DF Retro: Origin Systems and the Crusader Series on PC/PS1/Saturn/PSP

[@Lord_Deimos]

Imagine being 10 years old and seeing your gamer dad play Crusader on his high end Pentium Pro. This game was amazing.

[@Rountree1985]

Tyrant I had a shitty dad who beat me and made fun of me for liking video games. Good times.

[@yiz177]

That was my dad! Lol! I remember watching him playing crusader when I was like 8

[@Crey1]

When i was like 6 oder 7 I woke up my dad one saturday because i was bored wanted to watch him play crusader. I even already booted up the game for him.

[@meanmole3212]

My dad occasionally played Doom and Heretic with me although he was not really interested about them.

[@74Spyderman]

Imagine being 20 when this released and reading this comment and realizing you’re old.

[@wstrs5090]

I remember playing Crusader on PC and my jaw hitting the floor when i first saw it. It looked, sounded and played amazingly. Definitely a game i've enjoyed most from that era.

[@Fr0gg0]

Loved the Crusader games, they are pretty underrated. Still good today.

[@jothain]

True, and I still think they have the best and most appropriate music tracks ever created in video games.

[@tabrisPL]

Let's be honest John. You just needed an excuse to play this beautiful soundtrack.

[@dark1x]

Whelp, you got me!

[@thecamillarose9806]

The music is soooo good

[@jkoff76]

The Crusader Series was my favorite PC gaming experience ever.

[@joy211191]

I was 6 when I first played this in 97. Man was I blown away by this game and it's soundtrack. So much so, that now, in 2022, I still play it and unknowing made a track that is reminiscent of the main menu theme from this game. This was a great game and still is today. Graphics still look great even today.

[@Mucving]

Research well done. Hello from the co-author of the obscure PSP prototype.

[@ZetZatar]

This really took me back. It was like opening up a time capsule! I remember ALL of these games!

[@ostryjanusz]

This DF Retro series is awesome. Sends chills down my spine when I see and hear the sounds of my childhood.

[@FSuixo]

I remember playing it in the PS1. I loved this game as a kid.

[@404cp]

The title screen music for this game is so good. Unforgettable after hearing it only once.

[@noenken]

Crusader - No Remorse was something completely new when it came out. I had never seen graphics that detailed and the soundtrack still gives me chills. And I only played it at a friends computer back then. Very good pick!

[@orbitalgolem91]

The transition at 10:02 is perfect. Fantastic retrospective - No Remorse and No Regret are the only vintage PC games I still have original boxes/media for from '95 and '96. And one old laptop running DOSBox on Windows XP specifically to play these two whenever I feel the urge.

[@starlightrevenant]

The first Crusader game is now being supported on ScummVM, since it uses the Ultima 8 engine.

[@peterjanssen5901]

I'm still waiting for the third installment: Crusader: No Dessert.

[@davidartrip85]

I totally forgot about this game! Thanks for bringing back the fond memories I have of Crusader and, as always, great job on this episode.

[@8Paul7]

Crusader was so fucking good. The fact that Tony works on Star Citizen gives me singlehandedly the greatest shot of optimism about that project. Now, I am gonna go listen to Crusader OST again.

[@EdsEnemy]

SC is free to try this week...

[@EdsEnemy]

daranus robertsspaceindustries.com/feature-list

[@MythionVR]

daranus I don't know, have you upgraded your PC since then?

[@R0ndras]

obviously is better, also is just 20gb

[@AsianTheDomination]

it reminds me of deus ex and red faction, two of my favorite games. i just downloaded no remorse from emuparadise since its freeware

[@Robert_Prather]

great video.. and Crusader: No Remorse was a great game. I wish it would come back..

[@Deathshuck]

Once again, this proves that once EA gets their hands on something, the games suffer.

[@Heikki360ES]

Enjoy your holiday John, great job!

[@bhoqeem1975]

I got SERIOUS goosebumps watching this. The last time I completed Crusader: No remorse and No Regret was in 1996. I can't forget the atmosphere of my house those days.

[@mintsauce82]

Fantastically well put together and informative as always. Thanks for doing these!

[@ryanhuck4071]

Crazy to look back on it and it almost seems like a tech demo

[@mikesadorf]

Think I speak for everyone who's me when I say I'd love to see an episode dedicated to the original Command & Conquer and its console ports. Keep up the great work, John!

