuter Site is Down but The Domain Hasn’t Been Seized

Team-Xecuter is widely known for creating ‘hacks’ that bypass digital restrictions on Nintendo consoles. Last year the U.S. Government indicted three alleged members. The official site remained online until a few days ago, when it became inaccessible due to database errors. While this could be related to the legal trouble, Team-Xecuter.com has not been seized.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.

team xecuterHacking group Team-Xecuter has long been a thorn in the side of major gaming companies.

The group offers hardware and software solutions that allow people to install and play unofficial games – including pirated copies – on various consoles, including the popular Nintendo Switch.

Nintendo has been trying to shut down the group for years but without much result. However, the matter escalated last October when the US Government launched a criminal prosecution of three Team-Xecuter members, accusing them of facilitating copyright infringement.

Arrests, Indictments, But No Domain Seizures

Team-Xecuter often defended its work by pointing out that its products are not necessarily pirate tools. They positioned themselves as supporters of the ‘right to repair’ movement and back people who want to play homebrew games on their devices for personal use.

The legality of Team-Xecuter will eventually be decided in court. What stood out, however, is that despite the criminal allegations Team-Xecuter’s site remained up and running for months.

Database Error

That changed a few days ago. At the time of writing, team-xecuter.com shows an “Error establishing a database connection” message. This suggests that something at the backend of the site is broken. Whether this can or will be fixed is unknown.

xecuter database error

Given the criminal case against Team-Xecuter it is tempting to suggest that the US Government has something to do with the issue. However, for now, there is no sign that this is the case.

In fact, the Team-Xecuter case appears to be quite unique from an enforcement perspective. Even though the U.S. Department of Justice accuses the group of running a criminal operation, the official domain name wasn’t seized.

Domains Still ‘At Large’

Looking at Whois information today we see that team-xecuter.com is still registered to the original owner. The same is true for xecuter.com which is still online and hosts download links and tutorials for the allegedly-infringing products.

This is very unusual as the authorities usually have no trouble seizing .com domain names, which previously happened in other copyright cases including those against KickassTorrents and Megaupload. Not to mention the million+ domain names that were seized as part of “Operation in Our Sites.”

Seizing a domain name in a criminal case should be fairly easy for the Department of Justice. The .com domains are managed by the U.S. company Verisign, so jurisdiction is not an issue. Perhaps the authorities have other reasons not to seize them for now, but it seems odd.

Domain mysteries aside, Team-Xecuter’s outlook is getting grimmer and grimmer. After the indictments were announced several allegedly related sites, including Maxconsole.com, have disappeared.

Several online stores have thrown in the towel as well, including Axiogame.com, which was allegedly operated by Team-Xecuter. Interestingly, the Axiogame domain was seized, not by the Department of Justice, but through a Nintendo lawsuit.

Meanwhile, the criminal prosecution continues. Team-Xecuter Defendant Gary Bowser is currently in prison awaiting trial. French national Max Louarn, was arrested in Canada where a U.S. extradition request was launched, while Yuanning Chen from China is still at large.

From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.