Tomb Raider beta?

[alf717]

Sure is fun to see all of these types of beta floating around. Out of curiosity I made a post some time ago about the version of Tomb Raider Anniversary that Core Designs was working on. I'll see if I can dig it up and edit my post but I was wondering if any news of that beta has surfaced.

Also Decapicitated you mentioned you were playing the Tomb Raider Anniversary review version. I vaguely remember this version but this was pretty much the retail version correct? I believe the boot up screen looked like the Tomb Raider Legends boot up screen and was missing the nVidia logo is that correct or was there more?

Edit:

Here is the thread I spoke of in my post and wow Decapicitated answers my question already. Shame that it seems to be lost for good now.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...ad.php?t=25748

[Decapicitated]

Sure is fun to see all of these types of beta floating around. Out of curiosity I made a post some time ago about the version of Tomb Raider Anniversary that Core Designs was working on. I'll see if I can dig it up and edit my post but I was wondering if any news of that beta has surfaced.

Also Decapicitated you mentioned you were playing the Tomb Raider Anniversary review version. I vaguely remember this version but this was pretty much the retail version correct? I believe the boot up screen looked like the Tomb Raider Legends boot up screen and was missing the nVidia logo is that correct or was there more?

Edit:

Here is the thread I spoke of in my post and wow Decapicitated answers my question already. Shame that it seems to be lost for good now.

http://www.assemblergames.com/forums...ad.php?t=25748

Tomb Raider Anniversary Edition was cancelled sadly, it was not complete anyway from the information i have pulled from various different devs. None of them own the code, I guess it's quite possible that one dev does but it appears that nobody knows what happened to it after the CORE studio was closed in 2006.

Yes, I played Tomb Raider Anniversary Review Code, close to final, some bugs left in. I think you mean that the executable has the icon of Tomb Raider Legend. I've not played it through fully though.

[geluda]

I'm playing the TR1 beta on a PSOne and it always crashes at the end of the first level, anyone ever get past this crash?

[Mystical]

Some good information in this thread, I only hope you guys can find some more of these Beta discs

[RichardX]

I'm playing the TR1 beta on a PSOne and it always crashes at the end of the first level, anyone ever get past this crash?

Where can I find it? I would be grateful for the link

[Decapicitated]

I'm playing the TR1 beta on a PSOne and it always crashes at the end of the first level, anyone ever get past this crash?

It's final code.

[geluda]

It's final code.

No it's not because it's riddled with bugs and the art is clearly unfinished. Unless I'm playing a different TR1 beta. :/

07-22-1996 is the build I'm playing.

[Decapicitated]

No it's not because it's riddled with bugs and the art is clearly unfinished. Unless I'm playing a different TR1 beta. :/

07-22-1996 is the build I'm playing.

Yes it is. I have the same build and it's not been compiled July 22nd 1996. It's actually September 1996 and is identical to final since i've played the majority, it was compiled after the saturn final build so there will be no level differences since all this version lacks is the "playstation exclusive" stuff like controls, menu stuff etc.

You claim it's riddled in bugs, have you played it? Confirm these bugs for me.
It only freezes due to a music error since it's not CDDA.

[geluda]

Yes it is. I have the same build and it's not been compiled July 22nd 1996. It's actually September 1996 and is identical to final since i've played the majority, it was compiled after the saturn final build so there will be no level differences since all this version lacks is the "playstation exclusive" stuff like controls, menu stuff etc.

You claim it's riddled in bugs, have you played it? Confirm these bugs for me.
It only freezes due to a music error since it's not CDDA.

I will make a video for you. I am playing it on official hardware and the game crashes in two specific scenarios, I can replicate the crashes with 100% consistency. The artwork in this build is unfinished and the first level can not be finished on my PSOne, I do not have an emulator to test in that manner. Perhaps I have a bad dump? Although I don't imagine so as I downloaded it from here as far as I remember, and I doubt it's my media either as I'm using Sony discs which I've never had issues with for any other prototype.