[@solidshepard7812]

Man this game was my childhood. Still one of my all time favourite soundtracks. Now I need to go find the PSP version's theme song. Enjoy your Holiday John.

[@alonsojett]

Best. Installation music. Ever.

[@justanotheryoutubechannel]

Oh man, this studio were insane. Not even just some of their games, basically all of them were incredible! It must’ve been really cool back in the 1990’s to see these beautiful games come out that blew everything else out of the water! Of course, nowadays technology doesn’t really have limits to be pushed, but it’d still be cool to see these guys make a return. The art style of crusader reminds me a lot of Fallout, only better looking. The sprites look incredibly detailed for only 640x480! Shame about the scrolling, but it still looks incredibly!

[@DaddySizeIt]

Fallout's designers were fans of Crusader and acknowledged that they were inspired by it.

[@Andrew-tz5eo]

Best original series on youtube. Keep up the great work DF!

[@lukejohnson3818]

Thanks for another DF Retro. A nice part of my Sunday! I remember loving this game back in the day. Interesting to hear more about Andrew Sega and how he's working on Star Citizen now, so cool! It was also cool to see all the wing commander/strike commander footage. Back in the day those cinematic (even in WC1) were just cool! It's kind've hard to put in perspective how awesome it was to hear speech coming from a game that you might normally just hear "PC Speaker" stuff from.

[@crash5522]

This was one of my most fav games on the saturn back then

[@ChrisR3tro]

Great video. Love DF retro. Keep up the great work!

[@Banzeken]

4:35 Do not trust the Wikipedia release date for the game. It claims ”August 31 1995”, but it links to the EA Origin purchasing page for Crusader: No Remorse. A lot of games listed on Origin do not have accurate release dates. If you check the latest file date on the original CD-ROM for the game it will report September 14th 1995 as the gold mastering date. Crusader could thus not have been out in store shelves before the end of September that year.

[@MattyFez]

Do a video on the Ace Combat series.

[@OmegaEnvych]

Agree! Ace Combat needs a good coverage like this

[@ww2v2]

I would definitely like to see this, also! The best of it was from the PS2 era, but you also have games spanning across three generations of consoles, as well a few on the handheld systems. You can do everyone a favor by leaving out Assault Horizon, though - that game was nothing but a mar on the series as a whole.

[@BalsticMaker12]

Would be interested too since from DF Retro episodes Namco likes to push technical limits, even carrying it to other future games. Never thought their technology from a light gun arcade game would help an idol game.

[@sammyflinders]

Fucking fantastic video. I love these DF Retros. I had forgotten this title, and this video filled me with great nostalgia remembering how blown away I was by Crusader, not to mention others shown like Ecstatica and Bioforge....great video John.

[@zovni]

Exceptional work here Jon. I remember being completely blown away just from the demo for this one back in the day. As with most Origin games it was an adventure on its own to try to get this to run and Origin always pushed the envelope on tech for their games. You almost brought tears to my eyes just from the rundown of Origin's blockbuster releases. Its really sad how the disposable, cult-of-the-new-ish nature of this industry has all but faded away the legacy of developers that back in its day were the end-all, be-all of digital entertainment such as Origin... sigh... Some small trivia here: pre-production brainstorming on the actual Crusader 2 was started and it even had a working title (Crusader: No Mercy). And as you mentioned, the inspiration for the game was born out of basically reworking the Ultima Pagan engine into a full action game after all the criticism at the time due to how action-heavy the design was when compared to the previous Ultimas. The CGW crowd used to refer to it as Super Ultima Bros if you can believe that, lol.

[@JamieBainbridge]

Another wonderful video about a great game. The DF Retro series has found a nice place as an exploration and celebration of these titles. I'd like to see a video on the Ultima Underworld series, they always get unfairly eclipsed by the later System Shock games. I could rattle off heaps of old titles to cover too. Wipeout, Secret Agent and Crystal Caves, early Access adventures Countdown and Martian Memorandum, Paganitzu and Monuments of Mars Series, Jetpack, Eye of the Beholder, the Forgotten Realms Gold Box, Heretic and Hexen, almost nobody talks about these but they're all fantastic.

[@Kairosdex]

i would like to see a DF retro on game AI. F.E.A.R and Halo stick out to me in that department.

