Lara proves it’s cool to go on an adventure with a virtual female character.Īside from a few spin-offs, we only heard from our beloved adventurer back in 2013. Before the arrival of Tomb Raider, players were mostly controlling male characters. This does not detract from the importance of Lara Croft’s popularity for representing women in games. Core Design itself helped with that, of course, by making Croft’s lap more and more consistent with each part.
It’s no coincidence that game magazines – including those of sister site Power Unlimited – quickly fed up with rumors about cheats to make Lara run naked across the screen, something that was later made possible with mods on PC. In addition, Lara’s appearance has made Tomb Raider games an irresistible attraction for millions of teens. Tomb Raider 2, Tomb Raider 3, The Last Revelation, and Tomb Raider Chronicles improved the concept in many ways and Lara Croft flew around the virtual world visiting all kinds of locations, from cemeteries to exotic cities. Core Design worked as a bullet train and developed several sequels in the next four years. This ensured not only the successful first part – the game sold 7 million copies and received various awards – but also many sequels. However, the appearance of a fictional British archaeologist, who seemed to be based in part on the adventurous Indiana Jones, was enough to make Lara Croft a global icon. Croft’s appearance, players often joked that she allowed herself to control herself like a cow. Logically, if you were to start the original Tomb Raider now, you would not only have to get used to the old graphics, but also the strict controls. So Tomb Raider was one of the first games to showcase what was possible in three dimensions. Although 3D gaming has been around for as long as 1996 and has become more mainstream thanks to the release of the Nintendo 64, the technology was still relatively in its infancy. The game concept – and its protagonist – was designed by Toby Guard of the now-defunct Core Design, and the title was eventually published by Eidos Interactive. Tomb Raider was developed from 1994 and appeared in 1996 – on October 25 to be exact on Sega Saturn, and a month later also on PlayStation and PC.