The controls are 100% perfect for the game they were designed for. The game is a grid based platformer. Lara moves along a grid. I can't even comprehend the idea of controls "aging."
Tomb Raider 1 is an incredibly special and important game with some of the best level design ever in video games and an astoundingly ahead-of-its-time appreciation for 3D space, scale, and movement. It is required reading.
play anniversary instead
Here's a look at the thought that went into the level design, thanks to Gavin Rummery.The controls are 100% perfect for the game they were designed for. The game is a grid based platformer. Lara moves along a grid. I can't even comprehend the idea of controls "aging."
Tomb Raider 1 is an incredibly special and important game with some of the best level design ever in video games and an astoundingly ahead-of-its-time appreciation for 3D space, scale, and movement. It is required reading.
You can patch the soundtrack back into the PC version. I know I did. Definitely recommend one does so, too, because it's not a half-bad soundtrack - sure beats having nothing but ambient noise.Playing the PS1 version of TR1 is a fine option, because it has the original musical score and much better sound quality than the PC port.
And I highly, highly doubt the sound quality is better in the PS1 version than the PC one. Heck, I noticed the sound quality in Tomb Raider [1] PC was far better than Tomb Raider 2's, somehow...
Awesome post, great GIFs. Perfect embodiment of why the 2013 TR sucked. Real gaming vs an amusement park ride.As people have already pointed out, the controls are perfect for the games. They are extremely precise and always work exactly as they should. If you fail it will always be your fault. It's nice to get through a level because of your skills and not because the game made sure your character couldn't miss the jump. The real standout is the level design which is well above today's standards.
Old standards:
Today's standards:
I'm probably biased since I've only ever played the first Tomb Raider on PC, but I actually prefer it without music - running around the levels with the ambient sound as the only soundtrack increases the sense of atmosphere and tension. It really reinforces the feeling that you're alone, exploring these incredibly desolate locales.
Awesome post, great GIFs. Perfect embodiment of why the 2013 TR sucked. Real gaming vs an amusement park ride.
The original Tomb Raider games have amazing soundtracks, though.I'm probably biased since I've only ever played the first Tomb Raider on PC, but I actually prefer it without music - running around the levels with the ambient sound as the only soundtrack increases the sense of atmosphere and tension. It really reinforces the feeling that you're alone, exploring these incredibly desolate locales.
LOL, sure, sure. So you were 10 when the PS1 came out?
Crazy talk. There are tonnes of classics on PS1.
Sorry, but doing some looking into this, I'm really not seeing your claim here. Admittedly not owning the PS1 version makes it difficult to do a perfect comparison, but resorting to what's on YouTube, this PS1 video compared to this PC video, the PC version (which I can attest sounds roughly like what it did when I played through it recently) sounds crisper than the PS1 version - the exact opposite of your claim.TR1 had to make a lot of concessions on the audio side for old computers. The reason it lacked the PS1 soundtrack was because old PC CD-ROM drives were slow to spin up after any period of inactivity and would constantly pause the game, while the PSX drive is always spinning while the game is active. As for the sound effects, they're 8-bit/22kHz samples meant to support older sound cards, while the PS1 version has 16-bit samples. They are absolutely, undeniably lower fidelity than the console version's audio.
People did manage to patch in the original music, which is great. Personally I have a hard time getting over how 'fuzzy' the samples are though.
Sorry, but doing some looking into this, I'm really not seeing your claim here. Admittedly not owning the PS1 version makes it difficult to do a perfect comparison, but resorting to what's on YouTube, this PS1 video compared to this PC video, the PC version (which I can attest sounds roughly like what it did when I played through it recently) sounds crisper than the PS1 version - the exact opposite of your claim.
(Also the Saturn version for comparison's sake. Wow, I hadn't noticed the sound was that much worse than the PS1 version's.)
Yes, the classics are the way to go
Just make sure you get TR1 TR2 TR3 and TR:LR
I didn't really care for the later TR's, they just lost their touch when it was on the PS2 era, with the exception of TR:Anniversary only because it was a remake of the orginial TR.
Oh man. This was great, thanks.The original Tomb Raider games have amazing soundtracks, though.
Main Theme
St Francis Folly
Gruesome Encounter
The Colosseum
Escape Tomb of Qualopec
Surprise
It's not like the music plays constantly. They are all fairly short tracks that enhance the feeling of specific moments.
