There were rumors, unfounded as far as I know, for years that Tomb Raider originally started life in development for the Sega 32X game but was quickly moved to the Saturn then PlayStation with Sony’s new hardware becoming the exclusive home for many sequels. While the rumor of Sega 32X being the original target console is not proven, Sony did indeed lock down Tomb Raider. That meant Sega was out in the cold as far as getting at least Tomb Raider II on the Saturn. It also meant Nintendo’s Nintendo 64 was out of luck on getting the female lead game on their platform either. Now, a fan over on YouTube is making the sequel to Tomb Raider happen.
Started on Saturn but Quickly Moved Up Like the Jeffersons
In the right hands, the Saturn could hum just fine with 3D graphics. Unfortunately for gamers, those hands were almost exclusively employed by Sega and working on official Sega releases. This meant many 3rd party games were subpar visually to what Sega was producing.
Core Design were able to pull off some amazing things with Tomb Raider on Saturn, according to Jeremy Heath-Smith, speaking with SegaNerds.com, the original Tomb Raider was developed specifically for the Sega Saturn, then ported to Windows and Sony PlayStation.
This may be the origin of the Sega 32X rumor as many titles that were in development for that add-on were scrapped or moved to Saturn when Sega made it known. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_6QNwWEfSc
Work in Progress, No Demo Yet, But Amazing Results
Look at the embedded video above, this is amazing that JRTombRaider has accomplished so far. Speaking with SegaSaturnShiro, we find out that they even created custom animations for the shark attacking Lara in the water.
Talk about labor of love and going above and beyond.
If you are a fan of Tomb Raider II and wanted to see it running on a Saturn, give JRTombRaider some support a like, a share, something to help them stay motivated and know their work is appreciated. We never know when small acts of kindness and appreciation boost developers forward to that next milestone.