Help fund the Tomb Raider Suite orchestral recording!

Lara Croft needs you!

Nathan McCree wants to bring you a remastered orchestral soundtrack from Tomb Raider 1 - 3 and for it to happen, he needs our help! Donating any kind of amount will get us closer to the goal and get yourself some awesome goodies in the process like a CD jewel case or vinyl.

Help fund the project on Kickstarter!

Soul Reaver Storyboard

I have put together the official storyboard which was published in EGM 115 from February 1999. Never seen this anywhere else and it is quite easy to miss it as a strip on the bottom of the page about SR1.

                                                  Download or view the storyboard here

Legacy of Kain DVD cases

I have recently made a collection of DVD cases for one of my LOK friends. If you ever burned dvds with all the cutscenes on and still watch them from time to time, why not print these covers to make them match your games? Thanks goes to Patrick who made a high-res version of Kain.

Download LOK dvd case collection

Tomb Raider Suite Live in Concert

Just a few weeks before the performance I was on facebook, browsing through people's posts as usual. It was then, when I saw it. I previously bought tickets for Pokémon Symphony Orchestra in Apollo on 19th of December and then when I saw that Tomb Raider Suite will be performing first time ever, I was a bit dissapointed I didn't know about it a lot earlier. About a week before the event, I got time off for Sunday as well, so thought why the hell not and bought tickets for TR concert as a Christmas present for me and my fiance.

On the night of 18th, we arrived at Apollo with quite a big crowd of Lara fans gathering around the theatre. Getting in was pretty easy as we flashed our tickets past the doors, bought the programme and made way to our seats. Surprisingly we were offered better seats as not enough tickets have been sold apparently. Indeed that was true as minute before the opening the theatre was less than half filled with many empty seats around. The darkness settled in and Royal Philharmonic Orchestra started playing the Tomb Raider tunes, then Shelley Blond made an appearance and was our elegant host throughout the entire musical journey. It is hard to describe this entire experience in word, but I'll try my best. The expert composer himself, Nathan McCree, made an appearance in an unexpected interview at the start, which made us really excited for the whole experience. Throughout the concert they were also displaying various gameplay segments from the games which made the feelings and nostalgia really strong.


Everything began with Tomb Raider 1, released in 1996, and its memorable and completely unforgettable main tune. As the orchestra started playing it, many tears were shed. It was beatifully and masterfully performed and with the crisp sound of all the instruments, the chants, everything felt absolutely right. They immersed us in most of the TR1 tracks you remember and even added a little twist. For example the T-Rex hunt theme was made longer, as McCree was finally able to realize the tracks in their full lengths, as he explained later, not being limited by the length or bit size of the individual pieces.

Then Shelley Blond narrated us the success story of TR2 and the orchestra opened with a brilliant rendition of its main theme. They even pulled the track which I thought would be really difficult to do, I don't remember the official title, but you all sure remember it when it plays as Lara sets her first steps within the temple of Xian. There I have also learned that one of my beloved TR2 tracks is actually called Vertigo, which plays when Lara tries to reach higher ground in a house in Venice. It was also prolonged and it was pure joy listening to it. Very popular was the snowmobile trick, or Skiddo, as McCree labelled it. I did not think that an orchestra coud pull successfully pull it off but it was completely the opposite and many heads rocking back and forth was the proof of it.

After that, we finally reached Tomb Raider 3 and its main theme. Again, it was masterfully played and brought so much nostalgia to me personally. TR3 was the very first true 3D game I have ever played and as such, holds a dear place in my heart. I was a bit surprised that the Jungle cutscene with the crazy scientist Tony was performed as well and it fit the orchestra like a glove. Spooky Jungle is another one of my favourites and worked well. Also the mysterious sounding Puzlle Element track made a great appearance. Of course you could not have a TR3 experience without Geordie Bob track, which was again perfectly performed and loved every bit of it. At the end, McCree made another appearance and the audience clapped and screamed with excitement. The last performance was a medley of everything we heard so far and I wished for it never to end. There were also fun parts in between where they have included one of the TR fans' reactions to the game's beatiful music which were really hilarious.

