MrCunningham
Member
So, according to information online...
Tomb Raider was originally released on the Sega Saturn in the UK on October 25th, 1996. Which would now mark today as the 20th anniversary of the franchise!
While many people will think of the original Tomb Raider series as a Playstation 1 franchise, the first Tomb Raider game actually started development on the Sega Saturn and served as the lead development platform for the PS1 and MS-DOS versions.
Because of this, the Saturn version of the game was actually released roughly three and a half weeks before the Playstation 1 and MS-DOS PC versions of the game. Which were later released on November 14th 1996 for both the Europe and North American regions. The North American version of the Sega Saturn game was also released on November 14th 1996, despite having an early EU release date.
Early advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaoS5YPnGy0
Promo CG made for the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XliZKRpxRjc
CG promo 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT7e-oRDc3Q
Sega Saturn Screenshots:
(Saturn screenshots taken from SSF Emulator. Sorry screenshot purists, maybe you guys can do better?)
While I am not from the UK or ever lived in the UK, the Saturn version of Tomb Raider was the first version of the game that I ever played and owned. It was my introduction into Tomb Raider, and at the time I thought it was quite an amazing experience. While, IMO, Tomb Raider on the Sega Saturn was not the best version of the game, as it had some serious frame rate issues in larger environments, ran at a lower resolution and lacked gourad shading and lighting of the PS1/ PC versions (as well as HW acceleration of the PC game), it was still an interesting example of what could be done with the Saturn's hardware. I honestly played this one a lot until I found a version of the game for MS-DOS at a discounted price. I really didn't get a chance to play the PS1 game until many years later.
Comparison between the Saturn and PS1 version of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgQP7JOqgsk
Multi-Platform North American Release. November 14th 1996 and a little bit beyond that...
On November 14th 1996, Tomb Raider saw North American releases for the PS1, MS-DOS PC and Sega Saturn, while in Europe the PlayStation and PC versions were released on November 22nd 1996. In japan, the PC version of Tomb Raider titled "Tomb Raiders" was released on January 19th 1997 with the Saturn and PS1 versions following months later on February 14th 1997.
The PC also saw a second release of Tomb Raider in 1997 called Tomb Raider Gold, which featured additional levels.
While I won't go to far into detail on this one, I will post a link to DF Retro's: Tomb Raider Analysed on PS1/Saturn/DOS/Win95, which goes into much better detail on the different versions of the game and is an excellent video in general.
If you want to run the PC version on a modern PC in HD, take a look at post 194 in this thread.
This thread isn't meant to be a huge retrospective on the first Tomb Raider game, and I am not really going into heavy research on the game's development. There are so many other videos and articles online that cover the game's development in great detail.
I mostly wanted to focus on the Sega Saturn version. But feel free to talk about the other versions as well.
Tomb Raider was originally released on the Sega Saturn in the UK on October 25th, 1996. Which would now mark today as the 20th anniversary of the franchise!
Original UK boxart
While many people will think of the original Tomb Raider series as a Playstation 1 franchise, the first Tomb Raider game actually started development on the Sega Saturn and served as the lead development platform for the PS1 and MS-DOS versions.
Because of this, the Saturn version of the game was actually released roughly three and a half weeks before the Playstation 1 and MS-DOS PC versions of the game. Which were later released on November 14th 1996 for both the Europe and North American regions. The North American version of the Sega Saturn game was also released on November 14th 1996, despite having an early EU release date.
Early advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaoS5YPnGy0
Promo CG made for the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XliZKRpxRjc
CG promo 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT7e-oRDc3Q
Sega Saturn Screenshots:
(Saturn screenshots taken from SSF Emulator. Sorry screenshot purists, maybe you guys can do better?)
While I am not from the UK or ever lived in the UK, the Saturn version of Tomb Raider was the first version of the game that I ever played and owned. It was my introduction into Tomb Raider, and at the time I thought it was quite an amazing experience. While, IMO, Tomb Raider on the Sega Saturn was not the best version of the game, as it had some serious frame rate issues in larger environments, ran at a lower resolution and lacked gourad shading and lighting of the PS1/ PC versions (as well as HW acceleration of the PC game), it was still an interesting example of what could be done with the Saturn's hardware. I honestly played this one a lot until I found a version of the game for MS-DOS at a discounted price. I really didn't get a chance to play the PS1 game until many years later.
Comparison between the Saturn and PS1 version of the game: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgQP7JOqgsk
Multi-Platform North American Release. November 14th 1996 and a little bit beyond that...
On November 14th 1996, Tomb Raider saw North American releases for the PS1, MS-DOS PC and Sega Saturn, while in Europe the PlayStation and PC versions were released on November 22nd 1996. In japan, the PC version of Tomb Raider titled "Tomb Raiders" was released on January 19th 1997 with the Saturn and PS1 versions following months later on February 14th 1997.
The PC also saw a second release of Tomb Raider in 1997 called Tomb Raider Gold, which featured additional levels.
While I won't go to far into detail on this one, I will post a link to DF Retro's: Tomb Raider Analysed on PS1/Saturn/DOS/Win95, which goes into much better detail on the different versions of the game and is an excellent video in general.
If you want to run the PC version on a modern PC in HD, take a look at post 194 in this thread.
NA PS1 box:
NA PC box:
NA Saturn box:
This thread isn't meant to be a huge retrospective on the first Tomb Raider game, and I am not really going into heavy research on the game's development. There are so many other videos and articles online that cover the game's development in great detail.
I mostly wanted to focus on the Sega Saturn version. But feel free to talk about the other versions as well.
