You can play the original Tomb Raider in your browser right now
Just one level at the moment, but it runs like a dream
We’re big fans of the modern-day, admittedly much more trigger-happy Lara Croft, all shiny and HD as she clears rooms in seconds with her pimped-out pump action shotgun. But every now and then it’s nice to revisit the game that started it all, especially when it only takes a single mouse click.
When a group of hobbyist developers failed in their attempt to obtain the original Tomb Raider source code, they decided to just re-build it themselves, making the results effortlessly playable in a web browser.
The ongoing project, called OpenTomb, will eventually feature the first five games in the legendary action-adventure series, but right now you can hop into City of Vilcabamba, the second level in Tomb Raider, just by following this link. It works on Windows, Mac or Linux PCs, and this new open-source version will probably feel smoother than it did back in the day. The sound auto-plays, though, so stick a pair of headphones in if you’re trying to keep it stealthy in the office.
The keyboard controls are listed below the screen the game boots in, so no blood-hungry polygonal wildlife should stand a chance against you. Tapping “V” also switches the game between first and third-person viewpoints, which is just very cool.
A lot more technical information (little of which we understand in the slightest) is available on the team’s Github page, where fellow developers are free to browse the code and contribute themselves. There’s no word yet on when the complete first game will be ready, but for now, let’s all just marvel at instant Lara, straight outta the nineties.
(Image credit: OpenLara)
