Single-segment speed run of Tomb Raider's European version, done on May 25 2007. Note: In-game timer runs at 5/6 real time. Available in five versions: low/normal quality DivX, and normal/high/low quality H.264 MPEG-4.

Author's comments:
I began working on this run a few months ago, after watching the previous run I was personally horrified and shaking my head throughout, so much so that I felt I could beat the run quite comfortably in a single segment. I actually had to go out of my way to repurchase the game and fetch my Saturn from the loft at another place.

Before I go into details about each level its essential that people who are unfamiliar with the game and glitches read the general notes. Heres a background into the game and run. Firstly my run was done on the PAL version, but the times are compensated into NTSC at the end of each level. I have the PC version but I find the controls to awkward and often the controls lock meaning that avoid mistakes and deaths are out with my control. The game was originally intended to be a Saturn exclusive and was hence built using the Saturn engine, the game tries to make positive use of the Saturn strengths and limitations. For example the Saturn can only handle square based polygons, but is very good and handling and dealing with large levels. Graphically the game is terrible and has a lot of bugs in it, many of them game killing such as game freezes, black screens or a random bug that prevents completion of a certain room and hence completion of the game itself. The reason for all of this is because Sega were putting a lot of pressure of both Core and Eidos to release the more quickly than it should of, and both Core and Eidos were on the brink of bankruptcy before this game was realeased.

General notes:

* Running and jumping is the fastest movement in the game, it saves approximately 2 seconds per jump.
* I make distinct use of corner and wall bugs throughout the run, quite simply the areas inside of the walls are regarded as an "impossible" location, so the game thinks that the player must be on top of it, so Lara gets zipped up the wall until she reaches a ledge or a ceiling.
* The developers nor testers took any account that Lara might be able to curve her jump in mid-air, this feature is heavily abused throughout the run as it can reach certain ledges more early than intended, some are ridiculously easy while some require hard practice and careful preparation to pull off.
* The trick often referred to as a safety drop is quite often used, its an oversight to intentional programming. If Lara is in her grab animation then she'll continue to have forward momentum without bashing against any walls. If she drops back to grab a ledge, then let go of the action button then she'll miss the ledge and land on the one below.
* If Lara can still do her grabbing animation before she reaches the ground while jumping from a height which would normally stun her, then is can be cancelled by a forward jump, I can only get it to work about a third of the time, but I did manage to nail it successfully on a few odd occasions.
* If Lara hits a ceiling before the peak of a jump then she can continue in her full running animation
* The game works mostly by triggers by going over certain tiles, often they can be avoided by taking an unintentional shortcut through a level or by jumping through a corner, I sometimes use this to avoid enemies triggering which speeds up rooms because they can be entirely ignored. It should also be noted that I use this to skip block pushing as well.

Level Notes:

* Caves - Pretty straightforward level, although it can often cause a lot of restarts when you're trying to go for a near perfect run. I use a fake corner bug in order to do a ground zip through the wall. There is a slope bug which speeds up the level a little further but I choose not to use it because I end up wasting more time trying to pull it off than the time it would actually save

* City of Vilcabamba - Another fairly straightforward level, pulling the block back and using it to escape the room is somewhat unintentional, there is a corner bug and wall bug that would save time in the second half of the level, but its to fiddly to pull of effectively and usually ends up wasting time.

* The Valley - Somewhat annoying level, the corner bug here saves roughly 20-30 second and prevents me from getting gang raped by the raptors on the escape from the valley, I spend time dealing with the raptors and T-rex at the begging because 90% of the time I would always die if I ignored them.

* Tomb of Qulapec - Thanks to MMAN's discovery I was able to use a large sequence break that cut out 80% of the level using a trigger abuse. It appears that the final room state is initially loaded, and so I keep it that way by jumping through the corner at the start and thus avoiding the trigger which switches the room back to its initial state.

