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Bloodporne · Nov 3, 2016

Schopenhauerian said:
Have you looked at either PCSXR or Mednafen/Beetle with PGXP? Haven't yet had a chance to try it myself, but I've seen it recommended a few times (one / two / three).

That third Silent Hill post is amazing looking...christ. I just kind of quick-and-dirty downloaded whatever I saw first yesterday just to play TR1 because I was fiending for it.

Have to look into this, looks fantastic. Thanks for the tip.

Cafeman · Nov 4, 2016

Can anybody confirm or refute segaretro's claims? You know all the SEGA Saturn die-hards want to know!

(_)3

alf717 · Nov 4, 2016

I'm running Tomb Raiders now and I just don't see the difference. The area you get to with the first two wolves is still slow. Gonna brake out the other Saturn for a side by side.

I have no idea if this has to do with my Saturn models but JP Tomb Raiders seems a bit brighter than US Tomb Raider. JP Tomb Raiders is running from a model 1 while US Tomb Raider is running from a model 2. Wish I had all the levels unlocked on the JP version.

CosmicGroinPull · Nov 4, 2016

Wow so they killed it for me right at its 20th anniversary, lol.

KalBalboa · Nov 4, 2016

We need a Digital Foundry piece on the original game and its various versions.

gelf · Nov 4, 2016

This has motivated me to set up TR1 on PC. I made sure to use the mod that fixes the missing soundtrack and in my one nod to the Saturn I'm using Joy2Key to use its gamepad.

Son Of D · Nov 4, 2016

Bit disappointed that we didn't get a digital remaster of the original game with RotTR.

Cafeman · Nov 5, 2016

As I mentioned above, all this TR talk got me to start playing original PS1 Tomb Raider, playing it on my PS2 via component on a 42" Panasonic Plasma. Yes, the textures are pixelley and polygons drop out all the time.

What amazes me is that I have forgotten so much. The puzzles and most of the levels are like I'm seeing them for the first time. I'm not surprised when I see Panthers and Gorillas and mummy dogs - I remember those. But the rooms and the paths , I have forgotten 75% of the details there.

I'm in the levels with the Sphinx and mummy dogs and flying bat fireball things. There are pretty many save crystals thankfully, but the levels are longer than I remember. No wonder I was amazed at the scope of this game 20 years ago. Not sure I'll beat the game on this iteration, I'm starting to grow tired of the lengthy platforming and switch pulling.

Bloodporne · Nov 5, 2016

Well, I got PCSXR and Tomb Raider 1 consistently crashes on level 3 (dinosaur level) if I try to open the inventory, pause the game OR try to finish the level.

So yeah, it's a bust which is depressing because it looks fantastic.

If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear it. Is there an ongoing emulation thread maybe?

Schopenhauerian · Nov 7, 2016

Schopenhauerian said:
Have you looked at either PCSXR or Mednafen/Beetle with PGXP? Haven't yet had a chance to try it myself, but I've seen it recommended a few times (one / two / three).

Bloodporne said:
That third Silent Hill post is amazing looking...christ. I just kind of quick-and-dirty downloaded whatever I saw first yesterday just to play TR1 because I was fiending for it. Have to look into this, looks fantastic. Thanks for the tip.

Bloodporne said:
Well, I got PCSXR and Tomb Raider 1 consistently crashes on level 3 (dinosaur level) if I try to open the inventory, pause the game OR try to finish the level. So yeah, it's a bust which is depressing because it looks fantastic. If anyone has any suggestions, I'd love to hear it. Is there an ongoing emulation thread maybe?

Sorry that happened! Haven't actually used any of the PSX emulators myself yet, so unfortunately don't think I could be of much help.

It looks like the NGEmu forum where the PGXP fork of PCSX-R was initially posted (by author iCatButler, as noted here) is pretty active, and there's also r/emulation. Many folks seem to prefer Mednafen/Beetle over PCSXR, and apparently iCatButler recently introduced PGXP to Mednafen/Beetle (video comparison, with and without PGXP, here).

