Playing Tomb Raider 1 (1996) again

[mikeymikec]

According to my list it's been a good fifteen years since I last played it, but since the original unmodded version is painful to look at, I tried the mod I used to use called Glidos (I even paid for it once upon a time!). By today's standards though, even with high-definition textures, it's painful to look at: textures seem to shudder and wobble as you come to a halt, and gaps between textures are common.

The Glidos author recommends a different mod:

Glidos - High quality graphics for Tomb Raider I

Combine that with the textures and better FMVs he recommends there (TR1 can be bought cheaply from Steam for example), and aside from downloading some codecs I was playing 1080p TR1 with high-definition textures with the 3D rendering looking pretty reasonable (the 3D rendering is about on par with Tomb Raider 2, the updated textures are obviously better though). Still some gaps between textures, but it's playable now IMO.

One thing that really struck me though is how quiet this game is! It desperately needs a score. There's "atmospheric audio" so it's not completely silent, but it does seem like a game done on the cheap.

 

[shortylickens]

havent there been multiple remakes and reissues? are none of them better?

 

[mikeymikec]

havent there been multiple remakes and reissues? are none of them better?

Anniversary was based on Legend, which was bloody awful. They also started using quick time events to work around the fact that the character wasn't as controllable as it was in the original games.

I'm not aware of any others.

 

[pmv]

IIRC the score for Tomb Raider was only on the console version, it was absent from the PC port. I might be wrong, it was a very long time ago (probably the second PC game I ever played, after Myst).

 

[shortylickens]

it was designed specifically for the PS 1 which had very little RAM and poor processing power. Thats why you got shit textures and minimal sound effects.
The only advantage was it being on a CD which held way more data than any cartridge.
At least, this is what the nostalgia reviews are saying. And theres tons of em.

 

[mikeymikec]

I think someone here recommended it, but the TombATI engine is hands-down the best way to play TR1 on a modern PC. Coupled with high resolution textures, it makes the game look a heck of a lot better.