TOMB RAIDER: THE TURNING POINT CHAPTER I: HIDDEN ARTIFACT It was a cold, dark night. And many after, while a man covered in shadows of the library room tried to put the PC together, for it to work properly. He could barely understand what must be done. His son, so young he didn't even care what it was all about - as these days, he had other friends: open space, fresh air and miles walked through - came into the room. Everything was in a mess, or in some kind of arrangement only familiar to the father. With light coming just from a lamp self-made of a tin-can, it seemed to be rather a dismal crypt rather than a room, inside which the father raised his head. - I found something - he said and opened the configuration folder for the graphic card. There was a small winzip package, apparently with a game demo applied to show possibilities of the graphic card. "- Tomb Raider 2" - the son read the inscription. The two launched the program, figured out the main menu and, after a dozen seconds the loading took, they saw a woman on a little harbor between candy bar poles, surrounded by water, and facing a huge door in the wall. I put my hand on the keyboard, but it was too late. - Watch out, the rat is biting you! - my dad warned me, what resulted in panic run, finished by the main heroine possibly being killed by an unfortunate bullet of the balcony shooter, but rather just beaten to death by a stick guy coming out of the corridor - I can't clearly remember which of those two, as both were possible - but finally, we managed to draw weapons... CHAPTER II: STUCK FIRST TIME From that moment, we progressed rapidly - collecting flares, throwing a switch and - wow - opening a DOOR. Behind, there was an inner balcony with a guy on it, while the other one attacking from the ground. After many, many deaths, we got stuck - the switch behind the moving knives opened a door - but where the hell was it? CHAPTER III: FAKE HOPE Few days later, my dad came to my room stretched his arms to mark a distance of about 1 meter and announced: - Maciej, I've just killed two so huge dogs! I rushed to the PC. - Where? - Shoot the windows and keep firing, as there's no time. The doggies were dead. We examined the room and found nothing. Is this all, we wondered - and indeed got stuck again, as killing the dogs didn't solve anything. CHAPTER IV: THE SOLUTION I don't know how it happened that we made it, but the most likely scenario is: when I already lost my patience and returned to my fresh air and open space, my dad has deliberately or helplessly pressed action while performing a jump - so a discovery the ledge above the girl's head can be grabbed. - Aha - I got it. - Then, well, what else the term "Action" refers to except from shooting, pulling switches and grabing shelves? CHAPTER V: ENTERING HEADLESS CHICKEN MODE You can fairly easily guess what happened - dad tried Action everywhere, whenever we had a sign of suspicion it might work. The block on the shelf was pushed, the ladder above the dead balcony guy was discovered, the platform sequence to the far door at the end of the channel was made - all by my dad, because his son still walked the woods, showing no interest in the game at all, enjoying fresh air instead. CHAPTER VI: FIRST GLITCH There only was one problem - whenever I came to accompany my dad, and whenever we died, we were thrown back to the start position. We could find no possibility to pass the area no-scratch, avoiding all knives, bullets and bites. OK, we already decided to skip the dogs and all other enemies we could. We discovered the underwater dive basement, a timed run through flames, finally the chandelier part - all in vain, because the farthest point we got to was the library patio. One day, my dad - again I don't know if he did it on purpose, or accidentally - jumped through a fence with a glitch. Of course we ended up facing doors from wrong sides, losing the plot, etc. etc. I found another glitch soon. CHAPTER VII: DEATH OF GAMEPLAY Anyway, even with glitched runs taken, we couldn't survive till the end, the presence of which we weren't even sure about, and how far it is in case of being there indeed. We binned the game, and RivaTNT2 soon after... History became legend. Legend became myth. For about a year, we forgot about Tomb Raider. CHAPTER VIII: FIRE LIT AGAIN After a short visit in the Nothings, my dad went to Germany, to earn some money (well our country didn't give much possibilities these days). He brought a CD of Tomb Raider IV. Unfortunately, we kept getting "Error Reading CD" every several seconds of Angkor Wat level. But it must have been