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In what appears to be an impossible feat, GBAtemp member @XProger has managed to get the the original 1996 PlayStation and PC classic, Tomb Raider running on the Game Boy Advance.

OpenLara is open-source project that can function as a replacement engine for Tomb Raider (1996) and is available for a number of platforms (including but not limited to the 3DO, Raspberry Pi, Xbox and more).

Lead engine developer @XProger has gone a step further and managed to scale the project down to run under the GBA's 16.78MHz arm CPU at a frame rate that appears to hover around the 16fps mark - an outstanding display of technical wizardry.

In what @XProger describes as an alpha version, OpenLara for the GBA currently only offers 3 levels of the game and excludes original FMV sequences, however the developer has expressed their intent to continue work on the GBA port by improving performance, trimming cutscenes down and more. The author goes on to state that they expect the complete package will be able to fit within a 256Mbit ROM.

Hi guys, I'm the lead developer of OpenLara engine.
More than year ago I released a tech demo, back then I was not sure that the GBA is capable for such game. But over time I improved my ARM skills, found new ways to optimize rendering and logic. The result is what I can honestly call an alpha version. There are many further improvements in the plan, as well as optimization of content and video to fit the entire Tomb Rader game in a 32 MB cartridge, but so far only 3 levels are available.

Check out the video of OpenLara in action on the GBA above and follow the links below for further information and to support the dev.

OpenLara Github page
OpenLara discussion thread (GBAtemp)

 

[InfoAddict]

Tomb Raider already sucks, too bad the GBA has been plagued by this engine...

The original Tomb Raiders are far far better games than 99% of games that come out today. They have actual curated, labyrinthine level design which is a rarity to see these days.

 

[raxadian]

That’s still a playable game as far as I’m concerned, just one that’s a work in progress. It’s not like we haven’t seen less content on offer in the era of Early Access, three levels of a game that by all accounts grossly exceeds the hardware spec is no less astonishing to me.

In my time it was called shareware or playable demo.

 

[Foxi4]

In my time it was called shareware or playable demo.

Oh, I remember shareware. Lots of those were full games too.

 

[raxadian]

Oh, I remember shareware. Lots of those were full games too.

No, some made the mistake of including so much of the complete game it felt like the full game. Or were so hard or long you got many hours of fun with just the free stuff. For example the Doom shareware was 2/3 of the full game so many people didn't bother to get the full game. That's why Doom 2 didn't have a demo or shareware version

 

[sailr]

it is beyond logic and above reason

 

[ChiefReginod]

Old 3ds too?

Yes, and full speed on O3DS if I remember correctly.

 

[Tarmfot]

Yes, and full speed on O3DS if I remember correctly.

Great! Thanks!

 

[RGSPro]

Has the full game been converted to the Open Lara GBA engine, or just the first two levels?

 

[Jayro]

Has the full game been converted to the Open Lara GBA engine, or just the first two levels?

I think one big problm is the arbitrary 32MB ROM size limit. If we had a mapper that could address 256MB like a multi-rom bootleg does, they could probably continue with more of the game.

 

[raxadian]

Has the full game been converted to the Open Lara GBA engine, or just the first two levels?

The biggest problem is the GBA cartridge size limit. To convert the full game either several cards should be used or this will never run in anything but an emulator.

But no, the full game has not been converted yet.

Maybe they should try to aim for the Nintendo DS instead? The full game can technically work as a DS game if a conversion is made.

 

[Jayro]

The biggest problem is the GBA cartridge size limit. To convert the full game either several cards should be used or this will never run in anything but an emulator.

But no, the full game has not been converted yet.

Maybe they should try to aim for the Nintendo DS instead? The full game can technically work as a DS game if a conversion is made.

What emulator you running that allows larger than 32MB banking? I can't get mGBA or VBA-M to work with roms over 32MB.

 

[raxadian]

What emulator you running that allows larger than 32MB banking? I can't get mGBA or VBA-M to work with roms over 32MB.

https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/visualboyadvance-m/issues/1046

Other emulators should work.

 

[therabbitofthenorth]

Really don’t care for the TR series, but *fuck* is this insane. Really curious if these tricks and optimizations can be applied generally to PS1 games, or if they’re more engine-specific. Excellent work (even if the Funko Pop was cringe).

 

[raxadian]

Really don’t care for the TR series, but *fuck* is this insane. Really curious if these tricks and optimizations can be applied generally to PS1 games, or if they’re more engine-specific. Excellent work (even if the Funko Pop was cringe).

You can make a PS1 game look better using an emulator and these tricks are indeed GBA specific.

 

[Jayro]

https://github.com/visualboyadvance-m/visualboyadvance-m/issues/1046

Other emulators should work.

I asked if he could support more than 32MB ROMs, and he said no.

 

[therabbitofthenorth]

You can make a PS1 game look better using an emulator and these tricks are indeed GBA specific.

I’m confused; do you mean better via a PSX emulator or with a GBA emulator?

Additionally the GBA is not an engine, but OpenLara is, so the question is whether this is OpenLara-specific or can be applied generally to porting PSX games to GBA.

 

[raxadian]

Of course a PS1 game can look better with a PS1 emulator.

https://www.duckstation.org/

You will need a decent PC however.

 

[Urbanshadow]

I think one big problm is the arbitrary 32MB ROM size limit. If we had a mapper that could address 256MB like a multi-rom bootleg does, they could probably continue with more of the game.

GB carts solved this by writing to arbitrary ROM addresses to inform the mapper to switch to specific banks. The trick is understanding the ROM mapper is physically inside the cart.

Of course it would need to be a custom mapper. Emulators will need changes to be able to access the data, but its not outside of GBA hardware spec. Its one of this weird things it might be easier to do directly in a fpga than it is to do in emulator.