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PLEASE, WHICH OF THESE 10 THINGS ABOUT TOMB RAIDER DID YOU NOT KNOW?

19/3/2018

20 Comments

 
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I've not enjoyed any other Tomb Raider game as much as I did the original. Admittedly, it hasn't aged terribly well - in all kinds of ways - but at the time it was entirely new.

Furthermore, the restrictions it was working within somehow enhanced its atmosphere. Those caves and tombs were empty and eerie, Nathan McCree's minimal score remains possibly my favourite ever in a video game, fitting perfectly with the sense of isolated exploration, and Lara - as originally depicted - didn't feel as awkwardly sexualised as she later became. 

Obviously, Tomb Raider didn't remain a small, quirky, release; it was the biggest gaming phenomenon of the 90s - and it's still going today. There's a third game in the successful reboot trilogy due later this year, and a new Tomb Raider movie, inspired by the reboot, out now.

Here are eleven things you might not have known about the series' origins.
IT WAS RELEASED FIRST ON THE SEGA SATURN
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Though Lara Croft became synonymous with the PlayStation, it was released originally for the Saturn. A deal with Sega ensured that the game had a brief period of exclusivity on the console before it arrived on the PlayStation.

​Though both versions were developed concurrently, the earlier Saturn release gave Core Design time to fix bugs and optimise the graphics for the PS1 - ensuring that the PlayStation version was the definitive Tomb Raider experience.

​And, let's face it, hammering the first of many nails in Sega's coffin.
LARA CROFT ORIGINALLY HAD A DIFFERENT NAME
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Tomb Raider's creator Toby Gard originally conceived of the game with a male protagonist, sporting a whip and a hat (sound familiar?), before reworking him into a female South American adventurer called Lara Cruz. She was, apparently, inspired by Neneh Cherry, Tank Girl, and the female characters in Sega's Virtua Fighter.

Lara's twin pistols were a nod to the movie Hard Boiled, while her athletic jumping' n' shooting' - and unlikely proportions - were lifted from the MTV animated series Aeon Flux. 
THE ORIGINAL LARA CROFT IS NOW AN AUTHOR
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Shelley Blond, the original voice of Lara Croft, has written two children's books, The Multi-Coloured Bird and The Lonely Spider.

In a 1996 interview, Blond hissed: "I was asked to do a very monosyllabic ‘female James Bond‘. My voice is naturally very expressive and I was continually reminded to be monosyllabic and play her in a straight way... I wanted to make her voice sexier and more expressive but they insisted."

Blond was too busy to record dialogue for Tomb Raider 2, and was replaced by actress Judith Gibbons. However, Blond's grunts and groans were retained. 

Oddly, and entirely coincidentally, she also presented a show for kids' channel Trouble entitled Room Raider, where she redesigned viewers' bedrooms. Presumably while grunting and groaning... in an entirely non-sexy way, of course.
LUCOZADE
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At the height of her popularity, Lara Croft everything advertised Visa, SEAT cars, a skin cancer awareness charity, and Gourdonstoun boarding school. Most memorably, she was also the face of Lucozade, the disgusting orange "health" drink which, for a time in 2001 (to coincide with the original Tomb Raider movie), was renamed "Larazade". 

A tie-in competition allowed Lucozade drinks to visit a real-life Croft Manor, and compete in a Tomb Raider-inspired challenge. The winners of the challenge won a Land Rover used in the movie. 
LARA CROFT THINKS MEN ARE PIGS
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Lara Croft became caught up in the Britpop cultural movement of the mid-90s, appearing on the cover of The Face as a uniquely British sex symbol. Little wonder that many pop stars of the time wanted to be associated with her - and she even appeared on screens during U2's Popmart tour.

She also featured in the 1998 music video for the song "Männer sind Schweine" (Men Are Pigs) by the German pop-punk band Die Ärzte. A CGI Lara was seen engaging in various attempts to murder the band during a performance of the objectively terrible song.
KATIE PRICE WAS ONE OF THE ORIGINAL LARA CROFT MODELS 
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The first model to portray Lara Croft in real-life was Nathalie Crook - now a full-time mum of four children. She appeared at an ECTS trade show in Lara's trademark hot pants and vest alongside two other models, one of which was the Page 3 model Jordan... today better known as gobby Loose Women panelist Katie Price. 

Ironically, Price was later accused by another real-life Lara model, Lucy Clarkson, of developing a "close friendship" with her husband. It was, curiously, not the first time Clarkson and Price had feuded in public; at a 2006 red carpet event, Clarkson hitched up her skirt, revealing to photographers the words "Jordan kiss my..." written across her buttocks.