Hope it works out! Was hoping on going through the game myself at some point, preferably with PGXP enabled.

http://www.libretro.com/index.php/category/pgxp/
...what made the difference in terms of the N64 having more stable rendering compared to the PSX is the lack of perspective correct texturing, which the N64 does have. Calculating the coordinates so that a texture would look correct from any angle would be computationally expensive... By only applying perspective-correct sample coordinates at certain intervals, rendering could be done much quicker on the PSX, but at the cost of the warping/dancing polygons that you can see in so many PSX games. To combat these issues, youd see developers like Psygnosis using many tricks in games like Wipeout to mask these issues (for instance by subdividing textures into many parts)...

PGXP attempts to kill two birds with one stone. First, it introduces subpixel precision to get rid of the wobbling polygon issues. Second, it adds perspective correct texturing to stop the textue warping/dancing issues. iCatButler first started integrating PGXP into the emulator PCSX-R (by injecting it into Petes OGL2 plugin, a closed-source plugin). It seems this attempt has been successful and was the first one out of the starting gates, but there are some geometry issues which seems partly can be attributed to the ageing fixed-function Petes OGL2 renderer. iCatButler now has backported this functionality to Mednafen/Beetle PSXs GL renderer. According to iCatButler, there are less geometry issues with Mednafen/Beetle PSXs GL renderer...

Triggerhappytel · Nov 7, 2016

mayl3 said:
Was the tagline "Launching this October exclusively on the Sega Saturn"

I've just coughed tea all over myself, you bastard!

Curufinwe · Nov 7, 2016

I will make a thread once I've read more but this 20 years of Tomb raider book seems fantastic so far. It's gigantic, and feels like a real labor of love.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0744016908/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Written by former Game Informer journalist Meagan Marie.

Bloodporne · Nov 7, 2016

Schopenhauerian said:
Sorry that happened! Haven't actually used any of the PSX emulators myself yet, so unfortunately don't think I could be of much help.

It looks like the NGEmu forum where the PGXP fork of PCSX-R was initially posted (by author iCatButler, as noted here) is pretty active, and there's also r/emulation. Many folks seem to prefer Mednafen/Beetle over PCSXR, and apparently iCatButler recently introduced PGXP to Mednafen/Beetle (video comparison, with and without PGXP, here).

Hope it works out! Was hoping on going through the game myself at some point, preferably with PGXP enabled.

I actually managed to fix it. Some graphic option was to blame! I keep switching random graphic options on and off to see if it fixes things and it does...pure professionalism there.

Thanks anyway! Game looks great.

Cafeman · Nov 8, 2016

Cafeman said:
As I mentioned above, all this TR talk got me to start playing original PS1 Tomb Raider, ...

Well just to be complete this thread, I did finish PS1 Tomb Raider. Didn't take as long it did back in the day, and I was so surprised that my memory of certain levels was different than how the levels actually are. After you beat the big legless meat monster , there are some real challenges in the gauntlet of dangers Lara has to get past to get out of there. But I did it.

I then put in Tomb Raider 2 and tried the first Great Wall of China level. Nope, graphics aren't improved, still has shaky pixelated textures everywhere, and it seems the frame rate is even worse on this level than in the original game.

Then I put in Tomb Raider Anniversary (PS2 version) and I was immediately put off how Lara looked (the face seems kind of wrong to me; her body too cheesecake with the higher resolution/build), and the new control scheme and more floaty feel of the gameplay. Like they say about long-term prisoners being released into the free world, I prefer the rigid locked-in feel of the original game over this feel. Not sure if I'll continue to play it (I beat it on Wii years back), but maybe I just need a few days off the game. It will take time to get a feel for it. In the plus column, the backgrounds look a million times better.

LUXURY · Nov 8, 2016

Opened up a world of new gaming possibilities. She's still one of the most (if not the most) recognizable faces of the industry. That game shaped my childhood along with the other greats.

Diablohead · Nov 8, 2016

Not sure what happened to my copy but I had TR1 for the ps1 and I loved it, even managed to beat it without cheats after a few months.

Augemitbutter · Nov 8, 2016

played on saturn first at launch. had fun playing this with friends, it was alright. couldn't turn me into a fan though.

Triggerhappytel · Nov 8, 2016

I have Tomb Raider Anniversary on my Vita (PSP). I should download it and give it a play, as I loved it back in 2006 when it first came out. It is up there alongside Resident Evil REmake as a perfect example of what a remake should be.