already failing PC, not the CD, as everytime we pressed Esc, the game was running again for next several seconds. Of course this way, forced to press ESC 200 times in order to reach just the waterfall area behind the first wild boars, we ended up frustrated enough to bin this game as well. But this time, it was different - because, as everyone knows, inability to play due to PC error is always motivating, unlike a player's own mistakes. CHAPTER IX: THE TURNING POINT This is why when some time later I noticed Tomb Raider II CD available in our market, I didn't hesitate. I recognized the game we couldn't have been able to finish. We didn't have RivaTNT2 anymore, so I asked my dad if we can buy it. He agreed. We checked the box and noticed the "Starring: Lara Croft" writing. - Ah, so her name is Lara - we discovered. We launched the game and found ourselves among the tigers. It didn't resemble what we once had seen in the demo, so we understood there is more than one level. That made us think. We checked the main menu carefully. - We can save the game! - it appeared. Because, in the demo we once owned it was impossible (now I know it was an E3 PC beta I'll try to pass someday), so, thinking it's how it should be, we didn't even try to save the subsequent broken TR4, and no-one could tell us we can - we had no internet, as very few people in Poland could afford it at this time. Imagine that - after A YEAR WITHOUT SAVING, we finally knew we're supposed to, and we had the version where it could be done. Death wasn't scary anymore. CHAPTER X: RESURRECTION We found the first, stone dragon and it appeared there are secrets ingame. And medikits, none of which was present in the Bartoli demo as well. Now it all made sense and was AWESOME. Trapdoors, crows, spikes, pushblocks, falling blocks, spiders and a T-Rex. I played very fast, eager to find out what's next. - Wait with that rope! - my dad advised. - Why? - Turn around and grab the ledge. I did like he told me, and I noticed the camera shows a crack in the wall. - You see - he told me. - You play without care. Be patient, don't just rush as hell, and you will find even more. I caught the crack, pulled up into the cave, climbed down a ladder... and in seconds, I knew my dad was right, while trying to escape the jaws of T-Rex. - Look, we really found a dragon - my dad noticed. But the real one was yet to come :D CHAPTER XI: FALLING IN I was lost for good. I played 10-12 hours a day. While exploring the Opera House, my dad even told me buying the game was his hugest parental mistake. BUT HE PLAYED THE GAME AS WELL, till the very end :D, when I found the golden dragon (which he had missed) in Xian level, he even congratulated me, and - what is more - when he visited Germany next time, he started an avalanche, bringing a full version of TR4. - This is the last game I ever bought you - he claimed. - Yeah, well... From his next journey, he came with SAT.1 versions of TR3 and TR1, because the latter one cost only 3€ and he couldn't resist. It actually ends here, because all is directed to getting the save ability. But two more people will be mentioned, responsible for me finding the community: CHAPTER XII: HELLO, IS THERE ANYOBODY IN THERE? Missed the golden dragon in Ice Palace, gived up after searching the level thoroughly and left with no clue where it could be, I visited my friend. He told me the internet is awesome and, for the first time in my life, he took me to the cafe, where I started my first chat ever. There was a girl with a nickname Lara Croft. It's very likely she might be here with us today, somewhere on the forums, unaware of what she did for me. Assuming she might know the answer, I asked her where that golden dragon is. She replied: - And why are You playing Tomb2? It's already the past. - For it's good - I explained. - Now it's only Tomb Raider 5 what matters - she stated. "OMG, how waaaay behind I am" - I realized, and I remain this way until today. I'm mentioning that little, seemingly pointless conversation, because it had a great influence in convincing me there are other, helpful, TR people in the ether. When I bought the mentioned TR5 and got stuck at the canal trapdoor, I found Kinga Mróz's walkthru as soon as we finally got the internet... Other walkthrus followed. A level editor shipped together with Chronicles lied covered in dust. It only changed after 2-3 years, starting another story which would take at least as long as the already written, so I'll just leave it untold until the time comes. Adventskalender 24.Dezember - Heiligabend

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