The year was 1995, I was six years old and I remember my father had come home that day with a rather expensive purchase; a Playstation One and a few games. Amongst them were Porsche Challenge, Ridge Racer and my most memorable and favourite game to be, Tomb Raider.

Tomb Raider took me into a world which was completely alien. Yes, I'd been familiar with the classic arcade games such as Pac-Man and Asteroids, but to see this fresh, three dimensional and (at the time) realistic environment before me, was something to be praised. I can quiet specifically remember thinking 'wow' when my father started playing it. The game broke several boundaries, perhaps the most important one was having a female protagonist whom you could control and play as, and I liked it for that. The game featured three different countries, including Peru, Greece, Egypt and many different and wonderful environments to explore, and for me, this was about as far as you could get. The game was often quite challenging, as it only allowed the player to save twice maybe three times in an entire level and only in specific places, which made it all the more difficult and tense when trying to jump over the most difficult obstacles to avoid being stabbed to death by the sharp spikes below you. Yes, that often proved to be annoying but I often gained a real sense of achievement when I completed it. The story was well written and with fifteen levels the game was quite lengthy, taking over a few weeks to complete.

I have recently started playing Tomb Raider again and have come to the conclusion that people in 1995 must have had a lot more patience than they do now. It's a marvelous game and although elements of it over the years have evolved for the better and some for the worse, Tomb Raider will always hold a special place in my gaming heart.