Tomb Raider
From Sega Retro
| Tomb Raider | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| System(s): Sega Saturn | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Publisher: Eidos (US/EU), Victor Soft (JP) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Developer: Core Design (US/EU), Victor Soft (JP) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sound driver: SCSP/CD-DA (56 tracks) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre: Action | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Number of players: 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Tomb Raider is a highly successful video game developed by Core Design and published by Eidos in 1996. It was the first in a long line of Tomb Raider games.
Victor Soft developed an enhanced Japanese version of the game. They published the game in Japan, pluralizing the title to Tomb Raiders (トゥームレイダース).
Initially developed with the PlayStation in mind, the game was ported to the Sega Saturn (whose version shipped six weeks earlier than the PlayStation due to a licensing deal with Sega) and PCs, becoming Core's most successful video game project to date and a video game icon.
Contents
Gameplay
At the time of release Tomb Raider was considered a revolutionary title, combining platforming, puzzle solving and action sequences together in a 3D environment, something that, until this point, had not been done before. It was often said to be a 3D alternative to Prince of Persia (until, of course, 3D Prince of Persia games were released). Tomb Raider was also notable for starring a female protagonist, Lara Croft.
History
Development
Tomb Raider was one of the first true 3D titles to be undertaken by Core Design, following a trip to the States in which producer Jeremy Heath-Smith caught wind of Sony's PlayStation console and asked the company to come up with ideas for 3D games. Tomb Raider was put forward by BC Racers animator Toby Gard, who did the bulk of the design work surrounding Lara Croft and her in-game animations.
Eidos and Core signed a deal with Sega to ship the game six weeks early as an exclusive title on the Sega Saturn
Legacy
Tomb Raider II was planned for release on the Saturn, but was eventually cancelled for the platform.
With the Saturn's failure to attract the greater market share, development for the sequels were focused on Sony's console, and Lara Croft became an unofficial mascot for the system. The Tomb Raider series would not see a return to Sega platforms until Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation on the Sega Dreamcast.
The original Tomb Raider was re-made in the 2007 release of Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Anniversary.
Versions
Western version
Despite being the target platform for the game, the Western Saturn version of Tomb Raider is considered to be the weakest version, primarily due to not being optimized for the way the Saturn hardware handles 3D graphics. On a technical level, the VDP2 is rarely used in the game, with the vast majority of work being handled by the VDP1, thereby using only a fraction of the Saturn's power. There are also minor differences to level layouts (specifically some secret areas) because the Saturn version was rushed to launch three months before the PlayStation version.
The Saturn Tomb Raider runs faster than its PlayStation counterpart in some situations, but while the PlayStation targets and largely maintains a 30FPS refresh rate, the Saturn struggles to maintain 20FPS. The Saturn version also lacks reflections on the save crystals as well as alpha transparency, and the game is unusually dark in comparison.
On the other hand, the PlayStation version lacks perspective correction and has issues with texture warping and polygon seams, whereas the Saturn's forward texture mapping provides some perspective correction, its bilinear approximation reduces texture warping, and higher polygon accuracy results in almost seamless polygons. The Saturn version also has refractive water surfaces, which both the PlayStation and PC versions lack.
The Saturn version also had smoother Gouraud shading, whereas the PlayStation version had color banding, when running on original PlayStation models released from 1994 to early 1997. The color banding issue was eventually fixed in later improved PlayStation models, from the SCPH-7000 (late 1997) onwards, which improved the hardware. The PlayStation version is thus able to match the Saturn's smooth shading when running on newer PlayStation models. (See Sega Saturn: Hardware comparison for more details.)
Pre-rendered videos are slightly smaller in terms of resolution, although the Saturn's D-Pad is regarded as being more suitable to this game than the PlayStation's. Sound effects are sampled at a lower bit-rate than on the PlayStation too.
Against the PC DOS version, the Saturn (and PlayStation) versions of the game offer more varied music (the PC opting merely for ambiance due to disc space restructions) and higher colour colour depths (the PC restricted to 8-bit colour (i.e. a palette of 256 colours) due to the use of a software renderer). The PC version does, however, have the option to run in a 640x480 mode (and a lower 320x200 mode), though in 1996 this was only achievable with high-end hardware. By 1998, PC versions of Tomb Raider had been adapted to multiple 3D graphics cards to address some of these graphical concerns, and fan-made mods allow the game to benefit from modern systems.
Japanese version
The Japanese Saturn version, released in 1997, was enhanced by Victor Soft, with more detailed environments, higher texture quality, longer draw distance, improved water effects, higher resolution, and higher frame rate.
