Tomb Raider 2 Beta [PSX / Saturn / PC]

Overview: The first Tomb Raider game became a success with high ratings and sold well. Core Design of Derbyshire had already planned a sequal, the game underwent big changes through development. It is rumored that the game was primarily developed for the PSX, Sega Saturn and PC. According to further rumors, due to the original game being such a success, Sony paid for the game to be exclusively made for the Playstation which caused them to drop development upon the Sega Saturn. There is no evidence of this happening, if anybody has any official information please do update this. They managed to remaster the ponytail which was a major issue back in 1995, the game was later released on Sony Playstation and PC early November 1997.

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Early Alpha Stage – Date, Late 1996?
Platform: PC?

These screenshots come from a very early alpha build of Tomb Raider 2. As you can see, she has no braid, her model is exactly the same to the first Lara in Tomb Raider 1. There aren’t supposed to be stairs in Bartoli’s Hideout, the gate where the boat is supposed to drive through is missing. These are supposed to be the first ever shown images of Tomb Raider 2.

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Alpha Stage – Date, Early 1997?
Platform: PSX

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This build is similar to the one above. However, Core began experimenting with Lara Croft with a braid. The Video quality is awful, will try to find those high quality screens soon.

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Beta Stage – Date, 16th June 1997 (E3 Build)
Platform: PC

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After E3 1997, Tomb Raider 2 E3 build leaked onto a private university server. After that, it became public and is now avalible on many websites. The alpha consists of 3 playable levels in early development

• Bartoli’s Hideout.
• The Wreck Of Maria Doria
• Ice Palace / Catacombs of the Talion

In the first level Bartoli’s Hideout, you can notice that the Pistols’ Sound effects are completely different. The healthbar is also different in color, just an early placeholder. In the beginning, you don’t start in the boat, they may not have created it yet. The original gate where you are supposed to go through with the boat is locked and the room in there doesn’t contain the clocktower door, it’s just a white textured room, could this be an early alpha room from the previous level? The sword men have no sound effects whilst their sword goes down. The Debug cheat ‘DOZY’ is available, Lara will swim once the user holds down ‘D-O-Z-Y’. The building shelters are normally textured with a red cloth like surface but in this version they are plain wood. In addition, there are no wired gates which seperate areas, they are replaced with wooden slats hammered together unseen in the final verison. The first secret is missing, the veranda which leads to the stone dragon is there but the door itself is missing. The positioning of the room under the fireplace was changed slightly in the final release. The inventory is the same to Tomb Raider 1, the guns are also identical: Pistols, Magnums, Shotgun, Uzis. The Magnums were later changed to ‘Automatic Pistols’ in the final build. The compass is still functional but was later changed to statistics watch to give a more modern gameplay experience. Whilst climbing up walls, there is a glitch which allows Lara to draw her guns, this was a problem back in July 1996 for Tomb Raider 1 which they fixed in the final, but it has re-occured in this build. Secrets aren’t yet implemented, the locations are there though. The detonation key is different from the final one, it is gold and red where as, the final is grey entitled ‘TNT’. At 08:59, you can see an additional room which was removed from final. It has nothing in it, it may have been a placeholder room for the Stone dragon secret. It isn’t possible to complete the level, the TNT explosive device is not in this version, there are no end triggers so the only way to skip to the next level is to rename the level files.

In the second level, there appears to be a huge difference visually and with sound. The sound effects are from Tomb Raider 1, the first level contains early/final sound effects for Tomb Raider 2. The level is so early, it starts right at the end. In the beginning, there are no textures. The costume itself is completely different from final, it’s striped with orange whereas, in the final it’s white,blue,grey and black. There is a glitch with the lever at 1:53, you must rush to get to the other lever before the door itself closes, DOZY is a quick way of doing this. This area of the level is pretty much final, there aren’t many noticable changes but the glitch at 3:59, the texture underneith the water is a rock texture. The inventory noise is exactly the same as Tomb Raider 1, in the first level it’s just a high pitched noise, the key has placeholder textures which aren’t final. The ending of the level is yet again untextured with no option to proceed to the next level.

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Beta Stage – Date, 16th June 1997 (Rolling Demo)
Platform: PSX

A look at how the early beta Lara would have looked.

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The file dates are the same as the E3 demo. This appears to be the PSX version but with only one level, The Wreck Of Maria Doria. Health bars, sound effects all belong to the first game. The logo is in the style of the first Tomb Raider which was later changed. Despite the differences being the same as the E3 demo, we can also see the flare in action. At 1:28, the animation to draw, hold the flare is different from final. Her arm looks deformed whilst walking with a flare. You can also see that once the flare has finished, she doesn’t throw it. It’s stuck in her hand.

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Beta Stage – Date, Early September 1997 (Demo)
Platform: PSX

Coming Soon!

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This is a playable beta demo of the first level, there are several differences such as the title screen picture. It’s completely different, shows a picture of early Xian in china. At the begining of the level, you can jump forward and grab the top ledge which you shouldn’t be able to do, it was fixed in the final build. Also, the helicopter doesn’t exist, it’s supposed to fly by at the top of the Great Wall, she seems to look though. Halfway through, in the room with the flying discs just before the boulders are introduced, the flying discs have the sound of darts from Tomb Raider 1, the sound was later changed in the late September build below. The level ends right after the spike crushers because it’s incomplete. If you bypass the ending, there is no way of proceeding since it’s nothing but a dead end. In the inventory, statistics has the extra feature ‘Hit/Miss Ratio’ this isn’t avalible in the final version. It may be because in the 30th September build, it is non-functional due to a glitch in the code which they didn’t have time to fix for final release.

Beta Stage – Date, 30th September 1997
Platform: PSX

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This is a leaked PSX beta compiled just over a month before final. The last levels are the unfinished ones with several differences. The Dozy cheat turns Lara Gold which is not seen in any other beta of Tomb Raider yet.

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Editors:
1. Gh0stblade

Change Log

Gh0stblade – Added E3 June 1997 info, Added September 1997 Demo info, Early Alpha Info. 03/12/11
Gh0stblade – Added June 1997 Footage, September 1997 Footage, Early 1997 magazine scans. 05/12/11

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