Nearly three decades after it was originally blocked, Tomb Raider II is finally running on the Sega Saturn — the console that gave Lara Croft one of her earliest homes before corporate exclusivity deals sent her elsewhere. Back in 1997, Tomb Raider II launched to huge success, but thanks to a publishing agreement between Eidos Interactive and Sony, the sequel never made it to Sega’s 32-bit machine. Saturn owners who had supported the original Tomb Raider were left watching from the sidelines while PlayStation players dove into Venetian canals and Himalayan peaks. It was, for many Sega fans, the moment they perfected their “I’m fine, really” smile.
Now, in 2026, that long-lost Saturn version has become reality thanks to a dedicated fan developer known as JRTombRaider. Using the original Saturn engine for Tomb Raider as a base, the project rebuilds Tomb Raider II to run on Sega’s famously complex hardware — a system often described as “two consoles in one,” and sometimes “two headaches in one.” The newly released demo features the game’s opening level, complete with dynamic lighting, enemies, traps, and all the acrobatic tomb-raiding you’d expect. It’s available in both NTSC and PAL-compatible builds, meaning no one has to argue about refresh rates this time around. Retro harmony at last.
What makes this project special isn’t just the novelty of seeing Tomb Raider II on Saturn hardware — it’s the sense of closure. For years, the unreleased port felt like one of gaming’s great “what if?” stories. Now, thanks to persistence, technical ingenuity, and probably an alarming amount of coffee, that missing chapter has been restored. There’s something poetic about Lara Croft returning to the console where she first rose to prominence. It feels less like a port and more like a reunion tour — the kind where everyone pretends 1997 was only “a few years ago” and absolutely no one mentions dial-up internet. Will this lead to a full release? That remains to be seen. But for now, Sega Saturn owners can finally experience the sequel they were denied — only 29 years later. Better late than never. Even if “never” was starting to look pretty convincing.
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