Darak · Nov 8, 2016

I miss the original gameplay. For all its clunky and rigid controls, the sense of exploration and trap/maze solving is nowhere to be seen in any modern game, excepts perhaps the Souls games. But every follow-up in the genre, even in the same franchise, fails to get it right.

gelf · Nov 8, 2016

Up to Natla Mines in my playthrough now. I'm finding it almost relaxing exploring the environments. It has those "ah ha" moments you only get in Dark Souls these days where you've been lost in a labyrinth and then suddenly emerge in a room you remember being in a long while ago.

My handling of the controls at this point has improved a lot and really the only negative I have about the game is the combat which the game would have been better without much of. Fighting something in an enclosed space isn't much fun.

Any reason people are trying to emulate the PS1 rather then just playing the PC version btw?

drugstore_cowboy · Nov 8, 2016

I played it that summer at the ECTS, iirc it was demoed in a Sega rear projection arcade cabinet. Looked really promising but never bought it or any other Tomb Raider.

MrCunningham · Nov 8, 2016

gelf said:
Any reason people are trying to emulate the PS1 rather then just playing the PC version btw?

Possibly because of the game controller? The DOS game does have gamepad support, but it only works with four button controllers natively, making it really limited. But then again, since Tomb Raider only uses digital input, it is easy to set up a gamepad through x-padder or something like that.

Deadstar · Nov 8, 2016

Wish they'd go back to the original character and world design. I liked the fantasy setting. Tomb Raider is boring now and needs more dinosaurs!

alf717 · Nov 8, 2016

gelf said:
Any reason people are trying to emulate the PS1 rather then just playing the PC version btw?

It doesn't take much work these days to get the ambient audio and console soundtrack working for the PC version. You can even get the green water and have audio tracks stop playing while underwater. Lots of ticky tacky things the console versions did can now be done with the PC version. Only thing missing are the mobile version's textures.

BosSin · Nov 8, 2016

Man I took one look at the teletext screen shot and felt old

Bloodporne · Nov 8, 2016

Replaying this is reminded me of how mindblowing this game was to me back then...and probably many others, especially non-PC gamers.

The sprawling level design and incredible sense of real 3D, not just as a gimmick, was really new for me. I remember being stunned when a friend told me it can take up to 30 minutes or even a full hour to beat a level.

And for my money, the controls work really well in the context. It makes the traversal feel dangerous and 'real' almost. Love the sense of weight and the fact you have to gain momentum to jump and so on. There just isn't anything out that has exploration like this, it's a real shame.

Mato · Nov 8, 2016

I'm curently playing TR1 for the first time. I've played 2 and 3 before but have little experience of 1. It's the most fun I've had with gaming in years. The game is so lean and meaty gameplay-wise. No nonsense, just stripped down pure gaming. Low poly works so well. I can't explain it but to me low poly geometry is superior to contemporary ultra realistic graphics. It's not nostalgia, it really isn't. The gameplay is improved when you remove all the unnecessary details that bog down the experience. And the game is quiet, so minimal in how it approaches music. One of the best games I've played, top 3 even. The atmosphere is impeccable.

It's not perfect of course, the game can be very junky at times. Lot's of things that could be fine-tuned to improve the flow of the gameplay, the controls can be very bumpy. But it still remains a very, very charming game. Pure gold.

jroc74 · Nov 8, 2016

Thats amazing when you think about it.

Tomb Raider was a staple of Playstation since the PS1.

Sega really had a chance to not crash n burn. Dammit Sega!!!

ResidentDante · Nov 9, 2016

c0de said:
And I am looking forward to your findings!

FINALLY, I'm back with info! The guy that sold me the Japanese version forgot to put the CD in the case and had to send it in a separate package. All is sorted though and I got to test it versus my original PAL version:

My Saturn is a PAL Mark 1 version with an action replay cart so it can run NTSC-J games. Thus my picture wasn't fullscreen like the PAL version, but the typical squished NTSC port we were so used to here in Europe in the 90's. I'm playing it on a PAL-60 supported Sony Trinitron CRT with an RGB cable to my Saturn (super sharp picture quality by the way!). Luckily the comparison runs the game at the same 25fps (as in they are more comparable versus the better 30fps NTSC games run at).

My findings are disappointing though:
The game looks pretty much identical to me and the very obvious framerate slowdown (which the PS1 does NOT suffer from) in large caves, especially the first wolf encounter one is still there in the Japanese release.

