Tomb Raider 30 — As the legendary video game celebrated her 30th birthday, around 80 superfans took part in a cosplay competition at her birthplace of Derby. Hatti Rex and Emily Rose England met some of the participants and found out what gaming’s greatest woman character means to them.
Across the city, TR30 anniversary celebrations have been kicking off, organised by superfan and merch collector Luke Earle and the wider Tomb Raider Derby team. Derby’s Pickford House museum has an entire exhibition dedicated to the game’s heroine Lara Croft running since July 24 with this weekend providing the final boss of festivities.
Costumes aside, the day’s stacked quest log included talks and signings from game’s original and current developers, original Lara models Alison Caroll and Natalie Cook and voice actors Alix Wilton Regan, Judith Gibbins and Jonell Elliot. Egyptologist and University of Liverpool professor Marina Escolano-Povedo who got into her profession from being inspired by the games herself spoke about the ancient worlds explored in the games. Themed drinks based on in-game items were available: The Jade Dragon, a green one, plus a questionable glowing blue concoction named The Eye of Isis.
If you’re asking why this is happening in Derby specifically, the city is where Tomb Raider was originally created in 1993 by developers Core Design, with Croft herself conceived by developer Toby Gard. Shortly after the studio’s closure, a nearby road was named ‘Lara Croft Way’ in her honour. She notably has her own Hollywood-style star on the Derby Walk of Fame and this weekend, a 9ft statue of Croft finally came home following a £30,000 online fundraiser to make her a permanent fixture. She’s plastered across the Derby Maker’s museum and the Derby Videogame Museum – our angel of the Midlands.
Fellow Midlands-born gamergirl and photographer Emily Rose England joined me on a day-long quest inside QUAD Derby to snap the friendly faces of the global Tomb Raider community, who had adventured in especially for the occasion. Below, Lara’s biggest fans explain their continued love of the game and discuss how they really feel about the industry nowadays.
My auntie gave me and my brother her old PlayStation. It came with loads of games, including Tomb Raider II and III. I initially played II and rage quit because it was so hard. I was only about five or six years old. Tried III, same thing. And then we got a family computer about a year later, and it came with a demo disc of The Last Revelation and I was obsessed with it.
It’s boosted my confidence. I think it’s helped me come out of my shell. It’s been somewhere to go when I’ve been alone. I can come out and just be someone else because Lara is completely different to me and it’s amazing to be this badass and go on these adventures.
I’m definitely a classic Tomb Raider fan over modern gaming. It’s just more challenging. The puzzles are better. It’s not that I don’t like the newer games, but you didn’t have as much access to the internet and guides and whatnot, so you had to just go and work out yourself. Whereas now you can just pop on YouTube and work out where to go.
Tomb Raider was probably one of the very first games I played when I was younger. I played it as it came out, and it became the family game. And I think just seeing how much of an absolute icon Lara Croft is, she’s just so independent. She’s so unapologetic. She’s so strong. She’s so athletic. She doesn’t take any bullshit from men. And seeing that from a young age was beautiful. Playing the games and seeing [Angelina] Jolie in the cinemas as a child was so inspiring.
Well, it’s had an impact on my bank account. I’ve centred a lot of my love around Lara and because of her, I’ve done a scuba diving course in coastal Thailand, snorkelled between tectonic plates and hiked in so many amazingly beautiful places across the world.
