Split-Screen Multiplayer

Lore & Background

In the world of GoldenEye 007, the multiplayer arena is an unspoken proving ground. The same high-tech facilities, orbital stations, and military compounds that Bond infiltrates in the campaign become free-for-all battlefields where loyalties dissolve and the only rule is survival. Rare designed these spaces with both narrative spectacle and competitive fairness in mind: tight corridors for close-quarters gunfights, open plazas for long-range duels, and scattered weapon caches that reward aggressive map control. The four selectable agents each carry a distinct visual identity and a slightly different feel. Bond is the default, sleek and purposeful. Leiter brings a lighter, more scrappy energy. Major Briggs is a heavy, no-nonsense operator. Oddjob, with his signature steel cap, is the odd man out—a villain turned competitor, which adds a layer of dark humour to every round. Choosing your character is as much a statement of personality as it is a tactical decision. The mode's legacy lives in the memory of a generation. In 1997 and the years that followed, the N64's split-screen became shorthand for friendship, rivalry, and the particular electric tension of a four-player Deathmatch where everyone is hunting everyone. It required no internet, no accounts, no load screens—just a controller in each hand and the shared, crackling anticipation of the countdown.

In Their Own Story

The CRT hums. Four controllers click into the N64's ports with a satisfying snap. Someone has already picked Oddjob—naturally—and the other three groan. The level loads: a rain-slicked outdoor compound, searchlights sweeping the grey sky. Weapons litter the ground in clusters, their metallic glints the only colour in a world of concrete and steel. A voice calls out, "No camping!" No one listens. The countdown hits zero. Muzzle flashes bloom across the split quadrants, and the television becomes a storm of tracers, ricochets, and the sharp, staccato bark of the N64's speaker. Someone is down. Someone is reloading. The round is far from over.

Reader's Guide

Split-Screen Multiplayer in GoldenEye 007 is a local, same-console competitive mode supporting two, three, or four players. The screen is divided into equal sections—halves for two players, thirds for three, quadrants for four—each showing an independent first-person view. All players share the same level geometry, the same weapon spawns, and the same objective rules. The primary competitive mode is Deathmatch: players eliminate opponents, earn points per kill, and the round ends when a score threshold or time limit is reached. Team Deathmatch pits two against two (or two against two in a four-player setup), adding a layer of coordination and friendly-fire awareness. Players spawn at set points, grab weapons from the ground, and fight across the level. There is no respawning mid-round in the traditional sense; a killed player waits for the next round or, in some configurations, re-enters after a brief delay. What makes the mode work is the level design. Rare reused the campaign's environments—aircraft carriers, orbital stations, military bases—which are rich in verticality, cover, and weapon variety. A shotgun in a narrow corridor is devastating; a sniper rifle across an open deck is a gamble. The split-screen format means you can see your opponents' positions in their quadrants, adding a layer of spatial awareness that pure single-player never demands. The mode matters because it turned a single-player spy thriller into a social event. No network, no latency—just four friends, one screen, and the pure, analog thrill of seeing your rival's head pop up around a corner in their own quarter of the display.

Did You Know?

• The multiplayer reuses the exact same level geometry as the single-player campaign, so the same aircraft carrier deck or orbital station serves as both a narrative set-piece and a competitive arena.
• Oddjob, a villain in the single-player story, is fully playable in multiplayer—Rare included him as a fourth character option alongside Bond, Leiter, and Briggs.
• The mode was designed for the N64's four controller ports, meaning a full four-player match required no additional hardware beyond the console itself.
• Because the split is purely local and real-time on a single CPU, all four players' physics, AI opponents (in modes that include them), and rendering run simultaneously on the N64's hardware with no network dependency.