[@SianaGearz]

It's a very specialised topic, maybe ask Tommy (AI and Games)

[@donrockwilder]

I love these retro videos! Takes me back to a time when game experiences felt new and magical.

[@RedLampLightsGreen]

Just have to say ure my fav yt channel by far. Mixing high class infos with your special way of sayin things.. Just love what you are doin guys :D keep it up! Love from germany

[@JustAnotherGamerUS]

I love how you cover 90s DOS & Windows games. Video games entered my childhood first through the glory of Windows 98, and the only much later through the lenses of home consoles, so I have a rather large soft spot for the PC games of the 90s but unfortunately it is not a popular topic amongst gamers of today. Thanks for helping to address this.

[@NeoDragonEWW]

John, this series is amazing. Please keep making them.

[@dmariachi]

Awesome video, as always. Have a nice holiday, John :)

[@Pan_Z]

I like the consistent quality of this video series. I wish game journalist did more of this type of content, showing expertise in their field.

[@robertt9342]

Yeah! Wing Commander 3! When playing it years after release, I loved how it would test your CPU and tell you how your CPU speed was impossible.

[@SandroSensei]

o wauw. i was waiting for someone to cover this series. great, dark games

[@richardwilliams877]

I never played this in my youth (but I do remember seeing the boxes on the shelves!), so it was great fun to take a look at this. Thanks for the video!

[@Xpert74]

I love seeing obscure games like this get covered by DF Retro; I certainly wouldn't object to other obscure games having videos as well. As for a suggestion, maybe covering Mega Man X would be interesting? There's the Super NES original, then the PC port, the emulated version in the X Collection on PS2/GCN... plenty of stuff there to check out. Maybe its sequels could be covered too, such as Xtreme and Xtreme 2, and taking a look at how they adapted certain elements of the Super NES games onto the Game Boy Color.

[@M0ToR]

Both Crusader games will always have a place in my heart. I’ve bought my first CD-ROM to play it. I didn’t realize Tony Zurovec joined the team that brings to life the dream game of many, the one that I play-test these days - Star Citizen. What a great comeback. ❤️‍🔥

[@Kenjis9965]

I remember this game so much from my childhood.. I played it a bunch when I was 7-8...still have fond memories from it even now 20 years later..

[@bastiHST90]

I love DF Retro. Keep up the good work! :)

[@AnalogFoundry]

John, you're the best! Love DF Retro. Enjoy your holiday.

[@Syonation]

My first game... Still play it till this day :)

[@AutoAbsolute]

I remember this game coming out when I was 11 - at the time it felt so hard. I died over and over but still have find memories.

[@nobbynobbs8182]

Both were amazing games. Although I always preferred Crusader: No Remorse over the sequel

[@scorpian007]

Strike Commander and WC2 were some of my favourite games in my childhood

[@crkvend]

Watching DF Retros 5 years after their release for that extra retroness!

[@Zontar82]

amazing series, amazing ost, amazing everything. such a shame we never got a third game(second?) game

[@Progger11]

I too would like a "third game game," as you oddly put it.

[@UGOTNUKED]

Someone else remembers Crusader? No way. One of my favourite games of all time. Nothing quite like go into a room and doing a half circle shooting a machine gun and just watching the environment and enemies be riddled with bullets and destroyed. Felt just like a good action film.

[@awesome9174]

Star Citizen has so much talent behind it, If they do everything they say they're going to do, then this game will be game of the decade.

[@fenbekus]

Nice vid (as always)! I'd love to see an analysis on the Gran Turismo series, or maybe Burnout? Oh, Wipeout would be awesome as well.

[@swampsy]

One on the wipeout series would be so cool

[@fenbekus]

+Dylan Brinsbury-Magee Yep! Man, I miss Wipeout so much

[@totoro3]

burnout would be awesome

[@lordvectrex]

+9001 for Gran Turismo series.

[@fugitive88888]

My GOD I ve been looking for this game for years...i ve played it as a kid JESUS THANK UUUUUU

[@Collymillad]

I love your style John. Very welcoming and not condescending. Keep up the great work. Not sure if you've done already, but possibly do a video on the Fear Effect series? Or an older game called In Cold Blood which I always thought looked great for the time. I love pre-rendered backgrounds, especially older ones. There's just something about them that no other type of games makes me feel. Must just be nostalgia.

[@cjmarren86]

Great to see Crusader revisited. Cheers for the video.

