Tomb Raider 1-3 Remastered is here, and it’s resurrected a long-dormant discussion about a supposedly hidden feature. With this unsavory subject surfacing again, it’s time to explore whether the infamous Tomb Raider nude code was real?
Is There a Tomb Raider Nude Code?
The what, you may ask? Nude code. It sounds ridiculous, especially that you can’t move for Resident Evil bikini/beach boy mods nowadays, but back in the ’90s, there was rumored to be a code that stripped Tomb Raider protagonist Lara Croft down to her bare essentials.
Where did this notion come from? Lara Croft wasn’t the first female protagonist by any means, but she was perhaps the most high profile, and a lot of the press (gaming and otherwise) took notice. It didn’t help that some of the games’ promotional materials objectified her, with ads including text like, “Come on boys, I’m waiting” and so on.
Related: Why Tomb Raider Has a Racism & Stereotypes Warning
So, the idea that you could tap in a code and have her running around in the buff understandably took hold. But was it real? Absolutely not, as confirmed by two of the original game’s creators, who were less than happy about it.
Speaking to The Gamer back in 2021, Paul Douglas and Gavin Rummery explained that, “It annoyed us because a) it didn’t exist and b) it meant we’d meet people at parties who thought we were perverts making pornographic video games for children.”
Their response was to add a scene to Tomb Raider 2 where, while getting ready for a shower, Lara whips out a shotgun and shoots the viewer in the face. Even if anyone at then-developer Core Design entertained the notion, it would be gaming suicide to include such a code. After all, it was only a few years after Night Trap caused a serious stink in America.
One magazine, GamesMaster did publish a supposed ‘nude code’, entered via an Action Replay-style cheat device. According to Reddit, this turned all of Lara’s clothes skin-colored, though given the length of the code I’m not convinced it wasn’t some elaborate troll along the lines of EGM’s Street Fighter 2 Sheng Long April Fool.
And the remaster? Not a chance. Aspyr/Core would be pilloried by the PEGI/ESRB boards. Remember Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ ‘Hot Coffee’? No games company is going to risk replicating that in a hurry. Besides which, mucky mods drop within five minutes of a game being published, so what would be the point? Barring a disgruntled programmer getting revenge on their employer, that is.
So, the answer as to whether the infamous Tomb Raider nude code was real is a definite no.
