The first Tomb Raider video game was released in 1996.
The game introduced Lara Croft as an archaeologist adventurer investigating ancient ruins and searching for the Scion of Atlantis. Its 3D environments, acrobatic movement, environmental puzzles, and cinematic presentation made it a major release for the Sega Saturn, MS-DOS, and PlayStation.
Tomb Raider became one of the landmark games of the fifth console generation. Later releases expanded Lara’s story and appeared on many more platforms, but 1996 remains the starting point for the main series. The date is sometimes confused with 1997, when Tomb Raider II arrived, or 2001, when the first live-action Tomb Raider film was released.