[@ShatteredAce]

Got these games on GoG years back, I remember being 6 or 7 watching my older brother play this. Good times!

[@hexagonsun33]

andrew sega went on to join the austin texas based synth-pop band iris. their music is really good, and i got to meet them at an industrial festival a while back. really humble and chill dude.

[@Tuckerslam]

He went on to score Unreal first. :)

[@defeet2]

I enjoyed this video. I remember seeing the older kids playing this on PC and it looked really cool.

[@innerdrums]

i did enjoy this look back at Crusader. Good one DF

[@TonkarzOfSolSystem]

This game looked incredible at the time. Nowadays the lack of shadows and color depth are the only things holding it back from holding up next to modern indie sprite work.

[@werewolfy6]

I didn't know this game but it was an interesting video to watch. I would like to see someday an episode on Exhumed/Powerslave. You talked about that game in some videos and I would like to see the differences between Playstation and Saturn version and also discover the origin of the engine used by some great ports on Saturn. Thanks for all your work.

[@Modenut]

As someone who was around back in those days (born in the glorious, sun bleached year of 1971) and a MASSIVE Origins fan I can tell you that pretty much no one was "impressed" with any FMVs hehe. They were wonderfully cheesy and entertaining, sure - but "impressive" was not a word people genuinely used. It wasn't until Wing Commander 3 that a few eyebrows started to raise in appreciation. Also - the first two Wing Commander games were nice looking and all but no where near as revolutionary as the rose tinted goggles-o-awe would suggest hehe. They're great games and I loved playing them but graphically they were on par with many other titles of the era. The Crusader games were fucking awesome, though, and I still display my minty fresh big boxes on my shelf. =D

[@scandinerdian1961]

I think MOD music has something no other video game music can deliver. I'm thinking about Crusader, Deus Ex, Unreal tournament and Uplink especially. Did I miss any titles?

[@egocreationarts4163]

An absolute blast from the past! One of the best games I've played ever :) Going Fallout, I constantly cought myself on the fact, that I've seen it way before in Crusader

[@tom-simpson]

Quite possibly my second favourite PC game. Absolutely loved it when it came out.

[@EposVox]

Awesome episode.

[@threesontribes5059]

I'm glad DF is making these videos because a lot of the games covered are the games I played growing up. But I do wish you would take some time to give advice to people on best way to run these games on modern computers. Information like: - What DOSBox settings did you use? - What controls did you use? Is there a useable gamepad configuration? (Crusader's default controls are quite terrible) - What mods and fan patches are available? (you've covered some of these in previous Retro videos which is good, but not here)?

[@calebsivyer]

Thanks for another excellent DF Retro episode. I would love to see an episode in the future devoted to RenderWare, the game engine designed by Criterion. This was an enormously popular engine, powering games such as the Grand Theft Auto 3 and the Burnout series. I would love to know what was so special about RenderWare, how did it work, what were the advantages in using it, and how various games used it to good effect. Thanks.

[@JackStillAlive]

No DF Retro next Sunday? :( On one hand, I'm sad now, on the other hand, I wish you a nice holiday John!

[@FadNad0731]

Man all those games you mentioned in the beginning took me way back playing them as a kid, so many emotions returned lol, damn bioforge? Little big planet? I still wanna play those games and beat them lol

[@Lawbase]

love these DF retros. keep it up.

[@5Qu1Z33r]

Long story short, i'm now watching longplays of games i played in the 90's but couldn't finish. I just watched Alone in the Dark 1-3, Ecstatica and Bioforge - back to back! My next stop was Crusader No Remorse - and all of a sudden, i see this 3:18! You just casually named all of the 3 games i just finished watching! What kind of magic is this?!

[@julealgon]

That was an awesome homage to the Crusader series. I was surprised you didn't mention Crusader No Mercy which was supposed to be the third entry on the series and featured multiplayer.I'd love to see an update to this game lifting the old limitations. With modern hardware, we could add smooth scrolling along with much better animation and controls, and with native support on Windows. I still see some slowdowns when running the game via DosBox.Certainly one of the best retro videos thus far from you. Keep up the great work.

[@niklasbergvall9656]

yeah but it's not gonna happen before ea gets bankrupt when us born late 1990s to early 2000s have grown our own generation

[@maxn.7234]

This game is begging for a remake or reboot. With modern graphics and controls and the same style of gameplay, it would be insane.