Later Laras included Rhona Mitra and Nell McAndrew... who was fired after she posed nude in Playboy.  After complaints from Eidos, the magazine was forced to place stickers on the cover to obscure any connection to the Tomb Raider series.
THERE IS A ROAD NAMED AFTER LARA CROFT
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As perhaps the only interesting thing to ever come out of Derby, the Tomb Raider series has been honoured by its home town in a number of ways. In addition to a blue plaque on the site of Core Design's former offices - now a block of flats - a 2010 public vote led to a new ring road being named Lara Croft Way. 89% of the 27,000 votes supported the decision.

Other famous Derby residents have included Ted "Fit The Best: Everest" Moult, grime MC Dubzy, and the actor Maxwell Caulfield, who provided the voice of James Bond in the video game James Bond 007: Nightfire. 
LARA CROFT IS 50 THIS YEAR! 
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According to her original official biography, Lara was born on 14/02/68, in Wimbledon, Surrey. That would've made her 28 during the first Tomb Raider, and 50 today.

The biography also revealed that she is 5' 9", weighs 9st 4lbs, and her vital statistics are 34D-24-35 (an important consideration for any video game character). Additionally, the biography reveals she has written two books entitled "A Tyrannosaur Is Jawing at My Head" and "Slaying Bigfoot", and that she has a fear of her Auntie's corgi, which has bitten her on several occasions. 

This may provide a rationale for why Lara shows little remorse over shooting animals in the head.
LARA'S CREATOR TOBY GARD QUIT OVER HOW SHE WAS SEXUALISED
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The man most directly synonymous with the creation of Lara Croft is Toby Gard. He was famously protective of the character, allegedly refusing to include a hidden "nude Lara" Easter egg in the original game (though clever coders later offered their own), and stating that he never intended to create "some kind of Page 3 girl".

Gard left the series following the release of the original game, when he disagreed with Core's vision for Tomb Raider 2, and the way it which the character was being marketed.

He gasps: “What I objected to was the marketing which represented Lara in a way that was nothing like the character. At the time I didn’t like that and it prompted me to want to retain control of characters I created in the future, so that’s why I left."

​He went on to create Galleon for the original Xbox, but returned to the franchise for Tomb Raider Underworld, for which he co-wrote the story and directed the cut-scenes. 
NOBODY KNOWS IF LARA'S BREASTS WERE ALWAYS MEANT TO BE THAT BIG
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Gard has claimed in interviews that Lara's breasts were never intended to be so absurdly proportioned. He claims he accidentally increased their size by 150% instead of 50% while adjusting the character model, and his colleagues agreed unanimously that he should keep them that way.

In 2016, original Tomb Raider level designer Neal Boyd cast doubt on Gard's story, telling Eurogamer: "Toby developed the model to look like his drawings. I knew we'd get flak from people. But he wasn't bothered about that. He was happy with the way she was. I don't know whether he had a thing for big breasts? He was a very secretive guy. He'd never answer a question straight.


"He always claims he slipped on the mouse and made the breasts bigger than he meant to, but how true that is, I don't know."
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20 Comments
Stoo
19/3/2018 10:27:49 am

I actually missed the entire series apart from Legends (the one from 2006) which was fun but not particularly memorable. But "empty and eerie" sounds like exactly my sort of thing, so maybe I should try the original.

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MENTALIST
19/3/2018 10:53:59 am

The original games have VERY dated controls nowadays. In fact, I never got on with them all that well, even in the 90s (the original release was roughly contermporary with Mario 64, and it wasn't until after a while that I got round to trying it).

Fortunately, though, Tomb Raider Anniversary, built on the Legends engine, reproduces the story and environments of the first game in a way that stands up much better for those with modern sensibilities. And then Underworld is kind of more of the same, but I liked it.

The Keely Hawes Lara era is my favourite. I quite like that that version of the character has persisted past the reboot in those twin-stick puzzle games they put out sometimes.

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Nick
19/3/2018 10:59:32 am

Same here. I didn't like the originals, even at launch, but loved Anniversary and Underworld. Great controls and dungeon puzzles.

I'm not really a fan of the Gears of Lara re-reboots. I thought the first started quite well but quickly became dull.

Spiney O'Sullivan
19/3/2018 11:43:45 am

I decided to get Tomb Raider 2 on iOS recently as I have a decent controller. That game is ridiculously hard. The first level alone starts out with tiger attacks, then throws you into a nonstop deathtrap while you flail about with controls that are like pushing a lead hippo.

Personally I never really played the franchise much until the Legend era. Legend was the first one where the unstoppable, maneuverable Lara that her media image presented was finally playable, instead of the constantly dead Lara of the original games.

Despite that, however, I am really fond of the original (or at least the few levels I managed to finish back then). The isolation of the Peruvian cave city and the atmosphere of deafening silence punctuated by sudden terror was something else at a time when gaming was still pretty twee, and really cemented the movement that Sony were trying to make (though I played it on the Saturn). Anniversary is good, but it's so easy by comparison, and the low-res visuals of the original really let your mind do a lot of filling in the gaps to make the world convincing.