I cannot vouch for resolution, but I'm kind of doubting they upped it considering the already apparent strain on the Saturn hardware.

c0de · Nov 9, 2016

ResidentDante said:
FINALLY, I'm back with info! The guy that sold me the Japanese version forgot to put the CD in the case and had to send it in a separate package. All is sorted though and I got to test it versus my original PAL version:

My Saturn is a PAL Mark 1 version with an action replay cart so it can run NTSC-J games. Thus my picture wasn't fullscreen like the PAL version, but the typical squished NTSC port we were so used to here in Europe in the 90's. I'm playing it on a PAL-60 supported Sony Trinitron CRT with an RGB cable to my Saturn (super sharp picture quality by the way!). Luckily the comparison runs the game at the same 25fps (as in they are more comparable versus the better 30fps NTSC games run at).

My findings are disappointing though:
The game looks pretty much identical to me and the very obvious framerate slowdown (which the PS1 does NOT suffer from) in large caves, especially the first wolf encounter one is still there in the Japanese release.

I cannot vouch for resolution, but I'm kind of doubting they upped it considering the already apparent strain on the Saturn hardware.

Thanks for reporting back! Yes, it's apparently wrong info on the site reporting any upgrades for the japanese version, sadly.
It would've surprised me, to be honest, if a different team would've gotten the code and would've been able to further improve the game...
That said, I would've liked to know if there was any room for improvement for this engine and how TR2 would've looked on the Saturn from a former dev who has worked on the Saturn version. The game is, in my opinion, one of the most ambitious and advanced game in tech terms for the system with its big open areas. Yes, the framerate tanked but so did other games for the system which didn't look nearly as good or ambitious.

Novum_Veritas · Nov 9, 2016

c0de said:
Thanks for reporting back! Yes, it's apparently wrong info on the site reporting any upgrades for the japanese version, sadly.
It would've surprised me, to be honest, if a different team would've gotten the code and would've been able to further improve the game...
That said, I would've liked to know if there was any room for improvement for this engine and how TR2 would've looked on the Saturn from a former dev who has worked on the Saturn version. The game is, in my opinion, one of the most ambitious and advanced game in tech terms for the system with its big open areas. Yes, the framerate tanked but so did other games for the system which didn't look nearly as good or ambitious.

Weird that it was called Tomb Raiders, they used the plural form there.
Interesting that they're not really any improvements like written down in the wiki.

Trojan X · Nov 9, 2016

ResidentDante said:
FINALLY, I'm back with info! The guy that sold me the Japanese version forgot to put the CD in the case and had to send it in a separate package. All is sorted though and I got to test it versus my original PAL version:

My Saturn is a PAL Mark 1 version with an action replay cart so it can run NTSC-J games. Thus my picture wasn't fullscreen like the PAL version, but the typical squished NTSC port we were so used to here in Europe in the 90's. I'm playing it on a PAL-60 supported Sony Trinitron CRT with an RGB cable to my Saturn (super sharp picture quality by the way!). Luckily the comparison runs the game at the same 25fps (as in they are more comparable versus the better 30fps NTSC games run at).

My findings are disappointing though:
The game looks pretty much identical to me and the very obvious framerate slowdown (which the PS1 does NOT suffer from) in large caves, especially the first wolf encounter one is still there in the Japanese release.

I cannot vouch for resolution, but I'm kind of doubting they upped it considering the already apparent strain on the Saturn hardware.

Crap. It would be great to see some video comparisons to support your findings because I've been really curious. Damn. I'd love to see it.

c0de said:
Thanks for reporting back! Yes, it's apparently wrong info on the site reporting any upgrades for the japanese version, sadly.
It would've surprised me, to be honest, if a different team would've gotten the code and would've been able to further improve the game...
That said, I would've liked to know if there was any room for improvement for this engine and how TR2 would've looked on the Saturn from a former dev who has worked on the Saturn version. The game is, in my opinion, one of the most ambitious and advanced game in tech terms for the system with its big open areas. Yes, the framerate tanked but so did other games for the system which didn't look nearly as good or ambitious.

Oh. Well, that's that.

cireza · Nov 9, 2016

Novum_Veritas said:
Weird that it was called Tomb Raiders, they used the plural form there.
Interesting that they're not really any improvements like written down in the wiki.

