Installing Tomb Raider: The Lost Artifact on a Windows 8.1 and 10 PC

Updated: 5/7/21(†)

This page includes two sets of instructions: First, basic installation from the original CD, either with or without the optional widescreen patch. Second, an advanced installation where the game runs directly from the hard drive and also replaces the original load screen artwork with versions optimized for widescreen monitors.

This is a lot of info, but just take it step by step and you'll be diving into the game in just a few minutes.

It's much easier and more cost effective to just play the remastered version. But if you're a collector and just want to own the original Lost Artifact on CD, new and used copies can usually be found on eBay. If you're having trouble finding the game, let me know. I may be able to help.

IMPORTANT: These instructions were written using a Windows 10 system but should also work with Windows 8.1. There may be a few minor differences in the exact file locations, etc.


BASIC INSTALLATION

INSTALLING THE LOST ARTIFACT FROM CD

  1. Insert the Lost Artifact CD in your CD/DVD drive and either allow it to auto-run or browse the CD and run setup.exe.
  2. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the game as usual. Make a note of the location where you install the game, since you'll need to access this folder in the subsequent steps. (The default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Core Design\Tomb Raider - The Lost Artifact.)
  3. After the installation is complete, exit the installer without running the game.

INSTALLING THE WINDOWS 8 or 10 PATCH

  1. Download the Windows 8 Multipatch or the Windows 10 Multipatch from the Tomb Raider Chronicles site.
  2. Double-click the trupdate.zip file to open it. Then copy/paste the patch program, trupdate.exe, to any convenient location.
  3. Double-click the trupdate.exe file to run the patch. Accept the license agreement. On the next screen, check the box for "TR Lost Artifact Update". Then click "Install" to run the patch.
  4. Click "OK" then "Close".

INSTALLING THE WIDESCREEN PATCH

  1. Download the classic Tomb Raider widescreen patch. For this installation, choose the fourth download link "Tomb Raider 2, 3, 4 Widescreen Patch - Advanced Version".
  2. Double click the TombRaider234_Patch.exe file to run the patch program.
  3. Check the box for Widescreen Fix. Click the radio button for Enter Arbitrary Aspect Ratio. Then type the numbers for your Screen Width and Screen Height in the boxes below.
    (If you're not sure what screen resolution you have, right-click on your Desktop, choose Display Settings from the pop-up menu, then click Advanced Display Settings. The next window should show your screen resolution, probably something like 1920 x 1080.)
  4. You may also want to change the settings for Camera Distance and Field of View. I like to use 1036 and 336 here. (See the note below.)
  5. After entering the desired values in the patch program window, click "Go!"
  6. The patcher will then ask you to browse to the game you want to patch, in this case tr3gold.exe. This should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Core Design\Tomb Raider – The Lost Artifact\tr3gold.exe. (Here you want the tr3gold.exe in the installation folder, NOT the tr3gold.exe on the CD.)
  7. When you have selected the correct tr3gold.exe file click "Open" to run the patch. A blue status bar should progress across the bottom of the window. When it's done, you'll see the message: "Status: Patched successfully!" Click "Exit".
  8. IMPORTANT: After using the widescreen patch, use Windows File Explorer to browse to the same tr3gold.exe file you just patched (i.e., the one in the installation folder, not the one on the CD.) Right-click the tr3gold.exe file, choose "Properties" from the pop-up menu, then click the "Compatibility" tab. Un-check the box under "Compatibility mode". Then click OK.
  9. Double-click tr3gold.exe to run the game. The first time you do this, you should see the Tomb Raider III Setup window. Under "Resolution" choose your desired screen resolution (1920x1080 or whatever settings you used for the widescreen patch.) You may need to experiment with the other settings, but generally the defaults should work. Click "OK" to play the game.

    If you already ran the setup before patching, you should still be able to adjust your screen resolution from within the game using the Detail Levels (sunglasses) menu item.

    If you then save the game and exit through the Passport menu, it should remember your settings for next time.

CREATING A DESKTOP OR START MENU SHORTCUT

  1. Use Windows File Explorer to browse to the same tr3gold.exe you just patched. (Again, it will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Core Design\Tomb Raider – The Lost Artifact\tr3gold.exe if you didn't change anything when you installed the game.)
  2. Right-click the tr3gold.exe file and choose "Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)" or right-click and choose "Pin To Start".

ADVANCED INSTALLATION – RUN DIRECTLY FROM HARD DRIVE WITH CUSTOM LOAD SCREENS

These instructions assume you already own an original Lost Artifact CD. If your PC has an optical disk drive, follow these instructions to create an ISO file.*

*An ISO is a virtual CD or DVD contained in a single file, which can then be "mounted," enabling you to run the virtual disk directly from your hard drive. This allows the game to run faster and use custom load screens, eliminating distortion on widescreen monitors.


