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Tomb Raider is a 1996 computer game originally published by Eidos Interactive. The game features the fictional character Lara Croft, a buxom female archaeologist in search of ancient treasures, à la Indiana Jones. There have been several sequels.
Video game
The game was initially released for the Sony PlayStation and for PC, and was responsible for much of the market dominance by the Sony console during this period.
The game presents a world in 3D, a series of tombs, and other locations, through which the player must guide Lara, killing dangerous animals and other creatures, while collecting objects and solving puzzles along the way.
The game is a third-person shooter, since Lara is always visible. The player's "camera" follows her, usually over her shoulder or from behind.
Each version of the game has introduced new weapons and moves; by the fourth version Lara can backflip whilst sliding down a rope, turn around in mid-air and grab onto a ledge behind her. All this while shooting her pistols!
This is an earlier example of the 3D genre, characterised by the cubic nature of the world in which Lara inhabits. Every ledge, wall and ceiling sit at 90 degrees to each other, although the game designers used some clever tricks to make this less obvious.
The following versions have been released so far, they are listed in chronological order:
- Tomb Raider (1996) - PlayStation, Sega Saturn, PC, N-Gage
- Tomb Raider 2 (1997) - PlayStation, PC
- Tomb Raider 3 (1998) - PlayStation, PC
- Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (1999) - PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC
- Tomb Raider: Chronicles (2000) - PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC
- Tomb Raider: The Angel Of Darkness (2003)- PlayStation 2, PC
In addition to these Tomb Raider games, their are 2D versions on the Game Boy Color handheld console:
- Tomb Raider (2000)
- Tomb Raider: Curse Of The Sword (2001)
"Nude Raider"
A rather unsavoury development in Lara Croft's history is the so-called "Nude Raider" patch. It's been said in the past, that someone within Eidos Interactive created the patch then released it on the Eidos Interactive website back in 1996, it was on the site for a few hours until Eidos discovered it and removed the patch, but many people downloaded the patch and uploaded it to different websites. This program, when added to an existing Tomb Raider game, causes Lara to appear naked, unsurprisingly popular among a certain population of gamers. In early 2004, a person who is a insider for Eidos Interactive posted to a Tomb Raider electronic mailing list that Edios Interactive is planning on suing gamers using the "Nude Raider" patches and send cease and desist letters to servers with the "Nude Raider" patch on them to enforce their intellectual property for Tomb Raider. In mid-April 2004, it was reported to a Tomb Raider electronic mailing list that Eidos Interactive began suing gamers who are known users of the "Nude Raider" patch and began sending cease and desist letters to major servers known to host the patch. It was recently revealed, in early September on a Tomb Raider electronic mailing list, by a gamer who stated that Edios sent something to their house and discovered that it was a lawsuit and that in the lawsuit filed against him by Edios because of the Nude Raider patch, Edios stated in the lawsuit, that he said in the lawsuit it stated that Edios sent the lawsuit to both gamers and servers, which some say is up to around 60-80 pages on the electronic mailing list, that the Nude Raider patch was made within Edios but it was only for internal use only and not for general release, it continued that Edios fired the person who leaked the patch but they are suing gamers and servers to enforce their intellectual property on the game and continues on to state that Edios is planning on suing gamers making unauthorized "home-made" patches for Tomb Raider and other games that they have intellectual property rights to.
Film
Most recently, the idea of Tomb Raider has been extended beyond being just a video game, including the 2001 Tomb Raider and 2003 Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life movies, both starring Angelina Jolie.
A fair percentage of fans of the game argue that the film adaptations are a poor tribute to their video game heritage, though Jolie, after some initial published criticism mostly centered around her being an American playing a British character, was considered an ideal choice for the role of Lara Croft. Plans for a third film were revealed in early 2004, but according to CNN they were cancelled due to the box office failure of Cradle of Life.
Comic book
Tomb Raider has been licensed to Top Cow Productions, which published Tomb Raider stories in comic book form.
Original novels
Ballantine Books, in conjunction with Eidos, began publishing a series of original novels based upon the video game (not the movie version) in the spring of 2004, beginning with The Amulet of Power by Mike Resnick, which was followed by The Lost Cult by E. E. Knight in August 2004.
See also
External Links
- Tomb Raider (http://www.tombraider.com/) - Official site.
- TRComm.Net (http://www.trcomm.net/) - Tomb Raider Community - The Raiders' Portal
- Tomb Raider (http://www.tombraider4u.com/) - Unofficial fan site.
- TRSearch (http://www.trsearch.org/) - Unofficial site about level editor
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