Back in the heady days of computing in the mid-80s and into the 90's the established order of gaming was easy to follow.
The process was that a film would be released and if the film proved popular, or had seen a big enough budget spent on it, then one of the myriad of software development companies around at that time would develop a computer game based on the movie.
The computer game would then be released and people would snap up the game based on the strength of the movie. Some of the most popular computer games from the early days of computing, such as Rambo, Star Wars (and its sequels), Cobra and many people's favourite game from the 8-bit computing days, Robocop.
However, as computers grew more powerful and eventually game consoles became the medium of choice for gamers to play their games, there was a subtle change happening within the industry. There were still a high number of film tie-in game releases occurring over this period, but then in 1996 there came a game that would break the mould.
That game was Core Design's Tomb Raider and it was notable for several reasons. The first was that Core Design had taken the unusual (and long overdue) step of having a female protagonist as the games hero, Lara Croft and secondly, it was a game that was released across multiple platforms which ensured it had broad appeal to as many gamers as possible.
Indeed, such was the drawing power of the original Tomb Raider game, many experts believe that it was the game which drove many players towards buying the original Playstation machine, over other machines available at the time.
Tomb Raider's appeal lay in turning a 2D platform game into a 3D platform game. Add to this the adventure element and you had the basis for a game that would enthrall a generation of players.
However, when it came to film, Tomb Raider broke the mould in a different way. Stunned by the success of the original game and the number of sequels it was spawning in the next few years, it didn't take long for the film industry to realise that this computer game would make the ideal choice for a movie.
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
Five years after the first game in the Tomb Raider series was released, the movie followed suit. It starred Angelina Jolie as Lara Croft. In the first film, Lara is tasked to locate the missing parts of the triangle of light before the Illuminati can get their hands on it and wield the mystical power that the artifact is rumoured to hold.
Although it received a caning from some critics and while the film only contained the traces of elements of the original game, it was a success with movie-goers at the theatres, earning over $274 million worldwide.
That more than doubled the $115m budget that had been the original cost of the movie and it was not long before Lara Croft was back in action on the silver screen once again.
Lara Croft Tomb Raider: Cradle of Life (2003)
Jan de Bont supplanted Simon West as the director of the second film spawned by the video game. This time Lara Croft was on a quest to find Pandora's Box before an evil scientist could lay his hands on it and release a deadly plague upon the Earth.
The second film didn't enjoy as much success as the first, but was delivered on a smaller budget and still made a profit of over $60 million dollars worldwide.
Of course, the online casino gaming industry is not immune to trends in either video gaming or the movie scene and it is no surprise that one of the most popular online casino slots of recent times has been the original Tomb Raider slot and the sequel, Tomb Raider: Secret of the Sword.
What you have here is clear evidence of how culture is changing. In the past computer games used to reflect the fashions, movies and icons of the period, but now they are inspiring movies of their own. Tomb Raider may have been the first computer game to inspire a film franchise but it hasn't been the last with a new Assassin film soon to be released based on the console games, as well as the recently released Pixels film, which is wholly based on retro-computer gaming characters.
However that isn't the end of the Tomb Raider story just yet. In 2011, GK Films acquired the rights to the Tomb Raider franchise and announced that they intended to reboot the original story, with a new actress taking on the role of Lara Croft in an earlier part of her life. In 2013, MGM partnered with GK Films to help develop the script for the new film, which as yet does not have a title or a release date.
In many ways, the Tomb Raider game series, film franchise and online slot games are reflective of the change in culture over the past decade or so, where computer games are no longer a reflection of tastes, but are inspiring movies and slots of their own, such as Tomb Raider.
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