Tomb Raider beta?

[Decapicitated]

I get what you're saying. There's a proper private collector who really is private, and then there's the bragger breed who want attention. The type who will make multiple identities for themselves to get as many eyes on them as possible, then when one identity gets too much attention they'll say something along the lines of everyones harassing me now and delete everything, then come back a little later under a new name. I think we're all familiar with that type of collector.

Are you implying that's me?

[Fireball haven]

Doubt that going to happen. What evidence left to it ? I dont believe Tr1 1995 apha ever come to daylight.

[Decapicitated]

Doubt that going to happen. What evidence left to it ? I dont believe Tr1 1995 apha ever come to daylight.

Don't worry, Planet Lara seem to still have a copy of it. Furthermore they're coming back. I guess we can only expect footage though. I know someone else with a copy and is not interested either.

Not sure where this originally came from? Anyone know the source?

[Fireball haven]

Sorry my comment goes to sippy as he saying as a "teamwork as searching currently owners"

Anyone know the source? - yes it came from TRF.

yea i heard planet lara is coming back, they made annoument ages ago. no words from them yet. I wouldnt get hopes up about TR1 alpha 95 but mabey new footage.

True, i know 1 people who has TR alpha 95 but not willing to share it in PM. See i dont like that because they hoarding for them selves.

[JRTombRaider]

I get what you're saying. There's a proper private collector who really is private, and then there's the bragger breed who want attention. The type who will make multiple identities for themselves to get as many eyes on them as possible, then when one identity gets too much attention they'll say something along the lines of everyones harassing me now and delete everything, then come back a little later under a new name. I think we're all familiar with that type of collector.

Exactly. Quite frankly, it's pathetic.

[Fireball haven]

Does anyone know what is that white disc with square paper bag underneath ? another TR beta disc ? also i cannot make it out what it is says on A4 paper too with bunch of writing on it. Does anyone have the information on that?

ghostblade, any new source for Tr beta yet ? it been awhile now.

[Decapicitated]

Nothing much new, i did find some solid evidence that there may be another cancelled Tomb Raider game, it was cancelled in early concept stages and i think it was supposed to be the sequel to TRU i cannot confirm this though unless i go through more research. Also, i found some new source who has loads of protos and is going to look through them, hoping for some Tomb Raider stuff to show otherwise, my money is on somewhere else.

[Anthaemia.]

Does anyone know what is that white disc with square paper bag underneath ? another TR beta disc ?

I can't be 100% sure, but it seems this is probably a "silver" review disc, which were normally just PAL encoded copies of Saturn games with no label packaged in a plain white sleeve, including a sticker detailing the product's title and serial number, plus a return address for once journalists had finished with it. These usually had no (or very few) differences when compared with the retail code, and according to a few other examples I've seen in the past they were to be sent back to Andrew Campbell at Nelson Bostock - one of Sega Europe's marketing contractors during this period, along with McCann Erickson and HHCL Brasserie. Staff of the UK's official Sega Saturn Magazine were known to give these out as prizes on many occasions, so I wouldn't be surprised if this publication was the source of this particular example as well. Also, I'm assuming this is the final version of Tomb Raider, though it does look a little bit too CDR-like for such a version... or is that simply due to the reflection showing a lot of green for some reason? On the other hand, it does appear to have the outer security ring, so again I'm not actually certain. Either way, here's the similar Athlete Kings promotional disc for reference purposes:



Now that I think about it, what is that cartridge in the original picture? Some kind of device to bypass the security check at first boot, perhaps?

[Decapicitated]

I can't be 100% sure, but it seems this is probably a "silver" review disc, which were normally just PAL encoded copies of Saturn games with no label packaged in a plain white sleeve, including a sticker detailing the product's title and serial number, plus a return address for once journalists had finished with it. These usually had no (or very few) differences when compared with the retail code, and according to a few other examples I've seen in the past they were to be sent back to Andrew Campbell at Nelson Bostock - one of Sega Europe's marketing contractors during this period, along with McCann Erickson and HHCL Brasserie. Staff of the UK's official Sega Saturn Magazine were known to give these out as prizes on many occasions, so I wouldn't be surprised if this publication was the source of this particular example as well. Also, I'm assuming this is the final version of Tomb Raider, though it does look a little bit too CDR-like for such a version... or is that simply due to the reflection showing a lot of green for some reason? On the other hand, it does appear to have the outer security ring, so again I'm not actually certain. Either way, here's the similar Athlete Kings promotional disc for reference purposes:



Now that I think about it, what is that cartridge in the original picture? Some kind of device to bypass the security check at first boot, perhaps?

There were 3 of these sold on ebay. One was a while ago and two was recently, one exactly the same as that (packaging) may still be being sold on ebay. I can also confirm they are not beta copys, they are just the final PAL saturn version.

[Fireball haven]

Ghostblade, thanks for update, may never know what the round the corner, espically unxpected content.

Now that I think about it, what is that cartridge in the original picture? Some kind of device to bypass the security check at first boot, perhaps?

thanks for ur time to reply. i guess that is its tr promo disc as i can ses MK"XXXX" in the middle of ring disc in the original picture.

Green cartridge (far i can remember) has a debug code file on it only made exclusive for that Tr beta gold disc for july version. also Green Cartridge can connect to PC for dev's software with 16 pins i believed.

I dont mind explain what this green cartridge do, so here to it :)

It hard to explain beceause i dont own Tr july beta version so i never had a experince to play or any Tr betas . Sorry my english is not good but i do my best to explain by breaking it down but however my info may could be wrong. In that picture, all that stuff belong to Almito la vito (aka) greatest tr and mcstyle24. I known this guys for years as a betas's collecter and he was quite popular in early day for getting tr betas out of core design studio with dev's as a friend, so im able to get some solid useful info from Almito la vita at the time.