Spiney O’Sullivan
19/3/2018 10:33:04 am

The Lucozade promotional ties are still active, it seems. While in Greggs the other day I saw a little promotional card for the movie (which is basically alright, incidentally) that had some Lucozade-related promo. That took me right back to the 90s.

The prize, incidentally, was actually a holiday to Egypt. Not sure I’d want to relive Lara’s time there, since that was where she was technically killed in The Last Revelation...

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BobMonkeypimp
19/3/2018 11:11:25 am

Thank goodness you don't do those "10 things about (subject) you didn't know" titles.
I hate them with a passion. It's as if the author believes they are the sole bearer of that knowledge & that we should feel honoured that he/she has imparted said knowledge to us.

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Col. Asdasd
19/3/2018 11:23:46 am

"perhaps the only interesting thing to ever come out of Derby"

Scandalous. Will you be tending your apology to White Town by post or in person?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVL-zZnD3VU

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Meatballs-me-branch-me-do
19/3/2018 12:56:58 pm

11. You totally couldn’t make Lara become naked by diving into the pool in Croft Manor and trying to collide with the coatstand thing, no matter how many hours you spent doing so nor how vigorously that kid at school assured you it worked.

12. The best real life portrayal of Lara Croft was done by Petra Verkaik, though you probably shouldn’t investigate that on your work PC.

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colincidence and this is my classic song link
19/3/2018 01:12:15 pm

This designer chap sounds to be guarded.

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Stuart
19/3/2018 01:44:39 pm

Played the Legend-Underworld-Anniversary series way back, not too long after they came out, and decided to go back to the originals on PS1 in 2016. Since then, I've played 1, 2, and 3, and I think (for someone with no nostalgia for them), they still hold up well. I agree the controls are antiquated, but I recognise and appreciate the old school design and creepy atmosphere. The very first Tomb Raider game I played was Angel of Darkness, which I gather is supposed to be the worst of the old-style ones, so I'm interested in seeing how the series goes skee-whiff between The Last Revelation and then.

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Kelvin Green link
19/3/2018 02:42:17 pm

Look at Ian "Turn to 298" Livingstone stuck under all those Laras Croft! I hope Steve Jackson turned up to rescue him.

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MENTALIST
19/3/2018 03:15:26 pm

Do you mean Steve Jackson, the Fighting Fantasy book author, or Steve Jackson the Fighting Fantasy book author?

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Kelvin Green link
19/3/2018 03:35:20 pm

Steve "Steve Jackson" Jackson, obviously. The one that wrote gamebooks, not the other one that wrote gamebooks.

Dr. Budd Buttocks, MD
19/3/2018 03:36:40 pm

I knew most of those things, and I don't even like Tomb Raider all that much. Always loved the theme music though, it's just absolutely perfect. Makes me yearn for the 90s.

From stuff I've read, Toby Gard seems like a bit of an oddball. I wonder if he kicked himself for walking away instead of compromising a little.

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Starbuck
19/3/2018 08:32:49 pm

In answer to the question in the title, Numbers 2, 3, 5, 6 and 8.

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Arthur Siddartha
19/3/2018 09:47:19 pm

I agree with you Biffo, the first Tomb Raider was the best by far. I've played it through many times, it used to be an annual thing to do over Easter for some reason.

Man, the music is incredible, and the locations are great too, really well designed. The colosseum, oh my, brings back memories.

It is the only ps1 game I still have, which must say something.

Liked Anniversary too, remember buying it and playing through when I didn't have the money, but it got me through some rough times. Still not a patch on the original though.

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Robobob
19/3/2018 10:03:58 pm

I remember playing a Saturn demo version of it (that came with a magazine) to death just being amazed by the whole underwater swimming experience. The T-Rex bursting through a clearing at you, and being able to do insanely high swan dives into pools also spring to mind. At the time it felt pretty stunning.

The whole thing did swing wildly from fluid run-and-gun experiences to "for Christ's sake Lara, shuffle two feet to the left to press that damn switch", though.

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James Walker link
19/3/2018 11:55:22 pm

Anyone remember what Zombie Dave said about Lara?!

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midierror
22/3/2018 10:31:44 pm

Tomb Raider 1 was an absolute milestone in 3D adventure games. I replayed it this year and loved every minute.

I've never been engrossed in the series since then, that Saturn version was legendary. Will never forget the t-rex, the sphinx and the final box. .

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Bryan Langley
29/3/2018 07:24:51 pm

Ahh yes. I played 1, 2 and 3 with me teenaged mates all the time in the late 1990s. He bought it on Saturn (and had a massive collection of games for it, too.) Felt like the d-pad suited the game better. We used to spend ages learning all the gymnastic moves in the training level.

Good times. I also think nothing's topped the original particularly. I did also enjoy the remake romp though, in a 7/10 sort of a way.

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