Appearing on a stamp is a sure sign that you’ve made it in British culture. And just 23 years after her debut on the PlayStation, Lara Croft will finally secure her place in history by appearing in your letter box.
She’s not the only gaming figure to make it onto the collectables. There are 12 different stamps to find in total, with images from various titles including Worms, Lemmings and Sensible Soccer.
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‘The UK has been at the forefront of the video games industry for decades,’ said Royal Mail spokesman Philip Parker. ‘In the 1980s and 90s young designers grappled with coding on the new microcomputers and set the template for the industry with iconic games. We celebrate some of their landmark creations on stamps.’
The earliest game featured in the set is Elite, a 1984 space trading game that was played on either a BBC Micro or Acorn Electron computer. Other early games include Dizzy, a 1987 platformer played on the ZX Spectrum, and Populous, a God game made by Bullfrog in 1989.
UKIE helped Royal Mail select the featured titles, picking the most popular and influential games that emerged from the UK in the early era of the gaming industry.
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‘This collection celebrates a selection of the great British video games that have helped define both the national and global development scene over decades,’ said Jo Twist, chief executive of UKIE.
Although the stamps are a celebration of past history rather than current titles, there are a couple of images from more recent Tomb Raider games. In the earlier images, the stamp designers have opted for shots of Lara where she’s either cased in armour or facing away from the viewer, so thankfully her abnormal 1996 proportions will not be recorded in any stamp collector’s book.
The stamps will be available from January 21 and you can buy them here.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