Would you mind explaining the CCDA issue? Does that cause issues with official hardware? I do know emulators behave differently to official hardware, things that cause crashes on official hardware doesn't always cause crashes on an emulator.

[Decapicitated]

I will make a video for you. I am playing it on official hardware and the game crashes in two specific scenarios, I can replicate the crashes with 100% consistency. The artwork in this build is unfinished and the first level can not be finished on my PSOne, I do not have an emulator to test in that manner. Perhaps I have a bad dump? Although I don't imagine so as I downloaded it from here as far as I remember, and I doubt it's my media either as I'm using Sony discs which I've never had issues with for any other prototype.

Would you mind explaining the CCDA issue? Does that cause issues with official hardware? I do know emulators behave differently to official hardware, things that cause crashes on official hardware doesn't always cause crashes on an emulator.

The game crashes on level end triggers.
The game crashes when paused.
The game crashes when inventory is accessed.

I know it's the same build. The artwork is incomplete? the only difference was the loading screens have no "loading" at the top. Other than that, they're all the exact same.

You are correct, your dump is bad. Apparently, there are no CDDA tracks there which is causing music errors. A possible incorrectly ripped ISO or the game was still in the process of getting the playstation features fully finalized as far as i know there have been instances in the final where crashes have occurred due to incorrect ripping of the CDDA audio. The game itself should work perfectly fine on official hardware but the ISO has a problem itself.

I look forward to seeing this video if it is different, but i'm sure it's the same build i have right here.

[geluda]

Okay here's five individual crashes for you. I can actually demo six eexamples of crashes but there's no need to. The crashes which involve the pause menu and inventory menu actually crash the game no matter what, the ONLY time I can view the pause menu or inventory menu is if you save the game, exit and then load the game again. I have no idea how a bad burn could cause this type of behaviour, my only explanation is that it's part of the games poorly constructed code which can not be executed on official hardware. It's not as if the game is trying to load and fails to because it can't read the data on the disc, the conditions for these crashes and requirements for viewing the pause menu and inventory menu are too specific for me to think anything other than this is a buggy, broken mess of a build... Of course, maybe I do have a bad burn or bad dump of the game, but I have no way of testing a new burn or even on an emulator as my PC is knackered...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8-SnZ7feIw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNa6dUE-oU8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s210NbUKopU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA54SkrqoYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM1S16NOGQo

LOL. I probably just wasted my time making these videos as you just explained pretty much everything. The artwork which is incomplete is the title screen, the resolution of the the Tomb Raider image is wrong and "Tomb" is cut off.

Video 1, video 2 and video 4 might interest you.

[Decapicitated]

Okay here's five individual crashes for you. I can actually demo six eexamples of crashes but there's no need to. The crashes which involve the pause menu and inventory menu actually crash the game no matter what, the ONLY time I can view the pause menu or inventory menu is if you save the game, exit and then load the game again. I have no idea how a bad burn could cause this type of behaviour, my only explanation is that it's part of the games poorly constructed code which can not be executed on official hardware. It's not as if the game is trying to load and fails to because it can't read the data on the disc, the conditions for these crashes and requirements for viewing the pause menu and inventory menu are too specific for me to think anything other than this is a buggy, broken mess of a build... Of course, maybe I do have a bad burn or bad dump of the game, but I have no way of testing a new burn or even on an emulator as my PC is knackered...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8-SnZ7feIw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNa6dUE-oU8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s210NbUKopU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA54SkrqoYo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gM1S16NOGQo

LOL. I probably just wasted my time making these videos as you just explained pretty much everything. The artwork which is incomplete is the title screen, the resolution of the the Tomb Raider image is wrong and "Tomb" is cut off.

First video freezes because the background ambiance cannot be loaded.
Second video freezes because you stepped on the trigger for music, it couldn't load it so it froze.
To be honest it looks like the CDDA wasn't ripped correctly so it's crashing the game. In earlier, closer builds the menu works perfectly fine. It's just when music is called it glitches.

The TOMB is cut off because it's cut off in the actual file the resolution is fine. There's no point re-burning the ISO the only difference is the menus it's not worth the trouble.

