Tomb Raider fans never cease to find creative new ways to celebrate their fandom and pay tribute to the games that inspire them and Jason Chester is no exception. For the past few months, Jason has designed and created low-poly models of each of Tomb Raider I’s levels, all which can be found in his ArtStation portfolio and on his DeviantArt site. From the ruins of the City of Vilcabamba to the Cistern, from Croft Manor to The Great Pyramid, Jason has poured his heart and soul into ... [Continue Reading]
Can you believe it’s been 23 years since Lara Croft made her debut in a little game called Tomb Raider? Over two decades later, this iconic heroine shows no real signs of slowing down and continues to entertain and inspire gamers, artists, writers, and cosplayers across the world. She may only play for sport but what a legacy she is leaving behind! Many fans have noticed that the official Tomb Raider social media accounts didn’t acknowledge the game’s anniversary this year and ... [Continue Reading]
Do you like learning about ancient history and faraway lands? Well, if you’re a regular visitor to this site, I think it’s safe to assume that you do. So let me point you in the direction of CroftManor’s phenomenal documentary series, History and Geography in Tomb Raider! History and Geography in Tomb Raider is the brainchild of Simon Bucher, a 22-year-old Tomb Raider fan and student from Germany, and explores the real-life myths, archaeological sites, locations, and ... [Continue Reading]
I’ve been a huge fan of Funko’s uber-cute aesthetic ever since a friend of mine introduced me to their range of Pop! vinyl figures a couple of years ago. What began as a one-off acquisition (a Scarlet Witch Pop! I received from said friend) has since grown into an eclectic collection of superhero and Star Wars figures. So when Funko announced that they were releasing a Lara Croft Pop! figure to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise, I just couldn’t ... [Continue Reading]
Now, repeat after me: Archaeologists don’t dig dinosaurs. They. Do NOT. Dig dinosaurs. There’s such a wide misconception that archaeologists dig up fossils and dinosaur bones for a living that some musically-minded archaeologists have taken to Youtube to remind the public, in no uncertain terms, that they “don’t do dinosaurs” and that “digging up dinos is palaeontology”. So if it’s dinosaurs you’re after, it’s Dr Grant you need, ... [Continue Reading]
One of the greatest pleasures in video gaming is the discovery (intentional or otherwise) of “Easter eggs”, those little jokes, secret levels, or hidden messages that game developers insert in their games for the players’ amusement. With a back catalogue spanning almost two decades and across multiple platforms, the Tomb Raider series has had its fair share of “Easter eggs”, ranging from humourous references to fan community in-jokes to visual gags that may be ... [Continue Reading]
When I first played Tomb Raider 1 back in 1996, I never realized how many real-life Pre-Columbian (and other) artefacts could be spotted throughout the game’s Peru levels. Some of them, such as the Chimú bird carving, were already familiar to me as I had done some research on Peruvian art and archaeology for a GCSE Art project. But it wasn’t until I started working on this site and replaying this 1996 classic that I began to notice that the game’s graphics artists had also, ... [Continue Reading]
Over the years, Lara Croft has visited dozens of archaeologically fascinating places but not all of them have been particularly glamorous. One such place that instantly springs to mind is the Cistern in Tomb Raider 1. When I first started playing Tomb Raider back in 1996, I bought myself a copy of the Prima official strategy guide to help me get through the game (Stella’s Walkthroughs wasn’t around back then) and while flicking through the pages, I noticed that one of the ... [Continue Reading]
If you’ve been following my antics on Twitter, you’ll probably know that I’ve recently been revisiting the Greece levels of Tomb Raider 1, sniffing out material for a new edition of Arte-Factual. It had been years since I last played the 1996 classic so I’d almost forgotten how much real-life art makes an appearance throughout the game. One of the artworks that caught my eye while exploring the Colosseum level earlier this week was this depiction of Ancient Greek ... [Continue Reading]
Christmas has come early for iPad and iPhone owners as Square Enix confirmed today that Tomb Raider 1 has been released for iOS. And if that wasn’t enough, the game even includes the two bonus chapters, “Shadow of the Cat” and “Unfinished Business”, from the 1998 re-release Tomb Raider Gold. The iOS release has been optimised for the iPhone 5 but is compatible with iPhones, iPads and iPod Touchs running iOS 7.0 and players will be able to control Lara and the ... [Continue Reading]
Time for another blast from the past as we return once again to the original 1996 Tomb Raider for this edition of Arte-Factual! If you’ve ever played the original game, you may have noticed that the game developers drew inspiration from real-life artworks and artefacts, such as the Toltec pillars at Tula in Mexico, the Gayer-Anderson cat statue, and the Chimú bird motifs that adorn the adobe walls of buildings at Chan Chan in Peru. This time around, we’ll be looking at the walls ... [Continue Reading]
In the last edition of Lara’s Travels, I wrote about the island of Jan Mayen in the Arctic Ocean, one of the real-life locations featured in Tomb Raider: Underworld. This time, however, we’ll be going back in time to where it all began and look at one of the places Lara visits in the original Tomb Raider (and Anniversary): St. Francis’ Folly. Of course, there is no real-life St. Francis’ Folly (try not to be too disappointed), though this hasn’t deterred fans from ... [Continue Reading]
Yesterday was World Cat Day so I thought I’d celebrate it (albeit belatedly) by writing a post about one of the most easily recognisable artefacts seen in the original Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider Gold: Unfinished Business, the Gayer-Anderson cat statue. A replica of this famous and much-loved statue could be found in the City of Khamoon and was apparently so appealing that Lara returned to the site in Unfinished Business to add the statue to her growing collection of looted, ahem, ... [Continue Reading]
In the last edition of Arte-Factual, I looked at the Toltec Atlantes pillars that could be found in and around Qualopec’s tomb in the original Tomb Raider. In this edition, I will re-visit Qualopec’s tomb and examine another Pre-Columbian motif that can be seen on the walls of the fictional Atlantean king’s tomb: a Chimú bird carving. When the first Tomb Raider came out, I was studying Peruvian pottery and iconography as part of a GCSE art project, so I got some pleasure ... [Continue Reading]
Sharp-eyed gamers may have noticed that the same colossal sculptures appear repeatedly throughout the Peruvian levels of the original Tomb Raider (1996), most notably in the Tomb of Qualopec. These sculptures are, in fact, based on the real-life Atlantes, or Atlantean pillars, found at Tula, a Postclassic archaeological site in the Mexican state of Hidalgo.** The four Atlantes of Tula are basalt pillars carved in the form of Toltec warriors and are thought to have once supported the roof of ... [Continue Reading]
On 24th July 1911, the Yale archaeologist and intrepid explorer Hiram Bingham III caught his first glimpse of the remote Inca citadel of Machu Picchu during an expedition to find the lost city of Vilcabamba, the last refuge of the beleaguered Inca Empire. Although it’s now thought that the site had been visited (and plundered) by others before him, Bingham is credited with bringing Machu Picchu to the world’s attention. Over the years that followed, however, thousands of artefacts ... [Continue Reading]
