Tomb Raider

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Tomb Raider
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
Release Date RRP Code JP 1997-01-24 ¥5,8005,800 T-6010G JP (Satakore) 1998-02-11 ¥2,8002,800 T-9113G US 1996-11-18 T-7910H EU 1996-10-24 MK81086-50 BR 199x 193516
ESRB Sega ELSPA USK OFLC Tectoy

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.

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

Release

While Tomb Raider became one of the best selling Saturn games on the market, US Saturn sales were less than a quarter of the PlayStation total.

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 30 FPS refresh rate, the Saturn struggles to maintain 20 FPS. The Saturn version also lacks reflections on the save crystals as well as alpha transparency.

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 had smoother Gouraud shading, whereas the PlayStation version had color banding, when running on the original PlayStation hardware released from 1994 to 1995. The color banding was eventually eliminated on the new PlayStation hardware, which improved the system's transparency and shading capabilities. The PlayStation version is thus able to have smooth shading when running on newer PlayStation models, despite the PlayStation version originally not having smooth shading upon the game's release in 1996. (See Sega Saturn: Hardware comparison for more technical details).

The Saturn version is also dark in comparison, due to the way Gouraud shading works on the Saturn hardware. The Saturn's VDP1 uses additive shading, which often results in darker shadows, whereas the PlayStation's GPU uses multiplicative shading, which often results in brighter lights.

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

Victor

• 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

• 

  ES print advert

• 1997 07 - Tomb Raider.jpg

  ES print advert 2

• 1997 10 - Pack Tomb Raider.jpg

  ES print advert 3

Print advert in Next Generation (US) #22: "October 1996" (1996-09-17)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #87: "October 1996" (1996-xx-xx)

Print advert in EGM² (US) #29: "November 1996" (1996-xx-xx)

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #89: "December 1996" (1996-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Ultra Game Players (US) #93: "January 1997" (1996-12-31)

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #91: "February 1997" (199x-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #92: "March 1997" (1997-0x-xx)

Print advert in Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #95: "June 1997" (1997-0x-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #96: "July 1997" (1997-0x-xx)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1996-22: "1996-22 (1996-12-27)" (1996-12-13)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1997-01: "1997-01 (1997-01-17)" (1996-12-27)
also published in:

• Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1997-02: "1997-02 (1997-01-31)" (1997-01-17)

Print advert in Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) #1997-03: "1997-03 (1997-02-14)" (1997-01-31)

Print advert in Saturn Power (UK) #1: "June 1997" (1997-xx-xx)

Print advert in Ultra Player (FR) #39: "Janvier/Février 1997" (199x-xx-xx)

Print advert in Sega Magazin (DE) #40: "März 1997" (1997-02-12)

Print advert in Hyper (AU) #38: "December 1996" (1996-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average

Publication Score Source Computer & Video Games (UK) 100 №181, p74-76 Famitsu (JP) 78 №424, p31 GamesMaster (UK) 95 №49, p34/35/36/37 Hobby Consolas (ES) 94 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 94 №50, p28-33 Mega Force (FR) 94 №54, p78-83 Player One (FR) 90 №69, p85/86/87 Sega Power (UK) 93 №86, p40/41/42/43 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) 92 №13, p70/71 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) 67 №1997-02, p222 Sega Saturn Magazine (readers) (JP) 90 №, p9

	90
Based on 11 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score Ação Games (BR) 90 CD Consoles (FR) PAL 100 Computer & Video Games (UK) 100 Digitiser (UK) 93 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 78 Fun Generation (DE) PAL 100 Gambler (PL) 83 GameFan (US) NTSC-U 90 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 78 Game Informer (US) NTSC-U 86 Hacker (HR) 94 Hobby Consolas (ES) 94 Intelligent Gamer (US) NTSC-U 100 Joypad (FR) 92 Level (TR) 75 MAN!AC (DE) PAL 89 Mega Force (FR) PAL 94 Mega Fun (DE) PAL 90 Mean Machines Sega (UK) PAL 94 Next Generation (US) NTSC-U 100 Player One (FR) 98 Power Up! (UK) 88 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 76 Saturn Fan (JP) NTSC-J 70 Saturn+ (UK) PAL 97 Secret Service (PL) 90 Sega Power (UK) PAL 93 Sega Saturn Magazine (UK) PAL 92 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 67 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 90 Total Saturn (UK) PAL 97 Total Saturn (UK) PAL 97 Videogame Advisor (US) NTSC-U 100

	90
Based on 33 reviews

Tomb Raider

Saturn, US
Cover
Disc Manual

Saturn, EU
Cover
Disc

Saturn, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Saturn, JP (Satakore)
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Saturn, BR
Cover
Manual