I am a huge Saturn fan, and sometimes you read stuff like that. I remember reading the same shit for Doom. The Japanese version was supposed to run better.

Bought it, just to see (I love Doom), and it is pretty much the same horrible port. Japanese version did not improve anything noticeable to me.

PS1 version is still my favorite Doom version

Novum_Veritas · Nov 9, 2016

cireza said:
I am a huge Saturn fan, and sometimes you read stuff like that. I remember reading the same shit for Doom. The Japanese version was supposed to run better.

Bought it, just to see (I love Doom), and it is pretty much the same horrible port. Japanese version did not improve anything noticeable to me.

PS1 version is still my favorite Doom version

But how does these assumptions come to mind?
Are they not testing it themselves and only write stuff down they just hear ?
If I would make that assumption I would test it before,
and not just say the JPN version is better than the PAL or US version, without any evidence

dark10x · Nov 9, 2016

MrCunningham said:
Woah, really? I never knew this. The Japanese NTSC version is actually better than the NA NTSC version of Tomb Raider? As in a better frame rate and performance?

I would like to know if this is true as well. I am only really familiar with the US version of Tomb Raider on the Saturn.

Looking at a video play through of the Japanese version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFvP__lvT1Y , the framerate does look a little more responsive than what I remember. But it is also hard to say because I am still looking at a YouTube video.

I own the JP version. Alright, it's about time I do a DF Retro on this. Sounds fun.

Novum_Veritas said:
But how does these assumptions come to mind?
Are they not testing it themselves and only write stuff down they just hear ?
If I would make that assumption I would test it before,
and not just say the JPN version is better than the PAL or US version, without any evidence

It's weirdly not unprecedented. Little Big Adventure was released on Ps1 in Japan and Europe but were programmed by different teams. The JP version runs at a low resolution with a very choppy frame-rate while the PAL version is much smoother and uses a high resolution output mode.

Novum_Veritas · Nov 9, 2016

dark10x said:
I own the JP version. Alright, it's about time I do a DF Retro on this. Sounds fun.

Good idea, looking forward to that

Interesting, was the JPN TR version also made by CORE? or by Victor?

Khaz · Nov 9, 2016

Sub_Level said:
Found a video of the japanese saturn version compared to PAL saturn.

Japanese version looks and runs significantly better. Very surprised.

Keep in mind that the PAL release was optimised in resolution only, it still plays 20% slower than the correct NTSC and PC versions. A lost of sluggishness can arise from this simple speed difference. Lara feels slower and heavier, and if the frames are rendered at the same pace then they are displayed at a slower rate as well.

What I read is that the Euro version was rushed (missing the handstands and looking worse) but that it was corrected for both the NTSC versions. I'd be interested in seeing a comparison between the US and Japanese releases.

ResidentDante · Nov 9, 2016

c0de said:
Thanks for reporting back! Yes, it's apparently wrong info on the site reporting any upgrades for the japanese version, sadly.
It would've surprised me, to be honest, if a different team would've gotten the code and would've been able to further improve the game...
That said, I would've liked to know if there was any room for improvement for this engine and how TR2 would've looked on the Saturn from a former dev who has worked on the Saturn version. The game is, in my opinion, one of the most ambitious and advanced game in tech terms for the system with its big open areas. Yes, the framerate tanked but so did other games for the system which didn't look nearly as good or ambitious.

No problem, I love unknown stuff like this and exploring ports! I really hoped it was different, and given us a slight hint at something that could have made TR2 possible. Given more time I guess Core could have made TR2 for the Saturn too, but we'll never know. I actually think Capcom was further along with a Resident Evil 2 port for the Saturn, and I really think they had at least the RE 1,5 developed for it it at least. Though we can only speculate.

I would really like DF to explore these versions, but I'm doubting they'll find anything so very interesting.

Novum_Veritas said:
Weird that it was called Tomb Raiders, they used the plural form there.
Interesting that they're not really any improvements like written down in the wiki.

Yeah it's strange about the name, If you didn't know better you would have thought it was a sequel, a bit like Alien and Aliens! Kind of a strange cover too. They went from Lara's front to back in a somewhat random pose.