BEFORE YOU BEGIN

If you have already installed The Lost Artifact from your original CD, uninstall it now: Insert the Lost Artifact CD in your CD/DVD drive and either allow it to auto-run or browse the CD and double-click autorun.exe. Follow the on-screen instructions to uninstall the game as usual so you can start fresh.


CREATING THE ISO FILE

  1. Download and install ImgBurn (or any other Windows 10 utility for creating ISO files from CDs/DVDs). Here's how:
    • I recommend downloading ImgBurn from Ninite.com. Other download sites may include various unwanted add-ons and malware. The Ninite installation seems to be clean and simple. Go to ninite.com, scroll down to the 'Utilities' section. Check 'ImgBurn', scroll down a little farther and click 'Get Your Ninite' to download the program.
    • Find 'Ninite ImgBurn Installer.exe' in your Downloads folder and double-click to run it.
    • Follow the on-screen installation instructions. Wait for the installation to proceed. Then click 'Close.' ImgBurn should now be installed. You should have a desktop shortcut and Start Menu shortcut with which to run it.
  2. Create a new folder on your desktop (or wherever you like) and name it "TR_TLA" (without the quotes).
  3. Insert The Lost Artifact disk in your CD/DVD drive and choose "Open Folder to View Files" from the Windows 10 pop-up notification. (If you have disabled this pop-up, use Windows File Explorer to browse to the CD drive.)
  4. Copy all of the files on the CD into the new folder you created in step 2.
  5. At this point you should probably eject the CD to avoid confusion later on.
  6. To minimize the size of the final ISO file, you can delete some non-essential files from the "TR_TRLA" folder you just created. For example, the folders AcrobatReader, Documentation, Escape, Flatland, Support, and Wallpaper can be safely deleted. You can always access these items from your original CD if you want them.
  7. If you have a modern monitor with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and plan to use the widescreen patch (below), you can also download TRJTA's widescreen load screens. (If not, skip down to step #6.)
    • Go to this thread on the Tomb Raider Forums and follow the 'Download Now' link. This takes you to a Google Drive folder. Click the download link ( icon) at the top right corner of the page to download a file called "TR 2 - 5 Widescreen Fix.rar".
    • Extract the contents of the .rar file using the Windows 10 Unpacker app, WinRar, etc.
    • Open the "TR 2 -5 Widescreen Fix" folder you just extracted, then "TR III Gold Widescreen Pix", then "pix".
    • Copy the 20 bitmap images (Chunnel.bmp, credit01.bmp, etc.) from that folder.
    • Open the "TR_TLA" folder you created in step 2, then the "PIX" folder within. Now paste the 20 bitmap images into the PIX folder, overwriting the original images with the same names.
  8. Now it's time to create the ISO file from the TR_TRLA folder. Run the ImgBurn program you just installed in step 1. You should then see a window with several options. Choose "Create Image file from files/folders".
  9. Click on "File" in the menu bar, then choose "Browse for a source folder..." Browse to the TR_TRLA folder you created in step 2, double-click it, then click the "Select Folder" button.
  10. Click on "File" in the menu bar again, then choose "Browse for a destination file..." and choose the location where you want the finished .ISO file to go. (It doesn't really matter where you put it as long as there's enough space on the destination drive. You can always move it later.) Then click "Save".
  11. Click the "Build" button (with the folder to disk icons) or choose "Build" from the File menu. A pop-up will warn you that you have only selected one folder and ask if you want to add the contents of 'TR_TLA' to the image. Click "Yes". Another pop-up will ask if you want to use 'TR_TLA' as the volume label. Click "Yes" again. The program will quickly analyze the files and ask for one more confirmation before proceeding. Click "OK" to finish creating the ISO file.
  12. You will then see the message 'Operation Successfully Completed!' Click 'OK' and quit ImgBurn.

INSTALLING THE GAME FROM THE ISO

  1. Use Windows Explorer to find the TR_TRLA.ISO file in the location you specified in step #10 above.
  2. Right-click it and choose 'Mount' from the pop-up menu. This creates a virtual CD drive, which will be called something like DVD Drive (X:) TR_TLA. The letter assignment will vary depending on how many other drives your PC has.
  3. Browse that drive in Windows Explorer and double-click Setup.exe. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the game from the virtual CD.

    NOTE: If you receive the error message, 'Setup has detected that unInstallShield is in use. Please close unInstallShield and restart setup,' close the installer. Press Ctrl + Alt + Del and open the Task Manager. Click on the process '32-bit setup launcher' and then click the 'End Task' button. Close the Task Manager and try running the installer as an administrator. That is, right-click Setup.exe on the virtual CD and choose 'Run as Administrator' from the drop-down menu.

    If you still receive the same error, try restarting your system and temporarily disabling virus/malware scanners before again running the program as an administrator.
  4. After the installation is complete, exit the installer without running the game.

