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Tomb Raider (1996)

From PCGamingWiki, the wiki about fixing PC games
Revision as of 02:51, 4 February 2019 by Osprey (talk | contribs) (→‎Essential improvements: Added Tomb Raider Mouse Helper link)
Tomb Raider
Tomb Raider cover
Developers
Core Design
Publishers
Eidos Interactive
Release dates
DOS November 14, 1996
Windows 1997
Mac OS (Classic) March 1999
Tomb Raider (1996) guide on StrategyWiki
Tomb Raider (1996) on Wikipedia
Tomb Raider (1996) 1996
Tomb Raider II 1997
Tomb Raider III: Adventures of Lara Croft 1998
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation 1999
Tomb Raider Chronicles 2000
Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness 2003
Tomb Raider: Legend 2006
Tomb Raider: Anniversary 2007
Tomb Raider: Underworld 2008
Lara Croft (series)
Tomb Raider (2013) 2013
Lara Croft GO 2015
Rise of the Tomb Raider 2016
Shadow of the Tomb Raider 2018
Tomb Raider I-III Remastered 2024

This page is for the original game. For the remake, see Tomb Raider: Anniversary. For the reboot, see Tomb Raider (2013).

Key points

Use Tomb Raider Automated Fix or Tomb Raider Retail Fix to run the game on modern systems without DOSBox.
Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS.[1]
PC version is missing some of the content of the PlayStation version, particularly some music tracks and higher quality cutscenes. Use the Retail/Automated Fix or GliDOS to restore the content.

General information

Lara Croft Wiki - A detailed wiki for the Tomb Raider series
GOG.com Community Discussions for game series
GOG.com Support Page
Steam Community Discussions
Stella's Website - Walkthroughs, workarounds and downloads
TombRaider Forums

Availability

Source DRM Notes Keys OS
Retail
Disc check (requires the CD/DVD in the drive to play)
See Run the game without DOSBox.
DOS
Mac OS
GOG.com
DRM-free
Includes Tomb Raider II and Tomb Raider III. DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[2]
Windows
Green Man Gaming
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Humble Store
Icon overlay.png
Windows
Steam
DRM-free after installation through Steam client (notes may include more details)
DOS version pre-packaged with DOSBox.[3]
Windows

Version differences

Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business (Tomb Raider Gold) is a complete edition with four exclusive levels. This version is not sold digitally, however the levels were later released as freeware for those who own the base game.

Essential improvements

Run the game without DOSBox

Comes with additional useful features.
Install Tomb Raider Automated Fix (Unfinished Business bonus chapter included)[4]
  1. Download Tomb Raider Automated Fix.
  2. Extract the executable anywhere on your PC and run it.
  3. Follow the installation instructions after pointing to your Tomb Raider 1 installation location.
    • Decide on any of the included improvements, including higher quality cutscenes from the PlayStation or remastered cutscenes.
  4. Complete the installation.
    • Edit tombati.ini and tombub.ini in the patches folder for advanced settings.
  5. Launch dosbox.exe for a custom launcher that provides a choice between Tomb Raider 1 and Tomb Raider: Unfinished Business.
  6. Launch tombati.exe to play the main game directly.
  7. Launch tombub.exe to play the bonus chapter directly.
Install Tomb Raider Retail Fix[5]
  1. Create any folder on your PC and name it to whatever you wish.
  2. Copy the DATA and FMV folders to the folder you've created.
    • For the Retail version, look for these folders on the CD-ROM.
    • For the GOG.com and Steam versions, extract GAME.GOG with UniExtract to get these folders.
  3. Download Tomb Raider Fix.
  4. Extract all files in the fix folder to the folder you've created, replacing existing files.
  5. Install both redistributable versions in the VC_Redist x86-x64 folder.
  6. Check How To Install.txt to get more info about available features.
  7. Launch Tombati.exe to play the main game.
  8. Launch Tombub.exe in the Unfinished Business folder to play the bonus chapter.

Enable full draw distance

Enable full draw distance[citation needed]
  1. Install Tomb Raider Retail Fix.
  2. Go into Patches and open tombati.ini.
  3. Set draw_distance_override to true.
  4. Do the same for Unfinished Business\patches\tombub.ini.

Enable PlayStation water color palette

Enable PS1 water color palette[citation needed]
  1. Install Tomb Raider Retail Fix.
  2. Go into Patches and open tombati.ini.
  3. Set watercolor_override to true.
  4. Do the same for Unfinished Business\patches\tombub.ini.

"Shadow of the Cat" and "Unfinished Business" bonus chapters

Manual download and install[6]
  1. Download the Unfinished Business (3dfx version) archive from Stella's Tomb Raider site
  2. Unpack the archive and copy DATA/ and tombub.exe to <path-to-game>/TOMBRAID/
  3. Make a duplicate of <path-to-game>/dosboxTR_single.conf and name it dosboxTR_UB.conf
  4. Edit your newly created dosboxTR_UB.conf by replacing the line tomb.exe with tombub.exe
  5. Make a copy of your Tomb Raider shortcut, open its properties and edit the target-field by replacing the single occurrence of dosboxTR_single.conf with dosboxTR_UB.conf.
  6. Finally, rename the shortcut to something meaningful, e.g. "Tomb Raider - Unfinished Business", and run it.

Hide 3dfx splash screen

Change DOSBox setting[citation needed]
  1. Edit the DOSBox configuration file (dosboxTR.conf for digital versions).
  2. Go to the [glide] section.
  3. Add a new line: splash=false
  4. Save your changes.

Extras

Braid Mod adds the strangely longtime missing braid to Lara's hair. Also includes a patch for the final secret in game as it originally wasn't counted due to a glitch. Secret patch available standalone here.
Crocodile Distance Patch fixes the crocodile in the Tomb of Tihocan level so it can't kill you from over a distance or while you're in other parts of the level.
Rerendered soundtrack is a high quality rerender of the soundtrack, requires GliDOS or the Retail/Automated Fix.
Unfinished Business with added music triggers makes UB levels more atmospheric with proper music trigger events.

Tomb Raider Mouse Helper

Tomb Raider Mouse Helper is a utility which allows controlling Lara with the mouse. It also maps the WASD keys to enable a more modern, keyboard+mouse control scheme.

Works with both the original DOS version (through DOSBox) and the Windows version (the Automated/Retail Fix version above).

OpenTomb

OpenTomb is an open source remake of the Tomb Raider engine. It overhauls almost all aspects of the game engine, along with adding cross-platform support for modern operating systems and Lua scripting support.

Important links regarding the project:

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SETTINGS.DAT
Windows <path-to-game>\SETTINGS.DAT[Note 1]
<path-to-game>\ATISET.DAT[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224960/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game data location

System Location
DOS <path-to-game>\SAVEGAME.*
Windows <path-to-game>\SAVEGAME.*[Note 1]
Mac OS (Classic)
Steam Play (Linux) <Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/224960/pfx/[Note 2]

Save game cloud syncing

System Native Notes
GOG Galaxy
Steam Cloud

Video settings

300px
DOSBox settings (GOG.com version)
Detail levels menu.
Detail levels menu.

Template:Video settings

Input settings

Template:Input settings

Audio settings

Template:Audio settings

Localizations

Language UI Audio Sub Notes
English
French
German
Russian
Fan translation by «ElikaStudio»

Issues fixed

Menu spins with a controller connected

Change DOSBox timing[citation needed]
  1. Edit the DOSBox configuration file (dosboxTR.conf for digital versions).
  2. Change timed=true to timed=false
  3. Save your changes.

Can't Alt+Tab (GOG.com)

Uninstall[citation needed]
  1. Open Programs and Features:
    • Vista and later: Open the Start screen/Start menu, type appwiz.cpl and press Enter.
    • Windows XP: Press Win+R, type appwiz.cpl and press Enter.
  2. Uninstall DOSBoxnoalttab. You can now use Alt+Tab and other task-switching commands.

Other information

API

Technical specs Supported Notes
OpenGL
GL Rage and PowerVR versions only
Glide
DOS video modes SVGA
ExecutablePPC16-bit 32-bit 64-bit Notes
Windows
Mac OS (Classic)

Mods

For game mods visit Core Design.

A port of GliDOS's hires texture packs for TombATI (the "Tomb Raider Fix" at the top of this article) is available here.

System requirements

DOS
Minimum Recommended
Operating system (OS) 5.0
Processor (CPU) Intel Pentium 60 MHz
System memory (RAM) 8 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 20 MB
Video card (GPU) SVGA
Windows
Minimum
Operating system (OS) XP, Vista, 7
Processor (CPU) 1.8 GHz
System memory (RAM) 512 MB
Hard disk drive (HDD) 2 GB
Video card (GPU) DirectX 9 compatible

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 When running this game without elevated privileges (Run as administrator option), write operations against a location below %PROGRAMFILES%, %PROGRAMDATA%, or %WINDIR% might be redirected to %LOCALAPPDATA%\VirtualStore on Windows Vista and later (more details).
  2. 2.0 2.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/224960/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (224960) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References