info
- BIOS : SCPH5502.BIN
- Heavy glitch abuse
- Aims to get all "secrets" in the game
About the game
The second game of the action-adventure franchise, featuring Lara Croft as she sets out on an expedition to the Dagger of Xian.
Differences between PSX and PC versions
- Loading times on PSX between levels
- Hotkeys for medipacks and weapons on PC, this is a disadvantage for the PSX version as we have to go in the inventory to equip weapons/take medipacks, as the timer does not stop in the inventory.
- multiple little visual bonuses on PSX, such as gradient bars, waving inventory background, etc.
but... why PAL?
the PAL version, out of all the other PSX releases of the game, moves Lara behind flares when she picks them up. This allows us to abuse it to embed into walls.
what are secrets?
Secrets are dragon shaped pickups. There are 3 in each level, Gold, Jade and Silver dragons. Picking them up cues a special secret sound, and getting all 3 in level grants a reward. Rewards could range from medikits to full weapons.
timing
generally aims for ingame time because including the loading screens in the timing is pointless. However, there are no real tricks that give advantage to the IGT over the real time, apart from delaying cutscene skipping 1 or 2 frames to get a proper end level screen instead of pitch black, but that's purely for "entertainment".
Lag
In big areas, lag happens as the game needs more frames to finish calculating everything. Most of the lag happens during the game's draw loop, meaning Lara's position technically still updates during the lag, so this was not very impactful. Although it made it harder to optimally move through a few areas, but nothing more than a 1 or 2 frames loss.
Speed and movement
| Movement | Speed |
| Running | 47 |
| Standing jump | 50 |
| Rolling (first half of the anim) | 50 |
| Swimming | 50 |
| Sliding on a slope | 50 |
| Running jump | 75 |
As you can see, the running jump is by far the fastest way to move, to the point where it is often better to take a seemingly non-optimal trajectory in order to make one more jump instead of running.
It's important to note that due to rounding errors in speed calculation, heading in certain directions gives a much bigger window to move at full speed at that axis, whereas at other directions you have to move at a perfect angle to get full speed.
Route planning
Pickups were kept to a minimum thanks to the rewards secrets give us. main pickups were flares.
Weapons
| Weapon | power | damage per second |
| Pistols | 1 | 6 |
| Shotgun | ~18 | ~16 |
| Automatic Pistols | 2 | 12 |
| Uzis | 1 | 15 |
| Harpoon gun | 6 | - |
| M16 | 3 | 30 |
| Grenade Launcher | 60 | 33 |
Grenade launcher has the highest DPS, and no pickups are needed for it as we get everything from secrets- simply perfect for this route.
Note that secrets also give us other weapons like the Uzis, which were useful in a few levels where it was faster and more health efficient to kill the enemies with them than pistols, even with the inventory time.
Glitches and tricks
- Corner bug: By clipping inside corners, the game thinks we are inside the wall we clipped in. which technically to the game means we are very deep in the floor (think of walls are raised up floors, if that makes sense), so the game corrects Lara's position, shooting us upwards.
- Flare Wall Bug: Same as the corner bug, but using the flares allows us to clip in the middle of walls, not only on corners!
- Dive Bug: If Lara performs a dive to a wall and hits the exact point where it meets the floor, Lara lands on the floor without taking any damage, even if the height would have normally killed her.
- QWOP: A glitch when the game thinks Lara is falling, when in reality she is on the floor. As a result, the game keeps trying to push Lara below the floor at an incrementing rate. after a while the rate becomes as big as a step, forcing Lara to do the "step up" animation, and since this happens every frame, Lara is stuck in that animation, resembling the infamous QWOP game. This is useful when the rate becomes as big as half a block, where Lara can do a small vault- she travels below the floor ignoring all objects and collision, effectively skipping (some) doors etc. (does not work on all doors due to the rooms-portal system the game is built over)
- Flare Cancel: Throwing a flare while Lara performs the landing animation makes her skip the landing and go straight to the next needed animation. sounds insignificant but each landing animation can be as long as 2 seconds! (Fun fact, devs knew about this, in fact they introduced it on purpose to avoid a soft lock!)
-I would be more than happy to answer any questions about any specific tricks seen in the game :)
levels and times
| Level | Time |
| The Great Wall | 3:10.40 |
| Venice | 2:42.63 |
| Bartoli's Hideout | 3:18.53 |
| Opera House | 3:51.77 |
| Offshore Rig | 4:43.80 |
| Diving Area | 3:48.63 |
| 40 Fathoms | 3:48.33 |
| Wreck of the Maria Doria | 8:08.83 |
| Living Quarters | 2:54.93 |
| The Deck | 2:23.50 |
| Tibetan Foothills | 5:24.33 |
| Barkhang Monsatery | 4:47.13 |
| Catacombs of the Talion | 3:12.27 |
| Ice Palace | 4:13.87 |
| Temple of Xian | 5:53.37 |
| Floating Islands | 1:34.77 |
| The Dragon's Lair | 1:41.07 |
| Home Sweet Home | 1:54.47 |
| Total Time | 1:07:02.62 |
possible improvements
As always: after finishing the TAS, an improvement in Temple of Xian was brought to my attention: the ability to skip 1 button in the 2 button room after dodging the flying spike things, using a special jump. after trying to splice it in, sync broke due to the game's high RNG dependency, and lag.
special thanks
suggested screenshot:
I still want the "Don't you think you've seen enough?" shot but I don't know if that'll be accepted, like last time
final words:
I like cheese, and happy pride month!
Memory: INJECT THAT GOOD CLASSIC TOMB RAIDER SHIT STRAIGHT INTO MY VEINS.
Accepting as a new branch. Note to publisher, tag with 100% completion.
