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Taking Tomb Raider Screenshots


(NOTE: Sorry about the slightly hinky page layout here. It looks a little odd, but it should enable you to print all the info below if you begin printing with page 2.)


Angel of Darkness & Legend Screenshots

TR: Angel of Darkness and Legend for PC: For these you can either use your system's Print Screen key to capture individual shots and paste them into into a graphics program like Photoshop or PaintShop. Or, use a separate screen-grabbing program, such as IrfanView or Fraps. (The latter can also do video capture.) See the linked pages for more info.


Tomb Raider 1-5 Screenshots

The older TR games include a variety of methods for taking scresnshots. The following is adapted from the alt.games.tombraider FAQ:

Tomb Raider 1: Runs in DOS, so you'll probably need a separate screenshot grabbing program like Fraps. Several others are listed at the 3D Action Gamers' Archive.

You may also want to look into Glidos, a glide wrapper designed for DOS. See my downloads page for more info on Glidos, and Dracman's Shotgun City site for some screenshots made in TR1 under Glidos.

Tomb Raider Gold Unfinished Business Levels: Press the forward-slash key (/) and the game will start dumping screenshots (in .pcx format) into your TR directory. (Press the slash key again to stop it, or you'll quickly eat up your hard disk space!)

Tomb Raider2: The 's' key takes one screenshot at a time, saved to your TR2 directory in .pcx (or .tga if in 16.7 million colour mode) format also.

Tomb Raider 3, 4 (Last Revelation), and 5 (Chronicles): The apostrophe (') key takes the screenshots in .tga format only.

If you're having trouble viewing the .pcx or .tga files, you'll need a compatible graphics programl, such as Photoshop, PaintShop, etc. Or, download IrfanView freeware at irfanview.com.

With Win95/98, depending on your graphics hardware, you may also be able to use the 'Print Screen' key for TR2 and TR3. This copies a bitmap to your clipboard, which you can then paste into a graphics program like Photoshop or PaintShop.

TR1 and 2 for Macintosh: F13 or Shift-Tab for PICT format screenshots. Or, try Snapz Pro from Ambrosia Software for Mac screenshots in a variety of formats.

If you know of more up-to-date Macintosh screen-capture software or techniques, please let me know and I will include it here.


PlayStation 1 Screenshots

Pulling Screenshots from PlayStation (PS1, PSX or PSOne)

This information was provided by any_door. Please contact him by email at any_door(at)hotmail.com if you have questions, comments, or just want to say thanks.

You can pull screenshots from PlayStation, too, provided you know what model you have and what equipment you need. With any model PlayStation you will need to have a PC, the software required to grab images (Hacking Utilities from GameShark.com or GSCC from GSCCC) and a means to connect your PlayStation to your PC.

If you have a PS1 that has the Parallel I/O port on the back (SCPH 100x-7xxx), you can take advantage of this port by installing a plug-in game enhancer.

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PS1 model # SCPH-1xxx through 7xxx have a small removable panel labeled "PARALLEL I/O". It was intended to be used as an expansion port. It's kinda tricky to remove. (Click each picture above to see a larger version.)

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This is where a game "enhancer" will plug in (pictured is GameSharkPro 3.2, which also serves as an additional foot for the PS1). Follow your owner's guide to install the enhancer. It should slide into place. (Click each picture above to see a larger version.)

To be able to grab screenshots using this type of device, it must be equipped with a DB-25 parallel port. The most popular device of this type is the GameSharkPro. After this is installed, the last thing you will need is a DB-25 male-to-female cable. The female end goes into your game enhancer, the male end to a parallel port on your PC.

If your PC has only one printer port and a printer cable is installed there, purchase an additional cable and an A-B switch. Talk to your local PC supply professional about these items.

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The illustration above shows one possible setup for the A-B switch, with the PlayStation (connected through the GameSharkPro) on the left and the printer on the right. (Click the picture to see a larger version.)

Once the parallel cable is installed on the back of the game enhancer, make a support (a book, a block, a stack of LEGOs) to keep the weight of the cable from disconnecting or possibly damaging the game enhancer, the PS1, or both. In the picture below I'm using my A-B switch.

If you own a PS1 SCPH-9xxx or PSOne (shown below), there will be no parallel port to connect to.

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(Click the picture to see a larger version.)

These model PlayStations use a CD game enhancer, and use a "Comm Link Cable" to connect your PS1 or PSOne to your PC. Installation is much easier on these units. The Comm Link Cable connects to the "SERIAL I/O" port on the back of the PS1, and a serial (COM) port on the back of your PC. This cable is available from the more popular game enhancer manufacturers.

Be sure you know what model PS1 you have, then check with the game enhancer manufacturer to determine if their product is compatible with your unit. The model number can be found under the unit (as shown in the picture below).



In either case, the use of the software given above is the same. Once everything is connected properly and the software is installed on your PC, you will first need to ensure proper communication between your PC and your PlayStation. This is done by having the game enhancer at its Main Menu and then using the PC software to establish a "Comms Link". Once this is achieved, go to the area of the PC software that allows you to grab images.

Now comes the wierd part. Grabbing images from PlayStation requires you to press the Reset button at the moment you want to grab. The image you were viewing before you pressed Reset is stored in the PlayStation video RAM. Once the game enhancer main menu has reappeared you are ready to initiate the image download.

Say, for instance, you're writing a walkthrough for TR:TLR and you want to show how to make the bull in Guardian of Semerkhet charge and hit one of the three "eye" buttons. As soon as Lara has jumped out of the way, and the bull has hit its head on the button (and if the image you see is descriptive enough), hit the reset button. Then download the image to your PC using the software.

The image will be in Bitmap (.BMP) format, and will include, not only the image you grabbed, but will show other "off-screen" items as well.

Now go out there and grab some pics of Lara!


PlayStation 2 Screenshots

If you have a walkthrough for doing PS2 screenshots, please let me know and I will post it here or give a link if it's already on the web.


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