Well-Known Games With Surprising Origins
Games with close association to platforms they weren't native to, characters that didn't start out where you thought and other curious cases
Exploring unique versions of video games is one of the most fun parts of retro gaming for me; the awful versions of Doom for the SNES and Saturn, the shockingly good Gameboy Advance version of 007 Nightfire, the incredible Resident Evil 2 squeezed onto an N64 cartridge, even if I don’t always seek out these games, I love to read about them. Sometimes in my surfing of the web I come across a few surprises too: famous games that are intrinsically linked to the legacy of a certain console that didn’t launch there first at all or very nearly ended up elsewhere.
Today’s post will be a list of these games, from Rayman to Tomb Raider, these are games that probably don’t come from where you think they did.
Rayman - Atari Jaguar
Rayman is one of the most iconic platformers of the 5th generation era of consoles and it was the 21st best-selling game for the PS1 at a staggering 4 million copies sold; Rayman also sold well on the Sega Saturn and PC.
While it’s commonly labelled as a PlayStation game considering it sold the most there and was very widely played, Rayman was actually developed for (and launched first on) the Atari Jaguar, furthermore, among retro gamers the PS1 version is actually considered to be the worst of the 3 consoles with the Jaguar original outperforming it... with the caveat being that controller.
If you’re retro inclined, the best place to play Rayman is the Saturn, unless you fancy trying to get a 30 year old PC game to run, though the PlayStation version is cheap and the difference between the two consoles isn’t massive.
Tomb Raider - Sega Saturn
Tomb Raider sits up there with Grand Theft Auto and Total War as one of the three biggest contributions from the UK to the games industry. There is a road named after Lara Croft here and commemorative Royal Mail stamps celebrating this PS1 classic are available too… except it actually launched on Saturn first.
Tomb Raider was developed with the PS1 in-mind first and foremost with Saturn and DOS versions made simultaneously, however, seeing the potential of Lara Croft and how badly the Saturn was doing outside of Japan, Sega cut a deal to have the game arrive on their console 6 weeks early.
The Saturn version is missing a few features, runs significantly worse and has the usual transparency issues the console is known for, however, at least in the UK, it’s dirt cheap and does feature arguably superior lighting, water effects and a slightly different colour palette to the PS1 version and you have the added pleasure of using the best D-pad ever to play it, so if you own a Saturn and don’t want to sell a kidney for Panzer Dragoon Saga or get video-thumb from the awful PS1 D-pad, you might consider picking this up, it’s by no means unplayable.
Super Mario Bros. - Arcade
Nintendo isn’t a developer we generally associate with arcade games, even though they absolutely did make them including the everlastingly popular Donkey Kong, it’s for that reason that until a couple of years ago, I had no idea that Super Mario Bros. was ported to an arcade cabinet, stranger still, this cabinet debuted specifically in London before releasing elsewhere; this release predated the game’s arrival on NES in much of the West, since the console saw a limited release at first, meaning that for our hemisphere? It probably seemed as if the plumber’s first game was an arcade port.
By the looks of it, few people have ever seen one in person (this Reddit image is the only modern photo I could find) and all of the cabinets I could find to buy were not-original so I’m willing to bet a few of you out there didn’t realise there was an arcade version too.
Sonic the Hedgehog - Rad Mobile
Rad Mobile is a game seldom remembered today: it wasn’t full of Ferrari-fuelled machismo like Out Run and it doesn’t have the immaculate vibe of a Daytona or Sega Rally game and yet it deserves recognition. Rad Mobile was not only Sega’s first 32-bit arcade game but it also marked the first time Sonic the Hedgehog appeared in a video game at all… there he is! A bonnet ornament.
It wouldn’t be fair to call this game the origin of Sonic since the hedgehog’s inaugural outing was close to completion when Rad Mobile came out but it’s still amusing that he was making cameos before he even had his own game.
Resident Evil 0 - Nintendo 64
![(N64) Resident Evil Zero - All Gameplay Footage [Unreleased Nintendo 64 version]](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!5yyM!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F66d1fed7-32bb-4247-b215-631bed749375_1280x720.jpeg "(N64) Resident Evil Zero - All Gameplay Footage [Unreleased Nintendo 64 version]")
Resident Evil 0 is a really fascinating entry in the series. Zero is a prequel to the Resident Evil Remake on Gamecube where you control 2 characters at once: one with each analogue stick and see the S.T.AR.S Bravo Team’s unfortunate fates through the eyes of Rebecca from the first game and convict-turned-survivor Billy Coen. Spoilers: there’s a reason you've heard of Chris Redfield and not Forest Speyer.