[@schninx]

Crusader was just awesome. no regret also was awesome. i just started it playing again yesterday.

[@KannX]

This retro episodes are so awesome :D

[@williamarthurfenton1496]

This game had intense atmosphere, helped very much by the amazing MOD music. I remember actually caring about the characters.

[@goopah]

A buddy dropped by the house, and I showed him this game. He sat down with it, and I could not get him to leave until after midnight, and I had to get up at 5 a.m. for work. Good times.

[@LukeVesty]

I looooooved No Remorse and No Regret. Two of my all time fave games. A new, modern day Crusader game would be a console seller for me!

[@sheepfly]

The Crusader games are really awesome. To this day i still think they look and play great. Great video, next do a video on Little Big Adventure, man i loved those games when i was young.

[@219SilverChoc]

Doom 3 and its port to Xbox? Maybe even look at the BFG Edition Ports.

[@brunocar02]

Great idea, that way he can cover something doom related without making it a space opera

[@219SilverChoc]

brunocar The Orignals would take ages with all the ports.

[@brunocar02]

BritishActionGamer yep, especially if he includes unofficial ports, then he should need a whole production company to finish it within a life time and to recoup costs he would have to cut it in 3 and show it cinemas as a trilogy

[@InfernalMonsoon]

Yes! That would be a great DF Retro video.

[@PenguinDT]

I second this! The Xbox port is a painstakingly rebuilt engineering marvel. Every bit of detail is there, only where Xbox couldn't handle polygonal detail, bumpmapping was utilized instead. Every time a 'generational shift' happens and all the lackluster cross-generational ports are rolled out, it all makes me respect Xbox DOOM 3 that much more.

[@masterlee1988]

Do a DF Retro on the 1st Tomb Raider game!!! PC, PS1 and Saturn versions.

[@L0rd_0f_War]

I hope you do Strike Commander and Freespace 2 sometime. I have fond memories of those (and many other) 90s flight sims. Thanks.

[@rafraf2490]

I like so much DF retro, for me You could make it 3 times a week :D title maybe obscure but still it's history and cool that You Guys bring Us such good quality content

I love Df Retro, good job guys!!!

[@radscorpion8]

A fantastic game I will remember forever. It is as good and memorable to me as Deus Ex, Fallout 1 & 2, or the original Halflife, or Hexen, Heretic or Doom were. And it certainly had the best soundtrack of all the titles I've played.

[@ShindlerReal]

I completely forgotten Little Big Adventure existed. The second one was amazing.

[@tommapar]

The bit with the ships in space remembered me of Descent. What an awesome game

[@hidayatoceandar5004]

I remember playing this game. It was really fun and I finished it twice. Good old memories

[@HCTarik]

Great look back at one of my childhood games. Great stuff, Keep em coming. If I may suggest a title? I'd love to see an episode of either Rollcage, RoadRash or Total Annihilation!

[@telemaster]

Great stuff, John. :D Aww, feel like booting up Twinsen!

[@WH250398]

Resident Evil n64? That was an impossible port that somehow had improvements

[@dark1x]

A lot of folks have asked about this one and I do have a copy - I need to work around an issue, though. Basically, the game doesn't work with the XRGB Framemeister (which I need for capture). The reason is that it changes resolution literally between every single screen and, when that happens, it takes the XRGB a few seconds to catch up so, when you move to a new screen, you won't see anything initially and wind up getting killed. Basically impossible to play. If I can find another solution for capture that handles res switching I'll tackle it.

[@ShinkeiDEI]

John Linneman . . maybe for this time. . .emulation? Prettry pleas?

[@TaimatCR]

John Linneman do ace combat or armored core please

[@8bitDNA]

N64 RESI EVIL 2 FTW

[@madfinntech]

No, emulation is a sin.

[@UncannySwan]

It's so funny to me how 640x480 was the best of the best and how any lower just wasn't good enough for a top of the line PC. Nowadays you can't take a breath without someone screaming 4K and asking you if you've experienced the "glory" that is 4K.

[@Rountree1985]

The Uncanny One I’ve never played any games in 4K. I don’t have a 4K screen or tv and I frankly don’t care. 1080p is good enough for me. Sure, I’ll end up getting a 4K tv when I need a new tv but that will be awhile.