Crystal Dynamics, the developer of the popular Tomb Raider video game, has unearthed a little nugget nearly 20 years after the title was first released.
Tomb Raider was first released in October 1996 and this year marks the popular title's 20th anniversary. An 8-minute-long film titled Tomb Raider: The Trilogy was discovered by the developer, who promptly released it during its PAX East event (held from April 22-24) to celebrate the game's anniversary.
The video of Tomb Raider: The Trilogy was chanced upon accidentally by producer Janey de Nordwall. She stumbled on the original digibeta tape of the short film, which was produced by Silver Films in 1998. The Trilogy was originally meant to be screened at the launch party of Tomb Raider III outside the Natural History Museum in London.
It is not known why the short film was never screened, but two decades later, it found its way to YouTube thanks to de Nordwall, who shared the tape with Square Enix, the publisher of the game. The latter posted the movie on YouTube for Lara Croft fans over the weekend.
Tomb Raider: The Trilogy takes viewers immediately back to the 1990s, thanks to the grainy graphics style reminiscent of the era. The short film shows two detectives interrogating a video gamer. The cops are skeptical of the gamer's claims and disturbing obsession with Lara Croft, his "girlfriend." The short film shows the deluded gamer's claims of Croft being in grave danger. The video is cleverly intermingled with the original video game's teaser.
Earlier in March, Ron Rosenberg, Crystal Dynamics' co-head of studio, acknowledged the milestone and revealed that they would be celebrating the occasion with fans.
"Since its introduction, Tomb Raider has held a significant place in video game history, and further cements that with this milestone. We look forward to celebrating with fans, and honoring the iconic Lara Croft with special events, retrospectives, giveaways and other surprises throughout this year of Tomb Raider," noted Rosenberg at the time.
Developer Crystal Dynamics is slated to release an album that will have novel versions of the original songs from the first three Tomb Raider games. To mark the occasion, a book called 20 Years Of Tomb Raider, which will have interviews with game developers and images that have never been seen before, will be released in October this year.
Check out the unreleased Tomb Raider: The Trilogy short made nearly two decades ago below.
