Table Of ContentTomb Raiders and Space Invaders
Tomb Raiders
and Space Invaders
Videogame Forms
and Contexts
Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska
Completion of the project was made possible by a grant from the
Arts and Humanities Research Board
Published in 2006 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
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Copyright © Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska, 2006
The right of Geoff King and Tanya Krzywinska to be identified as the authors of this
work has been asserted by the authors in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part
thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or
transmitted, in any form or b y any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN 1 84511 108 7 hardback
EAN 978 1 84511 108 3 hardback
ISBN 1 85043 814 5 paperback
EAN 978 1 85043 814 4 paperback
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Typeset in Bembo by Steve Tribe, Andover
Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin
Contents
List of Illustrations vi
Acknowledgements viii
Introduction: Space Invaders, Tomb Raiders 1
1. Gameplay and its Contexts 8
2. Gamescapes: Exploration and Virtual Presence in Game-Worlds 76
3. Realism, Spectacle, Sensation 124
4. Social, Cultural and Political Dimensions 168
Afterword 229
Notes 230
Select Bibliography 250
Index 258
Illustrations
1. Freedom to ‘play around’: paidea, in a stylized third-person
view, in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) 15
2. Multiple demands on the attention of the player of a first-person
shooter in Delta Force: Black Hawk Down (2003) 25
3. Generic territory, instantly recognizable: scientist and futurist/
laboratory setting in Half-Life (1998) 56
4. Scud missiles launched in attack on a US base in Command and
Conquer: Generals (2003) 63
5. Spatial restriction as basis of gameplay: Super Monkey Ball (2001) 79
6. Explorable and recognizable game terrain: crossing a virtual
Westminster Bridge (illegally!) in The Getaway (2003) 94
7. The world of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind (2002) as
experienced in third person, behind and slightly above the
player-character 104
8. Attacked from above: fending off an aerial assault in Morrowind
in first-person 105
9. Golf simulation in broad and blocky fields of colour: World Class
Leaderboard (1986) on the Commodore 64 132
10. The much more ‘photorealistic’ simulation of golf offered by
Links 2004 (2003) 133
11. Spectacular vista: the bridge-crossed void in Prince of Persia:
Sands of Time (2003) 155
ILLUSTRATIONS vii
12. Spectacular transformation: cut-scene in which the principal
player-character of Primal (2003) is about to shift into new and
more powerful demonic form 158
13. First-person freedom-fighter: Palestinian resistance figured in-game
in the precincts of the Dome of the Rock in UnderAsh (2001) 170
14. Sexist imagery, combined with action-stunts,
in BMX XXX (2002) 180
15. Ordinary girl with extra-ordinary powers: Buffy as ‘kick-ass’
woman warrior in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (2002) 182
16. Gameplay as community: group play screen-shot
from EverQuest 220
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Barry Atkins, Sue Morris and Marie-Laure Ryan for taking
the time to read the manuscript before publication and for a number of
helpful suggestions. We are also grateful to Philippa Brewster at I.B.Tauris
for commissioning this book. Completion of the project was made
possible by a grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
Introduction
Space Invaders,
Tomb Raiders
Ranks of sketchy white alien forms shuffle sideways across the screen.
You move a small green turret along the lower edge, shooting at the
alien ‘invaders’ and dodging for cover from their fire behind a row of
protective blocks. Each time the aliens complete a movement from one
side to the other, the ranks drop down closer. They start to move a little
faster. An insistent electronic marching beat accompanies their progress,
keeping time with the ir increased speed, winding up the tension. Try to
take out vertical rows from the side, slowing their progress. Beware of any
that get too low, giving you little time to avoid their shots. Hit aliens to
clear the screen, scoring points as you go. Watch out for higher-scoring
bonus aliens that move, periodically, across the upper edge of the screen.
Keep hitting the buttons, watching, hypnotically, as it gets faster and faster.
Your defences gradually get shot to nothing. Lose a life, but you might
have another left. Clear the screen, gain another life, and they start lower,
closer. Keep going and the pace quickens further. You stare at the screen,
your eyes strain and your focus narrows; surrounding distractions recede
from attention. How long can you survive? Eventually, always, you die,
sooner or later. You cannot beat the machine, but you might hang on
long enough to set a new high score.
2 TOMB RAIDERS AND SPACE INVADERS
After some time exploring the Paris ghetto and talking to various non-
player characters, you eventually find the backstage door to the Serpent
Rouge club where you must find a box to be traded for important
information. Kill a guard lurking at the entrance, enter an office and
spot a bunch of items on a desk; press ‘action’ to prompt Lara to pick up
ammunition and a chocolate bar. On leaving, take the guard’s gun – in
case you get into a scrap later on. Follow a corridor and emerge onto
the dance floor of the club. Dispatch a pair of guards and pull a switch
that fills the space with fast-paced pumping techno music. More guards,
prompting you to twist the in-game camera rapidly to get a good aim.
More items to be collected. Climbing Lara up a gantry, you collect your
thoughts; hit the save key just in case the jump you’re about to make
ends in death, and mentally go through the button presses needed to
ensure success. Ready, steady – go! Lara’s ponytail swishes as she jumps
through the air and catches the edge of the gantry by her fingertips.
She pulls up and stands still, awaiting your next command. But there’s
no respite. Tension mounts as you are assailed by more bullets, Lara’s
blood hitting the deck. Phew, you got through! Then more jumping, but
this time the timing is wrong: Lara flails her arms and hits the ground
below with a nasty crunch. Reload from the previous save; try again.
This time it works. But more jumping leads to more deaths, the flow
of the game interrupted as you’re kicked out to the main menu. Back
inside the game-world, you attempt frantically to find the ‘sweet’ spot
from which to jump – and curse aloud at the precision demanded by the
game. Several more jum ps, some lever pulls in a particular order and the
box is found. Exit Lara from the club, hitting the save key again with a
palpable sense of relief.
Videogames1 have certainly come a long way from the experience
of Space Invaders (1978),2 one of the breakthrough arcade games of the
1970s, to that offered by episodes of the Tomb Raider series such as Angel
of Darkness (2003). Space Invaders restricts the player to a largely abstract
and relatively unchanging form of play in which a limited range of fixed
and immediate responses are required. The Tomb Raider games (from
1996) offer something much more like a virtual world with which to
engage – a richer and more detailed series of spaces to explore and tasks
to perform – through the third-person figure of Lara Croft. Space Invaders
and Tomb Raider also have much in common, however. Each has a core
