They are much easier to solve. I've been playing Tomb Raider for 20 years give or take the days I was too young to remember much or even use a computer. I also used to watch my dad get much further in the game than I did as a kid so I've had experience, plus help from Stella and her brilliant walkthroughs when getting badly stuck or secret hunting.

Although I only started beating Tomb Raider games around 2003 or 2004 after I started completing games for the first time unless you count the Sesame Street Sherlock Hemlock graphic adventure game I had when I was around 3 or 4, or the Tonka Construction one I played later. (Why aren't those games on GOG anyway?)

I've posted a ticket but it's the weekend and hoven't gotten any help yet, so checking here.

TR1 Won't run. tried the dosbox settings posted in the knowledge base, no joy.
TR2 Won't finish d/l, I assume it's because of gog's current server issues?
TR3 Runs, but doesn't have good controller support for my XB1 controller. That is, I can move Lara forward, but none of the buttons work. The only option in the 'setup' exe for controller is "input device". If I try to go to the 'controls' option in-game the game seems to hang. That is, the music continues, but no keyboard button does anything, can't exit that menu.

I've found numerous posts describing this or that patch, but all links are either dead or point to a $15 patreon account. I get that these are OLD games, but if they're still being sold on gog, they ought to work, right? Or am I asking too much? Anyone have any advice that still works on a modern system?

Tomb Raider 1-5 is just a huge bag of countless issues for me and apparently no one was able to provide an easy and working fix for those games. The incompatibility is sometimes so heavy, i completely have to reboot my Win 10 because it is totally screwed up.

I almost think you have to use some sort of emulator... hard to believe. So far i found a fix for any game so far... but not for Tomb Raider 1-5. Basically the ones with the dated 1996-engine.

All the other Tomb Raiders (6-9) works fine.

Under optimal circumstance, someone who apparently is getting it to run properly (because for some unknown reason, those people seem to exist) simply should make a patch (or ZIP of the required update-files) which is able to work properly for any given Tomb Raider 1-5 (the newer ones do not need any fixes).

I simply fail to get 1-5 to run PROPERLY, no matter what i try. Either there is controller issues, weird graphic artifact issues, stability issues and even unable to exit a game anymore (having to reboot the entire system). And many more issues...

If there is no solutions... the only thing that still may work is to completely emulate it... this ways the games does not need a "native Windows-environment" which simply is out of any good compatibility. It can not even screw up the system anymore because not directly attached. Those issues are not usual, because so far i got any old game to run with some fixes... a few needed huge fixes but at some point it was done.

The 3Dfx emulation for the original DOSBox seems to have some problems. I saw that the screen changed color, maybe it's necessary to change the overlay mode.

You can switch to software rendering by using the _soft configuration file.

Newer games are made for Direct3D. What helps for old D3D games, is dgVoodoo2.

Controllers: For games as old as these you should uses a old controller with no analog shoulder keys (only digital buttons) and a stick that moves in a square, that's how pads from early 1990s to early 2000s worked on the PC and what games were designed for. If the analog triggers are no problem, pads like the EasySMX ESM-9110 work quite well. It reduces the stick extension data, creating something like a square with rounded corners.

TR1 however always has had issues with controllers. Cycling menus and random inputs were quite normal, since the game does not have a calibration menu. Back in the days we would manually adjust the 'center' offset to get it to work properly which is not possible anymore with modern gamepads. The only viable solution is to unplug the gamepad before the game starts. I heared that using Joy2Key should solve it, but I haven't tested that yet.

As an alternative, try using this setting in the config file, this should disable gamepad input.

joysticktype=none



Using dosbox staging I was already able to get rid of the overlay problems, the graphics look fine
I use a different file layout however as GOG does (I have all DOS games collected in one directory), placed the DLLs in the same directory as the executable.
\TombRa1e\DOS4GW.EXE
\TombRa1e\glide.ini
\TombRa1e\glide.log
\TombRa1e\glide2x.dll
\TombRa1e\glide2x.ovl
\TombRa1e\glide2x_emu.ovl
\TombRa1e\HMIDET.386
\TombRa1e\HMIDRV.386
\TombRa1e\HMISET.CFG
\TombRa1e\libfluidsynth-1.dll
\TombRa1e\libglib-2.0-0.dll
\TombRa1e\libgthread-2.0-0.dll
\TombRa1e\libphysfs.dll
\TombRa1e\RUN.BAT
\TombRa1e\SDL.dll
\TombRa1e\SDL_net.dll
\TombRa1e\SETTINGS.DAT
\TombRa1e\SETUP.EXE
\TombRa1e\tomb.exe
\TombRa1e\TOMB.SP
\TombRa1e\TOMBs.EXE
\TombRa1e\CD\02.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\03.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\04.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\05.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\06.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\07.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\08.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\09.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\10.mp3
\TombRa1e\CD\GAME.DAT
\TombRa1e\CD\GAME.GOG

