Tomb Raider 3 - Beta, October 5 1998

[jonathanrij]

Originally Posted by Gh0stBlade

Excellent play through of RX-tech mines. And the documented differences really show how much Core Design worked 1 month before the game shipping to polish this level to completion.

Keep it up!

Definitely. Aside from the many broken gameplay elements in this build, the mine cart also had a very long way to go. Getting it to work right appeared to be a real struggle for the team, especially considering it was still broken in the late October build. It's commendable how they managed to fix all these issues in just a matter of days/weeks.

I just can't imagine the amount of stress the team was under. No wonder they wanted to kill Lara off.

[Woops]

so many changes! if only they kept the first area instead of a closed elevator like in retail

[TRExpertgamer]

Originally Posted by jonathanrij

RX-Tech Mines:



Check the video description for a very extensive list of differences. I may have gone a little overboard in my quest for documentation.

Here you can find the altered level file used in this video, which has a trigger to open the lead acid battery room. This trigger was completely missing in the original level, so I manually had to add it. I mostly did it to familiarize myself with the classic data format more, as I intend to write a basic level customizer soon (that will support adding/removing triggers, among other features), primarily for educational purposes.

Great!! I have by the way have completed this entire prototype version of this game. And I'm certainly crazy about the beta sounds from all the rest of the early beta versions for TR3 as well to the point that even I'd love how to apply all of that in to the final version as well!!

[jonathanrij]

Thames Wharf:





As usual, check the video description for a big list of differences. None of them are major, but there are some interesting ones like:
- the scaffolding being lowered/highered in the fire control room;
- an odd trigger placement to fill reservoir 3;
- the other edge of the cathedral being explorable;
- the Cathedral Key being moved to where the last secret is supposed to be;
- the "inaccessible" section next to the cathedral being easily accessible.

[Woops]

Nice work as always, there are so many differences! Funny thinking this was almost a month before the game was released. They worked so hard.

The cathedral key position is very interesting.

[Boobandie]

Thank you so much for taking the time to upload and particularly for listing the differences in an easy to access way. They're really fascinating to watch.

[jonathanrij]

Thank you both for the kind words! There are way more differences than I had first anticipated, which totally made these videos worth it.

I'm doing Aldwych next. Its general lay-out is mostly the same as in retail, but there are still a few cool structural and visual changes here and there. Plus, this will finally give me a reason to publish this level's cutscene comparison video, which has been private since it got uploaded in January.

All Hallows's level structure is a hot mess and if I follow my current way of documenting each and every difference I'll probably lose it. I'll still get around to recording this level eventually, once I've figured out the intended (or most likely) route and have optimized it for showcasing purposes. In this build, the level was significantly stripped down compared to the ECTS version and was more similar to an unfinished and broken version of what we ended up getting.

[TRExpertgamer]

Originally Posted by jonathanrij

Thank you both for the kind words! There are way more differences than I had first anticipated.

I'm doing Aldwych next. Its general lay-out is mostly the same as in retail, but there are still a few cool structural and visual changes here and there. Plus, this will finally give me a reason to publish this level's cutscene comparison video, which has been private since it got uploaded in January.

All Hallows's level structure is a hot mess and if I follow my current way of documenting each and every difference I'll probably lose it. I'll get around to recording this level eventually, once I've figured out and optimized the intended (or most likely) route. At this point it was significantly stripped down compared to the ECTS version and was more similar to an unfinished and broken version of what we ended up getting.

Is the ECTS version going to be playable at any chance?

[jonathanrij]

Originally Posted by TRExpertgamer

Is the ECTS version going to be playable at any chance?

I don't have it, so I can't answer that.

[TRExpertgamer]

Originally Posted by jonathanrij

I don't have it, so I can't answer that.

ok.