I can notice the hiss now that you mention it, actually, yeah. Although, honestly, it still sounds better than the PS1 version - at least, from what I can scrounge up, a little bit of hissing is a more than acceptable compromise for less-muffled audio for me (seriously, I cannot find a video of the PS1 version that does not have that muffling).First I'd recommend playing a copy of the actual PS1 game rather than using a poorly sampled youtube video with clearly audible distortion and background interference. I will try to find a cleaner video of the PS1 version when I have the time but playing them both with headphones would be the best option if it really matters to you.
You can definitely hear the effect of the 22KHz samples in that PC video though. The easiest thing to notice is probably to focus on the audible hiss that trails every footfall. That hiss is the effect of converting a 16-bit sample to an 8-bit one. It also sounds 'sharper' overall than the PS1 version because the PS1 filters the audio.
The DOS port of TR1 was a bit of a rush job and a few things, like the sound effects, were downscaled to fit the lowest common denominator for PC hardware at the time.
I was less inclined to play Last Revelation when I perused a walkthrough and noticed you seemed to "revisit" a lot of areas. Is it still worth playing in spite of what I presume is backtracking?
Trying to get Tomb Raider 2 to run on EPSXE but it's not cooperating and not a fan of Xpadder or keyboard controls with regards to the Steam version.
Sounds good. Did manage to get TR2 to start working so I will go through that first. Pretty much a TR1 expansion pack full of more enemies going by the first level. Which isn't necessarily a super bad thing.
I'm 28 and every 3D game on the PS1 had aged like shit. If you want 3D games get them from Dreamcast and beyond. And even them you have to be selective with the Dreamcast games, since they control doesn't have a second analog stick.
play anniversary instead
Nothing on PS1 is worth checking.
The first 4 PS1 Tomb Raiders are on sale this week on PSN for $2.49 ($2.24 for PS Plus). I'm wondering if they're worth getting. I always like to play every game in a series (an annoying habit).I won't pick up the latter two Core Design games but will pick up the PS3 HD trilogy of the Crystal Dynamic games.
i was thinking of getting all 4 tomb raiders.
i got the 2nd one for xmas years ago in the 90s for pc
didnt have a saturn of playstation back then to play them
This was recently posted in an other classic Tomb Raider thread, and it bears repeating for those poor unfortunate few who can't seem to grasp how the controls work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgBZkyd3HRo
They even canned the Tomb Raider Anniversary that Core was working on, which was looking really good.
Nothing on PS1 is worth checking. Heck nothing 3D pre-Dreamcast in that generation is worth checking out
All that needs to be said about the controls. Imprecise controls my ass. Rather perfect controls.
I just watched some videos of badassgamez, and one thing I noticed in the old TR games is that you had to do a lot of puzzling, hand holding what to do next was non existent, it was like Core threw you in cold water, and see what happens next, I think this is also one of the things which made the old TR games special, not to know which lurks next around the corner.
Anything available about it? TBH I was never really interested in Tomb Raider that much back in the day, and it's the first time I hear about Core-developed Anniversary.
This is absolutely true. Tomb Raider was designed before the event of analogue controls, and because of that it is designed to work within the confines of the d-pad. Everything was designed on a grid base as this video clearly shows and because of that Lara's controls are much more precise than people give it credit for. It is actually kind of a miracle how well this game is designed around control scheme and every single move Lara has at her disposal is taken into account in the level design.
It's really interesting that her jumps are based on her foot movement too. If you hit the jump button, she won't actually jump until her foot is firmly planted into the ground. This makes it look like button lag, but in reality it is not. Once you figure that out in the game, jumping actually becomes a breeze. This where the game is a bit like the original Prince of Persia.
Though they did kind of change this a bit for the later games to make Lara feel more responsive.
When I played through this for the first time on PC, there were a lot of moments that felt reminiscent of the Legend of Zelda games (this was long before OoT). The game definitely doesn't have any hand holding, but it doe drop clues once in a while by having Lara's head moves to look at something that should be brought to the players attention.This was a nice little touch that felt non intrusive. Plus it does have that chime when finding secrets, just like Zelda.
The combat was a little clunky, though Lara's auto aim certainly was interesting, and the enemy AI was clumsy. But still, it was a really well designed game for something that was one of the first of its kind.