TR July version is 7mb - 4 levels playable with 11 levels unplayable and 3 cutscene unplayable with sound glitch as lara draw a weapon

Gold disc TR July version is 300mb - 4 levels playable with 11 levels unplayable and 3 cutscene unplayable with sound glitch as lara draw a weapon

but however using that green cartridge to use with TR beta July version "Gold disc" it will allowed you to play all 16 Work in progress playable levels (Some levels may still unplayable) 3 cutseen playable and no glitch sound as lara draws a weapon.

Almito la vita is confused in certain way and he believe TR beta July version 300mb "Gold disc" is slightly later than TR beta July version 7mb. Plus, he mention there 3 cutscene were not in final retail and one of cutscene is open intro from 1995 as he said . he find it odd that was in TR beta July version 300mb "Gold disc" also he mention that these three cutscene is not always working poperly which, resoulution screen size is out of place and sometime goes black and white from the T.V and it may something do with core dev's testing these stuff out in random.

That Green cartridge dont work on TR beta July version 7mb only TR beta July version 300mb "Gold disc"

Very similar to Resident evil 1 alpha where one of room in hallway door is locked and u cannot acess to it unless if you used debug code to order to unlock hallway door which u not ment to be there in the first place. similar method for Green cartridge for July TR beta July version 300mb "Gold disc" to make unplayable levels to playable levels

I send a message to almito la vita around 3 month ago because somebody gave him TR beta July version 7mb and TR Beta auguest version not long ago as a gift. He not pleased with "TR beta July version 7mb" because he believes someone mod the files to delete some file content to make some level unplayable after all these years when someone con on beta's owners for money but again he said he cannot remember because it was 16 years ago when he first release "TR beta July version 7mb" on website, so he cannot compare between 2 files.

If u are interested, you can see cartridge in this video at somewhere beginning and in the end.


Im tired, im in bed now. i hope this help what you after :)

edit, Ahh i watch this video again, that TR Promo disc u mention about ? Is found in 1:40 in this video. Do u believe thats TR promo disc with white sleeve ?

[rewak]

Are you implying that's me?

Just caught this, no i'm not implying you or anyone else here for that matter I scanned that article with the TR3 screenshots i posted a while back in full plus another one i found, hope you find something of interest.

Station Magazine Vol.1 October 1998



Official UK Playstation Magazine Vol.39 December 1998

[Decapicitated]

Just caught this, no i'm not implying you or anyone else here for that matter I scanned that article with the TR3 screenshots i posted a while back in full plus another one i found, hope you find something of interest.

Station Magazine Vol.1 October 1998



Official UK Playstation Magazine Vol.39 December 1998

Thanks for sharing this.

This is from an alpha of Tomb Raider 3, you can see the title screen is exactly like the E3 one. But you can see it slightly clearer and there's more of lara's body shown. You can also see the boat as well from a distance in the coastal levels. Some other levels look different too. Very interesting.

[Mr Sippy]

Fireball haven

"TR July version is 7mb - 4 levels playable with 11 levels unplayable and 3 cutscene unplayable with sound glitch as lara draw a weapon"

tHAts wrong july version only have 2 playable levels. 4 playable levels is in 2nd August version. I can give u these 2 TR betas for free if u want ? so u can understand the whole beta in the game.

[Borman]

http://ptoponline.com/?p=647

;)

[Decapicitated]

http://ptoponline.com/?p=647

;)

These are quite common, it's not exactly a beta version of Tomb Raider.

Well... it is, it's just a beta version of the Japanese version as it was released later, majority of the stuff is still in English, all the levels are going to be final since all of the Tomb Raider Japanese Versions were all compiled after the final game went 'gold'. I also have a copy of this and got in to trouble once, it does contain 2 levels on disc but only allows one to be played, easy fix.

Engine Version Listing (Didn't have chance to check all so there are some missing):

Engine Version 32 (Final)

Tomb Raider Saturn (JAP) Demo
Tomb Raider PC Final
Tomb Raider Sega Saturn Final
Tomb Raider PSX Final
Tomb Raider PSX Beta

Engine Version 31
Tomb Raider 1 September Beta

Engine Version 30
Tomb Raider Sega Saturn August Demo 2 (Non-playable)

Engine Version 26
Tomb Raider Sega Saturn July Demo 1

Engine Version 21
Tomb Raider WIP Version

So yeah, that build falls in final engine class.

For those who want bigger screens here:





I have something else similar for Tomb Raider 3, it's a beta version of the Japanese version.

Speaking of Tomb Raider 3, i managed to activate the cancelled Roll Animation in a beta version of Tomb Raider 3 GIF:



Some pics of TR1 Beta if people missed the video a while ago.







Enjoy.

[Decapicitated]

Oops

[Sarah7777]

I have something else similar for Tomb Raider 3, it's a beta version of the Japanese version.

Speaking of Tomb Raider 3, i managed to activate the cancelled Roll Animation in a beta version of Tomb Raider 3 GIF:

Interesting!I like Lara's roll animation!

[Unknown-Organization]

I have done some more contact/ messaging and email to TR's betas holders but it all seems to get harder to talk with them or no longer have it, I guess it pretty much dying out since the Modern Tomb Raider series is getting worse and it not like what it used to be in last generation era of TR fan base. New Tomb Raider is looks actually awful... sigh.

Any news on Tomb Raider beta lately Gh0stblade ? Wish the best luck on porting Extra levels on PS1 Version :)

[Kurtis Trent]

Are there any TR betas, other than the two well known TR2 betas and the recently released TR1 E3 demo, available? How much do you want for them?

[Unknown-Organization]

EDIT, change my mind ! Sorry.