Stupid Annoyance #4712
Why UMDs Offer Less For More

Perfect Dark Face Mapping Reborn

Perfect DarkOnce upon a time (2000) in a far away land (England) there was a little game in development for the Nintendo 64 called Perfect Dark.  An unofficial followup to Goldeneye 007, Rareware's new shooter action game revolved around the adventures of Joanna Dark of the Carrington Institute.  Aside from a stellar single-player mode, Perfect Dark included an extensive multiplayer section.  Players were free to choose different playable characters, weapons, and battle scenarios.  Also included was the ability to connect the Game Boy Camera to the Nintendo 64 via the Transfer Pak in order to copy one's own pictures into Perfect Dark.  These pictures of players and their friends could then be mapped to the game's character models, allowing players to put themselves into the game.

Alas and alack, in the aftermath of the Columbine High School incident the specter of video game violence reared its ugly head and suddenly allowing children to put their faces into a shooter wasn't the best idea (nevermind that the game was rated "M", of course).  Rare removed the feature (citing "technical issues")  before the game shipped and that's pretty much the end of the tale.  Now, years later, the same group of Rareware fans that discovered the secrets of Banjo-Kazooie have come up with a way to replace face and costume textures in Perfect DarkThe Rare Witch Project has created a little program to swap these textures with other graphic files in the original game, bringing the dead feature back to life (albeit in a different form and topped off with emulation).  Legality issues aside, it's always good to see classic games scrutinized and expanded upon years after their initial release.

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