Back in 1994 at the game company ‘CORE Design’ in Derby, Lara Croft was born. Through eighteen months of pure hard work from the team, Tomb Raider was released in 1996 and became the success that we see today; taking part in the mid-nineties celebrations of Brit-Pop and Girl Power. This is the story of the team who were involved in creating the first two games, then leaving the series to a new team in 1998. Lara Croft brought class, comedy, and a James Bondian role to the game, dreamt up by Toby Gard and helped to become a pitch with Paul Douglas. The game was a gamble, but because everyone at the company believed in it, it led to huge success for everyone, except for Toby and Paul. ‘The Making of Tomb Raider’ goes into detail of how Lara and the games were born, alongside why Toby Gard and Paul Douglas left before the sequel was released. Throughout eleven chapters of countless interviews, this book will tell you who was responsible for creating the first two games; from its levels, its music, the many voices of Lara Croft, and much more. The team also reveals all about the star of the second game; Winston the Butler, and how he came to be by Joss Charmet. Over twenty people were interviewed for this story; from the pitch for what would be Tomb Raider, alongside the challenges along the way, up until the release of Tomb Raider 2 in 1997...

A perfect jumping-on point for new readers! After Rise of the Tomb Raider, Lara Croft's adventure continues in a new comic series by Eisner Award winning writer Mariko Tamaki (This One Summer)! Lara Croft is pursuing a lost truth about the world that just might unlock the secret to defeating death! She becomes entangled in a search for a rare mushroom said to grant immortality and a lethal new enemy that just won't die! Continuing where the Rise of the Tomb Raider game left off!

In this prelude to the exciting new entry in the _Tomb Raider_ video game saga, lead game writer Rhianna Pratchett reveals the untold story behind Lara Croft’s earliest adventure. Join Lara and the crew of the _Endurance_ as they prepare for a thrilling journey to uncover the lost kingdom of Yamatai. For over fifteen years, the _Tomb Raider_ adventures have been some the most enduring and popular in the world of video games. Now, Lara Croft’s bold new re-imagining is further explored by some of comics’ most talented creators in this exclusive volume.

Last year's most wanted PC chick is back, and she's packing serious heat. Tomb Raider 2 will use and perfect the engine used in the original Tomb Raider, giving Lara's fans new and improved puzzles and regions for gamers to explore.

A pocket-sized guide to offer players of Tomb Raider 2 everything they need to win. The book includes walk-throughs of all levels, strategies, locations of secret areas, and secret codes needed to help Lara in her quest for the sacred Chinese dagger of Xian.

Taking its cue from practices of reading texts in literary and cultural studies, this book considers the computer game as a new and emerging mode of contemporary storytelling. In a carefully organized study, Barry Atkins discusses questions of narrative and realism in four of the most significant games of the last decade: Tomb Raider, Half-Life, Close Combat and SimCity. This is a work for both the student of contemporary culture and those game-players who are interested in how computer games tell their stories.

The Video Games Guide is the world's most comprehensive reference book on computer and video games. Presented in an A to Z format, this greatly expanded new edition spans fifty years of game design--from the very earliest (1962's Spacewar) through the present day releases on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii and PC. Each game entry includes the year of release, the hardware it was released on, the name of the developer/publisher, a one to five star quality rating, and a descriptive review which offers fascinating nuggets of trivia, historical notes, cross-referencing with other titles, information on each game's sequels and of course the author's views and insights into the game. In addition to the main entries and reviews, a full-color gallery provides a visual timeline of gaming through the decades, and several appendices help to place nearly 3,000 games in context. Appendices include: a chronology of gaming software and hardware, a list of game designers showing their main titles, results of annual video game awards, notes on sourcing video games, and a glossary of gaming terms.

From their inception, video games quickly became a major new arena of popular entertainment. Beginning with very primitive games, they quickly evolved into interactive animated works, many of which now approach film in terms of their visual excitement. But there are important differences, as Arthur Asa Berger makes clear in this important new work. Films are purely to be viewed, but video involves the player, moving from empathy to immersion, from being spectators to being actively involved in texts. Berger, a renowned scholar of popular culture, explores the cultural significance of the expanding popularity and sophistication of video games and considers the biological and psychoanalytic aspects of this phenomenon.Berger begins by tracing the evolution of video games from simple games like Pong to new, powerfully involving and complex ones like Myst and Half-Life. He notes how this evolution has built the video industry, which includes the hardware (game-playing consoles) and the software (the games themselves), to revenues comparable to the American film industry.