[geluda]

First video freezes because the background ambiance cannot be loaded.
Second video freezes because you stepped on the trigger for music, it couldn't load it so it froze.
To be honest it looks like the CDDA wasn't ripped correctly so it's crashing the game. In earlier, closer builds the menu works perfectly fine. It's just when music is called it glitches.

The TOMB is cut off because it's cut off in the actual file the resolution is fine. There's no point re-burning the ISO the only difference is the menus it's not worth the trouble.

Actually the second video freezes because I pressed start in the following room (I find it interesting it actually let's me open the menu to begin with), also The fourth video allows me to pull the switch and open the door once and once only, approaching the switch again crashes the game (I find it interesting how it works once and once only)... I trust your opinion, seems a reasonable conclusion, although other things do seem off in this build. If the sound files don't work for the pause menu and inventory menu, why will it open them if you load the game at the save point? Doesn't make any sense to me really, if sound files are knackered they should be knackered no matter what. Watch video 4.

[geluda]

I was wondering, how did you manage to play through the whole thing?

[Decapicitated]

I was wondering, how did you manage to play through the whole thing?

Level skipping works fine (custom modification). But crashes are still inevitable on some levels since they freeze up when putting in keys etc.

[geluda]

Level skipping works fine (custom modification). But crashes are still inevitable on some levels since they freeze up when putting in keys etc.

Ah I see, thanks! Do you know who owns the originals? Wouldn't mind owning one if they were ever for sale. I guess the only hard ppart is knowing what's original and what's not!

[Decapicitated]

Ah I see, thanks! Do you know who owns the originals? Wouldn't mind owning one if they were ever for sale. I guess the only hard ppart is knowing what's original and what's not!

I know where this originally came from.

This came off a ''pirated'' ''bootleg'' disc of Tomb Raider 1. I'm pretty sure loads of others exist too. If you are looking for the original disc which is most likely impossible, it would've come from a review code disc i bet. But i don't see why it's of interest? Earlier is better right?

[geluda]

I know where this originally came from.

This came off a ''pirated'' ''bootleg'' disc of Tomb Raider 1. I'm pretty sure loads of others exist too. If you are looking for the original disc which is most likely impossible, it would've come from a review code disc i bet. But i don't see why it's of interest? Earlier is better right?

Very true, although not always. Original is better, as if the dump we have did turn out to be a bad rip then it's possible content that can't be experienced now could be experienced without the image being full of errors. BH2 Beta 2 was a pirate bootleg also and that image has corrupt sectors making a lot of features not work, granted this build is not quite as interesting as BH2 Beta 2, but to have a fully working image would be nice, we never know what stage of the PSX development this build came from, and I'm sure this would make a nice cheap (ish) start to my non existant prototype collection lol. :) I like Tomb Raider beta, I find them very interesting, even if a build came along that had not been released it would be a series I would be interested in collecting. Got to start somewhere, right?

[Decapicitated]

Very true, although not always. Original is better, as if the dump we have did turn out to be a bad rip then it's possible content that can't be experienced now could be experienced without the image being full of errors. BH2 Beta 2 was a pirate bootleg also and that image has corrupt sectors making a lot of features not work, granted this build is not quite as interesting as BH2 Beta 2, but to have a fully working image would be nice, we never know what stage of the PSX development this build came from, and I'm sure this would make a nice cheap (ish) start to my non existant prototype collection lol. :) I like Tomb Raider beta, I find them very interesting, even if a build came along that had not been released it would be a series I would be interested in collecting. Got to start somewhere, right?

It is sad that the dump is bad. But there is someone else who has a working copy of it on this forum and they may even be able to provide a propper dump of they want to.

I know what stage of development this is from, it's just a September build compiled very close to the final release. There are earlier betas which are more fun to play with, since this so close to final i am going to run through some levels right now to see if there are some differences as i've only encountered 1 level difference only minor.

[Decapicitated]

Just bought a disc which is supposed to contain this same beta. Hope it is, works fine will post back with info when i get it.