Perfect Dark

Perfect Dark is an excellent example of what happens if you play a game on a less than capable console, and it's a shame, because in all other aspects the game is typical Rare quality. On March 17th, 2010, it was released on the Xbox 360, taking care of that "less than capable console" problem.

Retaking the Institute
Intended as another special assignment bonus mission, similar to the four featured in the final game, Retaking the Institute never got beyond the planning stages. According to designer Duncan Botwood, it was to be "a full-on assault against the Skedar in the Institute building."

Retaking the Institute. Lead the team and clean out the building. Kill All Enemy Agents Do Something Else And Something Else Retaking the Institute's incomplete briefing and objective text is still present in the final game. The string for its name in the text file used for the menu places it between the Maian SOS and WAR! missions. Its slot is set up to play the music track CI Operative.

Skedar
Using the GameShark code, a solo edition of the Skedar Combat Simulator arena can be accessed. Joanna starts at a unique spawn point not shared by any of the multiplayer spawn points with a Falcon 2, CMP150, AR34, and Reaper. The mission can be played in Co-Op and Counter-Op mode, but in Counter-Op, the other character will just be another Joanna Dark. There are no objectives and no way to complete the mission.

In the final version, this setup is incomplete since it lacks character objects that are required for its action blocks to work properly. If the characters are added and their IDs properly set, a semi-scripted battle will take place between some Maians on Joanna's side and some dataDyne shocktroopers. This battle can briefly be seen in one of the early game trailers. The setup file also has some other unused content not seen in any footage, including additional paths for characters and an enemy that would seek out Joanna.

Rooftop
A text string found alongside those used for the other Combat Simulator arenas is all that remains of Rooftop. According to Rare, "it was not up to scratch."

Body Armor
A blue armor vest. This could be seen being dropped by a guard in a prerelease dataDyne Defection screenshot, but goes unused in the final version, and that guard now drops a shield instead.

Borg Crate
The cyan and gold tinted Borg Cube model from GoldenEye is still in Perfect Dark. There is a prerelease screenshot of this being used as a placeholder for the shield tech item in dataDyne Investigation.

Door Console
The console used to open doors in GoldenEye's Facility mission.

Crypt Door 1a
One of the doors from GoldenEye's Egyptian mission, which has had its texture indices replaced with 0, resulting in a lamp texture covering the entire door.

Flag
The "token" from GoldenEye's The Living Daylights multiplayer game mode.

FlashBang
A hand grenade from GoldenEye. Its filename hints at an unused grenade type, but there is no unused weapon which corresponds to it. Its only other remnant is a text string.

Headgear
Not a specific object, but an entire category of objects goes unused. Like GoldenEye, Perfect Dark supports attaching a hat or helmet (more specifically, any model) to a character's head with object type. In addition to the object type, the reaction type for hat models in GoldenEye, still works, allowing any model given it to be shot off of characters' heads. Most guards' concept art shows them wearing headgear and a couple of screenshots, one of which is shown here, prove it was being used at one point, but before release all of the headgear models were removed from the game. The few remaining helmets are actually head models.

A likely reason why headgear didn't make the cut has to do with how it is positioned on characters and a difference between GoldenEye and Perfect Dark's heads: In GoldenEye, all heads are about the same size and shape, and despite this there are still some minor clipping issues with headgear on certain heads. In Perfect Dark, there is a much greater variety in head sizes. Since headgear is positioned based on the body's neck level, it just doesn't fit on certain heads correctly. Even in the prerelease screenshot, the guard's cap is placed slightly lower than it should be and is clipping into his head.

Laser Post
A black post with five red laser emitters on each side. This would have fit perfectly in several locations: Most of the game's lasers are actually emitted from distorted metal crate objects.

Lock Mechanisms
Several wall-mounted detail objects that were probably intended to be used near locked doors.

Marker
A standard crate texture surrounded by a colorful border, with different coloring applied to each face.

Misc Crate
A gray chest with a hinged lid.

Touch That Box Box
A metal box with a gold and cyan tint, not unlike that of the Borg crate. "Touch That Box" was a Combat Simulator game type in which teams would compete for control of multiple rooms in the arena by touching boxes within them. The game type was scrapped before release, but based on its filename, this is the eponymous box that would have been touched.