INSTALLING THE WINDOWS 10 PATCH

  1. Download the Windows 8 Multipatch or the Windows 10 Multipatch from the Tomb Raider Chronicles site.
  2. Double-click the trupdate.zip file to open it. Then copy/paste the patch program, trupdate.exe, to any convenient location.
  3. Double-click the trupdate.exe file to run the patch. Accept the license agreement. On the next screen, check the box for "TR Lost Artifact Update". Then click "Install" to run the patch.
  4. Click "OK" then "Close".

INSTALLING THE WIDESCREEN PATCH

  1. Download the classic Tomb Raider widescreen patch. For this installation, choose the fourth download link "Tomb Raider 2, 3, 4 Widescreen Patch - Advanced Version".
  2. Double click the TombRaider234_Patch.exe file to run the patch program.
  3. Check the box for Widescreen Fix. Click the radio button for Enter Arbitrary Aspect Ratio. Then type the numbers for your Screen Width and Screen Height in the boxes below.
    (If you're not sure what screen resolution you have, right-click on your Desktop, choose Display Settings from the pop-up menu, then click Advanced Display Settings. The next window should show your screen resolution, probably something like 1920 x 1080.)
  4. You may also want to change the settings for Camera Distance and Field of View. I like to use 1036 and 336 here. (See the note below.)
  5. After entering the desired values in the patch program window, click "Go!"
  6. The patcher will then ask you to browse to the game you want to patch, in this case tr3gold.exe. This should be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Core Design\Tomb Raider – The Lost Artifact\tr3gold.exe. (Here you want the tr3gold.exe in the installation folder, NOT the tr3gold.exe on the virtual CD or the one in the folder you created on your desktop.)
  7. When you have selected tr3gold.exe click "Open" to run the patch. You should then see a blue status bar at the bottom of the window along with the message "Patching in progress". When it's done, you'll see the message: "Patched successfully!" Click "Exit".
  8. IMPORTANT: After using the widescreen patch, browse to that same tr3gold.exe file you just patched. Right-click it, choose "Properties" from the pop-up menu, then click the "Compatibility" tab. Un-check the box under "Compatibility mode". Then click OK.
  9. Double-click tr3gold.exe to run the game. The first time you do this, you should see the Tomb Raider III Setup window. Under "Resolution" choose your desired screen resolution (1920x1080 or whatever settings you used for the widescreen patch.) You may need to experiment with the other settings, but generally the defaults should work. Click "OK" to play the game.

    If you already ran setup before patching, you should still be able to adjust your screen resolution from within the game using the Detail Levels (sunglasses) menu item.

    If you then save the game and exit through the Passport menu, it should remember your settings for next time.


CREATING A DESKTOP OR START MENU SHORTCUT

  1. Use Windows File Explorer to browse to the same tr3gold.exe you just patched. (Again, it will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Core Design\Tomb Raider – The Lost Artifact\tr3gold.exe if you didn't change anything when you installed the game.)
  2. Right-click the tr3gold.exe file and choose "Send to > Desktop (create shortcut)" or right-click and choose "Pin To Start".

NOTES: The widescreen patch also allows you to change the Camera Distance and Field of View. (The default settings for Camera Distance and FOV are 1140 and 432, respectively. TRF user innuendo1231 recommends 1036 and 336 as the ideal settings to reproduce the look of the original game. I like these settings, but you can always go back and run the patch again with different values.

If everything is working fine but you later get a "CD not found" error, just repeat the first two steps under "INSTALLING THE GAME FROM THE ISO," above, to re-mount the ISO file. That should fix the problem.

If everything is working fine but the game crashes at the main menu, there are a few threads on tombraiderforums.com that include possible fixes. See here and here.

When you're done playing, you can unmount the CD you created using the ISO file. Just right-click the virtual CD drive—"DVD Drive (X:) TR_TLA"—in Windows Explorer and choose "Eject".

If you can't find your Lost Artifact save files in the same folder as the tr3gold.exe program, they may be in the Windows VirtualStore folder, something like OS (C:) users\username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\ProgramFiles (x86)\Core Design\Tomb Raider - The Lost Artifact. VirtualStore is a hidden folder, so you may have to change Windows' Folder Options, as described here on the Microsoft site. I found them by playing the game, saving in the first slot, and then searching my entire hard drive for 'savegame.0'.


[TRLA Level Menu]

†UPDATE HISTORY: 1/6/17 - Guide first posted online.
1/18/20 - Made a few minor tweaks and changed the download link for ImgBurn to the Ninite version, which is blissfully bloatware free. Thanks to Amy G. for the tip, and for helping me troubleshoot these instructions.
2/6/21 - Added links to forum threads about game crash at menu.
5/7/24 - Added link to remastered game on Steam. No updates to the classic instructions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: Thanks to MrFourblack for creating the Classic Tomb Raider Widescreen Patch.

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