It’s hard to imagine how this game would work on that controller but RE0 was originally developed for the Nintendo 64 and later scrapped due to memory limitations, with Capcom opting instead to wait for Gamecube dev kits. A prototype exists out there, supposedly being traded between private collectors and was playable at Tokyo Game Show back in the day but apart from some de-makes from modders, that original build has never leaked to the wider public. Still, it’s shocking how recognisable much of the train looks in the footage that does exist.
This was only a prototype and never finished so even if it did leak, unlike the borderline complete Resident Evil 1.5, it wouldn’t be a lot to play anyway.
Halo: Combat Evolved/Halo Reach - A Novel
I think most hardcore Halo fans know that Halo Reach was loosely based off the events of the Eric Nylund novel Halo: The Fall of Reach but did you know that this novel came out about a month before Halo: Combat Evolved? Once again, this is obviously not the true origins of the franchise and the book was hastily written by Nylund with the help of Bungie.
Nonetheless, by technicality, Master Chief and the world of Halo could be called a book adaptation based on dates alone.
Soul Reaver - LoK: Blood Omen
Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen is by all-counts a really good game and an influential one too. It reviewed well, it was seen as a highlight of the very first E3 event and it sold at least 300 000 copies at a time when Western RPG’s were mostly confined to the PC; it kicked off the cult-classic Legacy of Kain IP as well, yet, you never hear this game mentioned today.
Blood Omen has been so thoroughly overshadowed by Soul Reaver 1 and 2: two later games set in the same universe that by my estimation, most people don’t seem to acknowledge Blood Omen even existed at all or realise that Soul Reavers 1 and 2 were sequels.
Nobody is calling for this game or Blood Omen 2 to be remade or re-released or even sharing memories of playing them. This is only going to become a bigger problem in future as retro gaming’s popularity is on an upward trend and there are only a finite number of copies out in the wild. Blood Omen is already pricey for PS1 game standards.
Video Games - Oscilloscopes And Radar Equipment
The history of videogames is longer than most people know and is frequently misrepresented or oversimplified. I’m willing to bet the layman would probably tell you the Atari 2600 was the genesis of videogames, those with a little more knowledge might say Pong consoles or the Magnavox Odyssey from the early 1970’s was the beginning.
In reality? Videogames, much like computers themselves were a product of the Second World War. In 1947, Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann realised that if you implemented switches and knobs onto a machine used to simulate the trajectory of artillery shells, you could have a lot of fun pissing around and making it bounce all over the screen at different speeds and directions.
It’s not 60FPS, it’s not Rogue-like, it’s not cosy and it doesn’t feature any gripping narrative, catchy music or beautiful sprite design but it was, importantly, quite fun; you have to remember, there wasn’t even widespread TV in homes in 1947 for most people, let alone in colour, so the ability to control something on-screen was incredibly novel.
The idea was taken further and became Tennis For Two: the first video game playable to the public which was designed for exhibition at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, Tennis For Two inspired Pong, which was the most well-known game for the Magnavox Odyssey and the rest was history.
In conclusion, outside of some special cases, there are a million ways to play most games today, from emulation to remakes and even fan translations and ports like the recent fan-made versions of Wipeout and GTA 3 for the Dreamcast. While the prices of new releases only seem to get higher, the barrier for entry if you’re not picky about what you want to play has never been lower.
Tomb Raider Saturn is still Tomb Raider, Oblivion on PS3 is still Oblivion and sometimes, a worse version of the same game just might be all the more memorable.
Thank you very much for reading to the end of today’s article, as always I’d love to chat in the comments below and if you enjoy my work, don’t forget to like and subscribe, it makes my day to see green line go up and the more discussion we can generate, the more alive our neglected little corner of Substack becomes.
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As I was reading this, my mind started to wander to other games that, while not originating from unusual places, certainly should not have been ported to certain consoles. The first one that sprang to mind was Tony Hawk Pro Skater on the Nokia N-Gage! 😂
I had a demo disc for Tomb Raider on the Saturn and really liked the first level I played. I also remember liking reading The Fall of Reach (think I still have it on my bookshelf).
Great post Scanlines!
My mind was blown when I saw a sitdown cabinet of Vs. Super Mario Bros at my local Peter Piper Pizza as a kid. Of course I had to play it, but I was quickly overwhelmed by the slight changes in stage layouts. So strange! Only saw it there one time, but I never forgot it.
Fun fact: you can buy this version in the Switch eShop. Worth a play if you've memorized the original SMB and want to see what changes they made to the arcade.
Great post, buddy!