Defined
These animated screens cannot be used: Values exist which seem to correspond to them, but they read the data of the green bar chart instead. Their animations are actually defined as a part of the Skedar warrior screen, but can never be seen normally due to loop commands.

Two of them appear to be developers recreating screens from GoldenEye.

Undefined
These are all leftover from GoldenEye and only exist as textures.

Interestingly, two of the textures were updated. The spinning cube was reduced in size, while Karl Hilton talking was updated to fill the entire width of the texture, rather than being pillar boxed.

Unused Music
There are three different unused music pieces that lay within, all accessed using a GameShark.

Replace the question marks with the following digits to hear the following:


 * 15: An alternate death theme. Rather creepy.
 * 3C: A track that starts off similar to the Deep Sea - Nullify Threat tune, but then completely changes after a couple minutes or so. This can be heard in one of the very first trailers for the game, but only as background music, not tied to any specific mission.
 * 75: A brief Mario jingle.

Missions
Every mission's text file has an unused string that gives its location. They're reminiscent of the location names shown on the objectives screen of GoldenEye's menu and were likely intended to serve the same purpose. Strangely, the Pelagic II's location is given as "Cetan Ship" and is the only one of these strings that isn't in all caps. Another oddity is that The Duel's location is given as the Lucerne Tower.

E R R O R No briefing for this mission The location and background shown in GoldenEye when loading a mission without defined objectives.

Weapons
MagSec SMG Found between the Cyclone and RC-P120 is this string for a MagSec SMG.

MaianGrenade The N-Bomb was intended as a Maian grenade, based on its unused firing range description, but this string is found after those for the Rocket Launcher, Devastator, and Slayer, which implies it was for a Maian grenade launcher.

FlashBang The FlashBang has a pickup model seen above, but nothing else of it remains.

Functions
Guided Shots Might be an alternate name for the Slayer's Fly-By-Wire Rocket function, other than that it doesn't fit any existing weapon.

Half Magazine Discharge The Cyclone's Magazine Discharge function drains the entire magazine, this one only would've drained half.

Timed Detonation Not to be confused with Timed Explosive, the Timed Mine's primary function. This may have originally been intended for the N-Bomb; its two functions are Impact Detonation and Proximity Detonation.

Telescopic Sight Silencer Magazine Extension Laser Sight These come at the end of the list of functions, and actually don't seem like functions at all, but intended for another stat entirely. Everything here except Magazine Extension makes sense for the Falcon 2.

Manufacturers
JonesCorp An unused manufacturer based on a developer's name, like Chesluk Industries.

Combat Simulator
Jonathan Jonathan has an entry in the character list – it's listed after the other story characters, before the common characters. He actually has his own body model, used for his CI bio, which is indistinguishable from the Area 51 Guard (a uniform he never actually wears in the story). Jonathan, using this model, was added to the available characters in the Xbox Live Arcade port of the game.

Boxes Options Boxes on Radar Touch That Box Boxes Tag Box Various menu strings for the scrapped Touch That Box mode.

Test 4mb Test Strings for two test sets can be found alongside the other weapon sets.

Cheats
Invincible All Guns Super x2 Health Super x2 Armor Invisible Phase Infinite Ammo DK Mode Tiny Super x10 Health Magnum Laser Gun Silver PP7 Gold PP7 Invincibility On All Guns On Maximum Ammo Super x2 Health Super x2 Armor Invisibility On Phase On Infinite Ammo On DK Mode On Extra Weapons Tiny On Paintball Mode On Super x10 Health Happy? Fast Mode On Invincibility Off All Guns Off Invisibility Off Phase Off Infinite Ammo Off DK Mode Off Tiny Off Paintball Mode Off Radar On Fast Mode Off NO NAME Slowest Motion Very Slow Motion Slow Motion Normal Motion Fast Motion Very Fast Motion Fastest Motion Line Mode Paintball Mode Enemy Rockets 2x Rocket L. 2x Grenade L. 2x RC-P90 2x Throwing Knife 2x Hunting Knife 2x Laser Turbo Mode Fast Animation Slow Animation No Radar [Multi] Cheat names and their activation messages left over from GoldenEye. Any reference to the Bond franchise has been removed from them.