Overall, the entire experience was completely unique, deeply personal and something to witness in your lifetime, especially if you are a TR fan. Being able to see the brilliant songs made live by an amazing orchestra and its conducter, Robert Ziegler, see Shelley Blond, Meagan Marie and Nathan McCree (even Winston made a surprise fun appearance!) in person was worth every pound spent on this event. The only downside was that there were not enough people witnessing this masterpiece maybe due to not enough of promotion, which is a shame. I only hope that there will be more concerts and a CD produced from this, because such experience must be shared with everybody. Thanks to everybody involved in this project and my gratitude goes to Nathan, Shelley and Meagan for letting us see them in person and getting their autographs (asking about LOK was a joke, btw).

PS: And how did this masterpiece sound like? Have a look! Mr. McCree kindly uploaded a recording of his new track, In the blood:

He also uploaded three tracks to soundcloud.com if you want to listen.

 More info about the concert, pictures and its aftermath also found here.

The Ancient’s Den now on Facebook

While I am still in the middle of planning to post some more updates on my blog, in the meantime feel free to join my newly established FB page where I will post more frequent smaller updates which will be not posted here. It should also make contacting me a lot easier. Hope you enjoy reading and feel free to comment at:

The Ancient’s Den on Facebook

My Raziel cosplay at London Comic Con October 2016

As it just turned 20th anniversary of Blood Omen and 15th of Soul Reaver 2, I wanted to do something special. This October´s London Comic Con provided a good opportunity to do so and was my first where I have actually participated as a cosplayer. The choice what to cosplay was pretty obvious right from the start to me - what better choice than my favourite wraith himself?

My first obstacle was how to recreate muscle like tissue on top of my own body. I have seen other cosplayers do protruding muscle suits, but I have felt this would be too difficult to achieve in my first cosplay idea, so I had to find a work around. Looking around on ebay, I have discovered that there is a tank top and leggings with a muscle structure already imprinted. The issue was that they did not come in blue and painting spandex is not really possible either. However, I put a transparent blue stockings and top to make it appear blue/purple. The wings themselves were not as difficult, but it took some time to discover which kind of material would do best for them and how big should they actually be (I had to cut out like 5 pairs in the end until I was finally happy with the result).

After I had the wings done, I had to figure out how to attach them to my back without attaching them to the net top. I have decided to try and use a coat hanger held onto a belt on my chest, which turned out to work well and kept the wings posable and easily removable. For the hands I had to order custom tri-fingered gloves. I covered my arms with two wristwarmers on each side to form a string of brown bandages and for the upper part I have cut up a tube bandage into two pieces and just tied it around my arm. I´ve put the golden armbands on top the wristwarmers.

The boots were one of the bigger challenges that I had to rely solely on myself, so I have purchased cheap used boots which suited the style. The huge issue was how to create the protruding exposed double toes, which are so specific about Raziel. I have thought about it and to make the boots durable and not awkward when walking, decided to just paint a dividing line between the toes, rather than attaching something which can easily fall off. I think it came out alright in the end. Since the original boots were pure black, I purchased Angelus leather colours and applied three coats of bronze paint. The bottom part I have painted blue to indicate those are Raziel´s feet and used a lighter blue to draw the muscle going in between the toes. After the paint was sealed in, there was still a missing piece. The plates which are at the front of the boots, right above the toes, had to be cut out of the raw leather and attached with glue.

The cowl was a custom made item and was one of the most expensive items on the list. The craftsmanship of it and nice material make up for the price, though. The only problem which I faced on the convention and in general was, that while moving my head around, the cape would slide down, exposing my chin, so I have added a rubber band to the top circle of the cape so it will stay in place and I can freely move my head around.

The head itself was a challenge and I was contemplating using face paint or a mask, but a mask won because of how practical it was. I just bought a simple plain white mask,cut it up and painted it with acrylic colours. The colours were a bit damaged while I was wearing it, so a quick repaint and sealing the coat will do the trick. For the hair I purchased a black wig, which was quite cheap but fulfilled its purpose well. For the eyes I have ordered zombie eye pre-scription contacts, so I could walk around and still see sharply (I´m shortsighted). It was quite difficult to put them in at first (still takes me several tries to insert them in and out) but I got used to them. After I got home from Comic Con, I have discovered I had a balaclava, which would have been great to cover up my lower jaw, so I´ve used that for the newer shots. For the ears I have bought two pairs, one full on ears and the second pair just stick ons. Stick ons proved more practical in the end (just cut out ear slots in the balaclava so my ears can poke out and stick on blue ears can be attached).