Then I use this run.bat batch file which I placed in the game directory directory

imgmount d ".\CD\game.dat" -t iso -fs iso
tomb.exe
unmount -u D

So in short: DosBox Stating works, but you might have to move the DLLs.

Actually back in these days the PC was clearly better. Tomb Raider was designed for PS1 and only had software rendering on that machine.
On the PC it had 3Dfx Voodoo graphics, no console had something similar. When Tomb Raider was released, I already owned a Pentium with 24 MB RAM, CD-ROM, 3Dfx Voodoo and a Soundblaster16, that was by far more powerful than any console on the market.
Also in the 2D segment the PC was stronger, VGA and SVGA were unmatched.

The "weak" point was, that there were so many competitors when it came to gamepads and sticks and no standard. On the console you could not chose what stick to use, every game was made for the same model.
Flightsticks and compatible gamepads however had to be calibrated, something that the programmers of TR1 did not include in their game.
Also programmers for the PC had to keep in mind many different sound and video systems, especially in the US old EGA hardware was sometimes present. Basically it was the same as it is these days with the graphics cards. But with the early mid 90s they stopped supporting anything before VGA.

At least with some tweaking we actually ARE able to play many of the old games without emulators (yes, I know that DOSBox is a emulator, 16 bit don't work on modern processors). On consoles this is not possible. You need to own a console from that time to play the games.
The alternative would be to do the same as console players do and set up an old Pentium for retro gaming.



ps: There is a remake of TR1 called "OpenLara". You might want to check that out.

There was "better" PCs around, but those "high end Vodoo-machines" was barely affordable and way more expensive than a console those days. So the devs was providing the best support on consoles, unless it is a native PC game but the console-support in general was supreme. Todays, good PCs are still expensive but it is more widely available as those PCs has been around forever... at least if we take even the most crappy and most dated stuff (which surely will not be able to compete with a PS5).

Tomb Raider 1-5 was primarily coded for those old consoles (mainly PS1)... and on PC it barely works any good at all... back in those days and even today, the matter remains unchanged. Tomb Raider 6 (Angel of Darkness) was changing the matters and even for PC everything was technically improved. Although, the current PC games are mainly "remaster or remakes"; with the exception of Angel of Darkness, which actually runs pretty good with very few "tuning".

Almost everything can be emulated, but the demand, dependable on what have to be emulated on the hardware and software-level can be immense and one of the most challenging things ever. Sometimes it is the only way in order to "preserve" the original feeling without completely remake the entire game using a new engine, especially when the incompatibility is way to high.

A console was, is and will always be cheaper than a PC. Luckily, to get the quality of consoles you didn't have to have the best computer. An average PC could do it just as well. But other than for consoles, people also expected weak PCs to run the games, especially in the US (that's why in the US games were sold on CDs when Europe was using DVDs for years already).
The Pentium was actually the first PC I bought. Before that all my PC hardware was borrowed, I didn't have a lot of funds back then. I took summer job to earn that money. I spent ~ 3500DM for it (roughly 1750€, ignoring inflation for the moment), me and my dad shared the costs.
The Voodoo1 card cost 250DM (roughly 125€), I bought it on a computer faire in Munich in 1996 ot 1997. Seeing the Jedi Knight demo on such a card was the reason. It was a carbon copy of Matrox model, which cost about 350DM.

People bought stonger hardware for games since games existed. Wing Commander was the reason why the x386 was bought and Quake the reason for the Pentium. Others bought more RAM for Dark Forces.

You say the worst PC is weaker than the best console? Of course, I totally agree.
But the best console was never as good as the best PC.