As I mentioned though I really can't tell with the resolution bump they claim. That might be there, but I kind of doubt it. It's a fullscreen PAL game that they can remove some lines per frame for the NTSC systems, but then again have to increase the framerate AND resolution. I kind of think it would have resulted in even worse performance.

dark10x · Nov 9, 2016

Khaz said:
Keep in mind that the PAL release was optimised in resolution only, it still plays 20% slower than the correct NTSC and PC versions. A lost of sluggishness can arise from this simple speed difference. Lara feels slower and heavier, and if the frames are rendered at the same pace then they are displayed at a slower rate as well.

What I read is that the Euro version was rushed (missing the handstands and looking worse) but that it was corrected for both the NTSC versions. I'd be interested in seeing a comparison between the US and Japanese releases.

Dang, I don't have a PAL copy to test. :-/

Novum_Veritas · Nov 9, 2016

ResidentDante said:
No problem, I love unknown stuff like this and exploring ports! I really hoped it was different, and given us a slight hint at something that could have made TR2 possible. Given more time I guess Core could have made TR2 for the Saturn too, but we'll never know. I actually think Capcom was further along with a Resident Evil 2 port for the Saturn, and I really think they had at least the RE 1,5 developed for it it at least. Though we can only speculate.

I would really like DF to explore these versions, but I'm doubting they'll find anything so very interesting.

Yeah it's strange about the name, If you didn't know better you would have thought it was a sequel, a bit like Alien and Aliens! Kind of a strange cover too. They went from Lara's front to back in a somewhat random pose.

As I mentioned though I really can't tell with the resolution bump they claim. That might be there, but I kind of doubt it. It's a fullscreen PAL game that they can remove some lines per frame for the NTSC systems, but then again have to increase the framerate AND resolution. I kind of think it would have resulted in even worse performance.

Yeah, the name choice is pretty odd.
Especially it would indicate that you play not only one character, but playing more than one. I wonder what they were thinking, the US or PAL covers were fine, even for the Japanese market.
It is pretty hard to tell, what was even improved. Sucks that the old CORE team is just scattered around and you cannot ask them directly anymore.

ResidentDante · Nov 9, 2016

Khaz said:
Keep in mind that the PAL release was optimised in resolution only, it still plays 20% slower than the correct NTSC and PC versions. A lost of sluggishness can arise from this simple speed difference. Lara feels slower and heavier, and if the frames are rendered at the same pace then they are displayed at a slower rate as well.

What I read is that the Euro version was rushed (missing the handstands and looking worse) but that it was corrected for both the NTSC versions. I'd be interested in seeing a comparison between the US and Japanese releases.

dark10x said:
Dang, I don't have a PAL copy to test. :-/

If a PAL Saturn caps Japanese and US games down to 25fps with action replay, will a US/Jap SAturn speed the game up to 30?! Thus making PAL Tomb Raider the best option (handstands aside).

Looking worse though, I'm not buying. TR PAL and TR Jap. seemed to look identical visually to me.

Khaz · Nov 9, 2016

ResidentDante said:
If a PAL Saturn caps Japanese and US games down to 25fps with action replay, will a US/Jap SAturn speed the game up to 30?! Thus making PAL Tomb Raider the best option (handstands aside).

An NTSC Saturn will plays the PAL game at NTSC (correct) speeds, but the screen was "optimised" for PAL resolutions: the PAL aspect ratio makes everything shorter, but instead of filling the blank with black bars like on 16bit consoles, they filled it with more environment. You see more of the background on top and bottom of the screen, but everything is squished and move slower. On an NTSC machine, the last 48 lines are cropped off, displayed outside of the TV. Lara's feet are missing as well as whatever information displayed there.

PAL games have the potential to be better than NTSC games, due to their increase in resolution and decrease in framerate (more time to compute stuff), but only when played on a PAL machine on a PAL TV. In reality, most PAL releases were worse than their American and Japanese counterparts. Even a European-developed game like Tomb Raider.

ResidentDante · Nov 9, 2016

Khaz said:
An NTSC Saturn will plays the PAL game at NTSC (correct) speeds, but the screen was "optimised" for PAL resolutions: the PAL aspect ratio makes everything shorter, but instead of filling the blank with black bars like on 16bit consoles, they filled it with more environment. You see more of the background on top and bottom of the screen, but everything is squished and move slower. On an NTSC machine, the last 48 lines are cropped off, displayed outside of the TV. Lara's feet are missing as well as whatever information is displayed there.