Overal, making this cosplay was a lot of fun but even more fun was posing for people and walking around acting as Raziel, trying to do my best impression of his walking, gliding, fighting, etc (did a little "glide" down the stairs with my wings up at the end on my way to the cloak room). Looking around and breathing was a bit difficult but I knew cosplaying comes at a cost of some discomfort. Totally worth it and thanks goes to all the fans who took a picture of me and appreciated my cosplay, you made me really happy! I´ll definitely attend another comic con next year.

Resources:

Cape: 40
Wig:  8
Ears: 3
Contacts: 30
Armbands: 2
Boots: 10
Raw leather: 15
Angelus paint: 30
Bandages: 3
Gloves: 15
Wrist warmers: 6
Mask: 2
Aquarel colours: 3
Belt: 4
Coat hanger: free
Wing fabric: 10
Blue leggings+top: 8
Muscle suit: 10

Torch materials: 8

Total estimate: 200 pounds
Time needed: 1-2 weeks

New footage of SR2 Dreamcast version and BO1 Saturn version

Thiago Paulino just reported to me an exciting new find! The playable Dark Forge Dreamcast Demo of Soul Reaver2 and trailer for Saturn version of Blood Omen. Too bad the player playing SR2 demo could not figure out the shifting mechanic and in the BO1 video you can see the slightly different hud made for Saturn version. Thanks Thiago!

Modding in Blood Omnicide

Since Blood Omnicide supports modding, it is possible to swap out textures or even build new levels by using the tools provided with the game. With the help of Vortex, we have created a small patch for the Pillars which includes SR2 style symbols. Installation is simple, just drag and drop the files into your Kain folder. If you do not want to use the mod anymore, simply delete it from the folder. If more mods are created for the game, this post will be eventually updated, so check back here in the future.

Download SR2 Pillars icons here

Blood Omnicide v0.1 released!

Blood Omnicide has released its newest version 0.1 and now includes gameplay from the beginning until Nachtholm. It includes all the cinematics and gameplay features. It also contains a handful of modding features such as a map editor. You can also choose from a new style of soundtrack or the old one. For the full experience it is recommended to own a CD or an image from PC/PS versions of Blood Omen, but you can still play a shorter preview version if you do not owe them. There are certain things which are still buggy but it is overall an amazing experience to see BO1 in full 3D setting. Enjoy!

Print your own Swindlestones

Swindlestones are a very addictive minigame from Steve Jackson's Fighting Fantasy series called Sorcery. I have recently reviewed the first three parts for pc and found the games highly engrossing. I have never played any other text adventure before, but this one exceeded my expectations! If you too are a fan or just would like to try this minigame out, I have included a template which you can print out and play with 8 sided dice just like you would in the game.

Finished paper Swindlestones

You can even play with regular 6 sided dice, just the combinations possible will be much higher. If you have never heard about this game before, the rules are pretty simple. You and your opponent need to get the same amount of dice each (2,3,4,5, etc.) and throw them on a table. You both cover the numbers you got on top with your hands and then you take turns to try and guess the total amount of certain dice quantity, for example two ones, three fours, etc. Your opponent must raise the bet by saying a higher amount/quantity each time. If you think that your opponent does not have what he claims to have, you can say "call" and force them to reveal his hand. You then count the amount of dice present on the table from both of your hands and if the player guessed less amount of dice than they are on the table or it was a false call, they automatically lose one of their die. You keep playing until one of you has no dice left. It is not very dissimilar from poker but a  more simplified version, yet tons of fun! When playing Swindlestones in Sorcery, each bet is accompanied by a line of dialogue you can use to taunt or confuse your opponent and it can add an extra layer of fun trying to roleplay in real life.

Swindlestones in Sorcery part 2

Put the following template in a word/otp document, crop it to 83% (worked best for me) both vertically and horizontally and print out on a thicker paper. It will take about 30 minutes to make 10 set of dice.

Templates:

Soul Reaver OST v7

I have went back and refined the last version of the soundtrack and produced a much more compact, "mini" version, if you like. This version is half the size of the v6 OST and contains only single looped tracks as opposed to the double looped versions in the previous one. The reason behind this was, since the Necropolis appeared to have two loops which are slightly different, it seemed all the rest had the same setup. However, after doing some research, I have come to a conclusion that this was not the case for the rest of the tracks, whose second loop was identical to the first and thus redundant. These new single looped tracks can be easily looped within the same family (Underworld, Necropolis, etc.) or just looped flawlessly on their own. There are also some other slight changes which you can find in the read me file. Hope you enjoy!

Note: This is an outdated version, see below for the latest.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEWEST VERSION