Crusaders

The Crusaders were born on December 17th, 1988, and only two days later they released their first intro. The founding 14 members all came from the three groups; International Fart Federation, Jetboys and Abnormal.

In an interview given to Forth Dimension #6, Bustman claimed that; "The Crusaders never kick inactive members". "Once a member, you are free to stay as long as you want", he said. Several scrollers from various prods mention otherwise though :)

The group was very innovative and were "first-movers" on several occasions. For instance, they had their own BBS since day one. Certainly not a common thing in the Amiga Scene, back in 1988. Another milestone was the "invention" of the musicdisk. Their insanely productive musician, Dr. Awesome, produced so many modules, they had to come up with the idea on how to use/release them, hence the musicdisk.

And speaking of Dr. Awesome... He was the first professional composer to come out of the Amiga Scene. By mid 1991 he, more or less, left the scene to pursue a professional career in the music business. One year later, in the summer of 1992, he and fellow Crusader, Fleshbrain, released the music CD; Hobbits & Spaceships, under the Crusaders label.

Another scene-milestone by The Crusaders was marked on September 1st 1989, when the first issue of the chart "The Crusaders Eurochart Top Ten" was released. Sure, The Scene had seen charts before, but what made The Eurochart so special, was the frequent release of issues (every other month) and the fact that votes were collect from all over Europe and not just from a pre-selected group of people. The Eurochart was an immediate success and The Crusaders ended up releasing 14 issues before handing over the chart to Static Bytes.

Finally, one cannot say Crusaders without saying The Gathering. On Easter weekend 1992, The Crusaders and Deadline organized their first party; The Gathering '92. The Party was a huge success and was the largest party held in Norway thus far. Visitors attended from all over Europe and several major Norwegian and international groups took part in the competitions.

Sources:
- Various productions by Crusaders
- Numerous Amiga diskmagazines
- Glenn Lunder and his Scenery project