Tomb Raider on Game Boy Advance: Crazy Tinkerer brings 3D classics to ancient consoles

The Tomb Raider games starring Lara Croft were never officially released for the Game Boy Advance. Around 20 years later, a developer made the nostalgic dream come true: With “OpenLara”, the first part of the series has just been published – albeit only in an alpha version.

Tomb Raider appeared on the Game Boy Advance

When the first part of the Tomb Raider series was released in 1996, the Game Boy Advance was nothing more than a dream for Nintendo. The 32-bit handheld was only introduced in 2001 – and a separate game starring Lara Croft never appeared. That has now changed, however, because solo developer Timur Gagiev has just the alpha version of “OpenLara” released.

Although it is an early version, Tomb Raider on the Game Boy Advance is already something to be proud of. The game runs surprisingly smoothly and the controls are at least no more difficult than the original, which was then released for the PC, the first PlayStation and even the Sega Saturn. The first Tomb Raider never made it onto a Nintendo console either.

Despite the limited hardware of the Game Boy Advance, the game makes a good impression even in terms of 3D. The developer states that the work is not yet finished. He wants the game optimize further in the near futureto make Lara Croft run and jump even smoother.

In the video: This is how Lara Croft does it on the Game Boy Advance.

“OpenLara”: Tomb Raider for many devices

The “OpenLara” project is not only available for the Game Boy Advance, but also for many other systems. In addition to modern operating systems such as Android and iOS, there are also the classic games, among others for the Nintendo Switch and the original Xbox (Source: XProger at GitHub). A version for the Nintendo DS will appear later.