Save your games! -
It won't make you any less of a Tomb Raider and it'll save you from an possible risk of premature hair-loss. If you're playing the PC version of the game, it's easy, its quick, and it'll save you from retracing your steps. If you're doing well in a fight or managed a tricky jump, save during and after - you never know what surprise lurks around the any dark corner waiting to turn you into it's next meal.

Save in a new slot often as well. If you find you've been saving games that proove to leave yourself stuck in a dead-end situation, you can go back to an early recent saved game to start over. It is also wise to copy your Save Game files in a seperate folder (especially if you're playing one of the games that have a limited number of Saves). Name or date each of your Saved Game folders, since the Save files are named by numbers.

Conserving your med-packs -
You'll probably need more later in the game, as the enemies get tougher and the traps get more dangerous. Don't use more than you need. Small med-packs bring back half of Lara's health; large kits restore full health. Remember, too, that full health is restored before each new level. So don't bother cracking that med-pack if you're almost at the end of a level. And in TR-TLR4, where you can go back and forth between certain levels, you can use this feature to restore Lara's health. small med-pack large med-pack Be creative with med-packs. You can use them during a fight if necessary. TR2 has in-game med-pack hot keys (8 for small and 9 for large). In both games, the escape button is like a time-out for healing. Med-packs can work like scuba gear if you get caught underwater and run out of air. This tactic is only for emergencies though, since drowning burns health pretty fast. Med-packs can also keep Lara7 alive if she catches fire.

Conserving your flares -
Beginning in TR2, Lara gets flares to light her way. There are plenty to be found, but if you're running low, try these tricks. Save your game, explore a dark area using a flare then reload if you don't find anything interesting. Or, if you're desperate, use pistol fire to light your way or turn up the monitor brightness. In TR-TLR, you can also use the binoculars for light. Press the Action key while looking through the binoculars to light up Lara's view.

Walk through spikes, broken glass and barbed wire -
This will seem obvious to veteran players, but if you're new to TR, take note. Lara won't take any damage if you WALK through these dangerous areas. (NOTE: In TR-TLR spikes are unsafe at any speed, so avoid them.)

Tomb Raider 1: Disable that Windows button -
TR1 runs in DOS, and as a result, accidentally pressing the Windows button will cause the game to crash to the desktop. This can be prevented by downloading and using the Microsoft Logo Key Control utility (formerly called "Doswinky"). You'll need to download a collection of "Kernel Toys" from the Microsoft site. Instructions for installing and using Doswinky are included. (NOTE: Microsoft moves this page around from time to time. If the link comes up dead, search the site for "Kernel Toys" and/or "Logo Key Control.")

Automatic vs. Manual Targeting -
In the Options menu (accessible from the main menu or Pause screen), you may choose between automatic or manual targeting. Automatic Targeting is similar to the combat system in the previous games. When an enemy comes into range, Lara will automatically lock onto it if she has a weapon drawn. With Manual Targeting, she won't lock onto the enemy until you press the Look key. In both automatic and manual targeting, when more than one enemy is in range, tapping the Look key will make Lara cycle through the available targets. (NOTE: Unlike in the earlier games, where you could hold the Look key to stay locked on a target, when Lara loses sight of an enemy, the lock is broken.)

Also note: If you're running any of the Tomb Raider games with a 3dfx card, you'll need a separate image grabbing program:

• Screengrabber for Win 9X/NT (grabs 3Dfx Glide, DirectX):
  http://www.hyperionics.com/www/snap32.htm
• Screengrabber for Win9X/NT (running Glide 2.1.1 or later):
  ftp://ftp.univ-lille1.fr/pub/3dfx/glide211/suprgrab.zip
• Screengrabber for Win9X (interface to SuperGrab):
  http://3dfiles.com/utility/snap3dfx.shtml

Tomb Raider 1:
There's no screen shot grabber in this game (it runs in DOS), so you'll need to find a separate screenshot grabbing program. Try looking through the 3D Action Gamers' Archive at http://www.3dgamers.com/3daction/00utils/.

Tomb Raider Gold:
Press the forward-slash / key. The game will start dumping screenshots (in .pcx format) into your TR directory. Don't forget - turn off the screenshots by pressing the slash key again, or you'll eat up all the disk space on your hard drive.

Tomb Raider 2:
Pressing the s key takes one screenshot at a time, saved to your TR2 directory in .pcx format, or .tga if in 16.7 million colour mode.

Tomb Raider 3 and TR-The Last Revelation:
The apostrophe ' key takes screenshots in .tga format .

According to Stella's, , you may also be able to use the Print Screen key for TR2 and TR-TLR with Win95/98, depending on your graphics hardware. This copies a bitmap to your clipboard, that can then be pasted into a graphics editing program like PaintShop, Photoshop, etc.

Macintosh Games: Macs have a built-in screen shot application. Hit the Command (the loopy-shaped key besides the space bar), Shift and 3 keys simultaneously for PICT format images.

If you're having trouble viewing the any of these image file formats, try bringing them up through any of the many image editing programs, such as Adobe Photoshop.