Production credits
Western version
- Created By: Neal Boyd, Paul Douglas, Toby Gard, Heather Gibson, Jason Gosling, Gavin Rummery
Japanese version
- Programming: Paul Douglas, Gavin Rummery, Jason Gosling
- Graphics: Toby Gard, Heather Gibson, Neal Boyd
- Sound Effects: Martin Iveson
- Music: Nathan McCree
- Software Evaluation: Ryo Misawa
- Directer: Gaku Sato
- Assistant: Inazou Urano, Hiroki Takasu PTW
- Lara: Megumi Ogata
- Natla: Michie Tomizawa
- Larsen: Wataru Takagi
- Pierre: Yasuhiro Ishii
- Baldy: Masaru Sasahara
- Cowboy: Yuzi Ueda
- SkateKid: Kousuke Okano
Magazine articles
- Main article: Tomb Raider/Magazine articles.
Promotional material
JP flyer
FR print advert
GR print advert
also published in:
- Ultra Game Players (US) #93: "January 1997" (1996-12-31)[3]
also published in:
- Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #92: "March 1997" (1997-0x-xx)[4]
also published in:
- Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #96: "July 1997" (1997-0x-xx)[5]
Physical scans
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90 |
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| Based on 33 reviews | |
| Saturn, US |
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  Cover
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 Disc  Manual |
| Saturn, EU |
|---|
 Cover
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 Disc |
| Saturn, JP |
|---|
  Cover
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 Spinecard  Disc  Manual |
| Saturn, JP (Satakore) |
|---|
  Cover
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 Spinecard  Disc  Manual |
| Saturn, BR |
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 Cover
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 Manual |
References
- ↑ File:CVG UK 180.pdf, page 49
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 File:CVG UK 181.pdf, page 74 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:CVG UK 181.pdf_p74" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Ultra Game Players, "January 1997" (US; 1996-12-31), page 54
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "March 1997" (US; 1997-0x-xx), page 78
- ↑ Electronic Gaming Monthly, "July 1997" (US; 1997-0x-xx), page 89
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 File:MeanMachinesSega50UK.pdf, page 28 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:MeanMachinesSega50UK.pdf_p28" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ File:SSM_UK_13.pdf, page 70
- ↑ File:SSM_JP_19970131_1997-02.pdf, page 224
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Saturn no Game wa Sekai Ichi~i~i~i!: Satamaga Dokusha Race Zen Kiroku, SoftBank Publishing, page 11 Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name ":File:SnGwSISDRZK Book JP.pdf_p11" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Ação Games, "Março 1997" (BR; 1997-xx-xx), page 26
- ↑ CD Consoles, "Novembre 1996" (FR; 1996-xx-xx), page 84
- ↑ Digitiser (UK) (1996-11-06)
- ↑ Famitsu, "1997-01-31" (JP; 1997-01-17), page 1
- ↑ Fun Generation, "12/96" (DE; 1996-11-13), page 82
- ↑ Gambler, "1/1997" (PL; 1997-xx-xx), page 1
- ↑ GameFan, "Volume 4, Issue 12: December 1996" (US; 1996-xx-xx), page 20
- ↑ GamePro, "January 1997" (US; 1997-xx-xx), page 112
- ↑ Game Informer, "November 1996" (US; 1996-1x-xx), page 12
- ↑ Hacker, "12/1996" (HR; 1996-xx-xx), page 57
- ↑ Hobby Consolas, "Noviembre 1996" (ES; 1996-xx-xx), page 68
- ↑ Intelligent Gamer, "December 1996" (US; 1996-1x-xx), page 85
- ↑ Joypad, "Novembre 1996" (FR; 1996-1x-xx), page 82
- ↑ Level, "5/97" (TR; 1997-xx-xx), page 1
- ↑ MAN!AC, "12/96" (DE; 1996-11-13), page 72
- ↑ Mega Force, "Novembre/Décembre 1996" (FR; 1996-1x-xx), page 78
- ↑ Mega Fun, "12/96" (DE; 1996-11-20), page 44
- ↑ Next Generation, "January 1997" (US; 1996-12-17), page 182
- ↑ Player One, "Novembre 1996" (FR; 1996-xx-xx), page 85
- ↑ Power Up!, "Saturday, November 16, 1996" (UK; 1996-11-16), page 1
- ↑ Saturn Fan, "1997 No. 2" (JP; 1997-01-17), page 187
- ↑ Saturn Fan, "1997 No. 5" (JP; 1997-02-28), page 98
- ↑ Saturn+, "Issue 5" (UK; 1996-12-19), page 7
- ↑ Secret Service, "Styczeń 1997" (PL; 1997-01-01), page 62
- ↑ Sega Power, "December 1996" (UK; 1996-10-24), page 40
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "November 1996" (UK; 1996-10-17), page 70
- ↑ Sega Saturn Magazine, "1997-02 (1997-01-31)" (JP; 1997-01-17), page 224
- ↑ Total Saturn, "Volume One Issue Two" (UK; 1996-09-30), page 32
- ↑ Total Saturn, "Volume One Issue Four" (UK; 1996-12-29), page 60
- ↑ Videogame Advisor, "Volume 2, Number 10: October 1996" (US; 1996-0x-xx), page 41
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