PAL games have the potential to be better than NTSC games, due to their increase in resolution and decrease in framerate (more time to compute stuff), but only when played on a PAL machine on a PAL TV. In reality, most PAL releases were worse than their American and Japanese counterparts. Even a European-developed game like Tomb Raider.

Even if said machine is running on a PAL CRT?

yesrushdt · Nov 9, 2016

One of my favorite games of all time, second only to Tomb Raider 2.

Be sure to check out THIS THREAD on the Tomb Raider forums for info on how to play the original at widescreen resolutions without it looking stretched out. There are step by step instructions that are pretty simple to follow including how to get all the fmvs (and music from the console versions) in there and looking/sounding great. The best way to play this game IMO. I'd recommend using a program like antimicro to map the keys to a gamepad.

Novum_Veritas · Nov 9, 2016

One thing I was always curious about is, why were the music files missing on the PC version for TR 1 (1996)?
Was it a licence issue?

c0de · Nov 9, 2016

Novum_Veritas said:
One thing I was always curious about is, why were the music files missing on the PC version for TR 1 (1996)?
Was it a licence issue?

Wait, PC didn't have any music at all? How I loved the play with music in that game, combined with exploration...

CanUKlehead · Nov 9, 2016

Son Of D said:
Bit disappointed that we didn't get a digital remaster of the original game with RotTR.

If even an upgraded TR Anniversary.

Still, it's cool, more just that it seemed like a not-far-fetched expected bonus on the 20th anniv of that game.

Still, I would've complained about not having a high res version of the original-original even if they made the effort to do this!

Novum_Veritas · Nov 9, 2016

c0de said:
Wait, PC didn't have any music at all? How I loved the play with music in that game, combined with exploration...

Nope, the PC version doesn't have any music at all.
You can patch it in, but if you get it on Steam or GoG, it has no background music.
Only the PSX and Saturn version has background music.

ResidentDante · Nov 9, 2016

yesrushdt said:
One of my favorite games of all time, second only to Tomb Raider 2.

Be sure to check out THIS THREAD on the Tomb Raider forums for info on how to play the original at widescreen resolutions without it looking stretched out. There are step by step instructions that are pretty simple to follow including how to get all the fmvs (and music from the console versions) in there and looking/sounding great. The best way to play this game IMO. I'd recommend using a program like antimicro to map the keys to a gamepad.

Thanks for this! Looks sweet!

Khaz · Nov 9, 2016

ResidentDante said:
Even if said machine is running on a PAL CRT?

I explained it incorrectly. The 48 missing lines aren't drawn on your bezel outside of view, they are not sent by the console because they are outside of the timing.

It's critical to understand how a CRT works. The electron beam scans line after line from top to bottom at a constant pace. The Sync signal tells it when it's time to go one line down or go back up. The 240p of vertical resolution is a consequence of the refresh rate: because the horizontal speed is fixed, there is only so many lines you can draw before having to go the next frame. If you want to draw more lines, you have to slow down the refresh rate. PAL has more time to draw the picture (1/50=20ms), therefore the beam can draw more lines. It doesn't matter if the code was made to compute 288p worth of data, at NTSC rates when the beam arrives at the 240th line it's time to go back up and draw a new picture. Consoles are designed to force the computation of a new frame when it's time to draw it. If they didn't, you'd have the last 48 lines on top of the following frame and a resulting rolling picture. It's all about what you can put in between the SYNC ticks.

Mastering SYNC is critical. If you try to fit to large a picture, you'll get a screen rolling. If you try to feed a different Sync to a display that asks for a fixed Sync, you'll get a rolling picture. NTSC TVs are locked to 60Hz and will accept nothing else. Using a PAL console on it makes the picture roll. A PAL TV is more lenient and will accept pretty much anything between 50Hz and 60Hz. But the picture drawn on screen still has to work within the Sync boundaries defined by the console.

tl;dr you can't display 288p at 60Hz.

For more information on how consoles compute and display, and how devs in the early days had to fight against the Sync to get their game on a TV, I recommend the book Racing the Beam : The Atari Video Computer System which explains in lots details how videogames are made on a machine that doesn't abstract the rendering away from the devs.

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