when the original tomb raider launched in 1996 players were dazzled by its expansive 3d environments impressive visuals immersive gameplay and of course its leading lady lara croft while the game might look a little rough around the edges by todays standards there really wasnt anything like it back then and according to core design cofounder jeremy heathsmith it was always destined for successin an interview featured in this months retro gamer heathsmith says the way we had the 3d engine the graphics and level design had never been done before so people were blown away by that secondly there was this female character bouncing around the screen shooting dinosaurs and tigers and everything she shouldnt have been shooting that was a recipe for success it was never going to fail looking back at it nowand as we know it was a resounding success it sold millions earned a multitude of awards and turned lara croft into a cultural icon a sequel followed the very next year offering improved visuals bigger and more varied environments and the ability to drive vehicles you have so many amazing locations around the world you could be in venice we could have a snowmobile and a jeep heathsmith recallsbut all that success came at a cost to the team who were under immense pressure to create a game that lived up to the original with enough new ideas to keep the concept feeling fresh and have it ready for release the very next year in 1997 the turnaround was incredibly fast people wanted the series to evolve but they didnt realise how little time we had heathsmith explains the yearly entries continued right up until the year 2000 with the launch of tomb raider chronicles before the series made the leap to ps2 and the studio began work on the illfated the angel of darkness the last tomb raider game to be developed by core designthe full interview features in retro gamer 145 now available in stores and via magazines direct