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The Tomb Raider is a series of video games based on the adventures of the popular fictional British archaeologist – Lara Croft. Indiana Jones and the search for ancient treasures inspire Croft’s character. The popularity of the central character and her adventures reached such a high that, in 2006, the Guinness Book of World Records declared her as the “Most Successful Human Videogame Heroine”.

Core designer Toby Gard created Lara Croft. Her character usually appears in brown shorts, a blue top, holsters on both sides of the hip for pistols and a brown backpack.

The first game was released in 1996 and following its success, a series was thereafter developed. This game was developed by Core Design and published by Eidos Interactive. After the initial conception of the idea, Core took 18 months to develop the game. It was first launched for MS-DOS, PlayStation and Sega Saturn. For its music, a solo oboe melody is used as the main theme and throughout the series, variations of this is employed.

There are two continuities to the game series – the first six were released by Core Design and the last two by Crystal Dynamics. The plot of each game is usually centred on the search for a powerful artefact. Lara has to compete against a sinister shadow league. The game is riddled with adventure and fast action. There are mystical powers and Lara must fight them if she wants to reach the artefact. These powers are either supernatural or of alien origin. Terrifying mystical monsters, creatures and mutants confront her and she has to defeat them as she moves on towards the prize.

This game series has, so far, sold more than 30 million copies and the most popular among the series in terms of sale has been Tomb Raider II.

The series in the first continuity developed by Core Design are: Tomb Raider –1996; Tomb Raider: Shadow of the Cat & Unfinished Business – 1998; Tomb Raider II – 1997; Tomb Raider: The Golden Mask – 1998; Tomb Raider III – 1998; Tomb Raider: The Lost Artefact – 1998; Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation – 1999; Tomb Raider: The Times Exclusive – 1999; Tomb Raider Chronicles – 2000; and Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness – 2003.

The second continuity, which was developed by Crystal Dynamics, features Tomb Raider: Legend – 2006; Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Legend – 2006; and Tomb Raider: Anniversary – 2007. The last mentioned game is a remake of the original Tomb Raider but the story has been remade to adjust into the second continuity.