Warning If you activate any cheats, then you will be unable to progress further in the game while those cheats are active. A warning about cheats preventing the player from progressing through the game, which is never shown.

Characters
Guard Greeting What's that gun? Don't point that gun at me. These seem to be debug strings for characters.

Early GoldenEye Text Files
There appear to be unused Combat Simulator setup files for Pelagic II and Chicago. Opening these, however, reveals them to actually be Dam and Streets text files left over from GoldenEye. It is not text from the final build, but instead is taken from an earlier version of the game.

Dam
Dam's location, briefing and objectives list shown in the watch menu are present, as is the location string used in the intro camera. The rest of the final mission's text is not in this file.

The earlier mission background does not refer to the Byelomorye dam by name, instead referring to its location. The line about destroying the facility without prejudice was completely reversed for the final version, which was likely always the intended meaning. The location string shown at the top of the watch menu uses Byelomorye, like the final version, as does the intro text.

Curiously, M seems a bit out of character here, particularly the last line which sounds more like something Q would say. Speaking of Q, the part about bungee jumping was moved to his briefing in the final version.

The bungee rope was moved to Q's briefing for the final version, as mentioned above, and a reference to the piton gun was also added.

The spelling of the mission's location hadn't been finalized when this text file was written. The background uses Arkhangelsk, a different spelling of the Russian name, while this string uses the English name.

Streets
Streets only has the mission location and background shown in the watch menu, but there are line terminators serving as placeholders for the M Briefing, Q Branch, and Moneypenny strings.

The background is only a description of the mission.

Cheese Pieces
pxqCIywF0xA There is a small wedge of cheese hidden in every single player map. These are modeled as a part of the map geometry and, as such, can not be collected or interacted with in any meaningful way.

Sinister Terminals
The black terminals used in dataDyne Investigation and the standing variation of them found in Area 51 both have an Easter Egg: If you use them as a standard object, rather than a screened object, they display an angry looking eye where their screen would normally be. This looks identical to the texture Dr. Caroll's "eyes" use when his personality has been erased, but isn't the same index. The filenames of these two models are "sinisterpc" and "sinisterstation".

The terminals used in the Carrington Institute and Air Force One use the filenames "goodpc" and "goodstation", but do not have a similar Easter Egg.

Brotherly Love
In order to pass The Duel on Special Agent, Joanna must defeat a hologram of Jonathan. Despite him taking a sneaky approach, it's easier to bring down Jonathan than the dataDyne guard fought on Agent because, even if he gets the drop on Joanna, his shots will never hit her. The only way to lose to him is to get into his melee range. Any character using Jonathan's head is actually hardcoded as an ally for the purpose of targeting - Joanna's auto aim won't target him, his shots won't damage her, and the aim mode crosshair turns blue when pointing a gun at him. Even though the character used for Jonathan is properly set up as an enemy, the game forces ally targeting on him because of his head.

Unrelated to this, Jonathan is given "Dark" as his surname in the briefing for this mission in the North American and European versions of the game. No relation between Joanna and Jonathan is ever mentioned anywhere else in the game. He was originally intended to be Joanna's brother, but this was dropped at some point during development, and The Duel's briefing is the last remnant of it.

Usernames and Passwords
During the course of the game, the player receives two pairs of usernames and passwords. Neither set serves any purpose, however. According to Rare, they were supposed to be access codes to one of the Perfect Dark marketing sites, but were never used. CarringtonInstitute.com and dataDyne.com were both set up prior to the release of the game and did indeed have restricted sections requiring a username and password, but neither set, or combination of them, worked on either website.

The easier set can be obtained in the Attack Ship mission on Perfect Agent. Cassandra will drop her necklace after dying on this difficulty. Its description in the inventory menu gives her username and password.

Cassandra De Vries' replacement necklace. Username: %s Password: %s The username and password are not a part of the description's string, but are actually stored separately and filled in.

The second set is much more difficult to unlock, as it requires getting a rank of Perfect:1 in the Combat Simulator, which is no easy task and impossible without playing actual multiplayer games. It will be shown in the player stats. The font used, however, makes no distinction between capital and lowercase letters.