Nineteen ninety-six. Imagine it. Gaming was mostly flat. Sure, we had Mario 64, but then this character named Lara Croft stepped out of the shadows and basically broke the internet before the internet was even a real thing. If you grew up playing the Tomb Raider old game, you remember that specific, lonely feeling. It wasn't about shooting everything that moved. It was about silence. It was about the sound of Lara’s boots hitting cold stone and the terrifying realization that you just ran out of flares in a pitch-black corridor in Egypt.
Honestly, the sheer scale of the original Tomb Raider felt impossible at the time. Toby Gard, the lead designer at Core Design, didn't want a typical action hero. He wanted something different. What we got was a grid-based puzzle platformer disguised as an adventure movie. If you miss a jump by a pixel? You’re dead. If you don't time that backflip perfectly? Spikes. It was brutal. It was clunky. And somehow, it was absolute magic.
The weird physics of the Tomb Raider old game
Most people today look at the tank controls and cringe. They think it's bad design. It’s not. It was actually a very deliberate, mathematical way to handle 3D space. Every single movement Lara makes is tied to a square on the floor. One walking step is half a block. A running jump requires exactly two steps of momentum. Once you "get" the rhythm, the Tomb Raider old game stops feeling like a struggle and starts feeling like a dance.
But man, those early levels were something else. Remember the Caves? It starts so simple. Just some bats and some snow. Then you hit the Lost Valley. That moment the music shifts—the "Time to Kill" track—and that T-Rex stomps out of the fog? Pure nightmare fuel. There was no map. No objective markers. You just had to figure it out or stay lost forever in those Peruvian mountains.
Why the atmosphere is still unmatched
Modern games are loud. They have constant dialogue, waypoints, and cinematic explosions every five minutes. The 1996 Tomb Raider old game was the opposite. It was quiet. Like, unsettlingly quiet. You’d spend twenty minutes climbing a massive room in the St. Francis Folly level, and the only sound was the ambient wind loop and Lara’s grunts.
Nathan McCree’s soundtrack only kicked in when you discovered something big. That’s a lesson in restraint that most AAA developers have completely forgotten. When that harp melody plays, you know you’ve found something ancient. It gave the game a sense of "archaeological loneliness" that even the shiny 2013 reboot couldn't quite replicate. You weren't a survivor; you were an intruder.
What people get wrong about Lara Croft’s origins
There is this massive misconception that Lara was just "marketing bait." People point to the 90s ad campaigns and the weirdly proportioned character model. But if you actually play the Tomb Raider old game, Lara is cold. She’s professional. She isn't doing this for some noble cause or to "find herself." In the original script, she’s basically a thrill-seeker who disowns her aristocratic heritage because it’s boring.
She was a tomb raider. Simple as that.
When Jacqueline Natla hires her to find the Scion of Atlantis, Lara doesn't hesitate. She doesn't have a team in her ear telling her where to go. She’s highly educated, incredibly dangerous, and deeply selfish in her pursuit of knowledge. That’s what made her a cult icon. She didn't need the player to like her; she just needed the player to be precise enough to keep her alive.
The technical wizardry of 1996
Core Design was working with incredibly limited hardware on the Sega Saturn and PlayStation 1. To make the environments feel massive, they used a "portal-based" rendering system. Basically, the game only cared about the room you were currently in and the "windows" into the next rooms. This allowed for those massive vertical chambers in the Palace Midas level without crashing the console.
- The Grid System: Every level is built on 2.5-meter blocks.
- The AI: Enemies like the wolves or lions used simple line-of-sight triggers, but in the dark, they felt like they were hunting you.
- The Water: Tomb Raider was one of the first games to get 3D swimming right. It felt buoyant and terrifying because of the limited oxygen bar.
Exploring the "Lost" feeling of the levels
Take the level "City of Khamoon." It’s a masterpiece of level design. You enter through a tiny crevice and suddenly you're looking at an underground sphinx. There’s no explanation for how it got there. The Tomb Raider old game relied on visual storytelling way before it was a buzzword. You’d see a giant lever and have to backtrack through three rooms to see what it moved.
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It was a giant 3D Rubik's cube.
Sometimes it was frustrating. Actually, it was usually frustrating. You'd spend an hour trying to find a silver key, only to realize you walked past it because it was a 2D sprite hidden in some 32-bit textures. But that’s what made finishing a level so rewarding. You didn't just "complete" it; you conquered it. You solved the architecture.
The legacy of the Scion
The plot involving the Scion of Atlantis is surprisingly dark for a mid-90s platformer. It’s about genetic experimentation and the fall of a civilization. By the time you reach the "Atlantis" levels at the end of the game, the environments turn into flesh and bone. It’s gross. It’s pulsating. It’s a total shift from the dusty tombs of the first three acts. This tonal shift is something the newer games struggle with because they try to keep everything grounded in "realism." The Tomb Raider old game didn't care about realism. it cared about being weird.
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How to play it today (properly)
If you’re looking to dive back into the Tomb Raider old game, you have options. You could dig out a dusty PS1, but the frame rate is... well, it’s a struggle. The 2024 Remastered collection by Aspyr is actually the gold standard here. It lets you toggle between the original "polygonal" look and updated textures without changing the underlying grid logic.
However, if you want the "true" experience, play it with the original tank controls.
Don't use the modern camera-based movement. It breaks the platforming. The game was designed for you to tap the "look" button, line up your shoulders with a ledge, and hop back once to get the perfect distance for a running jump. It’s a mechanical skill, like learning a manual transmission car.
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Actionable ways to enjoy classic Tomb Raider:
- Ignore the "Modern" Controls: If you're playing the Remasters, switch to Tank Controls. It feels weird for ten minutes, then it clicks.
- Sound On, Lights Off: This is an atmosphere game. The silence is part of the challenge.
- No Walkthroughs (at first): The joy of this game is the "Eureka!" moment when you find the hidden switch. Don't rob yourself of that.
- Save Often: In the original PS1 version, you needed "Save Crystals." In the PC and Remaster versions, you can save anywhere. Use it. This game is a series of beautiful mistakes.
The Tomb Raider old game isn't just a relic of the past. It's a specific genre of "lonely platformer" that we don't see anymore. It’s about the relationship between a person and a vast, uncaring environment. Whether you're dodging darts in Peru or jumping over lava in a subterranean pyramid, it’s a reminder that sometimes, the best way to move forward is to stop, look around, and count your steps.
To truly appreciate where gaming is now, you have to go back to the Natla's Mines. You have to experience the frustration of a missed grab and the triumph of finally seeing the sky again after hours underground. Grab a controller, find that first secret, and remember why Lara Croft became a legend in the first place.