Tomb Raider 1 lands on Nintendo 64, a homebrew port with FMV and voice acting that should never have existed
The Nintendo 64 shared an era with the original PlayStation, and yet, it never received a single game from the Tomb Raider series. The reason: a Sony exclusivity deal signed after the first opus. Three decades later, a homebrew developer named defaultdnb is correcting this historical injustice.
🏛️ Why the N64 never had Tomb Raider
The first Tomb Raider was released in 1996 simultaneously on PC and PlayStation, but not on N64. Core Design and Eidos then reportedly signed a deal with Sony making the sequels exclusive to the PlayStation for a given period. The N64 did receive a few ports from Core Design (Fighting Force in particular), but never Lara Croft. An absence that always surprised fans, seeing that the two consoles were technically comparable.
🔧 An impressive WIP port
defaultdnb is working on a native port of Tomb Raider 1 for Nintendo 64, and the early demos are remarkable. The port already includes:
- Working basic gameplay
- FMV included, in low resolution suitable for N64, but present
- Voices included, a significant technical feat
Technically, fitting the cutscenes and voice data of a PS1 game within the constraints of the N64 cartridge (and its limited ROM) is a non-trivial challenge. The fact that defaultdnb achieved this testifies to serious compression and optimization work.
📥 Availability
The project is still under development, no public ROM to download yet. To follow the progress, visit the defaultdnb blog: defaultdnb.github.io/ReCollect64.
Sources: Retro Dodo, Famiboards