* St Francis Folly - Probably the most difficult level until the Sanctuary level is encountered, the level is riddled with death spots and speed run killers. I step on the square which closes the door in the first room, this triggers Piers in the first room, who can be largely ignored. I do this because it avoids him appearing in the next part of the level. I also use a gate bug which saves about 20 seconds, this works because the wall above gives Lara a collision boost through the gate. Diving in the Thor room seems to prevent Lara from being hit by lighting and the route I use in the swords room is the most consistent way to avoid being hit without becoming a mad man.

* Colosseum - I make use of the wall bug which I only discovered recently before this attempt, the shortcut to the emperors balcony saves a lot of time and I ended up not needing to use a medipack before the end.

* Midas - I save quite a lot time through the use of shortcuts and glitches, I use the curve jump to get the lever platform, the block glitch to skip block pushing and a couple of corner bugs as well. I managed to prevent Gorillas from triggering in the pre Midas room but messed up on triggering the lion in the last room, thankfully it didn't matter in the end.

* Cistern - The main room has a fair bit of lag, mainly because its such a large room with a lot of stuff loaded, interestingly there is many routes which could be taken through this stage. The quickest method would be to flood the room more earlier and use a water corner bug to get the first silver key more quickly which also skips a rusty key. The route I use is by far the most reliable and consistent throughout.

* Tomb of Tihocan- Many annoyances in terms of mistakes here, there is a death floor which nearly always gets activated in the first room with the sewar rat, which is why I try to jump on and off the block instead of pulling it, I use the corner bug because it decreases the chances of being hit and taking major damage from Piers, the Piers battle at the end went exceptionally well thanks to him running endlessly into the door.

* City of Khamoon - Major shortcuts taken here I use the fence which lets Lara slip through if she stresses the seams enough and the corner bug saves rough 4-5 mins and is 2 mins faster than using the mummy glitch.

* Obelisk of Khamoon - I didn't use the block skip here because I'm unable to get back again after pulling it off the first time which is strange because you it you can do it on the other versions of the game. The level went pretty smoothly I use an intentional route once I obtain the four elements, using it allows me to avoid a more dangerous route involving deadly mummies.

* Sanctuary of the Scion - the games difficulty is upped dramatically from here on in, so much so that I felt it was necessary to double my fire power with the magnums, I now have Atlanteans to deal with who are very similar to mummies except they have the ability to shoot projectiles. Also flying Atlanteans are a pain since if they get to close to Lara the game will freeze, which is why I'm insistent in killing the first two after pulling the levers, the most difficult part of the of the level is at the end where you have to deal with two Atlanteans and another more deadly one on horseback. I thankfully survive without using too many medipacks.

* Natla's Mines - This level get completely butchered with glitches shortcuts and oversights and is perhaps the level where the most time is saved via unintentional play, I use the dramatic jump to the TNT lever which saves a ton of time, although the level is my worst ever because I spend ages trying to pull off the beat the door trick, I just couldn't seem to nail the timing initially.

* Atlantis - This level is just my nightmare, I decided that it was necessary to upgrade further to the uzis. It contains the hardest enemies throughout and there all in large groups and numbers, the upside to it is that just about every area has its shortcut or unintentional way of playing.

* The Great Pyramid - the pyramid went surprisingly smoothly, although my cautious approach meant I was slower than I would have liked, I use a tile glitch to fall faster without taking damage and a corner bug at the end which saves about 2 mins of ledge hopping while being hit by Natla's gunfire

* level 1: 2:01
* level 2 : 4:00
* level 3: 5:41
* level 4: 1:11
* level 5: 9:10
* level 6: 5:44
* level 7: 9:51
* level 8: 8:36
* level 9: 10:16
* level 10: 2:38
* level 11: 7:23
* level 12: 14:00
* level 13: 8:07
* level 14: 14:15
* level 15: 7:23

Total Time: 1:50:16

I would like to thank MMAN and Ajax for their support and tips they gave throughout my attempts and SDA for hosting this run.

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