JC Denton
Member
On this day 30 years ago, Crusader: No Regret was released. I still remember it like it was yesterday - I was 12, just started the 6th grade, living in a country that was under UN sanctions and ruled by an out-of-control sociopathic dictator (well, it still is in 2026 so not a lot has changed in that regard, but I digress lol). Money was tight, times were generally bad. I was also bullied in school (not too much, but enough to make me hate going) and had maybe 1 or 2 friends. In short, pretty much most of the things around me were kind of...shit.
I was fortunate that my parents actually needed computer for their work (dad was a civil/structural engineer designing bridges and my mom was an architect) so as far back as I can remember, we always had a home computer. First it was Amstrad CPC 464 and C64 in the late 80's, then it was Amiga 500 in the early 90's, and eventually a PC. And a fairly powerful one for late 1995 - a Pentium 120MHz, with 16 megs of RAM, 1.3 gigs HDD, S3 Trio 64V+ video card and - the most important - an optical drive, Acer 6x CD-ROM. So I got to experience the 'futuristic' tech of games on a CD! Although I was only 12, I was 'exposed' (for a lack of better word) to all kinds of games completely inappropriate for my age, especially interactive movies, which were a thing back then, like Ripper, Voyeur, Phantasmagoria...and eventually - Crusader.
Since I didn't really have any real friends, I spent a lot (and I mean A LOT) of time playing games and losing myself in the virtual worlds. Of course, back then my English was very basic, I couldn't really speak it, but I could read it and (mostly) understand it. But that didn't really bother me.
Here's an old photo that I took of that machine, btw:
My first experience with No Regret was a ripped version of the game, which lacked videos and music. So not only that I had a language barrier to overcome, I also needed to somehow fill in the gaps myself. So I kind of let my imagination run loose and create my own interpretations of what was going on in the game. Also, back then, there were only a handful sources of information on computer hardware and software in the form of magazines and some TV shows, but the biggest one (and still in existence) was "Svet Kompjutera" (or "The World of Computers", directly translated) where I got to read the review and get some general information regarding what's the story all about.
Here's the review I'm talking about:
But on the New Year's eve of 1996, my older brother's classmate brought the CD - a full game! It was a pirated copy, but a high quality one (it was actually a pressed, factory-manufactured copy, but it was not the legal copy). I remember watching No Regret intro for the first time, thinking it was the best thing ever, but still not exactly being sure what's going on. But I didn't really care. All I cared was to explore every nook and cranny of every single level.
I also had a hard time setting up the sound, so I had sound effects, but still no music. At that point I kind of already got used to it, since I started with a ripped game. But then I did something in autoexec.bat and/or config.sys that made my Acer Magic S23 sound card sing. So I finally got to experience No Regret the way it was meant to be.
I can't even begin to describe what Crusader meant for a 12-year old me. It was escapism at its finest. And not only that! It was the first game that I was really truly immersed in (the second one was Deus Ex, a few years later). The action, the plot (or at least what I thought the plot was xD), the music, the levels... I will never forget that feeling when the music started to work unexpectedly. It was like "Main menu" -> "Weekend warrior" -> Loading -> *alarm sound, double doors open* -> 'Ninth Crusade' kicks in! It was the most OMG effect ever! I remember figuring out how to lower the platform on the second map after reading the message log and figuring out there's something behind the wall that I can reach if I blow up the wall. It was a mindblowing moment for me and the world of No Regret suddenly started to seem even bigger with endless possibilities. Almost like an immersive sim. No game I played up to that point could compare. It was just...something else.
It's been 30 years since. I'm 42 now. The people who worked on the game are now likely in their 50s or 60s, retired, or not even among us any more. And yet, here I am - still enjoying going back again and again. It's funny how much I disliked my own world back then, but to this very day, whenever I fire up No Regret and that first mission starts, it's the same feeling inside my bones. I don't miss the world, but I do crave the feeling. Nostalgia is a helluva drug I guess... So here's to all of us!
Oh, and here's a photo that my wife took of me from a few years ago - doing a playthrough on a period-correct hardware:
I was fortunate that my parents actually needed computer for their work (dad was a civil/structural engineer designing bridges and my mom was an architect) so as far back as I can remember, we always had a home computer. First it was Amstrad CPC 464 and C64 in the late 80's, then it was Amiga 500 in the early 90's, and eventually a PC. And a fairly powerful one for late 1995 - a Pentium 120MHz, with 16 megs of RAM, 1.3 gigs HDD, S3 Trio 64V+ video card and - the most important - an optical drive, Acer 6x CD-ROM. So I got to experience the 'futuristic' tech of games on a CD! Although I was only 12, I was 'exposed' (for a lack of better word) to all kinds of games completely inappropriate for my age, especially interactive movies, which were a thing back then, like Ripper, Voyeur, Phantasmagoria...and eventually - Crusader.
Since I didn't really have any real friends, I spent a lot (and I mean A LOT) of time playing games and losing myself in the virtual worlds. Of course, back then my English was very basic, I couldn't really speak it, but I could read it and (mostly) understand it. But that didn't really bother me.Here's an old photo that I took of that machine, btw:
My first experience with No Regret was a ripped version of the game, which lacked videos and music. So not only that I had a language barrier to overcome, I also needed to somehow fill in the gaps myself. So I kind of let my imagination run loose and create my own interpretations of what was going on in the game.
Also, back then, there were only a handful sources of information on computer hardware and software in the form of magazines and some TV shows, but the biggest one (and still in existence) was "Svet Kompjutera" (or "The World of Computers", directly translated) where I got to read the review and get some general information regarding what's the story all about.Here's the review I'm talking about:
But on the New Year's eve of 1996, my older brother's classmate brought the CD - a full game! It was a pirated copy, but a high quality one (it was actually a pressed, factory-manufactured copy, but it was not the legal copy). I remember watching No Regret intro for the first time, thinking it was the best thing ever, but still not exactly being sure what's going on. But I didn't really care. All I cared was to explore every nook and cranny of every single level.
I also had a hard time setting up the sound, so I had sound effects, but still no music. At that point I kind of already got used to it, since I started with a ripped game. But then I did something in autoexec.bat and/or config.sys that made my Acer Magic S23 sound card sing. So I finally got to experience No Regret the way it was meant to be.
I can't even begin to describe what Crusader meant for a 12-year old me. It was escapism at its finest. And not only that! It was the first game that I was really truly immersed in (the second one was Deus Ex, a few years later). The action, the plot (or at least what I thought the plot was xD), the music, the levels... I will never forget that feeling when the music started to work unexpectedly. It was like "Main menu" -> "Weekend warrior" -> Loading -> *alarm sound, double doors open* -> 'Ninth Crusade' kicks in! It was the most OMG effect ever! I remember figuring out how to lower the platform on the second map after reading the message log and figuring out there's something behind the wall that I can reach if I blow up the wall. It was a mindblowing moment for me and the world of No Regret suddenly started to seem even bigger with endless possibilities. Almost like an immersive sim. No game I played up to that point could compare. It was just...something else.
It's been 30 years since. I'm 42 now. The people who worked on the game are now likely in their 50s or 60s, retired, or not even among us any more. And yet, here I am - still enjoying going back again and again. It's funny how much I disliked my own world back then, but to this very day, whenever I fire up No Regret and that first mission starts, it's the same feeling inside my bones. I don't miss the world, but I do crave the feeling. Nostalgia is a helluva drug I guess... So here's to all of us!
Oh, and here's a photo that my wife took of me from a few years ago - doing a playthrough on a period-correct hardware:
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