
Tomb Raider 1 in
trapezoidal box.Wow! The initial response to this blog has been great. Thanks to everyone who has stopped in, posted comments and emailed about it.
Many of you had questions about when the next Tomb Raider game is coming out, what it will be about, and so forth, for which (alas!) I have no answers yet. The next most frequent request was for more info about me. That sounds like the most boring possible topic for a blog post. But, since I'm more than happy to talk about the games, how about we compromise? I'll tell how I got into Tomb Raider if you guys will too.

Me & my hubbyI've been playing TR since early 1997. My husband got a copy of the original Tomb Raider computer game from a friend who'd just finished playing it. I wasn't much into video games at that point, so I didn't really pay attention until he got stuck. It was the timed run across the fire pillars in the Palace Midas level. He just couldn't do it. After trying for what seemed like hours, cursing like a sailor and pounding on the keyboard, he finally got so frustrated that he gave up and literally chucked the game in the garbage. I pulled it out and decided to give it a try.
I wasn't about to start with the hardest part so I went back to the beginning. I floundered around in the training level for a while. Fortunately I'm a good typist, so it didn't take long before I was off and running. And the rest, as they say, is history.

An early iteration of the site
(c. Nov. 2003). Click for
larger screenshot. For more
nostalgia, visit the
Web Archives.Soon after that I started hanging out on various Tomb Raider message boards and newsgroups, asking and answering questions, but I didn't write my first walkthrough until late 1997 when TR2 came out. After that I went back and wrote the walk for TR1—with a nice strategy for the fire pillar run, if I do say so myself. Over the years I've played and written about every Tomb Raider I could get my hands on, and I hope to keep on playing as long as they keep making the games. I love it, and I love getting to know other players and fans through the web site.
When I started there weren't many other walkthroughs out there. I was lucky to find a niche early on. Since then, a bunch of other good writers have come along and started doing their thing. Some have come and gone. Some stuck around. I say the more the merrier. That way players can find just the kind of help they need—short and to the point, rambling and detailed (like mine), and now even video walkthroughs.
As a gamer, I guess I'm a late bloomer. I had been a fan of role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons since I was in high school (back in the early '80s), but except for Sim City and a couple of simple puzzle games, Tomb Raider was the first computer game I played. I've expanded my repertoire a bit since then, but Tomb Raider is still my favorite.
So how did you discover Lara and her adventures? Please click 'comments' below and let me know. I'd love to hear from you.