Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Cover

Tomb Reader Magazine - Issue 1 - January 2008







Contents


Cover Story:
Tomb Raider 1 VS Tomb Raider Anniversary >>>

The Last Revelation:
Legend is Back & More News >>>

Chronicles:
In the beginning of Tomb Raider >>>

Tales of Lara Croft:
Changing Lara Croft >>>

Croft Codex:
From Diary Of Lara Croft "Croft Manor" >>>

Adventures:
Lara Croft Puzzle Game >>>

The Web Artifact:
Tomb Raider on Web >>>

Lara Croft Legend:
Reviews, Pools, Suggesions, Fan's Art, Stories >>>

Cover Story

Cover Story



Screen Shots
















News




Legend is Back
Next Tomb Raider Called “Underworld”

Tomb Raider 8

Eidos Interactive has recently reserved the trademark Tomb Raider: Underworld, raising the rumor that it could be the title of the next installment in the popular Tomb Raider series.
According to reports, the title is said to feature heavily on the Mayan Calendar, focusing five days where the line between the mortal realm and the ‘Underworld’ realm becomes blurred, hence the game’s title.
Further details are unknown, although it was previously stated that a new title in the franchise would be available for major consoles some time in 2008.

According to Trademork, Eidos Interactive filed an application on a trademark for the phrase “Tomb Raider Underworld” last week. The trademark covers both discs and digital distribution. What are we to draw from this? “Underworld” could be the title for the anticipated Tomb Raider: Legend sequel, currently being developed by the studio Crystal Dynamics.
The rumor is that the latest Tomb Raider installment’s storyline is based on the Mayan Calendar, whose contents are believed tell the date on which the world will end. Sounds interesting.

Tomb Raider 8

With Tomb Raider: Anniversary out of the way, it’s time to move on to future projects. Eidos Interactive has already confirmed that a sequel to the redeeming iteration in the series, Tomb Raider: Legend, is in the pipeline, and if a recent trademark filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office is anything to go by, Lara Croft is believed to reprise her role as a voluptuous treasure hunter in a Tomb Raider game titled Underworld.
Apart from securing the trademark for games distributed either on game discs or digitally, the move gives away no further information on the next installment in the series. However, rumour has it the sequel will take place in 2012 which is the year that marks the end of the world in the Maya calendar. Since the previous iterations in the saga revolved around similar save-the-world events, the rumoured setting for Underworld seems quite plausible in our book.
Tomb Raider 8
We’ll have more on Tomb Raider Underworld as it becomes available.

Source: Trademork

History

In the beginning....
A lot can happen in 10 years, and believe me it really did. The Tomb Raider series went from strength to strength starting out as a series of games which later developed into two smash hit movies starring Angelina Jolie as the character we had grown to love. But how did it all begin? Well, the answer begins here, in 1988 when a small Derby based design company by the name of Core Design was first assembled by Mr. Jeremy Heath Smith.The company focused on quality over quantity, slowly expanding their personnel and output of titles as the years passed. Core's first game was seen in 1989. It was a 2D adventure game with a male lead "Rick Dangerous". Rick was an archaeologist who explored the deadly tombs of a Mayan Temple. Battling with baddies to win the prize artefact... Sound familiar?

'Rick Dangerous' First game

A few years later with the increase of technology making bigger and better games possible Jeremy called a meeting with his staff upon hearing news of a brand new games console - The Sony Playstation. The team sat down and started thinking of possible games that could make use of this "miracle machine". Toby Gard was one of the employees with a suggestion... A game called Tomb Raider was what he wanted to see on this new console. Gard had produced drawings of what he felt the game should look like, he explains how some of the other employees thought he was a bit crazy, however that's where the phenomenon known as Tomb Raider started.

Designer - Toby Gard

"Toby stood up and said I've got this idea about doing a game based on pyramids", Says Jeremy Heath-Smith. "I've always wanted to do a game based around pyramids to. For some reason I really fancied this idea about pyramids with a Pharaoh, and having to go tunnel under the pyramids. It was just as silly as that. It didn't have characters, it was more just conceptually let's do a game based on pyramids".

Lara Croft



Lara Croft Changes
BEHIND-THE-SCENES CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: According to Toby Gard, the lead artist on Tomb Raider, Lara Croft was inspired from films like the Indiana Jones series, Tank Girl or anything by John Woo. Gard also looked to strong female icons like pop singer Neneh Cherry as a basis for his character. Gard designed Lara Croft to have the air of a British aristocrat. Lara is composed of approximately 4,000 polygons and is entirely animated (as opposed to motion captured) to give her movements a fluidity that could not have been achieved otherwise. She was programmed by Paul Douglas and her original Tomb Raider adventures were scripted by Vicky Arnold
Tomb Raider 1:



Tomb raider 2:






Tomb raider 3:





Tomb Raider the Last Revelation:






Tomb Raider Chronickels:





Tomb Raider Angel of Darkness






Tomb Raider Legend





Tomb Raider Anniversary



Tomb Raider UnderWorld