Tomb Raider (OpenLara)

This game engine recreation seeks to allow you to play the original Tomb Raider engine games, from 1 all the way up to 5. Tomb Raider 1 is officially supported and fully playable unlike episodes 2 and 3 (but you can still play them by launching manually maps). More info on Libretro.

To get OpenLara to work, you'll need to retrieve a few files from the official version of Tomb Raider. You can use the PC versions, [GOG], [STEAM], PSX or SATURN.

You will need the files located in the DATA folders (levels and loading screen), FMV (videos), and the AUDIO tracks. If you choose the GOG or Steam version, follow the method Rip from GOG or Steam version to retrieve the necessary files.

When you get Tomb Raider from GOG or STEAM, you will see the following files inside the folder: GAME.GOG, GAME.DAT, dosbox.exe and the dosbox configuration file. The file game.dat is actually the iso of the game that contains the necessary files, for that we will use a command under DOSBOX to mount the image and copy the necessary files.

Open the dosbox.conf file with a text editor. Scroll down to the [autoexec] block, then add the following lines that will be executed at the start of the game under Steam/GOG.

mount C .
        imgmount d ".\game.dat" -t iso -fs iso
        xcopy D:\DATA\ C:\DATA\
        xcopy D:\FMV\ C:\FMV\

This will mount the image and copy the FMV and DATA folders to the root of the game.

You just need to retrieve the necessary files from these folders and paste them into the OpenLara structure.

You need to convert the audio files in the main TombRaider folder to the .ogg format. You can do this with the following small FFmpeg script.

for f in ./*.mp3; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -c:a libvorbis -q:a 4 "${f/%mp3/ogg}"; done

In /userdata/roms/openlara/ we will prepare the folder structure:

Start by creating a folder of your choice to hold the file structure (example TombRaider).

In each sub-folder we will create folders 1 for TombRaider 1 files and 2 for TombRaider 2 files, etc…

• The level folder must contain .PHD and .PNG files from the DATA folder of the PC version (or only .PSX or .SAT files if it's a console dump).
• The video folder must contain the .RPL files (if PC version) or .FMV files (if console version).
• The audio folder must contain the .ogg files (note that to have Lara's tutorial explanations in English, you need the track_xx_EN.ogg tracks).
• To have the background of the game title screen, it is necessary to retrieve the RAW files from the console version and paste them into a DELDATA folder at the same level as the level/video/audio folders.

EmulationStation supports the .croft extension, which serves as a launcher for the level. Start by creating a text file TombRaider1.croft and edit it to add the path of the level to launch:

TombRaider/level/1/GYM.PSX

With OpenLara, you can experience Tomb Raider like you've never played before. You can try it through the eyes of Lara Croft with the primary person camera, for this you can switch to this mode by pressing L1 + A and exit this mode with the same combination. FPS also available in 2-Player Mode.

You can include your friend with whom you want to pass TR levels together. Press Start from Second Controller in order to go 2-Payer Mode.