Tomb Raider
The first entry in the series "Tomb Raider" was released in 1996 for personal computers (PC), PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. The Saturn and PlayStation versions were released in Japan in 1997. The second game, "Tomb Raider II", launched in 1997, again for PC and PlayStation. A month before release, Eidos finalised a deal with Sony Computer Entertainment to keep the console version of "Tomb Raider II" and future games exclusive to PlayStation until the year 2000. The PlayStation version was released in Japan in 1998. "Tomb Raider III" launched in 1998. As with "Tomb Raider II", the PlayStation version released in Japan the following year. The fourth consecutive title in the series, "", released in 1999. In 2000, with the end of the PlayStation exclusivity deal, the game also released on the Dreamcast. In Japan, both console versions released the following year. "Tomb Raider Chronicles" released in 2000 on the same platforms as "The Last Revelation", with the PlayStation version's Japanese release as before coming the following year.
Tomb Raider
The original "Tomb Raider" theme was composed by Nathan McCree. He created the original theme music after having discussions with Gard about the character of Lara Croft. Having decided to use Classical English music as an inspiration, he decided to create something simple for the theme song. Its simplicity made rearrangements and orchestrations easy. For his work on the first three "Tomb Raider" games, he was given fairly minimal briefs, and for "Tomb Raider III" he was working on the game as a freelancer as he had left the company. For "The Last Revelation", Peter Connelly replaced Nathan McCree as the main composer, using McCree's music as a basis for his work. He composed the opening theme for "The Last Revelation", saying that the opening melody came to him out of the blue, and added Egyptian motifs to fit in with the game's setting. "Chronicles" was originally going to have a sizeable original opening theme, but due to time constraints the majority of it ended up being discarded, much to Connelly's later regret. Only the opening segment survived. The music for "Angel of Darkness", composed by Connelly and Martin Iveson, was the one element of production that did not encounter problems, as recording was finished before the major content cuts happened. Scored using a full orchestra as opposed to the synthesised instruments of previous titles, it was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra.